REPORT: SOUTH CAROLINA SURF MORE POLLUTED THAN EVER THANKS TO HORRY COUNTY
As noted earlier this month, this website’s founding editor took his family far south of Myrtle Beach, S.C. (a.k.a. “The Dirty Myrtle”) this summer for their family vacation … which turned out to be a genius move.
On Pawleys Island, S.C., the water was cleaner, the waves were higher and the beaches were less crowded … making it everything you’d hope for in a summer beach experience (i.e. everything Myrtle Beach was when Sic Willie was a kid growing up in the late 1970s/ early 1980s … but isn’t today).
Anyway … what’s the latest item in the increasingly thickening “don’t vacation in Myrtle Beach” file? If you guessed the rise of water pollution in and around the “Redneck Riviera,” then we’ve got some fabulous door prizes for you.
Except no … what we’ve actually got is another year of state government spending tens of millions of your tax dollars on tourism marketing.
They better get that spin machine ramped up, too, because according to the latest data from the Natural Resources Defense Council’s “Testing The Waters” report, a whopping 23 percent of water samples in Myrtle Beach exceeded recommended bacterial levels. In Briarcliffe Acres – just north of the “Dirty Myrtle” – it was 45 percent. Highly elevated levels of pollution were also found at Horry County’s campground beaches (32 percent), Arcadia Beach (20 percent), North Myrtle Beach (15 percent) and Surfside Beach (15 percent).
Add it all up and South Carolina now ranks 24th out of 30 coastal states on the report – with a statewide average of 15 percent of our beach samples exceeding recommended bacterial levels.
Two years ago, the Palmetto state ranked No. 17 on this same report … which means this is yet another area in which South Carolina is falling further behind the rest of the nation.
Oh … ready for the spin?
According to the Myrtle Beach Mafia (a.k.a. the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce), the group is deliberately scaring vacationers and “the ocean is clean most of the time.”
How scientific …
“The NRDC’s alarmist approach exhibits inconsistent and unreliable tendencies, which leads to sensationalized findings,” the group’s leader told reporter Sammy Fretwell of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper.
Ah yes … your tax dollars at work, people.
But don’t worry … we’re sure a few million more in government-funded vacation propaganda will do the trick.
48 comments
Bah, I remember when Pawley’s Island was almost exclusively a shabby chic getaway for Charlestonians. Now it is much more touristy, even if everything looks classier compared to Myrtle Beach. Thanks for ruining our island, Sic.
Well we KNOW more environmentally conscious states than ole backward SC must be better, right? How about Florida? Multiple times the number of beaches there. Dirty ole SC had a beach on top of the bad boy list at 45%. Well pristine FL has two that exceed 80%. How about good ole California? Damn. They beat us again with a beach in San Mateo County at 64%. Great research there Sic Willie. No wonder you are such a renown environmental scientist.
Gee I guess it is ok as long as we are not the absolute worst. Exposing kids especially to a bacteria laden soup is of no consequence to those who put the dollar and politics above health and safety.
Environmental regulations only serve to keep our businesses from maximizing their profits. In Fits’s Libertarian manna, these issues will fix themselves. Dirty beaches……simply temporary, market forces will soon arrive to magically sweep them clean. Kids swimming in poo will help boost their immune systems ….win win for everyone. Amirite?
The point that escapes you is that it is always FITS’ mantra that everything in SC is bad. He never seems to want to add perspective as it would destroy his thesis. I did not say that levels in SC were good. I was merely pointing out that all states have problems. Some much worse than SC but to hear Sic Willie tell it, SC is always the worst.
CNSYD-I love your comments you balance out SIC Willie bias.
Love small government and the business friendly climate!
I enjoyed Myrtle Beach when I was a kid. I went back recently for a couple of days and was amazed at the trashy people on the beach. Rednecks smoking and using the beach as their ashtray, fat women with entirely too many tattoos and a beach that smelled like sewage. It was like a trip through a Walmart, the Anderson Jockey lot and a 1987 wrestling match at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium. all rolled into one.
Ha! Myrtle Beach is definitely the Walmart of beaches. Good one
I thought Buz lived in Murrels Inlet.
Smelled that bad? :-)
They don’t call it the Redneck Riviera for nuthin’.
It was like a trip through a Walmart, the Anderson Jockey lot and a 1987 wrestling match at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium. all rolled into one.
Awesome description. You rock.
Wasn’t GMA where an overzealous fan tried to stab either Gene or Olie Anderson?
http://www.midatlanticgateway.com/resourcecenter/gateway_remembers/oleandersonstabbing/ole_anderson_stabbing.htm
If I recollect, Ole originally wrestled under the name Douchebag McGee. He should be collecting royalties on that name every time Thomas Ravenel opens his mouth.
Don’t forget the delightful aroma from Conestee!
Hey…you leave Memorial Auditorium rasslin’ outta this!!!
You should have been here for bike fest….
Privatize the beaches!
I’ll bet THEN they could get a lot of tax money for cleanup remedies.
Turdsville USA is fulfilling its destiny
I wonder if Myrtle Beach gets hit by a hurricane whether Congress will bail it out. I’m talking about 10 years from now or so. I’m thinking the national desire to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild in risky areas is quickly becoming a thing of the past. I can’t imagine taxpayers getting too worked up about rebuilding tourist traps. Enjoy that dirty beach while you can, I guess.
What kind of rebuttal and positive comment is that – “the ocean is clean most of the time”?
Well that’s sure to bring the tourists running. “Come to Myrtle Beach where the CoC proudly claims that “the ocean is clean most of the time.”
Perhaps they should start posting online which days the ocean is clean and the days when the ocean is dirty.
Actually, DHEC has a website that lists just that
I would write a comment, but I have to go pump out the tank in the RV.
Into the storm sewer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeskbiJjCXI
I use the flush king
BTW, the prevailing water currents in South Carolina flow along the coast from North to South, Pawleys is not safe, Georgetown or Charleston. If you flush the toilet in MB, you’re going smell it in Pawleys, are you still feeling like a freakin’ genius? It’s kinda like up river and down river, where do you want to be when the shit comes a flowing?
Oh, come on, Myrtle is a great place. Just avoid the kids and necks. As far as dirty, I read about bacterial infections caused by health care facilities, never about infections caused by Myrtle.
Pawleys is great too, but pristine? On the marsh-side of Pawleys, there is a yellow DHEC sign every 500 feet stating that fish caught in the marsh are not safe to eat.
Yep,
SIC Willie is living in dreamland.
The shit water naturally gravitates south so his little bit of paradise will feel the effects of man-made pollution before his kids are grown.
Sic is like a lot of other people who don’t have a clue about what it takes to keep from screwing stuff up but only care about the here and now.
In less than 50 years there will be no place on earth to escape to a “little bit of paradise”. I just hope he is around in about 25 years to see how bad things will get.
I’ll probably be pushing up dandelions or being part of a “Soylent Green” cracker by then
Tell me how that limited government is going to clean up the mess since you know so damn much Sic!!!
Oh I know, just make sure you have the bucks to go somewhere else and leave the riff-raff to wallow in the shit you left behind
Man, What a solution!!!!!
1. Capture more of the storm water runoff.
2. Treat the storm water runoff.
3. Extent the runoff pipes further out from the shore.
4. We have had more rain. So as a consequence more dirty runoff.
5. Don’t enter the ocean soon after a storm.
6. Will, tell your kids not to poop in the ocean and pick up after your dog.
Thumper’s got it right. Stay away from storm pipes running onto the beach anytime, but especially after a rain.
Please, let us have no talk of rational technical approaches. That simply won’t do in SC. Get politicians to change the standards so we pass. Or stop the testing. That’s how SC does it.
If the media and fits would only stop reporting the test results.
Re: #1-3:
It’ll cost bucks to do those things but my company can do it nicely if the price is right
#4 More rain: if you SC dumbasses had not fucked up the wetlands and tidal areas those areas now under golf courses and mega-acres of asphalt could filter out a lot of the shit………… but nooo…………..
You rep what you sow
We should offer vouchers for the folks that have to vacation at Myrtle so they can go to a better performing beach of their choice.
Turns out there IS some inconsistency with the data due to the standards themselves having changed, however, that has caused the NRDC itself to issue a new statement that explains the new data in a different way. This is not just MBACC spin, it’s info from that watchdog group themselves. The good news: The water is no dirtier than it was the last time they tested it. The bad news: It is no cleaner either.
“the ocean is clean most of the time.”
/
That style of thinking is sooo familiar. Now where have I seen it before? Why it was DHEC middle management. Maybe they the MB officials were just quoting.
I used to deliver #6 oil to the paper mill in Charleston when I drove a tanker truck for Hess. There are a lot of really nasty looking, large volume concrete containment ponds there…chock full of bubbling goo. If and when a big earthquake hits the Lowcountry, the harbor, the surrounding beaches, and the marshes will experience a catastrophe akin to the Exxon Valdez.
Where can I see some of your photoshop work? What version do you use. Do you take requests?
Look at all those dirty skanks in the water, then realize that you’re waist deep in their used douche.
And thanks to the Peeler’s and their attempts to continue import of out of state waste, we will continue to be much more contaminated in the future!
Look up human waste in the dictionary and the Peeler’s have their pictures posted!
You can’t mean the same Peeler who is a FITS hero for voting with carpetbagger Davis on the Ex-Im bill.
Imagine how much worse it would be if blacks could swim……
So wrong…. funny nonetheless.
Do not go in the water with an open wound if the bacteria levels are high.
Never get that water/bacteria in your mouth or in your ears.
The ocean water isn’t nearly as disconcerting as the human trash that litters the strip these days.
Was down there 2 weeks ago and there was litter every where especially cigarette butts you could barely take a step without stepping on one and as far as getting in the water please. This once beautiful beach has taken a turn for the worst. Probably will be our last time anywhere near there.
Charleston Harbor and Charleston beaches are yucky … too many boats … too many people taking dumps and peeing in the surf. Germs and Diseases!