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Guest Column: Lawfare Will Not Solve Charleston’s Flooding Problem
Michael Burris: “A headline-grabbing lawsuit is easy, but balancing vibrant development and environmental protection is much harder.”
7 comments
Charleston’s flooding problem has far more to do with “subsidence” than it does with “climate change”. Charleston is sinking about 1/4th of an inch every year because of the weight of the buildings and infrastructure Charlestonians built on top of a swamp.
That means that while the Global sea level rise at .06 inches per year will cause the sea to have risen 1.5 inches by 2050. Meanwhile, Chucktown will have settled 6.25 inches. If we extrapolate to 2100, the difference is 18 inches of subsidence versus 4 inches of “sea level rise”.
Let me ask you, which problem can we actually control? Which problem has the greatest impact?
Don’t believe me? Google “Exposure of communities and infrastructure to subsidence on the US east coast Leonard O Ohenhen”.
Charleston’s problems were created by Charlestonians, not the “evil climate change boogie man”.
Thanks for pointing this out Colonel – subsidence does not get nearly enough attention in this multi-faceted problem. . It should also be noted that according to the State Office of Resilience, since 1992, over 10000 acres of natural forestland in the Charleston metro area have been developed into buildings, roads and other largely impervious surfaces. I asked Grok to quantify what that would mean in terms of actual measurable surface level runoff. Assuming an annual rainfall rate of about 50 inches per year and a standard hydrology runoff coefficient rate of0.995 for impervious surfaces, you are looking at approximately 13.1 billion gallons (or 40,292 acre-feet) of additional annual runoff. Grok also observed that “This extra volume overwhelms drainage systems, increasing peak discharge by up to 240%, runoff volume by 35%, and altering lag time by 85% in urban settings, per general studies (applicable to Charleston). In Charleston’s Calhoun West basin (322 acres, high imperviousness), similar runoff contributes to flood depths of 0.1–2.4 feet during combined SLR and storm events. Overall, it has helped drive a 409% increase in flood days (from ~2/year in the 1970s to ~25/year by 2010–2015).”
So, in other words, man-made climate change has, at best (and this is a big maybe) about a 1/4 to 1/3 causal factor in the Charleston metro area flooding – and that is being very charitable. What also further proves this and the Colonel’s point about subsidence is when you compare local area sea level rise and surface area flooding of the ACE basin (a mere 60 miles south of Charleston harbor as the crow flies) you find that the ACE basin doesn’t experience anything close to the frequency and magnitude of Charleston’s flooding, and significantly less sea level rise. Because it’s not hyper-densely developed with billions of tons of man made structures compressing the silt based soil, and only has a small fraction of the surface rainwater runoff – which permits the water table to be re-charged and thus retards subsidence – the two factors are interconnected.
Charleston’s council has only recently begun to get serious about rainwater runoff. There are parking lots along the Ashley and in Harleston Village that look more like ponds after any rain. Their insistence on getting the runoff into the harbor rather than letting it soak in as you say just makes it all worse. The micro lot developments in the suburbs, Summerville and Goose Creek are going to going to create more problems along the I-26 corridor. Chucktown is being loved to death because no one knows when to say no.
Most reliable sources list Charleston’s subsidence at a max of 4mm or just over 1/8th inch per year (0.15748 inches per year to be exact). Most sources also quote the current average sea level rise at 3.6 mm per year (0.141732 inches per year) and rising. So it would appear that currently subsidence and sea level rise are of almost equal threat to Charleston. Facts matter.
Why is Young even still on the bench? Has all the past exposure of bad judgements and crazy small sentences been scrubbed from the world wide web?
He is almost as bad as Jefferson who has violated due process rights and passed judgements without hearing from litigants!
For well over 30+ years the same spot on Folly Road – James Island – still a danger to motorist due to the Charleston City Council not lifting a single finger to the flooding. They are worthless do nothing’s.
Even the flooding on Tobias Gadsden right before Paul Cantrell Blvd. Decades of the same old ignored crap by the city. Easy fix, too. If only the city’s road crews knew how to use a shovel to dig a small trench or two so rain water would drain down off the road where it builds up causing motor vehicles to hydroplane, etc.
Dozens and dozens of the things the City of Charleston should be doing that it’s is undoubtedly too lazy to do! Even the City PD can’t do what they should because they are short well hundreds of officers But they have the money and then some for it. What in the hell are they diverting it too?
You know what this needs? A Dutch Dialogue!