Preview the new Charleston Water Plan set for Aug. 27

How do you save a sinking city?

The Atlantic Ocean is reclaiming Charleston, and city leaders hope a new plan can help stem floodwaters for a few decades.

Sea levels in the region are predicted to rise by about a foot in the next 25 years, and perhaps 3 to 5 feet by 2100. Flooding in the coming decades is likely to be exacerbated by hurricanes. influenced by climate change, which researchers predict may increase. as strong as the oceans are warming.

The water around Charleston has risen nearly a foot in the last hundred years. Therefore, the number of severe floods that the city has experienced has increased significantly – from two in 1922 (the first year with available data) to 75 in 2023, an increase of 3,650 percent. Those floods put increasing financial pressure on businesses and homeowners.

Charleston’s year-old Integrated Water Plan aims to help the city “embrace its relationship with” rising seas over the next 25 years.

It will be presented for the first time to members of the City Council at 4 pm on Aug. 27 in council chambers at 80 Broad St., according to Mayor William Cogswell, who announced the workshop at the council’s Aug. 20. This meeting will be broadcast on the city’s YouTube channel, and a recording will be available afterwards.

“(The project) is the culmination of hard work and research that was first started by Mayor (John) Tecklenburg, at Dutch Dialogues,” Cogswell said. “The ideas proposed are very exciting, ambitious, and we are excited to present them.”

The timeline seeks to complete the Water Project by fall 2024, according to the project’s homepage. Cogswell said there will be “many public meetings in the future” about the project — an announcement that was widely supported by members of the public at an Aug. council meeting. 20, which encouraged village leaders to include more public consultation in the implementation of the Water Plan. .

“I know a lot of my neighbors don’t know about this project, and I think if we work with more of them they can be champions of this work that you’re leading,” said Sonny Goyal, member of Harleston. Village Neighborhood Association. meeting.

City leaders have revealed little details about the Water Plan in past meetings, including, most recently, a plan to revitalize New Market Creek under Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, turning it into a public park and flood control area, and a move that would raise the West Ashley Greenway to create a flood wall.

“At the last Dutch Dialogues, more than 300 citizens attended,” resident Peter Goodrich said. The Dutch Dialogues were a precursor to the Water Plan and would inform much of the final shape of the plan. “We all need to know more about the city’s plans for the immediate, medium and long term.”

Goodrich also suggested that the city create a Citizens’ Advisory Committee in order to “keep the community informed of ongoing mitigation projects and the progress of the Water Project.”

Cogswell said at the council meeting that city staff are already working on other projects based on the bus maps outlined in the upcoming Water Project and are looking to strengthen the city’s partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers.

The city is working with the Navy on two major, interconnected projects: the Tidal and Inland Flood Feasibility Project and the Charleston Peninsula Perimeter Protection Project, known collectively as the seawall project.

Cogswell has proposed a “raised border” on the peninsula, but has previously said he does not support the sea wall plan in its current form. The temporary project will be a $1.3 billion construction project around 8 kilometers from the peninsula.

Toby Cox contributed to this report.