Charleston launches resilience committee, lays out 2050 water-plan recommendations and stormwater projects to accelerate flood action

The City of Charleston convened its new resilience committee to move the city from study to action on flooding, hearing a summary of a 2050 water-plan and an update on ongoing stormwater capital and maintenance work.

The 2050-focused water plan presented by Black & Veatch project manager Steven O'Connell lays out 40 recommendations — grouped into infrastructure, land use, governance, outreach and resources — intended to be implementable and prioritized for the city's capital improvement program (CIP). City stormwater staff described concurrent capital projects, a check-valve and small-project program, and expanded proactive maintenance meant to improve drainage now while longer-term planning continues.

The water-plan presentation emphasized that different parts of Charleston face different flood drivers and that the city must plan accordingly. "We have seen 13 inches of sea-level rise in the Charleston Harbor over the last 100 years, and we are projecting about 14 additional inches of sea-level rise by 2050," O'Connell said, describing maps that combine tidal, rainfall and groundwater effects. He added that the plan models compound events — for example, a 100-year rainfall coinciding with elevated tides — to identify priority interventions.

Why it matters: City leaders said the committee's purpose is to hold the city and partner jurisdictions accountable for turning plan recommendations into on-the-ground projects. Mayor Cogswell told the group, "This is going to be a committee that will have very actionable items that come out of it," and urged members to focus on projects that can be advanced through the CIP and external funding.

Short-term recommendations highlighted in the presentation include establishing a cross-jurisdictional advisory committee (the body meeting on this call), improving stormwater drainage fee collection efficiency, enabling qualified third-party review of stormwater projects, expanding monitoring of tides, groundwater and rainfall, increasing grant-management capacity, and creating a community communications strategy and a public dashboard to track progress.

Longer-term recommendations included developing comprehensive stormwater models for each hydrologic basin, conserving land at the urban edge to allow marsh migration, updating stormwater design standards with adaptive management provisions, and protecting utility and transportation corridors that are critical during emergencies.

Stormwater department update: Matt Fountain of the city's stormwater department said the city currently funds capital work from a drainage fund that typically yields "somewhere around $6 to $7 million a year," and that the department has recently leveraged roughly $60 million in grant funding for larger projects. He outlined completed and ongoing projects across the Peninsula, West Ashley, James Island, Johns Island and Daniel Island.

Notable projects described include the Spring Fishburne deep-tunnel pump-station program on the Peninsula (pump-station construction expected in 2026), multiple phases of the Low Battery restoration project, upgrades and tie-ins to the deep-tunnel network under the Peninsula, the Limehouse pilot retrofit of historic brick arch sewers, market-area streetscape and drainage coordination, and green-infrastructure and acquisition projects such as the Church Creek/Bridgepoint buyouts and the newly started Barbary Woods wetland restoration project on Johns Island.

Fountain also described smaller programs the department runs: a check-valve program (field installs that prevent backflow through pipes), a small-project program that funds neighborhood improvements (about $500,000 project size typical; 31 small projects completed since 2020), and a proactive maintenance regime. He said the maintenance teams total about 58 full-time employees and that the department has shifted toward scheduled, proactive rehabilitation of swales, roadside systems and pipe cleaning to limit reactive emergency work.

Public engagement and next steps: Caitlin Cozzello, director of resilience for the City of Charleston, said the city will roll out a series of "water open houses" in May — planned community events in West Ashley, James Island, the Peninsula, Daniel Island and Johns Island — to present projects, coordinate partners and gather local feedback. Committee members were asked to review the water-plan recommendations, consult their communities and identify "low-hanging fruit" and action items to advance before the next meeting.

Separately, Mayor Cogswell noted a recent City Council action: the council approved at first reading a $200,000 allocation to expand the Rosemont study area, which the mayor said should fund an expanded study to inform potential perimeter protection work for that neighborhood.

The meeting closed with a request that committee members return with community feedback and prioritized, actionable items to inform the city's CIP and grant-seeking efforts.