Issue 5

Water World

Hydrologic Data Comes of Age in the Coastal Plain

by Zoë Hoyle

With its headwaters in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Santee River literally stretches across the Carolinas. Clear, cool mountain waters flow down through the Piedmont, gathering width from numerous tributaries—as well as sediment, nutrients, bacteria, and other pollutants. By the time the Santee meets the Atlantic Ocean just north of Charleston, SC, it’s wide, slow, and brown—no longer a pristine river.

Just before it enters the sea, the Santee River forms the northern border of the Francis Marion National Forest (Francis Marion), a 250,000-acre tract of Coastal Plain forest northwest of Charleston. Most of the watersheds in the national forest actually drain into the Cooper River to the south, which drains into the Charleston Bay. The Santee-Cooper River Basin is the second largest watershed on the Atlantic coast.

The cleanest water in the area comes out of the Francis Marion. The Forest Service has collected hydrologic data from weirs installed on the forest for over 4 decades, providing baseline information on flow and water quality. Like many other areas across the Southern United States, development is moving closer and closer to national lands, pushing water-quality issues to the forefront. The Francis Marion is a fitting site for a new project by Devendra Amatya, research hydrologist with the SRS Center for Forested Wetlands, who has brought together a wide range of cooperators interested in using science to ensure future water quality in the Charleston area. (...continued...)