August 2022 Keeper’s Report
Welcome to your August 2022 Keeper’s Report! It has been an incredibly active month with so much to report, but first we have a very exciting announcement!
REVEL ON THE RIVER is set for November 5th at Freehouse Brewery from 1-5pm and the Early Bird Tickets are on sale now and Revel Partnerships are open!
Revel on the River is Charleston Waterkeeper’s largest fundraising celebration of Charleston’s harbor, creeks, and rivers with 100% of the proceeds going back to protect and restore your waterways for future generations.
Charleston is a very special place due to the accessibility to the water and its natural beauty. Through community events like Revel on the River, we can bring attention and awareness to the effort to protect and restore our majestic waterways and creeks and bring our community together to celebrate all that Charleston’s waterways provides us.
– Andrew Wunderley, Executive Director and Your Waterkeeper
This year’s lineup includes Danielle Howle, Dallas Baker & Friends and Jordan Igoe and attendees will enjoy local organic beer by Freehouse Brewery, local oysters, and Rebel Taqueria.
Now is the time to get your tickets at the Early Bird prices and look forward to gathering with fellow waterway stewards, recreational boaters, philanthropists, surfers, fishers, area business leaders, citizen scientists, and an active, local audience deeply connected to, and passionate about Charleston’s waterways!
– Your Charleston Waterkeeper Team
News
Check before you go!
With all of this rain, it is critical to check the water quality results and avoid the contaminated sites. There is a lot of great advice for our water lovers in this recent press piece!
Live 5 News: Watch today
Can the swamps save us?
This is an excellent read on our relationship with swamps and wetlands. We all need to be reminded of the importance of these magical places and embrace their beauty. Worth the read.
The New Yorker: Read more
Real estate, wastewater and history
This is an amazing look at how Hilton Head Island is handling the complex issue of wastewater and real estate and why their history is shaping the trajectory forward.
Post and Courier: Read more
More open, shared space
And we like it! This is really great news for public access to the upper Ashley River. We hope to see more of these initiatives.
Live 5 News: Watch today
Breaking records
We all knew July was a wet month, but now we know it was the 15th wettest July on record! That’s why it’s important to follow along each week to see where it’s safe to swim.
Post and Courier: Read more
Member Spotlight
Rutledge Baker
We couldn’t wait to spotlight Rutledge, our champion of Revel on the River, longtime supporter and trusted Board Member since 2015! Rutledge has been a consistent voice and leader in the fight for clean water and always ready to jump in to bring about positive change and growth.
Rutledge is a very well respected member of the Charleston community, owner of our favorite beer stop, coolest family man, and music aficionado.
How’s the water?
As you may know from following our weekly water quality reports, more rain means more polluted floodwater being washed into our creeks and rivers. That combined with warmer waters is a bad combination for bacteria levels! That’s why it’s important to follow along each week to see where it’s safe to swim. We saw better results around the Harbor with greens all around. Unfortunately, the Ashley River at Brittlebank Park, Filbin Creek, James Island Creek, and upper Shem Creek remain red. Swimming and other water-based recreation are not recommended in these areas. Be sure to follow along with the weekly reports to know before you go!
Clean Water Updates
That was fun and rewarding!
We teamed up with DNR SCORE and 23 awesome volunteers to plant 350 bags of oyster shell to create 47 m of new oyster reef!
NEW activity alert
Our volunteers got to try out a new activity with DNR SCORE this month, making sample trays for oyster recruitment!
Certified!
We hosted a small Adopt-A-Stream workshop for some volunteers that were already freshwater certified to get them saltwater certified.
Email [email protected] if you’re interested in becoming a Creek Watcher!
Learning and having fun
Interns Bella and Willa helped Youth2Ocean’s summer campers learn more about plastic pollution and protecting our beaches!
What is in the water?
We deployed another round of passive samplers with scientists from NOAA to test for pesticides and PAHs in the water.
#ChasWaterkeeper
Whoa!
It is never a dull moment out there testing your waterways, but this one Wednesday was action packed and full of surprises. We found our crew in the middle of a joint training exercise with the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team!
Let’s Get Social
Don’t miss any of the action for clean water: especially the weekly restoration events! Be sure to follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and now LinkedIn!
