STORMWATER POND MANAGEMENT COLLABORATIVE IN COASTAL SOUTH CAROLINA, USA: INTEGRATING CONTAMINANT FATE AND TRANSPORT IN THE STATE OF THE KNOWLEDGE

Under increasing development pressures, coastal South Carolina (SC), USA is undergoing land use transitions tending toward residential and urban development with increased impervious cover. These changes alter hydrologic cycles and increase the prevalence of some pollution sources, presenting a need for environmental management at local and regional scales. Stormwater ponds are generally the go-to solution to manage increased runoff from development projects. Stormwater ponds traditionally are engineered to respond to the need to control flooding, yet over time it has been shown that they serve other functions, e.g., they provide ecological habitat, either trap or act as a gateway to transport environmental pollutants in urban runoff to receiving bodies, sequester carbon and provide cultural ecosystem services, and can be viewed as a valued, aesthetic feature of a community. The main objective of the current work is to delineate processes that influence the fate and transport of contaminants in stormwater ponds, summarizing and integrating the fundamental and practical knowledge from the fields of hydrology and pollution sciences. Specific examples and lessons learned in settings with geological and geographical relevance to coastal SC will be the main focus. Our study is part of a larger investigation into the emerging issues associated with stormwater ponds in coastal SC. The overall result will be a collaborative state of the knowledge review on stormwater infrastructure inventory, design, costs, benefits, and policies in the region that is being supported by the SC Sea Grant Consortium. It is clear that cross-cutting perspectives will be crucial to addressing key questions about the role stormwater ponds play in this dynamic physical, ecological, and human-dominated coastal system. Our study will help identify gaps in current knowledge and specific research priorities, and also learn from other regions undertaking similar initiatives to evaluate infrastructure that may be considered crucial to the resilience of urban areas under growing populations and climate uncertainty.