ECOS Past President Myra Reece of the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services recently led an inaugural meeting of the WaterSC Water Resources Working Group to finalize a stakeholder engagement plan for the development of an updated State Water Plan. The blueprint seeks to ensure South Carolinians will have ample opportunity to provide input on efforts regarding the state’s sustainable surface water and groundwater withdrawal practices and procedures.
The effort is the result of Governor McMaster’s September Executive Order 2024-22 that directs the WaterSC Water Resources Working Group to develop a stakeholder engagement plan by October 31, 2025. The group must provide a report and any recommendations to the General Assembly’s Surface Water Study Committee by January 31, 2025 on the current state of surface water in South Carolina and any necessary additions or changes to current law to ensure sustainable surface water withdrawal practices and procedures.
South Carolina first published a Water Plan in 1998 and updated the plan in 2004 to incorporate experiences from a severe statewide drought. In 2019, the state published a planning framework under the guidance of the Planning Process Advisory Committee.
More information on WaterSC is available here.
