The city council of Folly Beach, South Carolina requested technical assistance from the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium to identify ways to improve flood resilience and use those actions to increase its Community Rating System (CRS) rating. By better documenting its open space preservation and new flood maps that reduced base flood elevations, the city’s CRS rating increased from a class 7 to a class 4 during its 2017 program review, which will provide residents a 30 percent discount on their flood insurance plans.This results in a 30 percent premium discount for all policy holders in the city, which amounts to $444,000 per year.

Stormwater ponds are among the most widely used engineering practices for controlling stormwater quantity and improving water quality in South Carolina, with approximately 9,000 dedicated ponds across the state’s eight coastal counties. Stormwater pond systems can play a significant role in watershed function, providing for flood management, pollution mitigation and other amenities to communities.

Because of work facilitated by the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium and partners, Beaufort County implemented an engineering code change in 2017 that requires the outlets of stormwater ponds to be built at heights that would allow outflow based on 30-year projections of sea level rise and thus protect receiving waters from contaminants and to provide protection for homes and communities now and in the future.

South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium research and technology transfer efforts have resulted in the propagation of South Carolina-based seed stock to supply the rapidly emerging oyster-farming industry in South Carolina; with a potential value at harvest reaching $1,000,000 and potential restaurant retail value estimated at $4,000,000.

In 2017, because of Consortium efforts, seed orders for all South Carolina oyster farmers were filled with triploid seed produced in-state using only South Carolina broodstock. Over 3 million seed were sold, which represents a conservative average market value to the growers of $1.8 million, and $6 million in restaurant retail value. Growers have reported excellent performance from these oysters of local parentage, with fast growers reaching harvest size in 10 months.