Explaining Charleston's plan for a sea wall

09/10/20 • 29 min

Earlier this year, Charleston got a first looks at plans for what would be the city's biggest and most complicated flooding mitigation program yet: a sea wall that would wrap eight miles around the peninsula.

The wall was the preferred path chosen by the Army Corps of Engineers, which was tasked with figuring out a way to better protect the city from life-threatening storm surge during hurricanes.

Immediately, a slew of questions were raised: How would it work? What would it look like? Where would it go? How much would it cost, and who would be paying for it?

Some of those answers were available. (We know, for example, that the estimated price tag is $1.75 billion, and Charleston would have to cover $600 million of that bill.) Other questions can't be answered yet.

To help clear up what we know and what we don't, reporter Chloe Johnson joined us to discuss the plans, which she has been following closely since they were rolled out in the spring.

We also talked about how the sea wall proposal — and the debate that's surrounded it — is representative of an existential question the Charleston peninsula faces as sea levels rise and flooding becomes more frequent: wall off the waters or retreat to higher ground?

Listen now to learn more.

The wall was the preferred path chosen by the Army Corps of Engineers, which was tasked with figuring out a way to better protect the city from life-threatening storm surge during hurricanes.

Immediately, a slew of questions were raised: How would it work? What would it look like? Where would it go? How much would it cost, and who would be paying for it?

To help clear up what we know and what we don't, reporter Chloe Johnson joined us to discuss the plans, which she has been following closely since they were rolled out in the spring.

Listen now to learn more.

Previous Episode

How USC is handling COVID-19 on campus

Before the University of South Carolina brought some 35,000 students back to Columbia for classes, the school spent all summer preparing.

They installed cameras to monitor face mask usage, put out a promotional campaign promoting social distancing and hand washing and even launched a COVID-19 testing program that would give students results in 24 hours.

But that didn't make the university immune to outbreaks.

This week, shortly after we recorded this podcast, we learned from newly-released numbers that more than 1,000 USC students have tested positive for COVID-19, more than any other major university in the country.

The campus is still on low alert, according to its COVID-19 Dashboard, and university president Bob Caslan has said he's committed to trying to see the semester through, though he warned last week he would "pull the plug" if necessary.

Andy Shain, who leads our team of reporters in Columbia and Avery Wilks, a projects reporter who is also based in the Capital City, filled us in on how the university is utilizing "quarantine dorms," what's being done to rein in off-campus partying and why other colleges across the state and country are closely watching what happens at USC.

Listen now to learn more and click here for related articles.

Next Episode

Ghost bird: How the elusive black rail may be threatened by climate change

A little black bird may be here, underneath these bouncing dragonflies, somewhere in these sparkling green waves. A rare bird called the eastern black rail. A bird so difficult to see that John James Audubon never saw one in the wild. A bird so stealthy that even the most ardent birders haven’t seen one, though they may have heard their calls. So rare that Christy Hand, a biologist, asks — no, pleads — that you not reveal where you are because she knows mysteries are irresistible.

Listen or click here to learn more about black rails in South Carolina.