S.C. Sea Grant Consortium
Saltmarsh with sun.

Coastal Environmental Quality Program

The S.C. Sea Grant Consortium’s Coastal Environmental Quality Specialist works closely with state natural resource managers, community groups, scientists, universities, and decisionmakers to help sustain our coastal environmental quality.

This program focuses on helping communities enhance and conserve the coastal environment through proper stormwater management, improving water quality, and preventing harmful algal blooms.

Extension Specialist

Brooke Saari

Coastal Environmental Quality Program Specialist

Regional Stormwater Pond Information and Programming

A team of partners from various organizations in South Carolina’s coastal areas collaborate on programming efforts yearly, including the Healthy Pond Series and Stormwater Pond Conferences.

Recent Projects in Coastal Environmental Quality

A drawstring bag made out of a shrimp net.

Trawl to Trash

This program recruits and hires local commercial shrimpers to construct stow bags by upcycling old and discarded shrimp trawl nets, which they construct during their off-season. Stow bags are then provided to the public through outreach activities to encourage the reduction of trash in our local environment.

Flooding 411 Webinar Series

Flooding 411 is a series of four 90-minute webinars, first implemented in Summer 2021, created to address flooding issues that coastal South Carolina residents are facing. Various scientific and government experts are brought in to deliver information on subjects such as flooding safety, property protection, community impacts, and who to contact.

A car drives through a flooded Charleston street.
A white heron stands in the salt marsh.

The South Carolina Water Monitoring Portal

The South Carolina Water Monitoring Portal is an ArcGIS-based, geospatial application that displays statewide water quality data on an interactive map. The Portal is a user-friendly tool and makes data more accessible to assist researchers, technical managers, and extension professionals in protecting our state’s waters.

Resources by Topic