Chimney Sweep in Sullivan’s Island, SC

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND — A creek popular with kayakers and boaters has filled with silt, making the tributary that connects to the Intracoastal Waterway a short distance from Charleston Harbor nearly impossible to use at low tide, residents told a town committee this month. Town leaders are considering a project to dredge the creek to clear out the built-up sediment and deepen the waterway.

Although the town is widely known for its quiet, clean beaches, the rear of the island facing Mount Pleasant features a network of tidal creeks and marshes, with the ICW running through them.

Cove Creek is a 1.5 mile-long waterway on the back side of Sullivan’s Island. Marsh-front homes and public and private docks line the banks of the creek, providing direct access to the water.

But lately, residents have noticed the creek seems more shallow, making it more difficult to launch their boats or swim in the water.

Dredging the creek would restore it to its former condition, according to a handful of homeowners who urged the town to take up the matter at the town’s Land Use and Natural Resources Committee on July 29.

Scott Greene, a resident and recreational kayaker, told the committee that he used to access the water at the launch point near Station 19 Street. At low tide, he said using the launch site was nearly impossible.

“That's become more challenging,” Greene told the committee. “It's very difficult to kind of get in and out.”

Dredging is the process of removing sediment from the bottom of bodies of water, sometimes to deepen a channel for improved navigation.

Charleston Harbor was deepened to 52 feet in 2022 to accommodate larger ships coming into the port. The work made the harbor the deepest on the East Coast.

Dredging also can be a method to get compatible sand to renourish eroded beaches.

The Army Corps last year dredged the Folly River and placed the sand onto Folly Beach. That work wrapped up last October.

But silt and sand can be pumped from waterways for other reasons, too, said Dylan Burnell, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Charleston District, the permitting authority for this type of work.

“Dredging for recreational or other non-federal purposes can be permitted, provided it meets all applicable federal environmental and regulatory requirements,” Burnell said.

Cove Creek’s silty buildup has been growing for years, Town Administrator Joe Henderson said. Dredging the creek has been part of the town’s comprehensive plan for years. As it stands, the shoaling in Cove Creek is not a navigational hazard, but it does impact the recreational use of the water, he said.

“One thing that we've had probably for the past 20 years in our comprehensive plan is … the possibility of dredging out Cove Creek,” Henderson said.

Attempts to dredge the creek have been made before.

A public notice published in The News and Courier on Aug. 23, 1988, alerted residents that the town applied for a permit to dredge Cove Creek from the South Carolina Coastal Council, a predecessor to the state’s Bureau of Coastal Management.

“The town ultimately didn't move forward with the project for one reason or another,” Henderson said, adding that leaders now will consider the issue anew.

The full town council will discuss the possibility of dredging the creek at their workshop meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Aug. 4.

Recently, a volunteer group of islanders has been gathering to brainstorm how our community will celebrate America’s 250th birthday. One major element that was felt missing from our current “Welcome to Sullivan’s Island” monument sign is the acknowledgment of our significant involvement in the American Revolution. The tagline “Gateway to Liberty Since 1776” was devised as additional signage to address two points.

The Battle of Sullivan’s Island in June 1776 was a critical Patriot victory early in the conflict, one that shaped the outcome of our quest for what we now call American liberty. Without that pivotal victory, it's possible we would not have achieved the freedoms we hold dear today. This battle served as a “gateway” to American liberty, which is why we chose to include “since 1776.”

The other fact is that Sullivan’s Island has been designated as Stop No. 1 on the South Carolina Liberty Trail, positioning us as the “gateway” to a journey into our nation’s fight for freedom. (See http://bit.ly/4kPgRBY.) Our goal with this signage was to spark curiosity, inviting visitors to learn more about both the trail and the Revolution.

Criticism has now arisen that this new signage is “offensive” to certain segments of our population who found Sullivan’s Island to be a gateway to slavery rather than liberty. It’s been called “insensitive,” “embarrassing” and “tone-deaf.” Predictably, this proposed signage has also resurrected the often-repeated notion that Sullivan’s Island should somehow be considered the “Ellis Island of African slavery.” These comments, as well-intentioned as they may be, deserve further examination and rebuttal.

There are two broad topics to be addressed. First is the nature of the American “liberty” referred to in the new signage. July 4 remains a day of celebration, commemorating a document that boldly states “all men are created equal” and that everyone is entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

But we know that the founders had no intention of this applying to the Black, brown or red populations. To have suggested that to the signers would have sounded outrageous, even threatening. So every Fourth of July parade, every marching band and every firework bursting in air is a celebration of entirely cynical statements, the struggles over which continue to this day.

Despite this, our celebrations also remind us that these beginnings, as imperfect as they were, laid the groundwork for significant milestones like the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Act, the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.

The organizations aligned with commemorating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in South Carolina — such as the SC250 Commission, the SC250 Charleston Committee and the Liberty Trail — are wholeheartedly focused on telling the complete story of America’s journey toward personal liberty for all Americans. Including Sullivan’s Island as part of that story is appropriate. In essence, the new signage has already served a purpose in stimulating this public commentary and debate. That is healthy.

The other issue is the idea that Sullivan’s Island was the Ellis Island of African slavery — many times coupled with wildly inaccurate statements that every enslaved African reaching the port of Charleston spent time doing quarantine on Sullivan’s Island. That is absolutely false.

I’m not a professional historian, but much of what I believe and will say comes from our most eminent authority on the subject, Dr. Nic Butler, historian for the Charleston County Public Library. Dr. Butler has done exhaustive research into Charleston’s role in the Atlantic slave trade, including close scrutiny of the 1,000 human “cargoes” that arrived in Charleston and are documented on the website slavevoyages.org. Dr. Butler also hosts the biweekly podcast Charleston Time Machine. A quick way to become informed on this topic is to read or listen to episode No. 153, “Quarantine in Charleston Harbor, 1698–1949.” I reached out to Dr. Butler to see if any of his conclusions had changed since that episode. They have not. So I feel comfortable in directly quoting information from that podcast, some of which forms a part of the following statements.

Fact: There were at least 10 different lazaretto facilities in Charleston Harbor over the centuries, including a succession of four short-lived pest houses on Sullivan’s Island (1707–14, 1745–52, 1755–75, 1784–96). Others existed before the 1807 abolition of the legal slave trade, including ones on James Island (1797–ca. 1822) and on Morris Island (1776–80).

Fact: Based on the above, between 1707 and 1807, pest houses existed on Sullivan’s Island only 46% of that 100-year span. If an enslaved person had been brought to this area during the other 54 years, there would have been no pest house here in which they could have been incarcerated. Not exactly the story of Ellis Island, which operated continuously for 62 years.

Fact: Of the 12 million Africans who were captured against their will and sent across the infamous Middle Passage, only 10 million made it to the New World — a statistic that is horrible by itself. Of those 10 million, only 4%, or about 470,000, were brought to North America. The remainder were transported to the Caribbean and South America. (Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery, in 1888.) Approximately 150,000 to 200,000 of the North American slave trade came through the port of Charleston. Of those, research indicates that as few as 5,000 to as many as 20,000 may have ever set foot on Sullivan’s Island. In a recent communication, Dr. Butler confirmed that he remains confident that a relatively small number of incoming Africans and white Europeans visited one of the successive pest houses on Sullivan’s Island.

At this point, someone will think I am saying something positive about slavery or the slave trade. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even one enslaved person incarcerated on this island is one too many. I abhor the concept of slavery. I detest the stain on American history called slavery. England, our mother country, abolished slavery in 1834 with an act of Parliament. It took us until 1865, with four years of war and more than 650,000 casualties, to do the same.

So where did this term “Ellis Island of African slavery” come from? The earliest use I have found was in the introduction to the book Black Majority, written by former Duke University Professor Peter H. Wood. Originally composed as his graduate thesis at Harvard University, the book was published in 1974. Unfortunately, if Professor Wood coined this phrase, he did so only accompanied by general statements like, “Sullivan’s Island … where incoming captives were briefly quarantined, might well be viewed as the Ellis Island of Black Americans,” and, “Estimates suggest that well over 40% of the enslaved Africans reaching the British mainland colonies between 1700 and 1775 arrived in South Carolina.” He gives no further explanation for the origin of the term.

But we all love catchy labels. So, this one was born and took on a life of its own. It has been repeated thoughtlessly over and over, including by critics of the current additional signage. Roy Finkelbine used it in a 2020 article, “The Erasure of the History of Slavery at Sullivan’s Island.” An unnamed author repeated it in a 2009 article in National Parks Traveler, proclaiming, “Sullivan’s Island was the African American Ellis Island.” Wikipedia states that “Sullivan’s Island was the point of entry for approximately 40 to 50 percent of the 400,000 enslaved Africans brought to Colonial America, meaning that 99% of all African Americans have ancestors that came through the island. It has been likened to Ellis Island.” The online version of a recent Channel 2 News article that addressed the current signage controversy states that, “According to the National Park Service, more than 400,000 enslaved Africans arrived in America through Sullivan’s Island.” The National Park Service has never made such a statement.

These and other statements — grossly inaccurate or at best misleading — have assured the seeming permanence of this mistaken concept and have tied a millstone around this island’s neck for being the horrible place where every enslaved African brought to the colonies was imprisoned, subjected to inhumane treatment, and then sold into the depths of bondage. It appears clear that numbers related to the port of Charleston as a whole have now been attributed to Sullivan’s Island alone. It’s time to stop this perpetuation of false history and ditch the catchy phrase.

I see nothing wrong with the verbiage being added to our welcome sign. It serves the two purposes I mentioned at the beginning. It prompts the needed, ongoing discussion of the difference between our national liberty gained through independence and the individual liberty that many still do not enjoy. If the signage stimulates one person to read, research, study and learn more about the true nature of the American experience, it will have served an even greater purpose.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Earlier this week, a national research group released its 'Safe for Swimming?' report regarding water quality at beaches across the U.S.

“All too often there is bacteria at our beaches," said John Rumpler, Clean Water Director for Environment America, the authors of the report. "We compared it to a safety threshold which has to do with the risk of swimmers getting sick. And we found that all too often many of South Carolina's beaches exceeded that safety threshold for bacteria last year.”

It is important to note that the group's safety threshold differs from the one upheld by the state Department of Environmental Services.

In the report, Sullivan's Island is noted as being potentially unsafe for swimming, however SCDES says the water is up to the state's standard.

"That beach was only tested on 12 days last year. Of those 12 days, it exceeded the safety value for fecal indicator bacteria on four of those days, or about one third of the time," said Rumpler.

SCDES says it conducts tests every two weeks on Sullivan's Island between May 1 and Oct. 1.

"The EPA recommends that coastal states' beach monitoring programs use the standard for Enterococcus bacteria of 110 MPN/100 mL. However, SCDES uses an even more conservative standard: 104 MPN/100 mL. This means that South Carolina's beach monitoring program is even more protective of people's health," SCDES said in a statement.

In Environment America's report, the safety threshold measures as the strictest of the three groups, at 60 MPN/100mL.

SCDES said "The Environment America’s assessment approach doesn't align with South Carolina's or the EPA's recommended standards for ocean water monitoring."

Andrew Wunderley, Executive Director of Charleston Waterkeeper, says water quality varies with the weather.

"Bacteria levels spike after rains and floods. And so, what's happening during those events? You have sewers overflowing, you have septic tanks that get washed out, dog waste, pet waste, wildlife, all that gets washed into the water. And when that happens, the bacteria level spike and swimming and other recreational activities can be a risk to your health," he said.

Charleston Waterkeeper shares a weekly Swim Alert with results of bacteria tests from local waterways.

Both Wunderley and Rumpler say infrastructure issues contribute to higher levels of bacteria in water.

"There are communities across the country that are investing in upgrading and fixing their sewage infrastructure, replacing leaky pipes, fixing sewage treatment plants or expanding their capacity, helping homeowners to replace or repair leaky septic systems and also using what we call green infrastructure," said Rumpler.

"We need really resilient, well maintained, well operated, and well upgraded sewer treatment systems," said Wunderley. To reduce levels of bacteria in waterways, Wunderley encourages people to make sure they're cleaning up after their pets and properly maintaining septic systems.

"Nobody wants to go swimming in the water with their family and then have their kid's getting diarrhea and rashes and ear infections. That's just no fun for everybody," said Rumpler. "So, let's pull together and invest in fixing our water infrastructure so our water can always be safe for swimming."

Before you head to the beach, Wunderley suggests people check current available data about the location's water quality online. Both SCDES and Charleston Waterkeeper post bacteria test results online.

If the bacteria level ever exceeds the state’s threshold, SCDES will issue either a long-term or short-term swimming advisory in the affected area.