Horry County opts out of fencing retention ponds, requires slopes in new development

The drowning late last year of a 4-year-old autistic boy in the Hidden Lakes subdivision’s retention pond has raised questions about whether fencing should be required around those kind of ponds, but Horry County officials said they don’t think fencing is the answer.

Jayden Morrison was visiting his grandmother’s house in Hidden Lakes subdivision in Little River around Christmastime when he went missing Dec. 24. Search teams scoured the area until Jayden was found in a nearby retention pond Dec. 26.

The story gained national attention as media outlets from New York, the boy’s home state, ran stories of his death. Public debate on social media began on whether fencing should be required around retention ponds.

Horry County had this debate in the late 2000s after multiple deaths were reported between 2005 and 2007, said Tom Garigen, storm water manager for the county’s storm water department.

Prior to 2000, Horry County did not have an ordinance addressing the safety of retention pond designs. So, it created one that addressed dimensions for slopes into the ponds and after the deaths in the mid-2000s, the county knew something had to change.

“In 2008, we revised our storm water ordinance with a number of changes, a large number of changes,” Garigen said. “Included in that were new pond regulations geared toward making it safer. Flatter slopes on the edge of the ponds was the main thing.”

He said there was a lot of discussion about the pros and cons of fencing, as well.

“A lot of times fences can cause problems because if somebody does get on the pond side of the fence, it makes it very difficult for somebody to rescue them because they have to get on the other side of the fence, too,” Garigen said. “It can interfere with firefighters, rescue people or citizens trying to rescue.”

At least one area city has stayed out of the design of retention ponds. In North Myrtle Beach, Pat Dowling, spokesman for the city, said retention pond design is the responsibility of a developer’s engineer.

“There are no specific city regulations pertaining to them, although the city engineer can review plans and, if he does not think the pond design will handle storm water runoff for a given site, may require adjustments,” Dowling said. “We do not have specific [regulations] for slope.”

Andre Morrison, father of Jayden, said he doesn’t see a need for fencing, when what needs to be done can be accomplished with decorative rock.

“It’s a debate,” Morrison said. “Most of the people down here are retirees and so forth. You can’t really put that on them. I think it’s up to the homeowner to fence in their backyard, if they want.”

“A little border around it may work, or maybe a rocky incline, so maybe a kid can’t just slide down a slope,” he said.

Garigen said he also sees the argument for something more pleasing to the eye, which is why the county instituted making the slopes in new development ponds more shallow. He said the county also requires new ponds to have a shallow “shelf,” which is an area below the normal water level before the pond deepens.

“People are buying on these lots, they’re paying a premium to be on a pond for the aesthetics,” Garigen said. “We think that we came up with the best compromise when we re-did the ordinance.”

Lisa Bourcier, spokeswoman for Horry County, said any obstruction near the ponds can hinder maintaining them, too.

“Maintenance of the pond is difficult, too, because a lot of them have ongoing maintenance of algae and certain things where they need access,” Bourcier said.

The newer rules of more shallow slopes apply to new development. The rules were adopted in 2008, right when the housing market burst.

“We haven’t seen the benefit of these in the last few years to take hold,” Garigen said. “At this point, we can’t go back and retroactively make these subdivisions make these changes.”

He said the county doesn’t anticipate making new changes to the ordinance, though it always remains open to new ideas.

“We think we have a good standard here that provides a better level of safety than we used to have,” Garigen said. “We think we have a good solution. We just we had this in place 20 years ago.”

This story was originally published January 11, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Horry County opts out of fencing retention ponds, requires slopes in new development."