Horry County considers changing development laws to protect wetlands. What to know

As Horry County continues to grow, concerns of wetland impacts have increased.

Now the second-highest growing county in the South Carolina, new housing developments are continually being built at a high rate across Horry County.

But Horry County may see a change in development requirements in areas near wetlands.

Horry County Council members are reviewing a landscape ordinance that would require developers to maintain a 15-foot buffer zone from all wetlands, Horry County spokesperson Kimberly Clifford said by email.

The first reading of the ordinance is scheduled for April 21, which was previously deferred from March 17.

Horry County residents have been pushing for stronger wetland protections for years.

In the county’s municipal code, there are a number of sustainable development options for multi-residential projects, one of them including a 50-foot buffer from wetlands, but O’Leary said a lot of developers don’t choose that option.

The amendment being proposed isn’t exactly what she pushed for, but it’s a start, she said.

“I also don’t want to be critical of council,” she said. “I think it’s great that they’re going to consider a 15-foot buffer. You have to start somewhere.”

Horry County is not the only agency considering changing such development buffers.

What is the importance of wetlands?

Wetlands are an important part of Horry County’s natural ecosystem, and they comprise approximately 38% of the county.

Becky Ryon, Coastal Conservation League north coast office director, said wetlands provide critical habitat for many species in the area, including turkey, deer and waterfowl.

Wetlands also act as natural filtration systems. Contaminates and sediments are often filtered through wetlands before making their way to rivers and other tributaries, Ryon said.

“They are very important for maintaining our quality of life, as well as quality of life for many of our wildlife species,” she said.

One acre of wetland can hold about 1 million gallons of water. They act as slow-release storage tanks during heavy rainfall, which minimize the impacts of flooding.

The Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, which spans thousands of acres, was estimated to hold 90 billion gallons of water during Hurricane Florence, Ryon said.

That storage is one of the main theories why Georgetown, which had been predicted to see catastrophic flooding, didn’t flood as severely, Ryon said. The wetlands held and slowly released water instead of letting it rush down the river from North Carolina.

But communities like Bucksport, which sits in the middle of wetlands and has seen a disproportionate amount of tree clearing since about 2015, experienced flooding they’d never seen before, Ryon said.

“I think you can extrapolate from the development, especially that deforestation (and) the increase of impervious surfaces, the exacerbation of those flooding conditions for that community,” she said.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Landcover Atlas tool, Horry County lost nearly 20% of its forested wetlands from 1996-2021. The amount of developed land increased by 60% during the same time span.

What are the current requirements for development in wetlands?

According to South Carolina Department of Natural Resources website, there are limited protections for wetlands in the state. South Carolina Department of Environmental Services must administer a Section 401 Water Quality Certification permit to projects that would impact state waters. State environmental services also issue National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for stormwater regulation.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers administers Section 404 of the Clean Water Act permits for the discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, and state environmental services must certify those applications.

All wetlands were considered waters of the United States under the Clean Water Act and needed state and/or federal permits before filling or impacting them, until the 2023 Sackett v. EPA decision.

The Supreme Court ruling changed the federal protections for isolated wetlands, or wetlands that are not directly connected to navigable waterways, leaving them vulnerable to future land cover changes.

A study conducted by NASA found that Horry County showed a 6% decrease in isolated wetlands from 2015 to 2025.

Horry County recently opened a wetland mitigation bank, preserving nearly 3,700 acres of wetlands, but mitigation credits will only be used for public projects and not residential development.

What are other municipalities doing?

Directly influenced by the Sackett decision, the Town of Bluffton implemented the state’s first local wetland protection ordinance in 2025 to make up for the federal gaps. Bluffton adopted a mandatory 25-foot buffer as a starting point, and now has a 50-foot buffer requirement and protection of all wetlands. The council is reviewing a final revision to strengthen the ordinance even further.

“The intent was always to adopt it and then take a look at it and see how we could improve it,” Town of Bluffton Watershed Resilience Manager Beth Lewis said.

The Town’s Watershed Division Manager Andrea Moreno said that if a developer receives a Corps permit for a jurisdictional wetland, or a wetland connected to navigable waters, they will honor that permit.

She said several other municipalities have adopted or are reviewing a wetland protection ordinance as well, including Georgetown County.

Ryon has been directly involved in Georgetown County’s proposal, which would require a 35-foot buffer and a 15-foot setback minimum, giving a total 50 feet between development and wetlands.

And although she sees value in creating wetland protection in any form, she said the minimum requirement should realistically be 150 feet to maximize the benefits of wetland function, but nowhere in the state requires a 150-foot buffer.

“I’m always hopeful that we can, down the line, take it even further,” Ryon said.