Water testing found dangerous chemicals flowing onshore in Myrtle Beach into ocean

A two-year study found high levels of PFAS, or forever chemicals, are flowing from the Myrtle Beach International Airport to Midway Swash, an onshore drainage creek just north of Springmaid Pier.

The airport is the site of the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, which now spans Market Common. The sample found “alarmingly” high levels of PFAS in water, soil and ocean foam, and was the site of the highest levels of PFAS in the entire Winyah Bay watershed study area.

“You see people or kids playing in there all the time in Midway Swash,” Dr. Till Hanebuth of Coastal Carolina University, who led the study, previously told The Sun News. “You don’t want to have anyone touching this water.”

PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of manufactured chemicals that take a very long time to dissolve, making them harmful to human and animal exposure.

The U.S. Air Force used firefighting foam in the 1970s, which is now known to contain PFAS. The Myrtle Beach Air Force Base was designated a Superfund Site by the Environmental Protection Agency after it closed in 1993. The transformed site was awarded a Federal Facility Excellence in Site Reuse Award in 2019.

Coastal’s project funded by SC Sea Grant Consortium and South Carolina Office of Resilience aimed to generate a data set of a section of the state that had very little focus before, but also to understand how PFAS is traveling throughout the Winyah Bay watershed, Hanebuth previously told The Sun News. In partnership with Winyah Rivers Alliance Riverkeepers, the project discovered multiple areas with high levels of PFAS.

According to a press release, the Little Pee Dee River also contained elevated levels of PFAS, linked to a pollution plume originating from the Chemours PFAS production facility in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Downstream areas of the Waccamaw River are mainly impacted by discharge from wastewater treatment facilities in Conway, Jackson Bluff and Bucksport. Upper portions of the river show relatively low concentrations.

The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway PFAS contained comparatively low levels due to tides mixing with the ocean, effectively diluting the water.

The state environmental department tests more than 120 beach locations for high bacteria levels across South Carolina, including swashes, weekly from May 1 to Oct. 1 each year. The testing does not include PFAS contamination.

Findings of the PFAS study were formally shared with each funding partner and with the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services to support response efforts, according to a press release. A SCDES spokesperson said the data has not been shared with the agency.

A full report of the study area will be released later this summer, the release said.

This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 7:44 AM.