This week, the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (DES) released the draft 2025 State Water Plan, a comprehensive document that defines best practices for managing South Carolina’s water resources. The document, resulting from extensive stakeholder collaboration with the state’s eight River Basin Councils and an interagency working group, is South Carolina’s first water plan update since 2004. The plan aims to:
- Balance the state’s economic, environmental and social needs,
- Ensure the reliability, resiliency, sustainability, and sufficiency of the state’s water resources for all existing and future uses, while simultaneously protecting the environment, and
- Support and facilitate additional collaboration with ongoing efforts and existing initiatives.
Recommendations cover drought response, statewide and basin-specific water management, permitting, legal and regulatory changes, and more. The public is encouraged to submit comments by emailing waterSC@des.sc.gov or submitting an online form by December 7.
