Tapping The Source

With the expanding construction of new planned developments on Johns Island - a proposed new 120-home golf community on more than 900-acres between Bohicket and River Roads and the proposed expansion of Freshfields Village, among many others - neighborhood groups are becoming more vocal on (among other issues) water usage. Although we may be surrounded by water, where does what flows out of your tap come from, and how much demand can be met?

The quick answer for Seabrook Island's water source, of course, is our island's Utility Commission which oversees the maintenance of our water and sewer lines. But our drinking water comes from off-island, piped in from St. Johns Water which supplies all of Johns Island; and St Johns Water, in turn, gets its water from the county-owned Charleston Water System. So where does CWS' water come from?

Charleston's only remaining aquifer pump

Providing potable water to a rapidly growing city has been a concern since the city's founding in the 17th-century, when water from creeks and rivers was collected in holding tanks for general use. By the 19th century, after the bacterial basis of cholera and diphtheria epidemics were understood and had been traced to contaminated communal water sources, Charleston undertook geologic surveys to locate underground sources of fresh water, the first of which was an aquifer located under Marion Square. (The last remaining downtown aquifer pump still stands downtown, although long disconnected.) By the turn of the 20th century, the city's explorations had ventured further inland to discover deep aquifers held in ancient geologic layers near Goose Creek and Hanahan; and by 1917, CWS was supplying clean water from protected watersheds fed by these aquifers and from the Edisto River, collected in reservoirs, piped to treatment plants and, eventually, to us.

One of Seabrook's three holding tanks

Although water demand on Seabrook remains well below available supply according to the SIUC, our island/s water supply is still impacted by growing demand elsewhere. The planned developments noted above on Johns Island would all draw water from St. Johns Water. Meanwhile, the South Carolina DNR reports that parts of the state, including coastal areas, have been gradually sinking, partly due to reductions in water table levels.While we may take water for granted, sustainable growth is key to protecting this most critical foundation of island life.

A Brown Study

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We may hardly notice them because they're so always present, including on the town of Seabrook Island's official seal, but brown pelicans, with their seven-foot wingspans and silent gliding formations, are a key indicator species of the health of our surrounding waters. Feeding on sardines, anchovies, herring, mullets, minnows and small crustaceans, a thriving colony means a sustainable marine ecology.

Brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis) are one of three species of pelicans found in the Americas (the Peruvian and American White are the other two), and are common from southern New England as far south as the mouth of the Amazon River. Listed as endangered until 2009 due to low birth rates caused by exposure to DDT and other toxic pesticides, populations of "brownies" have stabilized, as a visit to the Deveaux Bank, a major breeding ground at the mouth of the North Edisto River, will confirm.

Breeding takes place during March and April, when you'll see a yellow patch on the birds' white heads while in breeding plumage. Males and females alternately tend to a clutch of three or four eggs, keeping them warm under their webbed feet until they hatch in about thirty days. Pelicans are among the longer-lived marine species with a lifespan of up to thirty years.

Soaring as high as seventy feet above the water while searching for fish, brown pelicans are one of only two of the world's eight species to feed by diving, plunging headfirst into the water to scoop up their prey before surfacing and straining the water from their signature pouch to swallow their catch.

Brownies are non-migratory, so we're able to enjoy these magnificent birds all year round as they soar gracefully overhead or skim offshore waters.

The Lady Finger

We'll start this post with a Dad joke: where does the Lowcountry's favorite vegetable come from? Okra-homa! (Pause for the groan...) And that's not the worst of the jokes about the slender green vegetable, sometimes called the Lady Finger, that's been a staple of Southern cooking for generations. Steamed, boiled, grilled, pickled, sautéed or fried, okra is the key ingredient in gumbos and salads, or as a side dish. It's high in vitamins C, K, A and B6, and contributes no fat to your diet while offering 2 grams of protein and only about 30 calories per cup.

Okra on the vine

But okra's most famous attribute, the one that gives pause to newcomers to the vegetable, is the slimy goo the pods exude when cooked. (The amount of goo can be reduced by cooking with an acidic vegetable, like tomato.) But even the mucilage has its benefits, used as part of wastewater treatment (it reduces cloudiness) and under study as a biodegradable packaging material and as a biofuel. The pod's seeds can be roasted and ground for use as a coffee substitute (a popular use during the Civil War, when coffee beans were hard to come by), or pressed for their oil, which is high in unsaturated fats.

And okra carries a bit of mystery, too, because no one seems to know for certain where it was first cultivated. Egypt is the current favored origin, first described there in the 13th-century, and from where it spread around the Mediterranean and east toward India and southeast Asia. The first use of the word in English appeared in 1679 in colonial Virginia, derived from the vocabulary of enslaved worker fromWest Africa. But the plant (it's related to cotton and cocoa plants) was under cultivation in Asia long before and remains a staple of Asian cooking.

While the okra at our local farm stands is grown here, most of the commercial okra crop these days comes from Florida and, yes, from "Okra-homa". To enjoy this quintessential Southern food, check out these recipes from Southern Living.