Ep8 - Dealing with Drought in Your Municipality
Topics:
- Drought Management
- Currently in Moderate Drought in SC:
- Stage 1 Drought Declared; City of Camden Urges Voluntary Water Conservation - Experience Camden, South Carolina
- Statewide Moderate Drought http://www.scdrought.com/index.html
- Next state commission meeting 4.30
- Currently in Moderate Drought in SC:
- What Cities can do during a drought, by state
- NC – Municipalities can operate autonomously
- GA – Governed by state
- Municipality must obtain permit to draw water
- Georgia Groundwater Use Act, O.C.G.A. §§ 12-5-90 (1972)
- Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) enacts statewide drought mandates, municipalities must comply
- Municipality can declare stricter regulations
- SC - Governed by state Title 49, Section 23: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t49c023.php
- Must create a plan and ordinance that conform to drought levels set
- Drought levels set by regional commitees in coordination with the statewide committee
- May take action based on the levels as allowed by local ordinance
- May take action automatically based on drought management plans filed with DNR
- Allow more local options to declare based on system levels.
- Most ordinances seem to standardize on a proclamation required by council
- State Model plan & ordinance: https://www.dnr.sc.gov/climate/sco/Drought/model_drought_plan.doc
- Interstate Impacts
- Drought Mgmt Strategies
Grants
- 6/15: Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust ($5k-$25k): https://smithht.org/grant-seekers creation, development, preservation, and maintenance of gardens accessible to the public
- 5/26: HUD Housing Counseling Program Grant ($1-$3m) https://simpler.grants.gov/opportunity/0e956335-bab1-4282-81cd-3a56591ffd70 establish/fund housing counseling in your community
- 5/1: Hart Family Fund for Small Towns ($2500-$15k): preservation projects: https://savingplaces.org/hart-family-fund
- (Reminder) 5/7: The FY2026 Federal Historic Preservation Grants https://scdah.sc.gov/historic-preservation/programs/grants/federal-grants
Find Us:
Mark Partin is Chief of Staff for the City of Sumter (https://sumtersc,gov). Subscribe and Find more of Mark's Local Government Leadership Thoughts at https://localleadershipinsights.substack.com/
Karl McCollester spent 20 year in strategic technology consulting for small municipalities in the Carolinas and George. He is the CEO of GovPossible.
GovPossible (https://govpossible.com) is a Public Benefit Corporation that provides software to help small municipalities manage their operations including finance, budget, licensing, permitting, planning, codes enforcement, cemetery, meetings, and website.