Jarvis Creek Park

Hilton Head Island is a low-lying barrier island, which complicates efforts to address stormwater management issues.  An island-wide drainage plan undertaken in the early 1990s not only identified the need for significant system improvements, but also noted that runoff was a major contributor to water quality issues in our tidal water bodies, such that harvesting and eating local oysters was prohibited by the State.  Not only did we need to move stormwater away from homes, businesses, schools and roadways, we needed to find ways to treat that runoff before it reached the creeks.

The local school campus, as well as a significant residential and commercial area, drained into Jarvis Creek, a predominately tidal water body on the north end of the Island.    At its headwaters, this is a small, shallow freshwater creek that meanders through a wooded area before becoming a large tidal waterbody.  The initial plans called for turning that headwaters area into a 100-foot-wide canal, which would reduce flooding, but exacerbate the water pollution problem in Jarvis Creek.

The department directors for planning and engineering asked that a staff group be formed to brainstorm alternatives.  That team of young staff members came back with an outstanding plan: build a passive park with a big lake to serve as a regional stormwater detention area.  A pump station would be constructed at the headwaters of Jarvis Creek.  Under normal conditions, the creek can handle the runoff.  In a storm event, the pumps would direct the excess flow through pipes under a new access road and feed into a 14-acre lake that would be built on an old farm field; a property recently acquired by the Town.  This would allow pollutants to filter out.  At the far end of the lake, the design allowed the water to sheet-flow over a wide area before reaching the creek at a point where it was naturally of sufficient width and depth to accept the treated runoff.

The State highway department was getting ready to break ground on a new limited access highway that would link the north and south ends of Hilton Head.  The road abutted the target park parcel at the point where a new bridge would cross Jarvis Creek.  The new elevated roadbed, and necessary bridge approaches, required one-million cubic yards of dirt.  The plan was to truck this dirt from the mainland, one 10-cubic-yard truckload at a time.  The dirt to be dredged to create the new lake would be sold to the State for the highway project.  This reduced the State’s  costs and avoided nearly all of that truck traffic and its related impacts.  The proceeds from the dirt sale funded the park improvements; including a trail around the lake.

It was an incredible solution that addressed a number of community issues.  This has been an award-winning undertaking, and it set the standard for how the Town addresses stormwater management and water quality.  Today, all of the tidal waterways within Town have been reopened to oyster harvesting and the park is a treasured community asset.