Sailors have long used South Carolina’s public canals to store or abandon their abandoned ships. If a new bill is passed at the General Assembly, they will soon have to take responsibility for it.
Abandoned boats clogged and polluted the Folly River, for example, damaging the environment and the taxpayer ‘s pocket.
But lawmakers in the Charleston area hope to ensure that Palmetto counties have the authority to hold sailors accountable.
State Representative Spencer Wetmore, D-Folly Beach, and Senator Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, they entered into identical projects this month that would allow cities to demand a license to dock ships in public waters for extended periods.
The proposed bill is not much different from what Folly Beach has already implemented. The new proposal establishes that governments may require a license for a vessel or floating structure to be anchored in public waters within their jurisdiction for more than 14 consecutive days. The cost of a license cannot exceed $ 15.
Mooring Ordinance from Folly
These abandoned and abandoned boats have become a problem, both along the coast and in the state’s lake system.
Wetmore said that when she worked as a city manager for Folly Beach, one of the residents’ main concerns was the number of boats that obstructed the areas around the landings, making it difficult for people to put their boats in the water and navigate properly.
Folly Beach’s Director of Public Safety, Andrew Gilreath, said the city had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars removing sunken or abandoned vessels from the swamp. At least eight old moorings and debris were removed in 2020. A ship was removed with the help of the Wounded Nature volunteer group.
In 2019, 79.2 tons of old ships were removed at Folly Beach at a cost of $ 120,000.
Eight more vessels are scheduled for removal next year, said Gilreath. The cost to clear a vessel varies between $ 10,000 and $ 15,000.
The city is awaiting eventual aid from state and federal grants.
A pilot program now in place in Folly Beach has increased the owner’s responsibility, said Gilreath. The city decree requires sailors to have a license to anchor vessels during the night within city limits. Sailors may also not dock or anchor less than a mile from any vessel or public bridge, less than 30 meters from another legally anchored vessel, or a private dock or marina without written permission from the owner.
“Some owners resisted compliance with the law and citations were issued, which are working in the judicial system,” said Gilreath.
State law does not currently prohibit municipalities from requiring mooring licenses, but it also does not explicitly say that governments have the right to do so. Wetmore said he wanted to get rid of the gray areas and ensure that municipalities were “clear” about their right to make licenses mandatory.
As neighboring states like Georgia tightened their vessel laws, more boats started arriving in South Carolina.
“So a big part of that was also just kind of sending a message that South Carolina waterways are not free,” said Wetmore. “You cannot bring your abandoned ships here and leave them.”
What Georgia is doing
Georgia sailors must have a license to anchor for a long time in any of the state’s estuaries. But the South Carolina project would leave the choice to require licenses for individual municipalities.
A bill enacted in Georgia in 2020 said it is illegal to anchor a ship in the state’s estuarine areas for more than 14 cumulative days in a year without first obtaining a long-term anchoring license.
The Georgia bill does not prohibit boat owners from docking at a private recreational dock, as long as the boat is not used as a ship on board.
Josh Hildebrandt, director of public and government affairs at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said the bill is a way of checking whether a vessel is really abandoned or occupied. The state did not want to infringe on a person’s right to spend long periods of time on his vessel.
“Sometimes people think of abandoned boats – you know, it’s not just boats that were damaged without repair during the hurricane season and pushed into the swamp where they were stuck in the mud,” said Hildebrandt.
Often, they are boats that are left behind and the owner never comes back to pick them up.
Holding sailors responsible
Campsen said the abandoned South Carolina ship bill is not an effort to get people to get permission to spend the week or weekend in an inlet or in their boat house. It is not an effort to make money, he said. That is why only a small fee is included in the account.
“We are trying to basically capture the contact and insurance information of someone who is taking the bet and the first initial step to abandoning a boat,” said Campsen.
And if the boat is abandoned, municipalities will have some recourse, said Campsen.
Gilreath said he is pleased to see the state take a proactive approach to waterway management.
“I don’t see the difference between someone storing their used cars on the side of a highway,” said Gilreath. “We don’t allow that. So why would we allow it along our waterways, which I consider one of our most precious resources?”
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