Standing Up For Conservation

by | Dec 5, 2021 | Blog, Community Engagement, Conservation, Planning

Note the gas pumps and amount of impervious surface in the images above. 

 
The top right photo is a new Parker’s Kitchen in Monck’s Corner, SC. It’s just not one year we are concerned about, but decades of effects.
 
Isn’t a convenience store with a dozen or so gas pumps still a gas station?
 
According to the Parker’s Kitchen CEO quoted in the story, to say “gas station” is an insult, but are the stains in my photographs from water or petroleum?
 
Why did they refuse our compromise of a convenience store that didn’t sell gas?
 
I’m cited in Charleston’s Post and Courier’s front-page Sunday business section: https://www.postandcourier.com/…/article_5dd1a878-f081…
  
The blue dotted line is of the Ashley River’s watershed as determined by SC Dept. of Natural Resources. The proposed Parker’s Kitchen is at the intersection of SC 61 and Delemar Hwy, the bottom left corner. Rosebrock Park is on the opposite side of 61 from the proposed site. On the downstream side of Bacon’s Bridge on the “east” bank, the county is soon to open a park of about 80 acres, using the Ashley as a major asset.

  

Map showing proposed site, wetlands feeding into the Ashley, and canal traversing triangular Rosebrock Park and emptying into the Ashley.
 
What does the official watershed from SC Dept. of Natural Resources for the Ashley River tell you as to where spillage will go?
 
Since the Ashley and its wildlife can’t speak, what would you do?
  
 
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

George W. McDaniel, Ph.D., is President of McDaniel Consulting, LLC, a strategy firm that helps organizations use history to build bridges within itself and to its broader constituents. The company’s tag line, “Building Bridges through History,” is grounded in McDaniel’s personal beliefs and his experience in site management, preservation, education, board development, fundraising, and community outreach. Rather than using history to divide us, he strives to help organizations use history, especially local history, to enhance cross-cultural understanding and to support local museums, preservation, and education.  Dr. McDaniel led volunteer efforts with Emanuel AME Church and historical organizations in Charleston to use historic preservation to enhance racial reconciliation and healing. McDaniel is also the Executive Director Emeritus of Drayton Hall, a historic site in Charleston, SC, owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He retired from Drayton Hall in 2015 after 25 years of distinguished service.

A frequent writer, speaker, and facilitator about such issues, he can be reached at gmcdaniel4444@gmail.com or through his website at www.mcdanielconsulting.net.

All images courtesy of the author unless otherwise noted.

Drayton Hall Stories" is now a 4X Award Winner with the SE Museum Conference's James R. Short Award, the Governor's Award in the Humanities, the SC Preservation Honor Award & the Alexander S. Salley Lifetime Achievement Award.

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