Drum Island restoration part of SC ports agency’s effort to go green | Business

From a waterfront spot on Charleston’s peninsula, Mark Messersmith says he can see all of the best the State Ports Authority has to offer.

There are the breakbulk vessels loading cars at Columbus Street Terminal, with cargo containers arriving at the Leatherman Terminal farther north. Sandwiched between them is the Drum Island salt marsh, in the shadow of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.

“You look out and you can see commerce and you can see conservation — it’s all right there,” said Messersmith, the SPA’s permitting manager and the man in charge of the maritime agency’s environmental initiatives, such as restoration work on Drum Island. “It’s always been really neat to me since I started working here to see that.”

The creation of 22 acres of salt marsh on the southern end of Drum Island was part of the authority’s commitment to compensate for the destruction of 11 acres of wetlands during construction of the Leatherman Terminal, the Port of Charleston’s newest facility which opened in March 2021.

The SPA worked with Collins Engineers on the $4 million effort to restore what had been a dredge disposal site that hadn’t been used in decades. The island was in bad shape — the tip had eroded and the fringe of trees had fallen into the beach tide, according to a Post and Courier report.

“It was basically just sitting there with a lot of invasive species,” Messersmith said, adding that unwanted plants like phragmites, Chinese tallow and chinaberry had taken over much of the property.

After clearing and grubbing the land, the SPA planted more than 100,000 native marsh plants, such as spartina grass, to bring the island back to its natural state.

“We really did restore an old area that had dredge fill within it down to the elevations needed to support a viable marsh,” he said. “We think it adds significant value to the harbor because, rather than a fringing salt marsh and a contaminated Navy Base, now you have an uncontaminated salt marsh in the middle of Charleston Harbor that is so visible.”

The work has improved water quality and provided a nursery habitat for juvenile fish species and other marine life. Oyster reefs are being created annually along the island’s shoreline. And monitoring is taking place to gauge the restoration’s impact on air quality.

“Now we have an area that’s open to the tidal flow from the harbor, so the tide comes in and out and, certainly, it’s providing habitat just like any other tidal creek,” Messersmith said. “There’s plenty of invertebrates and fish that are going to be in and out of that creek.”

Messersmith is quick to point out that the restoration project took a lot of people willing to work together. 

“Many people were involved — from our team, the contractors who did the work and our great environmental partners — in making this project a success,” he said.

The restoration won an engineering excellence award in 2020 from the American Council of Engineering Companies of South Carolina, which cited its complexity and benefits to the public and the environment. It was among the environmental projects that Barbara Melvin, the SPA’s president and CEO, highlighted during her State of the Port speech on Oct. 17.

“If you run, or even walk, the bridge, when you’re on that slow, never-ending incline going from Charleston to Mount Pleasant, just look to your right for some inspiration,” Melvin said of Drum Island, adding the project has created a thriving ecosystem for birds and wildlife.

Melvin also touted other SPA initiatives, such as partnering with environmental groups to preserve 3,000 acres of land in the state as well as investments in hybrid cranes and electric trucks to reduce the port’s carbon footprint. The SPA’s new rail yard under construction in North Charleston, for example, will feature electric-powered cranes and the agency has applied for federal grants that would pay for electric tugs and barges to move containers between Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant and the Leatherman site.

It is all part of the SPA’s “mission to become the greenest port in the Southeast,” Melvin said.

Reach David Wren at 843-937-5550 or on Twitter at @David_Wren_