Lake Dotterer Flood Reduction Project

Project Overview

The City of Charleston is working with Thomas & Hutton to design a flood reduction project at Lake Dotterer. The first steps for this project are to develop and evaluate alternative improvements for flood reduction in varying types of storms and tidal conditions.

The project area is located within the Church Creek Drainage Basin in West Ashley, immediately north of Glen McConnell Parkway. Historically, Lake Dotterer was an estuarial area that connected Church Creek with the Stono River to the south via Long Branch. Decades of development have changed the hydrology in the area. The construction of Glenn McConnell Parkway separated the connection between Church Creek and the Stono River. Lake Dotterer is further separated from the marshes of Church Creek to the north by a low-level earthen dam with two functioning rice trunks that manually control the flow of water between the Church Creek marshes and Lake Dotterer.

Lake Dotterer currently receives stormwater flow from a number of adjacent residential neighborhoods and flooding arises from both stormwater flow from the adjacent neighborhoods and overtopping of the earthen berm from high water levels in Church Creek. The water levels in Church Creek are tidally influenced in addition to stormwater flow from the remainder of the overall drainage basin. As a result, areas adjacent to Lake Dotterer have experienced flooding during both tidal surges and major storm events.

The new proposed improvement concepts that will be developed in this project aim to reduce the flooding within Lake Dotterer without negatively impacting the remainder of Church Creek basin in various design storms and tidal condition scenarios.

Learn more by visiting the Project StoryMap link HERE

Funding

The American Rescue Plan Act provides Federal funds to states, counties and municipalities to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative economic impacts. Across the country, local governments have leveraged ARPA funds for improvements to critical municipal infrastructure, including stormwater systems.

The City of Charleston has partnered with Charleston County to utilize the county’s ARPA funds to finance the initial evaluation and design phases of the Lake Dotterer Flood Reduction project.

Current Work Being Performed

Thomas & Hutton was contracted in November 2024 to begin the first phase of project design, including an evaluation of varying combinations of possible improvements for a conceptual cost / benefit analysis. Once completed, the City will review the project options and select a project, or series of projects for further design, including permitting and preparation of construction plans and drawings for bid.