Environment: It’s CSI Murrells Inlet in search for source of bacteria

By Jason Lesley
Coastal Observer

Detectives are on the case of a mystery in Murrells Inlet.

This one is not “elementary.”

Pollution detectives are trying to unravel the source of fecal coliform bacteria that has been closing the shellfish beds in the inlet for decades. Suspects range from the usual, stormwater runoff from parking lots, roads and roofs, to the sublime, birds at Huntington Beach State Park and the family dog.

Dan Newquist, water quality project director for the Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments, and Dave Fuss, a planner in the Horry County Stormwater Department, told members of the local Sierra Club this week about a yearlong effort to identify harmful bacteria entering Murrells Inlet and develop a plan to reduce it. Sue Sledz, executive director of Murrells Inlet 2020, also took part.

“We are looking at the DNA of bacteria,” Fuss said. “It’s like ‘CSI’ trying to figure it out in a lab.”

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