Berkeley County woman frustrated by constant flooding on her property after nearby development

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – A woman who lives in the Durham Landing subdivision of Berkeley County has been working for several years to find out who is responsible for near-constant flooding behind her home.

Linda Welch lives just off Bushy Park Road. She said a ditch behind her home has essentially remained flooded since development began near her property roughly seven or eight years ago.

“Well, it was a way out from everybody, and quiet and peaceful,” Welch said of her small, rural neighborhood.

That quiet atmosphere is what led her to the Durham Landing community 19 years ago. But she began dealing with the flooding a few years ago and has since been working to find out who is responsible and what can be done to correct the problem.

“This river’s been flowing here for the last seven or eight years. We’ve been calling Berkeley County, we’ve been over there even before Mr. Peagler went out, and had a couple of meetings and have been talking- Mr. Cribb was out here February the second; that was two years ago,” she recalled.

The problem allegedly began after some development on a nearby property. Welch believes that no longer allows water to flow off her property and into Chicken Creek, which sits just behind her home. Also, she said the neighborhood drainage ditches funnel back to her property.

At one point, she said officials did have a 10-foot ditch dug with a backhoe, but she says that has never helped.

On the left side of her property, the water can’t drain through that and on the right side of her property, the development that happened no longer allows water to flow off her land.

“Water used to flow out that way, but they’re not cleaning the thing here at the end either, so it’s not going out down there. And at the other end, the Charleston Water company owns, they had somebody to fill in wetlands down there …  the whole subdivision comes over that ditch and comes down here. It’s stopping here and down there in my yard it’s just getting bigger and bigger. Looks like a pond almost.”

Even with standing water when it’s not raining, Welch said it floods a whole lot more after a good storm.

“(Theres) snakes. You can’t cut the grass people. The people with the riding lawnmower get there and they bog down and trying to push it with a push mower at the edges – it’s just getting the whole yard getting wet and staying wet,” she said.

She doesn’t know who can fix this issue, but she said the problem started and ended off her property. Now, she just gets the flooding.

“I’d like for them to get the water flowing out and put it the other way, the way it was supposed to be,” she said.

Welch said she plans to seek legal advice about what she can do soon if another solution cannot be found.