Georgetown County Stormwater Requirements: Property Guide
Georgetown County stormwater rules explained: ERU fees, land disturbance permits, MS4 zones, and the new 2025 BMP maintenance requirements.
Georgetown County property owners answer to two sets of stormwater rules at once: a county Stormwater Management Ordinance enforced through the county’s own Land Disturbance Permit process, and a federal NPDES MS4 permit (SCR030000) issued through SCDES that gives the county its enforcement authority in the first place. Every developed property with 400 square feet or more of impervious surface pays an annual stormwater utility fee, larger land-disturbing projects need a county permit before work starts, and properties in the Murrells Inlet MS4 area face extra federal requirements. A new Stormwater Design Manual took effect in July 2025 and changed how BMP maintenance agreements get handled going forward.
What Changed In The July 2025 Design Manual?
Georgetown County replaced its stormwater design standards with an updated manual dated July 2025. It sets the minimum standards for designing, permitting, building, and maintaining stormwater drainage systems countywide. The headline change for anyone who owns or manages a pond, detention basin, or other BMP: the manual requires a signed BMP Maintenance Agreement that names the party responsible for its upkeep.
That’s not paperwork you can skip. If you’re an HOA board, a commercial property manager, or a golf course superintendent with a wet pond or detention basin on site, the county now wants a document on file that says exactly whose job it is to maintain it. If your property predates the manual and you’ve never had one, get it reviewed. We cover what these agreements actually obligate you to in our BMP maintenance agreement guide.
Who Needs To Review The Manual Now
- HOAs with retention ponds, detention basins, or constructed wetlands serving the community
- Golf courses with cart path drainage, irrigation ponds, or course-wide detention
- Commercial property managers with parking lot runoff systems
- Developers with projects still in design or permitting
Do I Owe An Annual Stormwater Fee?
Yes. Every property in Georgetown County with 400 square feet or more of impervious area owes an annual stormwater user fee, and that includes single-family homes, multi-family properties, commercial sites, and even tax-exempt or nonprofit properties. The fee is calculated in Equivalent Runoff Units (ERU), where one ERU equals 3,770 square feet of impervious area. The residential rate is set at $52 per year for one ERU, and it shows up once a year on your property tax bill.
That per-ERU math is where it gets expensive for the properties this blog usually talks to. A single-family home with one driveway and one roof pays close to the base rate. A golf course with a clubhouse, a maintenance building, miles of cart path, and acres of parking lot gets billed on all of it. Same goes for an HOA with a shared amenity center, pool deck, and private roads. More impervious surface means more ERUs, and more ERUs means a bigger annual bill.
County Fee vs. HOA Fee: Two Different Charges
Don’t confuse the county’s stormwater utility fee with anything your HOA collects separately. Plenty of South Carolina HOAs also charge homeowners an internal fee specifically to fund maintenance of the community’s own stormwater ponds, on top of whatever the county bills. If residents are seeing two stormwater-related line items, that’s normal. The county fee pays for the county’s MS4 program. The HOA fee, if your community has one, pays for the pond dredging, mowing, and repairs that keep your specific BMP functioning. Boards that haven’t set one up should at least understand who’s responsible for HOA stormwater maintenance before an inspection forces the question.
When Do I Need A Land Disturbance Permit?
You need a county Land Disturbance Permit before subdividing, selling, or developing land once your project crosses specific acreage thresholds. The threshold is 0.5 acres if the site sits within 0.5 miles of a major waterbody, or 1 acre otherwise. Given how much of Georgetown County sits near the Waccamaw River, Winyah Bay, or the Intracoastal Waterway, that half-mile buffer catches more property than people expect.
If your project triggers the permit, plan for an engineered Construction Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (C-SWPPP) as part of the application. This isn’t a form you fill out yourself on a Friday afternoon. It needs engineering behind it, and the county reviews it before issuing the permit. Developers and commercial owners planning expansions, new parking, or regrading work should build that review timeline into the project schedule, not treat it as an afterthought once equipment is already mobilized. Our grading and earthwork team handles this permitting conversation on every project before breaking ground.
Does Murrells Inlet Have Stricter Rules?
Yes. Georgetown County’s federally regulated MS4 area is centered on Murrells Inlet, and you can identify whether your parcel falls inside it by checking if the tax map number begins with “41-”. Properties inside that zone answer to the stricter standards tied to the county’s federal NPDES permit, not just the general county ordinance.
Here’s the part that catches people off guard: even properties outside the MS4 area still need separate permits from both Georgetown County and SCDES. There’s no version of this where one permit covers everything. If you manage a resort, golf course, or HOA in or near Murrells Inlet, confirm your MS4 status early, because it changes which agency reviews your plans and how closely your BMPs get inspected afterward.
What Should Waterfront Properties Watch For Next?
Georgetown County Council has circulated a draft Wetlands Protection Ordinance that would create new procedures for protecting and maintaining wetlands and their buffer areas. It’s not law yet. But it lines up with the Natural Resources and Resiliency elements the county added to its 2024 Comprehensive Plan update, which tells you the direction the county’s heading.
Golf courses and waterfront HOAs with wetland buffers on or near their property should watch this one closely. A finalized ordinance could add buffer-width restrictions or new maintenance obligations on top of what the stormwater ordinance already requires. Get ahead of it now rather than scrambling once it’s adopted.
What Can The County’s Stormwater Division Actually Fix?
Not much on your property, as it turns out. Georgetown County’s Stormwater Division is limited to work on county-owned property, county right-of-way, or county easements. It can’t touch SCDOT roads, and it can’t touch your private property, even if the drainage problem is making your HOA’s pond overflow or your parking lot pond after every storm.
That’s the gap most property managers don’t realize until they’ve already called the county and gotten turned away. If the clogged pipe, failing outlet structure, or eroding bank is on your HOA’s or your commercial property’s own land, fixing it is on you. That’s also where a storm drainage contractor who self-performs the work matters, because you’re not waiting on a county crew that legally can’t help.
Compliance Checklist For Georgetown County Property Owners
- Confirm your stormwater utility fee is accurate for your property’s impervious area, especially if you’ve added parking, buildings, or paved cart paths since your last assessment.
- Check whether you have a signed BMP Maintenance Agreement on file for any pond or detention basin, per the July 2025 design manual.
- Determine your MS4 status by checking your tax map number against the “41-” Murrells Inlet designation.
- Before any land-disturbing project, confirm whether you’re over the 0.5-acre or 1-acre threshold and budget time for C-SWPPP review.
- Watch the Wetlands Protection Ordinance process if your property has wetland buffers.
- Know that county crews can’t fix drainage problems on private property. Budget for your own maintenance and repair.
AUE Land Can Help
Figuring out where your property stands on fees, permits, BMP agreements, and MS4 status takes time most property managers don’t have. AUE Land offers a free site assessment to walk your property, check your BMPs against current Georgetown County requirements, and tell you exactly what needs attention before the county does it for you. We don’t broker the work out, we show up with our own equipment and fix what we find.