Waters are rising and Hilton Head needs to recycle more trash, who did they call to help?
Hilton Head native TJ Jett is back and settling into his post as the town’s first-ever chief environmental officer, charged with addressing sustainability and preservation of the island as the climate changes.
The job was borne from the town’s comprehensive plan, a project that spans from 2020 to 2040 and lays out guidelines for Hilton Head’s future, which is chock-full of environmental goals. Before coming back to his hometown at the start of the year, Jett oversaw water quality technicians for the South Florida Water Management District.
Top of Jett’s list is bettering solid waste and recycling and laying out plans for the barrier island’s resilience against predicted rising waters and storm surge.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects that in the next 30 years, sea levels are expected to increase by a foot. Groundwater also is expected to rise. And, as a low-lying, developed barrier island, Hilton Head is vulnerable to these effects and NOAA’s prediction that storms will become stronger and more frequent.
Only a few months in as the chief environmental officer, he said he’s working to gather data to gauge the island’s environmental threats and working to build partnerships, particularly with the state’s Office of Resilience, which will later work to inform a resilience plan.
Jett said resiliency is a community’s ability to “absorb” stressors and “rebound” after a weather event like a hurricane. It’s not full protection against the event itself nor does it mean that the island won’t be affected when a resiliency plan is in place.
It “would be close to impossible to completely protect yourself against every hurricane that might come through or as sea level rises,” he said.
When Hurricane Matthew hit Hilton Head on Oct. 8, 2016, as a Category 2 storm it flooded the island, felled thousands of trees and ate away at dunes and the shoreline. It caused $51 million in damages, according to previous reporting by The Island Packet.
Another key priority is increasing recycling on the island, which Jett said could be improved particularly on parks and pathways and will be a “big win” for the community. Currently, Hilton Head has a convenience center where residents can drop off their recycling.
While Jett is just getting started, he comes to the job with 20-plus years of experience that include environmental sustainability and education, a keen familiarity with his hometown, and a bachelor’s degree in marine science from the University of South Carolina.
The chief environmental officer annual salary is $105,000.
