South Carolina

South Carolina is a southeastern U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast and is significant to waste disposal studies for pioneering the use of artificial reefs and conservation cemeteries.

Named after King Charles by his son Charles II of England, the state was first settled as the proprietary colony of Charles Town (modern Charleston) in 1670. South Carolina became the founding state of the Confederate States of America when it voted to secede from the Union in 1860. Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, the state was gripped by racial and economic unrest during the populist and agrarian movements of the 1890s. A thriving textile industry developed in the early 20th century. This industry, and expanding the agricultural base to include more profitable crops than cotton, encouraged the tourism industry and the location of large military bases in the state. The southeastern part of the state is a region on the Atlantic known as the Coastal Zone; inland of this is the Coastal Plain. Further inland and increasing in elevation are the Sandhills, the Piedmont, and the mountains, where the Blue Ridge Mountains continue into North Carolina and Georgia. The largest cities are the capital Columbia, Charleston, and North Charleston, all with populations over 100,000. Metropolitan statistical areas are much larger than central city populations would suggest, as state law obstructs municipalities from annexing unincorporated areas. Columbia, Charleston, and Greenville all have urban-area populations of 350,000–500,000, but the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) populations are all over 600,000. Major outputs include textile products, chemical products, paper products, machinery, the automobile industry, and tourism. Chief agricultural products are tobacco, cotton, soybeans, rice, poultry, cattle, dairy produce, and pigs.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources began its Marine Artificial Reef Program in 1973, depositing myriad materials on the ocean floor to provide stable surfaces for algae and invertebrates to attach themselves. Steel-hulled ships are the most common scrap material used, as over 100 have been sunk off South Carolina since 1969. Other scrap includes ex-military airframes, ballistic missiles, and concrete culvert pipes. A reef was even made from decommissioned New York subway trains, which became colonized by sea turtles.