Ashley River 1

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The lower Ashley River below the Charleston Memorial Bridges and the James Island Connector is a busy waterway. It is home to the City Marina, The Harborage at Ashley Marina, Bristol Marina, and Ripley's Point Marina. Charleston Community Sailing frequently uses the lower Ashley for sailing lessons. Its mission is "to improve the community and the sport of sailing by providing access, facilities, and sailing instruction to people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, skill levels, and physical abilities." Learn more about Charleston Community Sailing here: http://www.charlestoncommunitysailing.org/.

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COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is essential right now. Follow the advice of the health experts. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Heading to the beach should only be considered an option if social distancing practices can be followed. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter the efforts to curb the virus’ spread.

For more information, please visit the World Health Organization public resource on COVID-19.

Water Quality

Passed water quality tests 60-95% of the time
Historical Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on October 28th, 2020. Charleston Waterkeeper updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on October 29th, 2020 at 4:15 PM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

Current Weather

17°C

Mostly clear

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Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Charleston Waterkeeper’s Recreational Water Quality Monitoring Program regularly tests the “swimmability” of several local tidal creeks and hotspots for activities like swimming, SUPing, kayaking, and sailing. Every Wednesday from May through October samples are collected and analyzed for the amount of Enterococcus bacteria present. Testing results are posted to Swim Guide every Thursday afternoon or as soon as they are available.

The State of South Carolina’s water quality standard for water-based recreational activity is 104 MPN/100 mL. Swimming and other full body contact recreational activity is not recommended in areas where the most recent testing shows Enterococcus bacteria counts of 104 MPN/100 mL or higher.

Sample site locations are color coded in Swim Guide as follows:

A “Green” site = test result of 103 MPN/100 mL or lower.
A “Red” site = test result of 104 MPN/100 mL or higher.
A “Gray” site = no test result

Water Quality Graph