Environment
Agency schedules hearing on Midway Inlet dredging permit
A hearing next week will solicit public comments on a plan to dig sand from Midway Inlet to help renourish a portion of Litchfield Beach.
The Peninsula at Inlet Point South Homeowners Association is seeking state and federal permits to dredge up to 75,000 cubic yards of sand from the shoals along Midway Inlet in two projects over five years.
The sand will be placed along the beach in front of the gated community, which completed a renourishment project using offshore sand in 2022.
The state Department of Environmental Services received 49 comments on the project, including a request for a public hearing from the town of Pawleys Island. Some were also sent to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Environmental Services will hold a hearing April 7 at 6 p.m. in Georgetown County Council chambers in the old county courthouse.
The public comment period has been extended to April 21. Comments can be sent online.
Comments included several from property owners at McKenzie Beach, a former black resort in the segregation era, that stretches from Highway 17 across Clubhouse Creek to Litchfield Beach.
“We have continued to pay taxes on the site. You have no authority to damage my interest,” said Charles Monteith. “No one has contacted me or any member of my family regarding the planned work.”
The permit application, prepared by Coastal Science and Engineering, proposes that the sand dredging will only take place if the volume of sand on the beach at the Peninsula falls below 50 percent of the 460,000 cubic yards placed there in 2022.
There are 200,000 cubic yards remaining, according to the application.
In addition to taking sand along the edge of the inlet at low tide, the project includes the option of dredging a new channel up to 200 feet wide and 5 feet deep across the spit.
It says that would restrict access to the shoals that provide wildlife habitat and reduce pressure on the jetty at the north end of Pawleys Island.
Coastal Science has done a study of the jetty for the town of Pawleys Island, which will receive $275,000 from the county’s capital project sales tax to repair the structure.
Environmental groups have also objected to the project because of its potential impact on habitat for endangered shorebirds and nesting sea turtles.
Barbara Plunket, a mainland resident, told the agency Peninsula owners knew of the erosion threat when they built.
“I do not think this risk should be passed on to Pawleys Island or the rest of the citizens who use the beach and treasure the wildlife,” she said in a comment.
