Environment
Neighbors raise objections to Litchfield sand dredging
Property owners at a historically Black beach have joined a conservation group and the town of Pawleys Island in calling for a public hearing on a plan to dredge sand from Midway Inlet to repair erosion damage in front of a gated community on the south end of Litchfield Beach.
The Peninsula Property Owners Association is seeking federal and state permits to dig up to 75,000 cubic yards from the inlet up to two times within five years if needed to rebuild the beach. The association funded the placement of 450,000 cubic yards of offshore sand in front of the community in 2022.
The work would only be done if the volume of sand in front of the Peninsula drops below 50 percent of that added in 2022, according to the permit application.
Pawleys Island Town Council agreed this month to request a hearing on the project. It plans to use money from a capital project sales tax passed by Georgetown County voters last year to rebuild a jetty along Midway Inlet at the north end of the island. Property owners have raised concerns about how the inlet might change if sand is removed from the opposite shore.
The state Department of Environmental Services will scheduled a hearing, a spokeswoman said.
Owners of property at McKenzie Beach, a Black resort during segregation, said in comments to the Army Corps of Engineers, obtained through an open records request, that they also have concerns, particularly about a proposal to dredge a new channel up to 200 feet wide north of Midway Inlet. Their property runs from Highway 17 to the beach.
“Does the applicant truly believe that adjacent property owners would agree to such a project, especially when the channel’s exact location has not been determined?” Gladys Manigault Watkins told the Corps. “We are also troubled that the channel is intended to reduce erosion on the northern jetty of Pawleys Island, but no mention is made of how it might affect the erosion pressure on our property.”
She told Coastal Science and Engineering, the firm that designed the Peninsula project, last fall that the McKenzie Beach owners objected “because it was highly speculative and put our property at extreme risk.”
The owners concerns were not addressed, she said, and they want “an unbiased opinion” on the impact on their property.
The S.C. Environmental Law Project also asked for a hearing on behalf of the Coastal Conservation League. It says the permit application lacks a plan to mitigate the impacts on endangered species, fails to consider the impact on critical habitat, fails to include a comprehensive plan for beach scraping and doesn’t show that there is an emergency that requires the work.
The conservation group said the application didn’t account for “the many negative aspects of beach scraping.”
It points to the erosion at Prince George that followed a renourishment project on Pawleys Island, which is the subject of lawsuits.
“The permit should be denied until the BiOp provides adequate assurances that the scraping will not negatively affect the current species living in the proposed scraping area and the neighboring Clubhouse Creek and Pawleys Island,” wrote Monica Whalen, an attorney at the law project, referring to the required biological opinion.
The application seeks approval to work three hours on either side of low tide from August to October, which is the end of sea turtle nesting season, to avoid nesting season for piping plovers, an endangered shorebird. Whalen points out that the foraging season for the birds starts in August. It will also impact the habitat of the red knot, another endangered shorebird, she told the Corps.
The National Marine Fisheries Service recommended that the work be done from November through April to reduce the impact on marine organisms that provide food for migrating fish and avoid sea turtle nesting season.
The state Department of Natural Resources said if work is allowed during sea turtle nesting season, it should not be allowed before 10 a.m. It deferred comment on shorebird impacts because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing an assessment.
A request to review public comments received by the Department of Environmental Services is still under review. Many of the comments sent to the Corps were also sent to the state.
“I say the following without humor,” Henrie M. Treadwell, an owner at McKenzie Beach, told the Corps. “Theft of land by taking the sand is a new method in displacing populations and assaulting the rights of property owners. Some may wish to minimize this issue by shelving it as a racial issue. Race has nothing to do with my inquiry. My issue relates to the rights of tax paying property owners.”
