Permit for Bucksport marine industrial park could be months away

If Ben Staples had his way, his only Bucksport neighbors would be wildlife roaming the woods and fish belly flopping in the Waccamaw River.

“We’d have no people here,” said Staples, who lives in Lexington but owns a half-acre lot beside the Bucksport Marina. “I would be happy, but that’s not reality.”

Within a year, Staples’ reality may include construction beside his waterfront property. Local officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say they are in the final stages of negotiations for a permit that would clear the way for a marine industrial park in Bucksport.

“[The Corps] assured me that if we’ve got it in the correct form they will proceed forth with permitting the project,” said Fred Richardson, CEO of the Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority, which owns the 195-acre site designated for the park. “I’ve been very optimistic about this before to be let down, but I’m feeling pretty good about it. That’s not to say that there will not be some opposition. There’s always other points of view.”

Business leaders tout the park as a possible magnet for yacht manufacturers. They say those businesses could bring much-needed jobs to an economically-depressed community.

But some residents and environmentalists question the need for the such a facility. They wonder about its effect on the area and whether Bucksport people will actually be able to land the coveted manufacturing jobs.

“Wishful thinking does not rise to the requisite level of demonstrating a legitimate purpose to be served and need to be filled by a proposed project,” wrote Jessie White, an attorney for the S.C. Environmental Law Project, in a March 2 letter to the Corps. “Yet that is precisely what GSW&SA attempts to accomplish. It identifies a broad range of services within the boat building and cargo industries, but neglects to highlight specific companies that will actually utilize the marina once it is developed.”

The land in question is divided by Bucksport Road. The eastern side of the property includes an RV park, marina and restaurant, as well as 1,600 feet of frontage space along the river.

Although the park project has been talked about for years, it’s only recently begun to gain traction.

The authority purchased the Bucksport Marina in 2010 and renovated the 150-year-old facility.

Plans for the industrial park received approval from county officials in 2013.

The loftiest hurdle, however, is the permit from the Corps. That document would allow the authority to dredge the river and install some infrastructure.

The authority’s initial plans didn’t satisfy the Corps. They were too broad and affected too many wetlands. So last year, authority officials scaled back their proposal. They opted not to place a trestle in the wetlands and agreed to use a less damaging form of dredging.

The authority’s latest plans call for a much smaller environmental impact than those that were originally submitted, said Sean McBride, a public affairs specialist with the Corps.

“We’ve been working back and forth with them to kind of refine the scope of their project and what impacts they were going to have,” he said. “We had a meeting with them back in July and we worked with them at that point to figure out the last kind of clarifying information that we would need from them, and at this point we are waiting for them to give us that information.”

Specifically, McBride said, the Corps wants to know what indirect impact the project would have on air quality and wildlife. He said the Corps must also consider the effect the park on the National Wildlife Refuge across the river.

Once the Corps has that information, McBride said, the office would review the details with other federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Now we’re kind of down to the nitty-gritty to get the final project proposal,” he said. “We’ll analyze that to make our decision.”

If the permitting process goes smoothly, the Corps could approve the project in about eight to nine months, Richardson said. Hypothetically, if all the subsequent planning goes well, he said construction could begin in a year.

Despite his optimism, Richardson pointed out that infrastructure projects can be delayed by appeals and questions from environmentalists.

Residents in the Carolina Forest area have been asking for a 5.6-mile stretch of International Drive to be paved for years. One reason the project has been held up is that it falls near a nature preserve that is home for black bears. Conservationists have urged the county to build bear tunnels and fencing along the road. The latest appeal on that project will not be heard until next year.

“International Drive’s been going on for a long, long time,” Richardson said. “Two or three months ago, they were saying, ‘Well, it’s going to be announced this week that it’s approved.’ There’s still more work to do.”

White, the environmental lawyer, said her office’s main concern with the Bucksport park is that officials have not provided enough specifics about the companies that could locate there. Local leaders have said they kept some aspects of their permit application vague because they didn’t know everything marine industry would need.

That’s not an adequate answer, White said.

“The applicant should not be entitled to rely on a ‘if we build it, they will come’ premonition as evidence that an industrial marina is desired or needed for the area,” she wrote in her March letter.

Although she hasn’t heard much about the project in months, White said the law project’s position hasn’t changed.

“The last thing I said in my comment letter was urging Corps of Engineers to require an environmental impact statement,” she said. “Because there are still so many unanswered questions with regard to that project.”

Along with environmentalists, some residents have also raised questions about placing industry in the community.

Dozens of them attended a public hearing on the proposal last year.

“It’s not so much that we were against it,” said Harold Phillips, a Bucksport resident. “Just wanted to bring up the concerns that we had.”

Phillips plans to schedule a community meeting in Bucksport this month to talk about the latest developments on the project.

Staples, who rents out his house next to the marina, said he’s accepted that the park is coming.

“Not much you can do about it, whether you’re comfortable or uncomfortable,” he said. “Seriously, it is what it is.”

A Bucksport native who counts himself among the park’s most ardent proponents is James Frazier, who has served on Horry County Council for 32 years.

Frazier sees the project as a game changer for Bucksport, an area that is often plagued by crime. If people there could find decent-paying jobs, he said, that would transform the area.

“It’s all about getting people to work,” he said.

Business leaders agree.

Last month, Richardson gave an update on the Bucksport project to the board of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. The EDC is the county’s industry recruitment agency, the group that would promote the park to boat makers.

Richardson, who chairs the board, insisted the industrial park could bring jobs to Bucksport without harming the environment.

“We can accomplish both,” he said. “These things take some time. But this group is not a bunch of weak sisters. We’re going to stay with it ‘til we get our permit and I want to see a yacht manufacturer in Bucksport before I retire from the EDC.”

Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus then spoke up, punctuating Richardson’s remarks:

“See if we can get it and International Drive at the same time,” he said.

This story was originally published September 4, 2015 at 10:13 PM with the headline "Permit for Bucksport marine industrial park could be months away."