Horry County deregulated a major industry. Now it’s moving closer to people’s homes
Fearful of lawsuits from wealthy developers, Horry County leaders in late 2020 took a dramatic step: They ceded nearly all local control over mining operations to a state agency.
Before that decision, miners and developers digging the area’s dirt, sand and cocquina for construction projects had to win both state and local approval from Horry County Council.
But after the change in December 2020, miners and developers needed only the state’s OK.
While South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control monitors the engineering and environmental aspects of mining, it has no say about where mines are dug. State law explicitly leaves that up to local governments.
And Horry County gave up that power nearly 15 months ago.
In the time since, mining operations have been dug in residential areas. At least one small mine has been dug in some locals’ backyards.
Residents complain the operations are bothersome, and see the mines creeping closer to their front doors.
Now, as environmental groups worry that a Conway-area mine could harm a nature preserve, residents are asking whether the problem might have been addressed sooner if Horry County hadn’t ceded control.
“They didn’t have to go as far backward as they did,” argued Lauren Megill Milton, an attorney with the South Carolina Environmental Law Project, which is pursuing a DHEC complaint against the Conway-area mine near the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve.
“They (Horry County) still could have governed where these mines are going.”
Mines in backyards
About a decade ago, Dan Franklin and his wife Renee Reid were looking to buy a house and start a family.
They didn’t want to live in a subdivision with a homeowners association, so they settled for a small brick house in a neighborhood off S.C. 90, outside of Conway.
They live on a quiet, partially-paved street that leads to a newly-developed subdivision. Their children go to school with those across the street.
But their neighborhood is about to change.
Down the road, between their house and the new Hillsborough subdivision, a developer plans to dig a mine and harvest the sandy soil.
That will mean heavy equipment and dump trucks in the area. Neighbors have already reported seeing those trucks rumbling down the narrow road.
“We’re right there at the end of the dirt road,” Franklin said. “My kids are out playing. It’s going to destroy the pavement that we do have because I doubt Hillsborough will let them go through (their neighborhood).”
“It’s going to be noise non-stop with those trucks going in and out,” he added.
Ronald King is already feeling the pain of living near a dirt mine.
His home is in a more rural area off S.C. 9, but still has plenty of neighbors.
He describes the noise from the mine as ”miserable.”
“Bang, bang, bang every time they rattle their tailgate,” King said. “There’s all kind of stuff like that.”
Many mines in Horry County are transformed into ponds or small lakes when the digging is done.
But even though the former mines may not be eyesores, they can affect how stormwater flows, potentially causing flooding issues. The ponds that overflow during storms can also cause dangerous bacteria to grow if the water reaches a creek or river.
In some cases, residents’ wells have dried up, King noted.
As Megill Milton argued, Horry County could have kept its zoning rules in place, and prevented digging close to residents’ homes.
County Council members, though, said keeping such control over mines could have landed them in court again.
“The miners said, ‘Look, we have to answer to DHEC, not to y’all,’ so council voted to do away with it,” said council member Danny Hardee, whose largely rural district contains mines.
Council member Mark Causey, who also represents a rural district that includes a number of mines, described them as a necessary evil.
“We have to have the mines, there’s no doubt about that, for our road projects and that kind of thing,” he said.
“The bad thing is they can’t pick the best place for it, secluded and away from everyone because we can’t pick where the material is at,” he said.
“That’s got everyone’s hands tied.”
Why Horry County did away with mining regulations
In 2016, Red Bluff Rock, a local mining company, wanted to dig a cocquina mine in the Red Bluff area.
In addition to receiving a permit from DHEC, miners also had to get zoning approval and a local permit from the county.
DHEC approved a state mine permit, but the county denied the local permit after nearby residents complained.
That led to a lawsuit in 2017, which the county ultimately lost and settled.
A federal judge ruled the county’s local permit process was unlawful.
Despite that ruling, state law still grants counties zoning control over mines.
In 2020, as the county was settling the suit, the two attorneys who had sued the county approached leaders and offered to help rewrite the local regulations.
A months-long debate ensued, with some arguing that DHEC should have sole jurisdiction over mines. Others argued the county should retain its zoning control.
As the debate raged in council chambers, some attorneys and developers threatened lawsuits if the county retained control of mining.
In December 2020, the county scraped its local permit program and gave up nearly all zoning control.
The county continues to ensure that mines larger than five acres meet certain development criteria, such as how close they are to property lines.
But mines of all sizes can be dug just about anywhere.
In Karl Lindner’s case, that meant a mine was literally dug in his back yard.
It was a small operation — the developer dug a roughly one-acre pond — but did so in the center of a dense residential area off S.C. 544.
In addition to the mine, Lindner said, the developer cleared the trees on the property.
“What he’s doing over there affects everyone that lives around him,” Lindner said.
A mine near a nature preserve
The lack of zoning rules has now led one company to plan a sand and dirt mine on a property that borders the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve.
Megill Milton, the attorney, is currently representing the Coastal Conservation League in that group’s efforts to ensure the mine doesn’t harm the preserve. She plans to challenge the permit the company is seeking before a DHEC board.
All of that could have been avoided if the county had kept its zoning controls over mining. The same goes for mines near people’s homes, she said.
That would ensure “the mine fits in with the character of an area,” Megill Milton said. “It’s a way of controlling mines at the county level.”
But “Horry County took (its) hands off.”
Megill Milton, who’s done other legal work regarding mines, said she hears from residents “every single day” who don’t want to live near a mine.
A new normal?
Jason White, a developer who digs some of those mine, said he hears a lot of complaints, too.
Since the county got rid of its zoning controls, “more than a handful” of mines have been dug near residential areas, he said.
White, though, argued that sand and dirt mining — the most common in the county — is less intrusive than rock and mineral mining.
His company is the one digging the mine off S.C 9 that King complained about.
White said he’s digging the mine as part of an agricultural project for a grape farmer who lives on the land.
“You give me three or four months, it’ll be a beautiful pond,” he said.
He said mine operators are “regulated to death” by DHEC and agreed with the county’s decision to abandon zoning controls.
He said those who complain about mines don’t understand that the roads and new homes needed in Horry County all depend on fill dirt from mining operations like his.
“Nobody wants one next to their house but then they complain about the price of housing,” he said.
It’s business rather than personal.
“I’ve got nothing against the man against the truck traffic,” White said.
Still, he said, “it’s like the contractors can’t win.”
Out of all of this — mining operations near residential areas and residents complaining — one thing is for certain.
As long as Horry County keeps growing, and new residents continue buying new houses, miners will continue digging dirt.
For residents like Franklin, it amounts to a new normal.
“I guess everyone goes through something,” he said.
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 9:41 AM.
