SC won’t punish a dirt mine near an Horry nature preserve, but its permit is delayed
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control confirmed Tuesday it won’t punish the operators of a dirt mine on Edge Road near the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve.
The agency, however, will delay awarding a permit to the operators for weeks so it can host a public hearing and accept additional public comments.
The mining operation was caught in a permitting snafu in recent months, which caused DHEC to order the company, Soilutions, to cease operations.
If DHEC approves the larger permit the company has requested, it could resume digging later this year.
Soilutions stopped digging its Edge Road mine after DHEC’s notice but continued to remove already-dug material between Oct. 11 and Nov. 19. DHEC inspected the site on March 4 and determined the company had stopped removing stockpiled material.
“DHEC is not considering taking punitive action against the landowners for the removal of stockpiled material,” DHEC spokesperson Laura Renwick said in an email Tuesday. “When DHEC became aware of this activity on Nov. 19, staff instructed the facility to cease, and an inspection confirmed that the activity had stopped; therefore no punitive action is warranted.”
Mining is a major industry in Horry County, and the sand, clay and soil dug here is used for a number of construction projects. Sand is used to make concrete while clay and soil can be used to lift roads and homes out of flood zones.
As the county has grown, so has the mining industry.
Horry County currently has the highest concentration of mines in South Carolina.
Due to a recent lawsuit, though, Horry leaders voted in late 2020 to do away with nearly all local regulations over mining, including zoning regulations.
DHEC monitors the environmental impacts but explicitly leaves decisions about where mines are dug to local governments.
Since Horry scrapped its regulations, mines small and large have been dug close to people’s homes and have dried up wells in some cases.
Environmental groups remain worry the Edge Road mine could harm the ecosystem of the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve, which it borders.
Lewis Ocean Bay is a 10,000-acre preserve that contains wetlands, Carolina Bays and Red cockaded woodpeckers. It’s one of the few places on Earth were Venus Flytraps grow naturally.
In response to those concerns, DHEC has agreed to hold a public hearing before it grants the mine a permit to keep digging.
After that hearing, Renwick said the agency will continue to accept public comment for another 15 days before DHEC deliberates on whether to award Soilutions a permit.
The permitting snafu
Permitting issues for the mine began last year when DHEC realized its General Coastal Zone Consistency certification had expired in December 2018.
That certification is a type of general permit DHEC must renew with the federal government every few years. It covers South Carolina’s eight coastal counties, including Horry.
While DHEC said it still reviewed plans for Soilutions mine before allowing the company to dig 20-feet deep over five acres, Lauren Megill Milton, an attorney with the South Carolina Environmental Law Project, said the expired certification should have meant digging never began.
Ten other mines across Horry also operated under that expired certification.
Those mines are located in rural parts of the county in the Conway, Aynor and Loris areas.
“There’s at least a handful for Horry County that were issued (general permits) that shouldn’t have been issued those and should have undergone a different level of scrutiny,” Megill Milton told The Sun News last month.
DHEC realized the certification had expired in October when the Coastal Conservation League filed a challenge against the Edge Road Mine.
It told Soilutions at the time the company had to stop digging, and the company complied.
Soilutions, though, continued to remove already-dug material from the site which DHEC staff allowed. DHEC later told the company to stop.
In February, Soilutions applied for an expanded permit allowing it to dig 50-feet deep over 24 acres. The company plans to use the sand and dirt for construction.
On Feb. 17, the league shared video footage of Edge Road with DHEC that the group said showed the company removing material from the site illegally.
DHEC staff inspected the mine March 4 and determined, according to a letter sent to the company, that Soilutions had done work on the site but hadn’t performed any mining and hadn’t removed material from the site.
“Staff observed no change from mid-November to March 4th and found no evidence that additional material had been removed from the site,” Joseph Koon, DHEC’s manager for mining and reclamation, wrote.
“At this time, DHEC has determined that no compliance/enforcement action is warranted,” Koon concluded. “DHEÇ will continue to monitor this situation as it continues the technical review of the Individual Mine Operating Permit Application for the Edge Road Mine.”
Craig Kennedy, a consultant working with Soilutions, said in a March 14 email the company will work with DHEC on permitting and compliance issues going forward.
“Soilutions looks forward to working with DHEC and the community to move forward with the mine permitting process,” he wrote.
Environmental concerns
The league and Megill Milton oppose the Edge Road mine because they fear it could harm the nature preserve’s ecosystem.
In an interview with The Sun News last month, CCL’s Trapper Fowler said the mine could change the area’s hydrology, which could cause wetlands and Carolina Bays to dry up.
If those parts of the preserve dry up, he said, the plants and animals living there could be harmed. It would also make the nature preserve more susceptible to wildfire, he said.
If the plants that rely on wetlands and Carolina Bays, such as inkberry bushes, dry out, Fowler said, they could become “highly volatile.”
“And when those ignite via fire, they’re explosive,” he said. “They flare up and they tend to be more flammable.”
Wildfires are a perennial concern at the nature preserve and the state Department of Natural Resources, which owns and manages Lewis Ocean Bay, regularly conducts controlled burns to prevent such fires.
A DNR spokesperson told The Sun News last month the agency is monitoring Soilution’s application for a deeper mining permit and may weigh in.
How you can have a say
In response to concerns about the Edge Road mine, DHEC plans to hold a public hearing.
The agency hasn’t set a date but will give the public a 30-day notice.
DHEC will also keep the public comment period open until May so the public can submit formal comments after the hearing.
Renwick, the DHEC spokesperson, said the agency is still working out logistics for the meeting.
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 4:37 PM.
