DHEC gives its blessing to Debordieu project

South Carolina's environmental protection board sided with affluent seaside landowners Thursday in approving a beach restoration plan that critics say could hurt research at an acclaimed science laboratory near Georgetown.

In its first major decision under Gov. Nikki Haley, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control board voted unanimously to let property owners in the exclusive Debordieu community build metal walls in the ocean to trap sand. Haley appointed the new board this year.

The walls, known as groins, are supposed to protect some $20 million in oceanfront property by keeping the beach at Debordieu from eroding as quickly as it has in the past. About 20 property owners, whose land is routinely hit by the sea as the beach washes away, would benefit directly from the proposal to renourish the south end of Debordieu and install three groins.

Experts hired by environmental groups and the Baruch Foundation said the plan might slow beach erosion at Debordieu, but it would undoubtedly increase erosion just downstream at North Inlet's two-mile-long beach. The Baruch Foundation owns and protects the North Inlet area for research by the University of South Carolina and other colleges.

Some 75 feet of beach could erode at North Inlet if the groins are installed at Debordieu, the DHEC board was told.

"What this case involves is competing property rights," environmental lawyer Amy Armstrong said. "It boils down to the transfer of the risk from Debordieu onto the Baruch Foundation property."

Thursday's vote upholds a DHEC staff decision to approve the groins.

Debordieu representatives said the project won't hurt the North Inlet area. But Armstrong, who heads the S.C. Environmental Law Project, said she will appeal the decision.

The North Inlet research area, between Georgetown and Debordieu, is unusual because it is virtually pollution free. In addition to USC's Baruch Marine Field Laboratory, North Inlet is also part of a federal estuarine research reserve. Any development upstream could affect years of scientific research, critics of the plan say. Since 1969, scientists working through the Baruch laboratory have completed more than 650 research projects and at least 70 are under way now.

Debordieu, the only developed area next to North Inlet, is a gated seaside community of more than 1,000 homes and lots between Georgetown and Pawleys Island. Many homes are valued at more than $1 million.

DHEC board members made their decision swiftly Thursday, soon after meeting privately for more than 30 minutes.

Haley, who has said she wants to help businesses by cutting red tape at DHEC, picked all new members for the agency board after taking office in January.

Allen Amsler, a Columbia construction company executive who chairs the board, said the Debordieu beach restoration plan met the legal criteria for a groin project. Amsler said he did not see a "detrimental effect" on Baruch's beachfront downstream.

Amsler said the board's private discussions involved "strictly legal questions of our attorney." DHEC lawyer Carl Roberts said state law allows the board to deliberate permit appeals in closed session.

Ellison Smith, an attorney representing the Debordieu Colony Community Association, said the groin project will protect homes that are vital to Georgetown County. Debordieu produced some $10 million in county taxes last year, he said. The approximately 22 homes and lots in the "area of severe erosion" are valued at $20 million, Smith said.

At Debordieu, about a dozen of the imperiled homes are behind a seawall that juts far onto the beach at the community's eroding south end. Waves routinely hit the wall.

Oceanfront landowner John L. Jackson, who lives in Lower Richland County, said no one wants to hurt the Baruch property. But he and a Debordieu neighbor, Lanning Risher of Camden, said they need help.

Smith agreed.

"Unless this project goes forward, the chances of anybody selling a piece of property along the beachfront of Debordieu is remote, in my opinion," Smith said.

This story was originally published June 10, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "DHEC gives its blessing to Debordieu project."