Chimney Sweep in Awendaw, SC

AWENDAW, S.C. (WCSC) - The South Carolina Department of Environmental Services held a virtual public hearing Monday night about a large Awendaw residential development that is facing opposition.

The 48.9-acre development would be called Seewee Landing and would include a single-family residential subdivision consisting of 65 homes. The development would be located at 6578 Seewee Road in coastal Awendaw, right off Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, with 39.6 acres of proposed land disturbance. The development would impact about 0.480 acres of wetlands.

The meeting focused on stormwater permits requested by Mungo Homes.

SCDES says construction stormwater discharges from the development will likely contain sediment and other potential pollutants. Since the site is in a coastal county, the project must be reviewed to ensure consistency with the South Carolina Coastal Zone Management Plan.

However, the development is already facing opposition from environmental groups, including the Coastal Conservation League and the Friends of Coastal South Carolina, because they are saying the project doesn’t align with the state’s coastal protection policies.

“This proposal is in direct contradiction to the priorities laid out in South Carolina’s Coastal Zone Management Program, which discourages high-density development in sensitive coastal and wetland areas and prioritizes low-impact development and the protection of water quality and natural drainage patterns,” Anna Kimelblatt, communities & transportation program director with the Coastal Conservation League, says.

The application for the development shows stormwater runoff during construction activities is proposed to be managed by a construction entrance, sediment basins, a silt fence, inlet protection and appropriate placement of portable toilets. These controls would limit sediment and erosion. Proposed permanent features include wet detention ponds and sheet flow.

The Coastal Conservation League says they are also concerned about the possibility of a high number of septic tanks in the area. Experts say numerous septic tanks in a small area can contaminate groundwater and surface water with pathogens.

Grace Gasper, executive director of Friends of Coastal South Carolina, says policies like the Coastal Zone Management Plan are supposed to protect the coast and discourage numerous septic tanks, but have not been the case in previous permits that have been approved in the area.

This comes after various environmental groups filed a against another Awendaw home development that is proposed to build 208 homes on 182 acres of a portion of land called the White Tract.

“Anything they approve or permit is supposed to enhance or maintain water quality,” Gasper says. “And we don’t believe that some of these things that have been permitted will do that.”

Those who oppose the project also believe the high-density development would have negative environmental impacts, including water quality, drainage patterns, damage to buffer zones around wetlands and overall land disturbance.

“They’re supposed to discourage development in flood-prone areas,” Gasper says. “They’re supposed to protect the natural resources, and there are areas that are designated as areas of geographical concern, and Cape Romain is certainly one of those, and we don’t feel like all of that has been adequately considered.”

Residents also voiced concerns about not knowing the full extent of the flow of water in the area and asked officials to do more groundwork on inspecting the site.

On deciding whether to approve or deny the permit, the SCDES will be looking at the water quality control during construction, the rate of stormwater runoff and the quality of stormwater runoff.

No permit decision was made at the meeting, and those who attended or submitted a request for notification will be notified of the decision. The SCDES review clock is 20 business days.

“We urge SCDES to deny this permit and uphold the goals and priorities associated with our state’s coastal zone policies,” Kimelblatt says. “Once these pristine coastal areas are altered or destroyed, we can never get them back.”

AWENDAW — Construction on a development in the town’s White Tract might soon be put back on hold.

Two environmental groups are asking the S.C. Supreme Court to reinstate a freeze on the project while a legal challenge against the subdivision’s permits pushes ahead.

The Tract is located at the intersection of Sewee and Bulls Island roads just off Highway 17, where it abuts the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge on one side and the Francis Marion National Forest on the other.

A planned subdivision in the White Tract has been the focus of a yearslong battle between conservation and construction. In the latest entry in that dispute, the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and Friends of Coastal South Carolina in February filed a challenge to the development’s stormwater and regulatory permits.

The two groups say the project could harm the nearby wildlife refuge. A previous hold on the project stemming from that challenge was lifted by a court in mid-June.

Amy Armstrong, the executive director of the Law Project, said that weighing the environmental impact of a project after it’s already been partially constructed is essentially putting the cart before the horse.

“Protecting the status quo until the court can hear and decide the case is essential — otherwise a permit appeal would become moot before a judge could decide whether the permit is lawful,” Armstrong wrote in a news release.

Atlanta-based Pulte Homes plans to eventually build more than 200 homes across 182 acres on the Tract, according to the Law Project.

A spokesperson for Pulte Group, Pulte Homes’ parent company, did not respond to a request for comment on the latest legal move.

The environmental groups contend the homes’ septic tanks could illegally discharge human excrement into the refuge — a common issue in other septic tank developments across coastal South Carolina.

“If Cape Romain is not worthy of the highest level of protection, no place is truly protected,” Grace Gasper, executive director of Friends of Coastal South Carolina, wrote in a news release.

State officials are lending their support to the non-profits’ cause.

“These valuable wetlands, in their present condition, must be preserved and the site left undisturbed so as to prevent irreparable harm pending resolution of the contested case proceedings,” Tom Mullikin, the director of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, wrote in an affidavit accompanying the groups’ Sept. 16 petition.

Mullikin noted that the project falls within the refuge’s congressionally approved acquisition boundary, meaning the feds have highlighted the area for future inclusion in the refuge. That means it’s also a conservation priority for the state, he wrote.

“Commencement of construction, including clearing, grading and filling of the wetlands, would permanently eliminate a resource of significant value to the State of South Carolina,” Mullikin added.

State Sen. Chip Campsen, who represents the area in the Statehouse, wrote in a separate affidavit that the pause should be reinstated while the legal battle continues. Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, said that allowing construction to continue before a court can formally weigh in on the merit of the environmental groups’ allegations, “set(s) a dangerous precedent for further degradation of our coastline in these environmentally vulnerable areas.”

Federal officials also have expressed concerns about the project. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees Cape Romain, previously wrote that human waste, silt, fertilizers and other chemicals from the project could impact the area’s shellfish beds, potentially harming fish, wildlife and humans in the area who depend on the bedrock bivalves.

The cape is a critical habitat for nearly 300 bird species, several of which are federally listed as threatened or endangered. The area also is among the most important nesting sites on the East Coast for loggerhead sea turtles and can host more than 3,000 sea turtle nests per season, The Post and Courier previously reported.

The threat of leaky septic tanks in coastal South Carolina likely will increase in coming decades. Rising sea levels can push up the groundwater beneath septic drainage fields, disrupting the process that allows soil to filter all of the excrement out of waste water expelled from the drainage field.