Seminar discusses erosion

Environmentalists attending a day-long seminar Wednesday on coastal erosion said more challenges could be coming to the state's beachfront management laws, including a ban on sea walls.

Whether the ban is constitutional was not decided in a recent lawsuit brought by six property owners on Daufuskie Island, said Jimmy Chandler, a Georgetown resident who is head of the S.C. Environmental Law Project.

The lawsuit was settled before the issue was fully decided.

The ban, which has been in place since 1988, was said to infringe on the residents' rights to protect their property, Chandler said.

In March, a judge said the Daufuskie Island homeowners could keep the sea walls but must remove them if there are other permitted ways to protect their property.

The Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management probably will be sued on the issue again, Chandler said.

Chandler was among a group of scientists and environmentalists who attended the program sponsored by the North Inlet-Winyah Bay Estuarine Research Reserve.

Chandler was involved with the Daufuskie lawsuit and has fought other battles concerning the state's beaches.

Chandler warned about other possible battles brewing along the coast. Disputes could arise over constantly shifting coastal property lines - lots growing bigger or smaller depending on tides and storms that change the mean high water mark, he said. The mean high water mark is considered the area where coastal property lines begin. The mark is the place on shore where spring high tides normally reach over certain periods of time.

"Mean high water marks are always changing," Chandler said. "You may be constantly at war with your neighbor."

The S.C Beachfront Management Act has changed in the past decade, Chandler said. The act once said property owners could not build on oceanfront lots that were considered unsafe. Today, property owners must only be informed they are taking a risk by building too close to the ocean, he said.

The owners do not always pay attention. Chanlder gave an example of a retired executive who "had waves beating under his house." The man was denied permission to sandbag his lot, Chandler said.

The attendees, including local property owners, ended the day with a trip to the south end of Pawleys Island, an area threatened by erosion.

The creek is being considered for dredging and the beach for renourishment.

The state uses public money to renourish beaches that have significant public access.

DeBordieu Colony residents have not received permission to take sand from a sandbar in public waters in North Inlet to renourish its beach.

The gated community on the Waccamaw Neck wants to use 200,000 cubic yards of the sand to replenish its eroding beach.