Erosion cuts swimming pool waterline

ISLE OF PALMS — Beach erosion at the gated Wild Dunes resort broke a waterline for a pool at a condominium complex, and property owners are scrambling for permits for more sandbags to protect other lines.

The break at Ocean Club came about a month after debris swept by tides ruptured a sewer line at Port O' Call, a nearby condominium complex, allowing salt water into the line but not allowing sewage out, said Harvey Wilkins of S.C. Health and Environmental Control. The rupture was fixed.

The South Carolina Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management and the city of Isle of Palms first allowed sandbags to be used last winter because of the danger to public health if water or sewer lines broke.

"Right now we're losing ground every day with the bags we have in place," said Beth Colley, Ocean Club property manager, which had to shut down its pool waterline. "It's just a matter of time before it happens again." If the complex doesn't get more help, "I don't think we'll make it through the summer," she said.

The problems are the latest in a storm of troubles surrounding use of the sandbags that has regulators and officials looking at everything from the size of the bags to who is responsible for cleanup of the bags when they break.

The Wild Dunes resort is trying to shore up a golf course, and property owners are fighting to save six beach condominium complexes along the severely eroding northern beach at Dewees Inlet while they struggle through regulations and legal challenges to renourish that beach, an effort now in its fifth year.

High tides are sweeping underneath the condominiums and have begun to erode the fairway from the signature 18th hole of the resort's Links golf course.

Meanwhile, state regulators could decide this week whether to fine property owners for hundreds of thousands of bags that have already washed away.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regulators are looking into possible federal violations and the possibility of requiring federal approval for the use of more bags, a lengthy process that has to be run through the regional office in Atlanta.

At least one resident has complained that the sandbags now being used are bigger than what was approved, and regulators are looking into that, too. Residents worry the larger bags essentially create a sea wall, exacerbating the erosion.

Resident James Smiley said in an e-mail, "It is hard to imagine that local and state officials who are supposed to oversee the emergency orders couldn't see that the bags being placed on the public beach were huge, and much larger than (approved)... We now have on the northeast end of the Isle of Palms a continuous revetment almost 2,000 feet long of huge sandbags."

OCRM in May asked property owners for documentation on the size, thickness and biodegradability of the larger bags, spokesman Dan Burger said by e-mail. "To date, we have not received any documentation. If the bags do not meet the conditions of the emergency order, we may pursue additional enforcement action, including fines."

The city of Isle of Palms last week amended its emergency order to allow the bigger bags to stay put.

"I guess one has to weigh evils here," said Linda Tucker, city administrator. The threat of saltwater going into the public water system or raw sewage going out on the beach is worse than any erosion larger bags might cause.

Mayor Mike Sottile and Tucker said contractors for the property owners inadvertently bought the larger bags that were available when the orders were approved. Bags are sold by dimension rather than weight capacity.

Corps of Engineers regulators are looking into possible violations stemming from the bags washed away in its navigable waters jurisdiction below the spring tide line, said Travis Hughes, Charleston office special projects branch chief. He couldn't immediately say what penalties property owners might face.

"We really haven't had to deal before with a violation with the number of sandbags that are on the beach," he said.

Reach Bo Petersen at 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.