DHEC: No wall through spit

KIAWAH ISLAND -- A state environmental board has overruled its staff to deny a permit to build a controversial wall through the sand on Captain Sam's Spit. The developers say they will appeal the decision.

The spit is the undeveloped strip of sand and dunes past Beachwalker Park on the island's west end toward Seabrook Island.

The new wall would set a barrier underground from the ocean through the neck of the spit. Environmentalists oppose the move, saying it's a back-door attempt to build a bulkhead that regulators already denied.

The S.C. Health and Environmental Control Department board overruled a recommendation by Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management staff at a meeting earlier this week.

"The board did not uphold the staff decision to uphold the permit," said Adam Myrick, DHEC media relations officer. But he would not comment further because of pending litigation.

"We'll appeal to the (state) Administrative Law Court," said Leonard Long of Kiawah Development Partners II, the developers, "because the staff took a great many months to arrive at a careful decision that the board, without any new evidence or testimony, overruled."

An attempt to build a half-mile-long concrete wall along the inlet bank to stem erosion in 2008 also was hotly contested.

The Coastal Conservation League asked the board to review the recent decision, said Nancy Vinson of the league, an environmental advocate.

"We felt the staff should have denied it just as they denied the original permit," she said. "The staff denied the original bulkhead because it would interfere with inlet migration and have significant impact on a state designated geographic area of particular concern and a federally designated critical habitat for endangered species."

Board members rejected a staff finding that the wall would not lead to development. Kiawah Development Partners has said it plans to build up to 50 homes on the spit.

According to permitting documents, the company wanted to install the 340-foot-long underground sheet pile wall to protect a future road and utilities from erosion.

Reach Bo Petersen at 937-5744 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.