Johns Island waterline plans slow to a trickle

Court ruling gives opponents opportunity to fight construction of 12-mile long project A South Carolina Court of Appeals judge has reversed an earlier ruling that required the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League to post a $7.5 million bond before appealing a big new waterline for Johns Island. The new ruling keeps the project in legal limbo. Judge Tolbert Goolsby. set aside an earlier order by Circuit Judge Markley Dennis that the league post the bond. If Dennis' ruling had stood, the league would have had to drop its legal fight, said Megan Terebus, a land use associate with the league. "There is no way we could have paid $7.5 million," she said. The bond would have covered federal monies lost by St. John's Water Co. if the legal wrangle caused it to miss a permit submission deadline. Late last year, Dennis ruled that the Charleston County Board of Zoning Appeals erred when it rejected a permit for a 30-inch waterline that the St. Johns Water Co. plans to run for 12 miles, from James Island across the Stono River and along River Road to Bohicket Road. The line would increase water pressure on Seabrook Island and also would serve a shopping center being built near Kiawah Island. Backers say it's needed to meet peak summer demands, to ensure firefighters have enough water pressure and to serve future developments already permitted under the county's zoning. Opponents say 30 inches is much bigger than needed and would help fuel urban sprawl across the southern, more agricultural end of the island. Dennis ruled the decision not to allow the line "was based solely on speculation, unsupported fears and the fact that certain residents did not want the transmission line to be constructed." Both the county and the league originally appealed his ruling, but the county later dropped out of the appeal. St. Johns Water Co. chairman Guy Buckner declined to comment on Goolsby's ruling Friday, except to say, "We just have to let the courts take their course and do what they're supposed to do." Meanwhile, waterline opponents hope to wrap up a petition drive to force the St. Johns Water Co. to hold a vote among its 3,700 customers to see if they want to scuttle the project. "We have a team of people who have taken the petitions to churches and grocery stores. We also have a day where we're going to be canvassing neighborhoods on Johns Island," Terebus said. "We're almost to the point where we have enough signatures." Terebus said had Dennis' requirement to post a $7.5 million bond remained in effect, it would have had a chilling effect on others waging similar legal battles to preserve rural areas, such as the pending lawsuits regarding developments planned for Edisto and Wadmalaw islands. "They were concerned that they would be faced with the possibility of having to pay a bond," she said of those plaintiffs. "This now eliminates that." St. Johns is appealing whether the Coastal Conservation League has legal standing to pursue a lawsuit, and the league is appealing Dennis' decision on the waterline itself.

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