Group holds ground to help piping plover
KIAWAH ISLAND - This premier golf and beach resort might be cutting off its
nose - much less the threatened species piping plover - to save its vaunted
Ocean Course.
That's the contention of Audubon South Carolina as the birding environmental
group continues to fight a beach renourishment that is already under way to
protect the dunescape holes of the prestigious course and the island's
dramatically eroding eastern edge.
Audubon has appealed a state permit for the work and has gone to court
charging that work should not have started until the appeal is heard.
S.C. Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management attorneys say the
"automatic stay" for permit appeals was overridden by an amendment to the
law last year. A state administrative law judge is scheduled to hear the
case Wednesday.
Jim Jordan, town wildlife biologist, said he couldn't comment because of the
ongoing court case. An unsigned news release from the town on Friday does
not address the lawsuit but says, "all state and federal permits have been
received for the project. The Town of Kiawah has worked very closely with
these state and federal agencies to design a project that satisfies all the
agencies' environmental issues."
The legal battle is the latest eruption in a controversy over whether moving
sand from an offshore sandbar to restore beach and dunes at the golf course
will damage or destroy the huge spit that has become "critical habitat"
winter foraging ground for the piping plover, a rare, federally protected
shorebird.
At stake is an estimated $100 million in revenue to be generated locally
when the course hosts two major professional golf tournaments, the first
next summer. The course's signature 18th hole, the 16th hole and driving
range - which used to be nestled in 300 feet of dunes - are now at the edge
of beach wash. The 18th hole was reworked and a pond was breached during a
hurricane in 1999, opening a tidal creek now gouging the beach.
Audubon says the renourishment sand should be dredged from offshore. Orrin
Pilkey, a Duke University coastal geologist who consulted with Audubon,
agrees. Dredging the sandbar could have the unintended consequence of more
seriously eroding the eastern tip of the island beyond the course, he said.
"The effect is completely unpredictable, particularly with the unusual bar
formation at that end of the beach," he said.
"This is mining the tidal delta, taking the sand from one part of the beach
and putting it on another. If it's worth $100 million, why aren't they going
offshore to get sand? This is an on-the-cheap beach renourishment from a
community that should know better."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that oversees the federal
endangered species program, signed off in March on a compromise project plan
that cut in half the amount of sand to be removed from the sandbar, a change
designed to leave three times to four times more ground for the bird than
the original project.
The town had pressed to begin work by May 1 in order to finish before the
migrating piping plovers return in August - which would force the work to
stop - and in time for the 2007 Senior Professional Golf Association
championship scheduled May 22-27. Work began June 8 after the Army Corps of
Engineers signed off on its permit.
The work is scheduled to be completed by July 31, according to the town's
release.
The $3.8 million project is scheduled to move 550,000 cubic yards of sand.
As a comparison, a longer Folly Beach renourishment last year moved 2
million cubic yards of sand from offshore at a cost of $12 million.
Representatives of U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Army Corps declined
comment because of the ongoing litigation.
The override of the stay "is a problem for citizens and environmental groups
that want to appeal a project like this," said April Stallings, conservation
coordinator for Audubon South Carolina.
"They're putting the economic interests of an already wealthy island ahead
of an endangered species, is what it boils down to. Our stance is that OCRM
has the authority to implement an automatic stay if they choose."
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