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Audubon South Carolina's attempt to stop beach renourishment on Kiawah
Island along its posh Ocean Course has been denied by a state administrative
law court judge.
The decision allows continued dredging of sand from a sandbar considered
"critical habitat" for the piping plover, a rare, federally protected
shorebird, in a scaled-down project approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, the federal agency in charge of the endangered species program.
But Judge John Geathers also denied the S.C. Office of Ocean and Coastal
Resource Management's motion to dismiss the case. The ruling leaves S.C.
Audubon in a quandary. The group is deciding whether to continue the
lawsuit.
"It's a ruling that's going to hurt the species. This is the second most
valuable foraging ground in the state. The work is going to continue, the
damage is going to be irreparable. What do you do, try to put the beach back
the way it was?" said April Stallings, the group's conservation coordinator.
"This is a species on the brink and it just got nudged a little further
along. We will continue to fight to protect the piping plover."
Kiawah Councilman Al Burnaford said in an e-mail, "The judge ruled that the
petitioners, S.C. Audubon and S.C. Wildlife Federation, did not provide any
evidence that the town's project would cause irreparable harm to the piping
plover or any other wildlife species. The town has worked very closely with
these state and federal agencies to design a project that satisfies all the
agencies' environmental issues." Kiawah is paying for the dredging.
The ruling came late Wednesday, the day Senior PGA Championship tournament
organizers kicked off ticket sales for the tournament scheduled to be played
at the Ocean Course in May.
The legal battle is the latest eruption in a controversy over whether moving
sand from the sandbar to restore beach and dunes at the golf course will
damage or destroy a huge spit that has become winter foraging ground for the
piping plover, considered a threatened species in South Carolina.
The dredging has been under way since earlier this month to protect the
island's eroding eastern edge and the dunescape closing holes of the
prestigious course.
At stake is an estimated $100 million in revenue to be generated locally
when the course hosts the senior championship and a major PGA tournament in
2012.
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