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Coastal resort to resolve dispute with USC marine lab

By SAMMY FRETWELL
sfretwell@thestate.com

Supporters of the nationally acclaimed Baruch marine research center near Georgetown have derailed a plan that could help protect million-dollar beach homes from rising seas — but hurt scientific studies at the laboratory next door.

Faced with years of court challenges by environmentalists and lab boosters, Debordieu Colony’s governing board recently voted to drop a key part of the proposal to slow beach erosion at the exclusive resort. Debordieu no longer plans to build three large walls in the surf to trap sand.

Last month’s decision still needs approval from lawyers on both sides, as well as a state court. But it drew praise from conservationists, who said the project could have wrecked years of scientific work at the University of South Carolina laboratory.

USC officials also were pleased. The $10 million to $12 million shoreline project would have been upstream from Baruch’s unspoiled beachfront and North Inlet, where Carolina’s Baruch Marine Field Laboratory conducts research.

“We are just delighted with the decision,’’ Baruch Institute director Jim Morris said in a statement through USC. “It was the sensible thing to do because it would have an impact on the barrier island south of the inlet.’’

The dispute centered on construction of three large walls to hold sand in place and keep the beach from eroding as rapidly. The walls, commonly called groins, would have been built perpendicular to the beach and extended through the breakers.

While the groins were expected to slow beach erosion upstream at Debordieu, critics said the walls would worsen beach erosion downstream on the Baruch property.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control board approved the groins last June, prompting a legal challenge from the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, the state Sierra Club and the Baruch Foundation, which owns the research property.

USC was never part of the court dispute, but university scientists expressed concern about erosion from the privately funded Debordieu project. The Baruch lab has been associated with more than 600 scientific research projects in the past 42 years. The work, which has ranged from water quality studies to research on fish, is significant because it occurs in a nearly pollution-free environment.

North Inlet, an area of tidal creeks and marshes at Baruch, is one of just 27 national estuarine research reserves in the country. Debordieu Colony, a wealthy resort community of more than 800 homes, is the only developed area near the Baruch property.

The Dec. 16 Debordieu board vote abandoned a plan to build the three groins to hold sand in place. But the board agreed to continue with the other part of the plan, which is to artificially widen the beach by pumping sand onto the shore.

The beach renourishment project is expected to protect homes at Debordieu, but supporters fear the sand will wash away more quickly without groins to hold it in place.

Environmentalists do not oppose the beach renourishment project. Parts of Debordieu’s beach suffer some of the highest erosion rates on the state’s northern coast. Waves routinely lap at a seawall protecting large homes on the island’s south end.

The groin and renourishment project, however, has been controversial, even at Debordieu. Property owners face bills as high as $72,000 apiece to pay for the project, and many voted against the funding last fall.

Blanche Brown, Debordieu’s property manager, said the resort is looking for a longer-term solution to the community’s erosion problem. But Brown said Debordieu’s board agreed not to pursue building the three groins because of the time involved. Debordieu needs to start the beach renourishment project as soon as possible --- and environmentalists do not plan to oppose the renourishment, she said.

Lanning Risher, an oceanfront Debordieu property owner from Camden, said the extra sand is needed, although he doesn’t think groins would have hurt Baruch. Risher’s house, on the island’s southern end, had some 60 feet of beach when he acquired the property three decades ago. Now, the ocean often hits a seawall protecting the home.

“There is no way on God’s earth those groins could possibly hurt the (Baruch) project down there,’’ he said. “You couldn’t find a group of people who care more about nature than the people at Debordieu.’’