A group of concerned residents and property owners in Mountville, a small community in Laurens County, are challenging the state environmental agency’s authorization of sixteen new industrial poultry barns in the area. Concentrated animal feeding operations are known to create and worsen air and water pollution, which is already plaguing the Little River due to existing poultry barns in the community.

Hilltop C&D LLC, a construction and demolition landfill company, currently operates a 6.5-acre construction and demolition landfill in Aiken County. As that small landfill nears capacity, Hilltop has developed plans for a new 293-acre landfill called Rabbit Hill to be sited in the Bath/Burnettown area, adjacent to an old, closed landfill – an existing EPA-designated Superfund site - and Jefferson Elementary School.

We are working with the Merriwether Community Coalition in Edgefield County to protect its members’ interests in the face of a proposed development with the potential to negatively impact the community’s rural quality of life, existing County infrastructure and services, and the health of the environment.

Earlier this year, the Charleston County Board of Zoning Appeals denied a Special Exception Permit for a proposed sand mine near the intersection of U.S. Highway 17 and Lofton Road in McClellanville. Blessing Investments then sued the Board for denying the project. Now, on behalf of Coastal Conservation League and Friends of Coastal South Carolina, SCELP filed a Motion to Intervene to protect their member's interests in the action.

On behalf of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, we are seeking to intervene in a developer's appeal of the Beaufort County Planning Commission's decision to deny its request to construct three golf courses in conjunction with a gated community resort on St. Helena Island. SCELP is committed to advocating on behalf of the Gullah/Geechee people and culture.

The Ten Mile community, a historic African American settlement community, is located in Charleston County. We are working with the Ten Mile Neighborhood Association to fight over-development that threatens environmental and cultural resources.

South Carolina’s coastal areas are experiencing increased development pressures, particularly in rural areas, where dense clusters of conventional septic tank systems are often chosen by developers because of lack of access to sewer and low cost. Currently, DHEC does not review septic tank permits for consistency with the Coastal Management Program when they are placed in the coastal zone – despite applying these policies to almost every other type of state environmental permit.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control allowed four beachfront property owners leave an illegal sandbag seawall on the public beach as a so-called experiment. We are seeking both state and federal relief on behalf of the Coastal Conservation League.

River Preserve is a proposed development, bordering the Reedy River and located in southern Greenville County. We are challenging the Greenville County Planning Commission’s decision to approve the preliminary subdivision proposal on behalf of Citizens for Quality Rural Living.

At a historic intersection near the town of Summerville, Dorchester County officials abandoned their own unique plans for the ecologically sensitive area to greenlight a gas station next to the Ashley River floodplain. We are fighting on behalf of the Dorchester Trust Foundation to protect the area’s special rural character and uphold Dorchester County’s Comprehensive Plan. (Photo by Cori McIntyre.)

On behalf of Friends of Gadsden Creek, we are challenging DHEC’s authorization to fill and destroy one of the last tidal creeks on the Charleston peninsula for a mixed-use development.

The U.S. government plans to more than quadruple the production of plutonium pits at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site. To date, the Department of Energy has refused to fully examine the environmental and safety impacts of this cross-country plan.

Access to safe, affordable and reliable drinking water is a basic human right, indispensable to sustaining healthy livelihoods and maintaining people’s dignity. It is also an increasingly urgent environmental protection and justice issue in South Carolina.

At SCELP, we are working to prevent the degradation of the state’s water resources by halting uses that pollute them and by improving statewide water standards and regulations.

Since 2016, developers have attempted to build a luxury resort on Bay Point Island, a biologically rich barrier island at the mouth of Port Royal Sound. The plan includes 50 villas, shops, restaurants, bars, spas and fitness centers, along with 10 septic systems.

At a time when oceanfront structures are imperiled on a large scale in our state, pursuit of development even closer to the sea should be an impossibility. Yet, incentives remain in place, both legally and economically, to encourage pursuit of quick profit through unsustainable oceanfront development. The results are often disastrous, both for the unlucky purchaser of such development and, especially, for anyone who enjoys using the public beach in the vicinity. In no place on our coast is this crisis more apparent than on Folly Beach.

Perhaps more than anywhere else in the state, suburban sprawl into rural and agricultural lands is plaguing Greenville County, not just in terms of environmental quality but also in terms of overall quality of life. We have been working with citizens groups in the southern and northern parts of the County, and we are now in court on their behalf.

Our challenge to a new structure in Hilton Head attempts to skirt our state's long-standing prohibition on seawalls.

‍While some may argue that every inch of the Lowcountry is special, the Clements Ferry corridor is particularly rich with environmental, historical, and cultural treasures that have, until recently, remained untouched by development. Nestled between thousands of acres of tributaries, creeks, tidal marsh, and freshwater wetlands, the Clements Ferry corridor has a history older than the settlement of Charleston itself. But the corridor is now seeing increasingly more development pressure, even though much of it falls within a designated floodplain.

We are challenging a permit granted by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to construct three groins on Debidue Beach in Georgetown County. Armoring the shoreline with groins will negatively impact the members of the public who use and enjoy the beach.

The Bramlett site, a former Manufactured Gas Plant located in Greenville's Southernside community, is leaking dangerous pollutants into the Reedy River and surrounding wetlands. Immediate cleanup is needed.

As sea levels continue to rise, and our beaches continue to erode, it was only a matter of time before we would face the dilemma of beachfront houses becoming permanently stranded on the active beach, or "beached" houses.

South Carolina’s natural environment and the health of human and wildlife communities that it supports are threatened by land use decisions every day. On the issue of mining, we see and feel the increased need for lawyers willing and able to stand up for the wild side.

For 15 years and counting, SCELP and our partners have relentlessly—and successfully—fought back against a developer's efforts to build 50 houses on this fragile and iconic sandy inlet on Kiawah Island.

On behalf of multiple homeowner associations, we are challenging the South Carolina Administrative Law Court’s decision to reinstate a septic system permit for a proposed RV park in northern Spartanburg County. Per DHEC standard calculations, more than two million gallons per year of septic effluent - including human waste – would be discharged into the ground on the site, which is adjacent to a creek and thousands of acres of conservation land.

Two landmark live oak trees, one 60 inches in diameter and one 43 inches in diameter, and both estimated to be nearly 200 years old, were under threat by developers attempting to clear the land for five homes in Port Royal.

On behalf of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, we submitted comments objecting to Dominion Energy’s application for a permit to install a 14.5-mile gas main pipeline through Florence County.

We are representing our clients in challenging a DHEC permit authorizing dredging and excavating critical area salt marsh in order to convert a unique and highly valuable freshwater pond and wetland system into a saltwater mitigation bank.

Roper Pond, LLC, owns a 15-acre tract on Trenholm Road in Richland County, bordering on the Town of Arcadia Lakes. Roper Pond proposes a high density apartment complex on the tract. The tract includes a nice shallow pond full of lily pads that is part of the Gills Creek watershed and runs through Arcadia Lakes. The development would excavate the pond to convert it to a stormwater detention pond. DHEC issued a stormwater permit to the developer and we appealed.

Awendaw is a small town in Charleston County with a total area of less than 10 square miles, but it is an ecological gem. Over 60 percent of the area consists of protected lands. It is in this area that King Tract mine—near Cape Romain, abutting the Francis Marion Forest and draining to the Intracoastal Waterway’s Shellfish Harvesting Waters—has operated a five-acre sand mine and violated numerous environmental protection laws.

The developer’s proposal would not only exacerbate West Ashley’s notorious flooding, it would destroy more than 200 acres of valuable wetland habitat and create a mixed-use development unaffordable for the majority of the present community.

On behalf of Save Folly Beach, SCELP challenged the septic permit issued by asking the DHEC Board of Directors to consider reversing that permit.

This case involves a previous Consent Order of Dismissal in which SCELP represented individuals seeking to prevent filling of wetlands associated with construction activities.

SCELP is representing Pickens County and its citizens in fighting for health, safety, and self-determination in relation to coal ash.

In November 2012, we challenged a permit issued to Georgetown County for construction of a groin on the south end of Pawleys Island.

In August 2015, on behalf of the Coastal Conservation League and the SC Wildlife Federation, SCELP challenged the DHEC authorization for paving and expanding International Drive, what was then an impassable dirt road in Horry County on and adjacent to the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve ("LOBHP"), and impacting 24 acres of wetlands.

On May 1, 2015, the DHEC staff issued the first ever authorization allowing seismic testing for oil and gas reserves off South Carolina's coast. Seismic testing can have catastrophic effects on wildlife and marine resources, in addition to opening the door for dangerous offshore drilling activities that would threaten our state’s tourism economy and commercial fisheries.

OCRM has issued a water quality certification and coastal zone consistency certification to Waste Management to perform work associated with the massive expansion of Oakridge Landfill located in Dorchester County. Particularly, Waste Management plans to fill over 14 acres of freshwater wetlands for expansion of the class 3 landfill.

In September 2014, on behalf of several riparian property owners, we went to Court to have DHEC's implementation of the Surface Water Withdrawal Act overturned where it allowed industrial farms to withdraw large amounts of water entirely unfettered by a regulating permitting process.

Deertrack Golf, Inc., owns a golf course in a mature Surfside Beach development known as Deerfield Plantation. Deertrack has entered into a contract to sell the golf course property to Bill Clark Homes. Bill Clark proposes to develop 287 lots on half of the golf course property (the other half will be developed later).

Greenville Water System (GWS) owns and operates two 30-inch raw water transmission mains for the purpose of transporting raw water from the Table Rock Reservoir in the South Saluda River to the GWS treatment plant in northern Greenville County. GWS proposed to construct an additional 7.8 mile, 42-inch raw water transmission main from the Table Rock Reservoir in Pickens County.

The Seabrook Island POA proposed to relocate the Inlet by blocking the present Inlet with a wall of sand and excavating a new inlet through Captain Sam’s Spit.

DHEC granted the City of Charlotte a permit to dump its sewage sludge across thousands of acres of agricultural fields in Chester, Fairfield, Lancaster and York Counties.

We filed an appeal of a DHEC permit authorizing a new and enlarged cruise ship terminal at Union Pier on the Charleston peninsula. Our appeal challenged the expansion on the basis of a host of environmental and social impacts created by the increased presence of docked cruise ships.

Cliffs Communities Inc. proposed to build a golf course community on a 5,000 acre tract in Greenville County, along the North Saluda River. The golf course was planned by Gary Player and the design calls for the piping, bridging (24 crossings by bridges and “play overs”), impounding, and other alterations of the river and its tributaries.

In this case SCELP represented Ballentine First and several home owners living in the Ermo area of SC.

A citizens group called Chesterfield Environmental Coalition, Inc., requested SCELP’s assistance in the appeal of an agricultural permit.

Homeowners in the Colony Pointe community of Debordieu sought a permit allowing them to dredge the canals within that area.

Jerry Risher applied for a critical area permit to construct a vehicular bridge across intertidal saltwater wetlands to access a 0.3 acre island located off Fripp Island. Under the new Access to Small Islands Regulations which became effective in 2006, bridge permits for a coastal island less than one acre in size are prohibited.

In 1990 when Myrtle Trace, a community located near Conway, was developed, a buffer area was set aside as a nature preserve and mitigation for wetlands filled by the developer, International Paper (IP).

C & D Management Company applied for and obtained a permit to construct a construction and demolition waste landfill in the City of Rock Hill.

In 2006 the SC Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed to widen causeways and construct four new bridges for US Highway 601 within the Congaree National Park, SC’s only National Park.

We challenged a Savannah River Site (SRS) permit to dispose of thousands of gallons of high-level radioactive waste in 49 underground tanks, holding millions of gallons of salt waste.

In 2003, Wedgefield Plantation Association (“Wedgefield”) applied for a navigable waters permit, coastal zone consistency certification and water quality certification to dredge canals within Wedgefield and place the spoil material in 14.92 acres of wetlands.

Under the Clean Water Act ("CWA"), the Corps of Engineers can issue nationwide permits ("NWP") for activities purportedly having minor impacts to waters and wetlands of the U.S.

On behalf of the Winyah Rivers Foundation, SCELP challenged DHEC´s certification of a project that would rip through more than 14 acres of beautiful, mature forested wetlands and floodplains across pristine Lane´s Creek and the Black River – all in the face of evidence that alternative routes are available that would practically eliminate the environmental harm.

SCELP represented the Coastal Conservation League and the Georgetown County League of Women Voters in challenging a project that would allow dredging of vegetated critical area salt marsh.

Working with Audubon South Carolina and the S.C. Wildlife Federation, SCELP filed an appeal of a permit that would allow excavation of 150 acres of sand from the eastern end of Kiawah Island that is used by the federally endangered Piping Plover. This endangered bird's habitat would be destroyed to protect a golf course.

In 2006 the SC Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed to widen causeways and construct four new bridges for US Highway 601 within the Congaree National Park, South Carolina’s only National Park. The project would fill wetlands that are part of a renowned ecosystem and ignored several environmental concerns including the blockage of sheetflow across the floodplain, disruption of animal migration resulting in deaths, habitat fragmentation, and altered hydrology of the floodplain.

SCELP represented Sierra Club and its Allendale County members in opposing permits for a new landfill, proposed at the site of an old landfill with existing groundwater contamination problems. Fortunately the plans for the proposed landfill were dropped.

Can a family own the beach, creeks, canals, and marshes of Cherry Grove in North Myrtle Beach?

Wedgefield Plantation Homeowners Association ("WPHA") applied for a permit to dredge the man-made canals within the community, and to place the dredged material in 15 acres of freshwater wetlands adjacent to the Black River in Georgetown County.

This case is an appeal of a permit issued to Charles E. Cox/Creekside Cottages to fill wetlands that drain into Parsonage Creek in Murrells Inlet.

This was an appeal of a permit issued to Inlet Oaks Development Corporation for the dredging of a canal, bulkheading, several docks and relocation of a boat ramp in a dead-end, man-made canal off Main Creek in Murrells Inlet.

In 1988, after much study and upon recommendation of the Blue Ribbon Beachfront committee, South Carolina enacted the SC Beachfront Management Act. The Act prohibits hard erosion control devices on the beach, because these structures cause harm to the public trust beaches. In 2002 a suit was filed by a developer and property owners challenging the validity and constitutionality of the Act.

Appeal of permit for groin construction on Hilton Head Island beach, Beaufort County; in 2001, we won this case in the SC Court of Appeals; however, an appeal in the SC Supreme Court had this decision overruled.

After the 2001 Supreme Court decision, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, took away federal jurisdiction over isolated freshwater wetlands, the state's ability to regulate these wetlands has faced legal challenges. In this case, the state's authority to regulate these wetlands was under attack, but the developer eventually dropped these claims.

The Cherry Grove area of North Myrtle Beach is the site of what is probably the most altered salt marsh estuary in South Carolina. The lower portion of this photo depicts the much developed Cherry Grove Subdivision. Immediately above this area (separated by a canal and below Williams Creek) is the undeveloped Heritage Shores area.

In 1991, SCELP assisted the SC Coastal Conservation League in protecting water quality and shellfish in the waters around DeWees Island in Charleston County.

In December 1996, DHEC’s Bureau of Radiological Health renewed the license permitting Interstate Nuclear Services (“INS”) to operate a commercial laundry for the laundering of radioactive contaminated garments, equipment and protective devices.

Save Our Small Islands (1999-2000): We advocated on behalf of Save Our Small Islands (SOS Islands) against developers of two small marsh islands in St. Helena Sound who wanted to build bridges over public trust tidelands, ultimately leading to Beaufort County’s purchase and preservation of the islands.

Property purchasers at Big Landing were promised that no private docks would interfere with their view of pristine marshes and creeks; the developer later asked the state to amend a permit to allow for private docks; SCELP is now handling the appeal of the permit modification which removes the restriction on dock construction for this Horry County development.

We challenged a dredging permit that authorized the dredging of salt marsh and oyster beds in DeBordieu Colony in Georgetown County.  That case resulted in elimination of dredging salt marsh and oyster beds, and a requirement that all dredging stay at least 10 feet from salt marsh, a precedent that is still in place and followed by DHEC.

SCELP defended six groups and turned this case into an opportunity to gain new protection for Wando River wetlands.

Dioxins are environmental pollutants. They belong to the so-called “dirty dozen” - a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Dioxins are of concern because of their high toxicity. Experiments have shown they affect a number of organs and systems. Dioxins are unwanted by-products of a wide range of manufacturing processes including smelting, chlorine bleaching of paper pulp and the manufacturing of some herbicides and pesticides.

After enactment of the CWA, in South Carolina's more urban areas, section 208 planning was delegated to regional councils of government. Between 1972 and 1979 DHEC did no section 208 planning for large portions of the state. After NRDC sued the EPA for not requiring 208 planning nationally, in 1979 DHEC prepared a statewide plan, which was however never updated in spite of section 208 requirement of a continuous planning process.

As this and related cases show, wetlands protection has been one of the core programmatic areas of SCELP since the very beginning, including the 38 non-coastal counties lacking the stronger protections of the Coastal Zone Program.

In 2023, Seabrook Island Property Owners Association received approval for a permit for a sand scraping project, to mine sand from the intertidal beach between central Seabrook Island and Captain Sams Inlet and transfer the sand further south near Seabrook Island Beach Club. Coastal Conservation League is challenging the permit.

On behalf of the Congaree Riverkeeper and the Gills Creek Watershed Association, we are seeking to reverse the City of Columbia’s Board of Zoning Appeals’ approval of a new automobile scrap yard sited just 400 feet from Gills Creek.

South Carolina regulators are failing to enforce their own rules by not acting on outdated water pollution permits for three coal-fired power plants, jeopardizing the environment and public health.

On behalf of 16 coastal municipalities and the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, we challenged authorizations by the National Marine Fisheries Service that would have allowed companies to harass scores of marine life during seismic airgun blasting.

Special places require special consideration, and Arabella Farm—a Pickens County wedding venue located along Highway 11—is right in the middle of one of the Upstate's most special natural areas. The area's specialness is not conceptual or abstract. Rather, this area is special because it is utilized extensively by fishermen, hikers, birders and lovers of the outdoors. People in this rural part of the Upstate take land stewardship very seriously, and that is why the ongoing pollution from the event venue must be addressed.

The Ingram Dunes, located between Hillside Dr. South and Strand Ave in the heart of North Myrtle Beach, are among the highest relic dunes on the coast of South Carolina.

In August 2015, SCELP filed a case in the Administrative Law Court on behalf of the Coastal Conservation League ("CCL") challenging DHEC’s decision to permit the construction of an 1800-foot timber seawall 2 feet seaward of and 3 feet higher than an existing seawall on Debidue Beach in the private, gated Debordieu Colony Community in Georgetown County. The applicant is seeking to rebuild the seawall under a special proviso in the state budget that was passed after a failed attempt to amend the Coastal Zone Management Act.

In the summer of 2016, beachwalkers on Isle of Palms and Harbor Island raised concerns about experimental plastic seawalls that were obstructing the beach and interfering with sea turtle nesting.

This case involves a dock permit that is unusual and especially egregious due to its location. In particular, DHEC issued a permit to construct a dock from Pappa's Island, also known as Pappy's Island, which is a previously undeveloped 104-acre marsh island that is surrounded by the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. The landowners also obtained a septic permit for the Island, indicating an intent to introduce unprecedented development into one of the most important undeveloped swaths of land in the State.

The landfill at issue in this case was proposed by MRR Highway 92, LLC, a North Carolina company, and would have been located in the town of Gray Court, a small community in Laurens County. SCELP represented an ad hoc group called Engaging and Guarding Laurens County’s Environment (“EAGLE”).

In rural Marlboro County – one of the state’s poorest, and one which generates very little waste – MRR sought permits to construct a brand new mega-dump that would have accepted hundreds of thousands of tons of out-of-state waste. Working with Citizens for Marlboro County, we advocated successfully against the new landfill, and then we successfully defended them against a baseless retaliatory lawsuit filed by MRR.

Smith Land Company purchased a lot near Litchfield Country Club in Georgetown County. Plats for the lot show a portion of the lot as under water, and Smith Land Company obtained a wetland delineation saying that other portions of the lot were wetlands. The pond and wetlands are part of a Carolina Bay, a unique wetland formation. After deciding that the wetlands and pond are “isolated” and not subject to the jurisdiction of the Corps of Engineers, Smith filled in the wetlands and pond.

On behalf of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League and the Sierra Club-Winyah Group, SCELP filed a challenge to a permit issued by DHEC’s Office of Ocean & Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) to Debordieu Colony Community Association (DCCA) authorizing the construction of three groins on Debidue Beach.

Jasper Station, LLC, owns approximately 80.0 acres in Jasper County, of which 30.0 acres are “isolated” wetlands. Because the wetlands are deemed “isolated” by the Corps of Engineers, no Clean Water Act Section 404 permit is required. However, a coastal zone consistency certification is required before filling in the 30.0 acres of isolated wetlands as part of Jasper Station’s stormwater permit.

A lot owner in the Cherry Grove section of North Myrtle Beach illegally filled in approximately 1500 sq. ft. of salt marsh to make his lot bigger.

A development group, Spectre, LLC, requested a state permit and coastal zone certification to fill 31.76 acres of wetlands on a 62.93 acre tract of land in Murrells Inlet in Horry County. The request would have converted this almost 32 acre cypress swamp into a large commercial development.

We won a case in the South Carolina Supreme Court that will help every citizen who wants to take legal action to enforce this state’s environmental laws. The issue in the case: what must a person prove in order to be deemed to have “standing” to appeal a state permit allowing alteration of public beaches?

We successfully defended Goat Island, a quaint natural island in Charleston County, against a proposal that could have changed the island’s character. Charleston County has designated Goat Island as a Special Purpose District for Natural Resource Management.

We won a big victory for citizens’ rights to enforce the SC Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) and for the protection of coastal wetlands.

The Chem Nuclear landfill, a low level radioactive waste landfill near Barnwell, has a convoluted history and is a symbol of South Carolina’s status as the nation’s dumping ground.

The Angel Oak has long enjoyed a sizable buffer from development on all sides. While the county park where the Angel Oak stands was until recently merely two acres in size, the surrounding private property had remained as farm or woodland. However, a Charleston developer (Angel Oak Village or AOV) proposed to change things drastically.

This case, Sam B. McQueen v. South Carolina Coastal Council, et al, involved two lots purchased by McQueen in the 1960s. He never built on the lots, and the lots gradually washed away by natural forces including tidal action and storm water movement. By 1991, when he finally applied for a permit to build bulkheads to protect the lots, the lots had reverted to critical area salt marsh and mud flats (the lots were originally marsh but had been filled in during the 1950s).

After over 15 years of legal proceedings, in 2000 SCELP finally won the Sierra Club's appeal of the permit for the hazardous waste landfill located on the shores of Lake Marion in Sumter County, and the landfill has since been shut down.

For over seven years SCELP pursued a citizen suit seeking penalties and correction of more than one thousand violations of the Clean Water Act involving excess discharges of mercury and other toxic substances into the North Tyger River from a hazardous waste incinerator in Spartanburg County. The battle went all the way to the United States Supreme Court before we eventually prevailed, and the incinerator shut its doors.

Since its inception, SCELP and our clients successfully challenged many decisions by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resources Management. Our state's Coastal Zone Management would have had shockingly different outcomes if SCELP did not play the major role it did, especially in its early days.

After a six-year legal battle, SCELP and its allies prevailed when ThermalKEM closed its hazardous waste incinerator and gave up its quest to build a second one.

One of the first two cases the newly established SCELP took on in 1987.