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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.