HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) — A sand mine in Horry County just a couple yards from the edge of a nature preserve sits quietly right now. Not because there's no more sand or clay to extract, but because the state has told the company to stop work on the site.

This happened back in October 2021, but it's making news headlines now because members of the Coastal Conservation League and South Carolina Environmental Law Project contend the mine should never have been allowed to operate in the first place, and there was soil facilitation taking place as late as mid-February.

Conservationists point to recently captured aerial views of the mine site along Edge Road just a few miles from Old Highway 90 and SC 90. The CCL took a drone over the mining site after neighbors alerted them to activity on and off of the private road leading to it.