COLUMBIA — For the fifth time at the S.C. Supreme Court, lawyers for a land developer, several environmental groups and state regulators faced off over the future of Captain Sam’s Spit, a delicate body of land on Kiawah Island where builders want to put houses.

The teardrop-shaped spit is on the southern tip of Kiawah and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Kiawah River to the west.

The spit’s edge adjacent to the river is rapidly eroding and the neck connecting Captain Sam’s to Kiawah has been measured at narrower than 30 feet.