The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s (SCDHEC) has approved a permit for a developer to fill in a functioning tidal creek, despite SC Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) stating that filling in the neutral marsh areas would exacerbate drainage problems, not solve them.
Friends of Gadsden Creek opposes this permit, and is asking people to read their open letter, sign up to be part of their network, write to the Army Corps of Engineers, and take other actions.
Gadsden Creek has long been a site of injustice. It was a thriving wetland and tidal marsh with a community of African-Americans living nearby, who owned their homes. Baptisms were held in the creek. Homeowners were forced into an “urban renewal” housing project and the creek was turned into a landfill which has since been used for a city park and commercial development. Now the SCDHEC is allowing a developer to fill in the remaining creek in a swap for restoring a wetland at a former golf course in a wealthy community.
As the open letter from Friends of Gadsden Creek notes, this project would harm the residents of Gadsden Green, and create more flood risk – not solve drainage problems. It would also create more environmental injustice by subjecting residents of Gadsden Green to more flooding.
With climate change becoming a crisis, bringing excessive flooding and extreme hurricanes that threaten health, it is difficult to understand how any development in a tidal creek could be permitted. Efforts from most municipalities and states are being channeled into resilience and preparing for the sea level rise that is coming.
This proposed development is not building resilience, and it is exacerbating environmental injustice. Please consider joining with Friends of Gadsden Creek.
Read a news report about the approval from SCDHEC.
Read the open letter from Friends of Gadsden Creek here.
Write to to the Army Corps of Engineers about P/N SAC-2015-00188: Courtney.M.Stevens@usace.army.mil.
Watch the Now This video about Gadsden Creek.
Sign up to be a Friend of Gadsden Creek here.
Read a history of Gadsden Creek from the University of South Carolina Maritime Research Division.
07/01/2021
