03/02/2025
Y’all — do you know that an Atlanta-based tract housing developer now wants to start building 200 houses within the NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE????
And our state REGULATORS are allowing it!
From the Rising Waters Lab and the great team at The P&C ⤵️
A years-long fight between conservation and construction continues on Awendaw's White Tract
By Jonah Chester [email protected]
Feb 4, 2025
AWENDAW — Two environmental groups are challenging stormwater and regulatory permits for a proposed housing development in this small Charleston County town. It's the latest move in a yearslong saga to prevent development on Awendaw's White Tract, which abuts the borders of Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.
The project, spearheaded by Atlanta-based Pulte Homes, includes a plan to fill in roughly 2 acres of the tract and alter more than 17 acres of land in order to build 27 new homes — the first steps in a buildout that eventually will include more than 200 homes across 182 acres, according to the South Carolina Environmental Law Project.
SCELP is representing the Awendaw-based Friends of Coastal South Carolina in the challenge.
While the Pulte Homes project is just outside the current boundary of Cape Romain, the development is within the refuge's congressionally approved acquisition boundaries. It's an area the federal government has earmarked for potential expansion of the preserve.
According to the two groups, the new development could discharge septic tank leaks and stormwater into Cape Romain, which they argue is a violation of state and federal protections for the refuge. They cited concerns from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that chemical run-off, fertilizers and other pollutants could cause toxicity in the shellfish beds.
“In addition to ecological value, the region is also a critical economic resource as the heart of our area’s finfish and shellfish industry,” Grace Gasper, executive director of Friends of Coastal South Carolina, wrote in a press release. “Many people in our community depend on the pristine waters of the refuge to make their living."
➡️A spokesperson for Pulte Group, Pulte Homes' parent company, did not respond to requests for comment. ⬅️
The Cape is a critical habitat for nearly 300 bird species, several of which are federally listed as threatened or endangered.
The refuge is among the most important nesting sites on the East Coast for loggerhead sea turtles and can host over 3,000 sea turtle nests per season, according to the environmental groups. Of the 4,800 sea turtles documented in South Carolina in 2024, more than 43 percent called Cape Romain home, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Natural Resources.
“Heightened protections for areas like the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge exist for a reason,” wrote Monica Whalen, a staff attorney at SCELP. “The cumulative impacts of stormwater runoff from this project threaten the health of a place with exceptional environmental and recreational value, and the filling of wetlands would destroy important wildlife habitat, as well as their flood buffering functions.”
Development in the Charleston metropolitan area creeps closer to Awendaw every year. The small rural community of roughly 1,400 passed a moratorium last year on new subdivisions and tightened restrictions for new houses, an effort city leaders contend will help preserve the area's ecology and small-town feel.
