Help us Use the Law to Defend Coastal Georgia

The decline in enforcement of environmental laws has worsened in recent years. As a result, the burden of enforcement in the form of costly legal action is more frequently being carried by non-profit environmental organizations like the Center.  

We are now engaged in legal action on two fronts, and the fees are adding up. Our ability to succeed by taking these cases to their conclusion depends on raising enough funds to pay for expert legal services.

Protecting Cumberland Island

The Center is taking legal action to prevent development on Cumberland Island National Seashore. We are trying to get the US Army Corps of Engineers to comply with the 1972 Act creating Cumberland Island National Seashore, which instructs that the island be managed in such a way as to preserve its "primitive" character. 

The Corps violated this Act by approving a private dock in the heart of the most frequently visited part of the National Seashore – adjacent to the public camping area known as Sea Camp. The construction of a dock on privately-owned land, which was purchased by Lumar, LLC more than twenty years after the creation of Cumberland Island National Seashore, reverses 50 years of management policies intended to allow nature to gradually reclaim the island.

Our lawsuit also claims that the Corps violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by approving the dock without undertaking any review of its environmental impacts.

In a separate lawsuit, we contend that Lumar LLC violated the Coastal Marshlands Protection Act by improperly claiming an exemption from the requirement to apply for a Coastal Marshlands Protection Act permit. Presently, the zoning doesn't allow residential development on Cumberland Island but the owners of the densely forested 90-acre Lumar tract have petitioned the Camden County Board of Commissioners for a variance and have submitted plans to subdivide the property into ten residential lots. The landowner will undoubtedly use the dock’s construction to justify approval to subdivide and develop.

Private dock construction in view of National Park Service ferry dock at Sea Camp

Preventing Reckless Beachfront Development

Aerial view of Sea Island Spit

The Center is also challenging flawed permitting for beach restoration and groin construction on Sea Island.

The negative impact of groins on downdrift shorelines is well documented and widely understood.  When a groin works as intended, the sand moving along the beach in the downdrift direction is trapped on the updrift side of the groin, causing a sand deficit and increasing erosion rates on the downdrift side. Coastal engineers and geologists widely cite this unquestioned impact. The US Corps of Engineers’ Coastal Engineering Manual describes groins as “…probably the most misused and improperly designed of all coastal structures…” 

On Sea Island, we have already seen the harmful effects of groins. It is well-documented that the two groins previously installed on Sea Island threaten the pristine and ecologically sensitive area at the southern end of the island, known as The Spit.  Specifically, the groins have caused a loss of at least 250 feet in the beach width and at least 2,000 feet in the length of the Spit.  

Nevertheless, Sea Island sought and received authority to install another groin further south at the northern edge of the Spit.   The new groin is situated to protect eight vacant lots that Sea Island plans to develop as part of a new multi-million-dollar residential development.

A significant portion of this land was washed away following Hurricanes Matthew and Irma. The project site is such a high risk that it is ineligible for federal flood insurance and disaster relief. Federal funds cannot even be used to support roads and infrastructure.  With sea-level rise threatening Georgia’s coastal communities, this problem will only get worse. 

Our litigation has uncovered flagrant permit violations.  For example, Sea Island unlawfully took sand from our public beaches to build up its private lots. It also constructed the new groin nearly 40% longer than the permits allowed, and the groin and beach construction cuts-off public access.   

Unfortunately, regulatory authorities sit idly by, authorizing faulty permits, and then failing to enforce those permits once issued - leaving organizations like the Center to pick up the slack and protect coastal communities and public resources in court. 

Summary 

We are deeply concerned that without our continued actions through the courts, the negligence of regulatory authorities will become more flagrant – jeopardizing coastal Georgia’s environment and quality of life.

We need your help to make sure these violations are not swept under the rug.

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