Lawsuit Filed to Stop Santee Swamp Bridge

Columbia - The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing three of the state's leading conservation groups, filed suit today in Federal District Court to stop a wasteful and destructive bridge proposed for the Upper Santee Swamp, an important natural area 30 miles southeast of Columbia. The lawsuit contends the SC Department of Transportation ignored data showing the project would not improve local traffic or economic conditions, failed to look at less destructive alternatives and ignored serious environmental problems.

The federal deadline to file the legal challenge is tomorrow. SELC represents the Coastal Conservation League, the SC Wildlife Federation and Audubon South Carolina in this challenge.

"Unfortunately, SCDOT completed a half-baked study for a full-priced project that will destroy a state treasure," said Blan Holman, senior attorney with SELC. "Taxpayers have been handed a $100 million pig-in-a-poke."

The project would dissect the Upper Santee Swamp of Lake Marion, a revered expanse downriver of the Congaree National Park surrounded by several other designated wildlife areas. Proponents of the bridge claim it will spur economic development and improve traffic flow. However, the SC DOT's own studies have shown the project would shave a mere three to 10 minutes off the hour-long drive between Orangeburg and Sumter. Furthermore, Federal Highway Administration studies show that building roads alone is not an effective economic development strategy for rural areas. In fact, the project has been recognized as one of America's most wasteful road projects.

The bridge proposal highlights a larger problem of giving non-priority projects a green light, while funding for identified transportation priorities languishes. The DOT's own twenty-year plan shows $57 billion in priorities, but only $11 billion in hand to pay for them. SCDOT has announced a campaign to seek additional funding sources from the General Assembly next legislative session but has no plans to reform funding priorities to address the most pressing transportation needs.

"For South Carolina to grow and prosper, DOT needs to focus on the state's real transportation priorities. The $100 million spent on this new bridge is money that can't be spent on pressing needs in this area or anywhere else in the state," said David Farren, SELC's senior transportation attorney. "SCDOT has a responsibility to focus on legitimate safety, maintenance and capacity needs before it wastes taxpayer money on a project that isn't needed."

South Carolina has the 5th deadliest highways in the country. In 2003, the Department of Transportation Executive Director admitted publicly that, ".if we had no earmark for that bridge, that bridge would not be a project that the DOT would select," and acknowledged that "[p]ublic input throughout the public involvement process resulted in a common opinion that the funds for this project would be better spent on other transportation system improvements, or on other needs such as education."Governor Mark Sanford has called the project "fiscally irresponsible."

When taking public comment on wetlands and water quality permits needed for the project, the Army Corps of Engineers received an extraordinary 300 letters, many from local citizens, most of which were opposed to the bridge. In addition, every federal and state natural resource agency that reviewed the proposal objected because of serious environmental impacts or insufficient detail in the application.

The lawsuit filed today challenges a host of major flaws in the 2002 Environmental Impact Statement, required under federal law to evaluate the pros and cons of the project. The project has yet to win approval for permit applications to fill wetlands in and around the planned bridge. The SELC attorneys said they would challenge any permits issued on the basis of the flawed study.