CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – After a three-year-long debate, environmentalists and Horry County officials will meet Tuesday in court to discuss International Drive.
The road was supposed to be paved in 2013, but a request for bear crossings stalled the project indefinitely.
In 2010, Horry County signed a contract with the department of natural resources to pave international drive. The road would be two lanes and include three bear tunnels.
However plans changed in 2013, when the county urged d-n-r to sign a new contract. This time expanding the road to five lanes and eliminating bear tunnels altogether.
County officials say the bear population within Lewis Ocean Bay Preserve had significantly decreased after the 2009 wild fire.
Documents obtained by My Horry News support that theory. In 2009, DNR recorded 24 bears. The most recent data from 2014 shows just 10 bears.
“So what does that tell you, the bear population has dwindled. I’m all for animals, I do not want to harm the animals,” said resident Felicia Soto.
But she also stands for humans. Soto lives in a neighborhood off Highway 90.
“It’s about us you know we’re the forgotten children, we’re in them middle, it’s about us, this is our community,” she explained.
Soto says International Drive would provide the safest and most direct route to Grand Strand Medical Center.
“In order to get to that hospital, It’ll take us 25 minutes or better because we have to go down Highway 90 to 22.”
Most recently, the South Carolina Environmental Law Project filed for a contested case hearing before an administrative law court in Columbia.
Coastal Conservation League North Coast Director Nancy Cave says their goal is to show DHEC did not fully consider the environmental impacts, when issuing a permit to pave International Drive.
Cave says the judge will decide to either uphold the permit, reverse the permit, or include conditions.
“We hope among other things that the conditions would include animal crossings, reduce the number of curb cuts and we’d like to see the road reduced to two lanes,” said Cave.
She says they plan argue DNR reports on bear population in court.
The hearings start tomorrow at am in Columbia. Horry County leaders and environmentalists have met twice previously, but failed to agree.
