All sides to look for solution to Hunting Island erosion

What could have been a contentious meeting Friday between South Carolina

officials, environmental consultants and the owners of private cabins in Hunting

Island State Park became a mostly civil affair in which all involved pledged to find ways to address severe erosion on the island's far south end.

The answer could lie in the existing permit granted by the state for the most recent renourishment and groin-installation project on the island, since it doesn't expire until January 2011.

Against that backdrop, Tim Kana, president of Coastal Science & Engineering -- the company that oversaw the $8.3 million restoration work completed in March -- ended the meeting by cautioning against any knee-jerk overreaction that might disrupt the intended effects of that project.

"Keep focused on the fact that Hunting Island had an erosion rate averaging over 20 feet per year in the 1950s, '60s (and) '70s. It started to go down in the '80s, and it's really gone down a lot since the '90s," Kana said. "I would submit that with the groins in place at the north end, it's going to go down even further, and if that's the case, this is a major transformation over the conditions that we had to deal with for the last 50 years on this island."

The focus of the first half of the meeting was the installation of six groins -- sand-trapping, vertical structures built perpendicular to the beach -- in the latest renourishment work. As the project evolved, the plans called for eight, then nine groins, to be placed down the length of the island.

The state paid for six groins only, however, and none was placed at the island's south end, where Cabin Road is located. The owners of 22 private beach houses that sit on land leased from the state see the recent dramatic erosion as an indicator that groins should have been installed on the south end.

Two of the 14 state-owned cabins on Hunting Island were demolished this month because of structural damage caused by erosion, and according to the leaseholders, at least five privately owned beach houses are at great risk.

Because the original permit remains valid and allowed nine groins and the dredging of 1.5 million cubic yards of sand, the leaseholders hope more restoration work can be done, provided money can be found.

Phil Gaines, director of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, later assured the leaseholders that protecting Cabin Road is a top priority, but acknowledged funding is an issue.

"There's not funding in place now," Gaines said. "But we'll reallocate some of our operational budgets to address this. ... That's our immediate concern because if we get a bad storm between now and next week, that road's in trouble."