AG to Beaufort County: You’re responsible for marine debris removal
After months of bickering between Beaufort County and state agencies, the S.C. Attorney General Office has determined the county must pay the multimillion-dollar bill for clearing Hurricane Matthew storm debris from local waterways and marshlands.
An opinion authored late last month by the office said “a coastal county, such as Beaufort County, possesses ‘legal responsibility’ with respect to debris cleanup in the tidelands areas.”
That responsibility could come with a high price tag.
County administrator Gary Kubic said last week the removal will be “a very costly effort” — preliminary projections estimate that effort could exceed $5 million.
While the county is on the hook for pulling items such as damaged docks out of areas along shorelines and around marshy wetlands, debris removal in deeper water — known as navigable channels — still will be overseen by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The county is in the process of evaluating bids from debris removal contractors.
A firm is expected to be hired in the coming weeks, and “people will finally start seeing some movement” toward cleaning up the “shorelines, low-lying marshes,” deputy county administrator Josh Gruber said last week.
Despite the attorney general’s opinion, however, there may be a silver lining for county taxpayers.
While the county will foot the bill initially, the opinion should help convince the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse the cost, county leaders say.
“It’s going to probably cost millions, and we want to do everything we can to get reimbursed,” county attorney Tom Keaveny said Monday.
While the Attorney General’s Office doesn’t determine FEMA reimbursement eligibility, its opinion concludes by saying, “We hope that state and local authorities are fully reimbursed for the cost imposed in responding to (the Hurricane Matthew) disaster.”
The deadline for removing the debris in order to be reimbursed is also a concern.
FEMA requires that all debris — including items in waterways — be removed by April 3 in order to be eligible for reimbursement.
“It’s going to be hard to get all the marine debris removed by” the April deadline, Keaveny said.
The lengthy dispute over responsibility for the marine debris resulted in a late start for the cleanup effort.
The county has asked FEMA for a deadline extension, and the request is currently being reviewed.
Before the attorney general’s opinion was issued, county leaders “went back and forth” with officials from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, and “no one wanted to claim responsibility,” Keaveny said.
Ultimately, the county asked the S.C. Attorney General’s Office to weigh in.
The county took the position that “the state is responsible for maintaining and protecting and regulating” waterways, Keaveny said.
DHEC officials claimed the agency “is not tasked with with the obligations beyond” those set forth in state law, which “does not contemplate that (DHEC) is responsible for the removal of marine debris,” according to a letter to the Attorney General’s Office.
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Beaufort County annual financial report delayed
The release of Beaufort County’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year that ended last June has been delayed.
The report, typically released in late January, has been delayed “due to the significant financial impact to the county of costs associated with debris removal efforts stemming from the effects of Hurricane Matthew,” according to a county news release.
The county’s external financial auditors have requested that the county determine and include information pertaining to these projected costs within the report, the release said.
Once the report is completed, a notice will be issued to the public and the report will be posted online at the county’s website, www.bcgov.net.
This story was originally published February 20, 2017 at 2:28 PM with the headline "AG to Beaufort County: You’re responsible for marine debris removal."