Cumberland Harbour

Along the Georgia coast, the vast marshlands where land and ocean mingle provide some of the most productive fisheries and breathtaking landscapes in the South. The marsh ecosystem also helps protect the mainland by slowing flooding and erosion, and filtering water pollution. As the state’s population grows, this fragile resource is under increasing development pressure.

SELC has helped protect the coast from inappropriate development through a series of legal actions to enforce the state Coastal Marshlands Protection Act. One of our cases, challenging the largest marina project ever permitted in Georgia, went before the state Supreme Court.

The 1,000-acre Cumberland Harbour project includes a marina and residential resort in Camden County directly across the sound from Cumberland Island National Seashore. It would have devastating effects on marine wildlife, and send thousands of gallons of polluted stormwater into the marsh every day.

The development includes more than three miles of boat-docking space, and would bring more than 800 boats to the area, greatly increasing the risk of boat strikes to the federally and state-protected species that live in these waters, including manatees, sea turtles and the North Atlantic right whale—the most endangered large whale species in the world with a global population that hovers around 300. The coast off southern Georgia and northern Florida is the only known breeding and calving ground for the whale.

On land, the project calls for about 1,200 homes, plus numerous commercial facilities. This intensive human development threatens habitat for federally protected wood storks and Eastern indigo snakes, as well as state-protected gopher tortoises.

In 2005, SELC filed suit against Georgia’s Coastal Marshlands Protection Committee for issuing a permit to the development company, Land Resources Inc., without considering the impacts the entire development would have on the marsh. Rather, the committee focused only on impacts from construction directly in the marsh. A Georgia administrative law judge agreed with our interpretation of the law and rejected the permit for Cumberland Harbour. The Georgia Court of Appeals overturned this decision, prompting SELC’s appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, the court issued a ruling in November 2008 (pdf) that fails to fully protect the coastal marshlands, leaving nearly 400,000 acres of one of the world’s most productive natural resources in uncertain hands.

SELC will remain a strong advocate for protecting the marsh ecoystem from harm as the permit heads back to the committee for further review.