SELC, One Hundred Miles fight efforts to continue keeping spaceport dangers concealed from the public

WOODBINE, Ga. — Last week, Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of One Hundred Miles, filed a motion to lift the stay in One Hundred Miles’ lawsuit against Camden County and spaceport consultant Andrew Nelson, demanding the release of documents about the risky and expensive spaceport that have been concealed from the public for over six years.

OHM filed suit against Camden County and Nelson after they claimed that the county’s recently invalidated option agreement with Union Carbide Corporation to purchase property for the spaceport allowed the parties to conceal the requested records.

A judge paused the case on July 21, 2022, adding even further delay in providing the public with records that One Hundred Miles first requested in 2015. The judge stayed the case based on Camden County’s recent legal challenge to its own voters’ decision to invalidate the option agreement with Union Carbide through local referendum.

OHM’s motion to lift the stay argues that Camden County’s continued reliance on the option agreement to avoid sharing documents about the spaceport is unfounded, especially now that Union Carbide has announced it has no intention of selling the property and wants to dedicate it for conservation purposes.

“Camden County has spent millions of dollars on a spaceport that taxpayers have soundly rejected, all the while keeping residents in the dark and refusing to provide funding for critical county services like emergency response, animal shelters, and libraries,” says Megan Desrosiers, president and CEO of OHM. “We need the documents now more than ever to understand how this bad project was greenlighted, and so residents can hold county officials accountable.”

“Further delay in this case serves no purpose now that Union Carbide has confirmed they will not sell this property to Camden County,” says April Lipscomb, Senior Attorney in SELC’s Georgia office. “The county no longer has a leg to stand on to withhold public documents from taxpayers who deserve to know where their resources are going.”