Pest Control in Cainhoy, SC

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - Environmental groups are suing federal agencies in what they say is an attempt to protect wetlands that could be damaged by a planned development.

The Coastal Conservation League, the South Carolina Wildlife Federation and Charleston Waterkeeper filed the suit against the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The groups say a developer should not be allowed to fill in wetlands and build houses in a floodplain for the Cainhoy Plantation development.

The groups say they have been watching the plans for years, adding that they are not against building on the peninsula as long as it is done in a way that protects wildlife and wetlands.

“They’re going to impact the red pocketed woodpeckers. We’re trying to get them to avoid those birds,” CCL Senior Program Director Jason Crowley says. “We’re trying to get them to minimize their impacts of the wetlands. And they’re proposing about half their development to be locating homes within the 100-year floodplain.”

In the lawsuit, the groups argue that a permit to build on nearly 200 acres of wetlands violates the Clean Water Act. The act says permits should only be approved for the least damaging option to wetlands.

“It would be more condensed, but you can basically do the same development, eliminate the impacts to wetlands, get the new development out of the floodplain which seems like a win-win to us,” Chris DeScherer, the South Carolina office director of the Southern Environmental Law Center, said. “Because the corps and the developer failed to explain why they didn’t go that route, we think we have very strong arguments to make in front of the court.”

With the lawsuit, the groups have submitted alternative plans, that allow for development, but don’t impact the wetlands as much.

“Litigation is a tool. But you know, our ultimate outcome and goal is to be able to work with the developers and the agencies that issued these permits to come up with a resolution that allows a sustainable, resilient development on this property that is respectful and mindful of the surrounding communities and the natural resources and cultural resources and ensure that, as our region continues to deal with the effects of sea level rise and flooding that we’re not putting more people in harm’s way than where we have seen that issue in other places in the Lowcountry in recent years,” Crowley said.

When asked for comment the U.S. EPA said, “As this is pending litigation, we have nothing to add.”

Other agencies named in the lawsuit have not yet responded to requests for comment.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

By his fourth season in the NFL, Robert Porcher was already an established starter for the Detroit Lions.

In three short seasons, Porcher had gone from an unknown first-round draft pick out of tiny South Carolina State University to a solid NFL contributor. He wanted more. He was far from satisfied with just making an NFL roster or being just another defensive lineman for the Lions.

The former Cainhoy High School star wanted Detroit fans to remember his name long after his career came to an end.

It was during a practice that season in 1995 that Porcher noticed Barry Sanders all by himself on a parallel field running gassers, the least favorite conditioning drill for any football player. By 1995, Sanders was a perennial all-pro running back on his way to a Hall of Fame career.

“I was a starter, my job was pretty secure, but I wasn’t really pleased with my development,” Porcher said. “I knew I could be better. I wanted to be more than I was. I remember watching Barry running these sprints during one of the defensive periods when the offense is supposed to be on the sidelines resting and wondering why the best running back in the NFL was doing all this extra work.”

Porcher pondered.

“Maybe Barry was the best running back because of the extra work he was putting in,” he recalls thinking. “I thought I was doing enough, but I realized I wasn’t.”

The next day, while the offense was working on their portion of the game plan and Porcher had a break, instead of taking a knee, and searching for water, he started to run his own.

“I went from gassers to eventually running 100-yard sprints,” Porcher said. “As soon as I committed myself, my career took off.”

Over the next six seasons, Porcher was among the most feared pass rushers in the NFL, recording 68 sacks, including five seasons with double-digit sacks. Porcher was a three-time Pro Bowl selection (1997, 1999 and 2001) and finished his NFL career with 95½ sacks, which still stands as a franchise record.

Next week, Porcher will be inducted into the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame along with former South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier, former Citadel and Furman head coach Art Baker, former USC and NFL standout Willie Scott and former Clemson and NFL star Charlie Waters. The ceremony, which had been scheduled for July 23, has been moved to 2021 due to the coronavirus.

“Anytime that I’m recognized for my contributions as a football player, it’s always an honor,” said Porcher, who lives in Charlotte and runs a trucking and logistics company. “When you’re playing, you don’t realize what kind of impact you are having, so I’m truly blessed to be recognized and to go in with such a great class. Coach Spurrier is one of the all-time great coaches, a coach I really idolized, so to be in the same class as coach Spurrier is truly an honor.”

Not bad for a guy who had just two college scholarships offers coming out of Cainhoy High School.

Cainhoy, 200 students

Porcher, 50, spent most of his childhood in Mount Pleasant. He went to Wando High School for 2½ years, but played just one season of junior varsity football for the Warriors. His family moved to the city of Wando in Berkeley County during his junior year, and he transferred to Cainhoy High School, which barely had 200 students in the late 1980s.

Porcher decided to give football another chance and played for Cainhoy during his senior season. He was good enough to catch the eye of coaches at Tennessee State and S.C. State.

“The reason I didn’t get more scholarship offers was because I only played varsity football that one year,” Porcher said. “I think if I’d played another year, maybe, I’d have gotten a better look.”

Porcher signed with Tennessee State and played two years for the Tigers before transferring to Orangeburg to play for Willie Jeffries.

“There was just something about coach Jeffries that made you want to play for him,” Porcher said.

Porcher was a late bloomer with the Bulldogs. Going into his senior season at S.C. State, Jeffries knew that Porcher had more to give.

“Robert was a good player, but I felt like he wasn’t realizing his full potential,” Jeffries said. “I think everyone on the coaching staff knew he could play in the NFL.”

Before the season began, Jeffries and defensive line coach George Wheeler sat down with their pupil and implored him to work harder.

“We laid down the law with Robert,” Jeffries said. “We told him he was going about 80 percent of what he could be doing. I’m sure he thought he was giving 100 percent, but he wasn’t.”

Porcher didn’t get mad. He didn’t pout. He didn’t talk about transferring.

He went back to work.

“A lot of the players today would probably transfer if you talked to them like that, but Robert wasn’t like that at all,” Jeffries said.

Porcher spent his senior season terrorizing opposing quarterbacks and offensive linemen.

“Robert literally made one tackle from Florida A&M cry during a game because he couldn’t block him,” Jeffries remembers.

NFL scouts began to take notice. At 6-3 and 275-pounds, Porcher’s quickness and athleticism made him a prototype defensive rush specialist.

“I mean, the top scouts were coming, and by the end of the season, Robert had turned himself into a first-round pick,” Jeffries said.

Porcher was taken by the Lions in the first round with the 26th overall pick. He spent the next 13 seasons in Detroit.

“At first, I wanted to prove that I belonged in the NFL and that Lions didn’t make a mistake taking a kid from an historic black college in the first round,” Porcher said. “That drove me the first few years of my career. When I got over that hump, I wanted to be one of the team leaders, then I wanted to finish my career as the all-time sack leader for the Lions.”

Porcher can still remember his first NFL sack against the Washington Redskins nearly three decades ago. Washington was coming off a Super Bowl championship the season before, and the game was on national television at RFK Stadium.

“When you live in Charleston, you are either a Washington, Atlanta or Dallas fan,” Porcher said. “Those were the only games on TV. This was before the Carolina Panthers came along. I remember I couldn’t sleep the night before, and, running onto the field, all I could think about was, ‘God, if this is a dream, don’t ever wake me up.’”

Porcher admits that lining up across from the 6-7, 300-pound All Pro offensive lineman Joe Jacoby was a bit nerve wracking.

“You just don’t realize how big he is until you get on the field against him,” Porcher said. “He was huge, and I knew, if he got his hands on me, there was no way I was getting to the quarterback. I knew I had to be faster than him.”

Late in the second quarter, Porcher finally was able to get around Jacoby and sack Washington quarterback Mark Rypien.

The first thought that went through Porcher’s head was not that he’d made his first NFL sack, but the reaction from his friends back in Wando watching the game on TV.

“My cousin owns this joint called Lucky’s, and every Sunday they watch the NFL games on TV,” Porcher said. “All I could think about was everybody back at Lucky’s going crazy, high-fiving each other because Pat Summerall and John Madden had just said my name. That was back when you recorded games on VHS tapes. I’ll pop that tape in and listen to John Madden say, ‘I like this rookie, he’s fast.’”

Football loyalty

Porcher never forget where he came from. Each season, he’d fly Jeffries and his wife up to Detroit for at least one game.

“Robert is still the same person he was when he played for us,” Jeffries said. “He hasn’t changed, and that’s a great quality to have.”

Porcher has few regrets about his NFL career. One, however, was that he may have retired too soon.

“Physically, I was still able to play at a high level,” Porcher said. “I could have played two or three more years. I was just mentally burned out. I would have liked to have gotten to 100 sacks. Not many players in the NFL have 100 career sacks, but I think my career turned out OK.”

Plenty good enough to land in the S.C. Football Hall of Fame.

CAINHOY — Environmental advocacy groups in South Carolina filed a lawsuit challenging a permit for a proposed 9,000-acre community along Clements Ferry Road they say would make the area more vulnerable to flooding.

The Point Hope project has been approved for as many as 18,000 homes on land that straddles Clements Ferry Road between S.C. Highway 41 and Interstate 526. Permits were authorized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on May 11.

The lawsuit filed Aug. 17 claims issuance of the Army Corps permit violates the federal Clean Water Act’s prohibition on filling wetlands if there is a less environmentally damaging alternative.

Environmentalists said the project would destroy nearly 200 acres of wetlands needed for floodwater storage, plus place about 45 percent of the planned housing in the floodplain. And more than 45,000 people would be added to the Cainhoy Peninsula beyond Daniel Island, according to a news release from the Southern Environmental Law Center detailing the case.

The center filed the suit in federal court in Charleston on behalf of the Coastal Conservation League, Charleston Waterkeeper and the South Carolina Wildlife Federation.

The Corps referred requests for comments on the lawsuit to the U.S. Department of Justice. A DOJ spokeswoman declined to comment through an email sent on Aug. 18.

Charleston Waterkeeper Director Andrew Wunderley said the developers should be doing everything they can to minimize destroying wetlands that protect residents from floodwaters.

“Damaging hundreds of acres of wetlands is clearly reckless for future occupants of the development,” Wunderley said in the news release.

Several other defendants and issues of concern were also listed in the complaint.

The Environmental Protection Agency is being sued because of its failure to veto the Corps’ permit, the plaintiffs said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listed in the complaint because it “unlawfully issued a biological opinion authorizing the extirpation (elimination) of endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers from the property.”

“It’s the biggest poster child for a bad idea with filling a wetlands, housing in a floodplain and endangered species,” said Catherine Wannamaker, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center.

In addition, the development is planned on an already-crowded road that has its share of traffic issues, environmentalists said.

Because of its proximity to the Francis Marion National Forest, wildlife there, like the red-cockaded woodpecker, could be impacted by city-sized development.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers nest in live trees and depend on mature pine trees to build their internal nests. The Francis Marion once had the nation’s second-largest naturally increasing population. The animals were listed as endangered in 1970, and about half of the population in the forest here was displaced after Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

Point Hope could further remove critical habitat for animals like the woodpecker and negatively impact the forest, environmentalists said.

The environmental groups say they are not opposed to development occurring on the Point Hope property. Instead, they are advocating for a development plan that is resilient and sustainable, said Jason Crowley, a senior program director for the Coastal Conservation League.

He said environmentalists hope to work with the federal agencies and developers on a resolution that substantially minimizes the impacts to natural resources and avoids putting homes in the floodplain “at the same time that the Army Corps is trying to build a billion-dollar seawall downtown.”

The federal government has 60 days to file an answer to the suit, Wannamaker said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include Department of Justice confirmation it would not be commenting on the lawsuit.

HUGER S.C. (WCSC) - People that live in the Huger-Wando community are voicing their concerns to city leaders about everything from transportation to affordable housing.

Almost 200 people came to a community meeting at Cainhoy Elementary on Thursday. They say they feel overlooked when it comes to decisions regarding their area.

Carl Anderson, S.C. House of Representatives District 103, says he is new to representing the Huger-Wando area and wants their requests to be fulfilled.

“Berkeley County has several pots of money that we just hope would be shared across Berkeley County with every area of Berkeley County, but this area, as they said to me, they feel like they have been overlooked,” Anderson said. “So, I feel like this area needs a little bit more attention than the other areas.”

At the meeting, representatives from Berkeley County, the state’s health department and department of transportation, just to name a few, answered questions from the public.

“The funds that have come in from the federal government during this pandemic and what is going to be done with it,” Anderson said. “And we heard that only a fraction of those funds were spent. So, they want to be included in the funds that the county has so that things can get done in this area.”

Another issue brought up was the repaving of certain roads, the cost of affordable housing and overall severity of sewage and drainage problems.

One community member, Cynthia Lawrence, says she wished that the agencies could have gone into more detail with their answers.

“Well, I think the public is still a little leery about the answers that they received tonight from the agencies that were here,” Lawrence said. “We needed to go a little deeper and it just wasn’t enough time.”

Although the community members say they wish they had more time, other county and school representatives say they can answer more in-depth questions when contacted directly.

The hope is to have another meeting sometime in October, but no date has been set as of now. The organizer’s plans include inviting Berkeley County Water and Sewer so they can solve more of the sewage issues.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Cainhoy, S.C. (WCIV) — City of Charleston firefighters officially have a new home in the growing community of Cainhoy and Daniel Island.

A new facility that can provide much needed fire and emergency services to the northern frontier of Charleston for an area that's experiencing explosive growth.

It's been on the board since 2012 for the Cainhoy and Daniel Island community and Wednesday, the city of Charleston took a big step forward.

Mike Gorby is the Charleston fire captain for Engine 121, at 1155 Cainhoy Rd., which will be housed at the new station. There will be five full-time personnel and a Tender 121 vehicle at the location.

“It makes a big difference. All the stations usually feel like home so this will start to feel like home too," he said.

Gorby says the new location will cut down on critical response time.

"Out here it’s probably a 10 minute savings that we can get there before the other engine would be able to get there," he said. "Officials say there are about 14,000 residents in Cainhoy. It's one of the area's fastest-growing areas. Charleston's Fire Chief Joseph Roberts says this station upgrade will make a huge difference.

“We’ve been working on this fire station for a year and a half, almost two years," he said. "It was truly needed out here, this is a part of Charleston that is expanding. There is a lot of growth in the area so fire protection is truly needed,” says Chief Roberts.

Officials say it will help with insurance coverage for residents as well. But this is not the last home for this station. The city is still looking for a permanent location. At that point, the city will reassess the needs of the community.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg says, “Our fire department has done a more recent analysis of future needs of the Cainhoy peninsula and we thought that two fire stations would be adequate, but we believe now that we’ll need to have three fire stations long-term,” Tecklenburg said.

The new fire station plans came out of an evaluation of the area by the insurance service office.

Based on that assessment, the City of Charleston was using a mobile unit for the past year and half until this station build out could be completed.