The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will hold public meetings to present and discuss the draft purpose and need being prepared as part of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed South Carolina Highway 22 Extension project. These will the first set of a series of community meetings as they take public input to draft the EIS. Drop-in style meetings will be held at the following locations.
Please attend one of the meetings to tell U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and SCDOT that this new highway is NOT needed and will exacerbate flooding and traffic concerns, not fix them.
The proposed road across the Waccamaw had previously been dubbed the Southern Evacuation Lifeline, “SELL,” but has been renamed to the SC Highway 22 Extension and was listed on the ballot question for the sales tax referendum as the “Southern Connector.” The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) completed the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in 2008 but then ran out of money to complete the final EIS. With the EIS more than 15 years out of date, the process had to be restarted in 2023, reconsidering all 16 possible routes.
The SC-22 Ext would be a 28-mile, 4-lane interstate-standard road with huge interstate-standard interchanges and significant land use impacts. The extension will induce sprawl in western Horry and Georgetown Counties and increase traffic on the already crowded Highway 17 and throughout the Grand Strand and Waccamaw Neck. The new highway will impact the Waccamaw Wildlife Refuge, forever alter traditional Gullah communities of Bucksport and Burgess, and spur the loss of rural farmland.
The road would also impact hundreds of acres of the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, wetlands, streams, and the Waccamaw River itself. These impacts could exacerbate existing flooding challenges faced by communities along the highway’s path. In addition, the area has successfully evacuated utilizing lane reversals in recent years. Modern forecasting has made it possible to evacuate well in advance. Our communities do, however, have issues with ingress and egress to their homes in the aftermath of hurricanes due to riverine flooding. A new 28-mile interstate won’t fix this! We need to promote improving existing infrastructure first and foremost to provide for resiliency against a changing climate with more frequent and severe weather events.
Please speak up for our Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge and our communities by attending one of the meetings.
FUTURE MEETINGS:
Thursday, May 15, 2025
Santee Cooper Meeting Room
100 Elm St, Conway, SC 29526
4:00 – 6:00 PM