Announcement from South Carolina Environmental Law Project:
Opponents of a proposed Dollar General in a mountain valley just south of Brevard, North Carolina have filed a formal notice of intent to sue the store’s developer, Transylvania County, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality over violations of the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) and its implementing regulations. This “60-day notice” is the compulsory first step in ESA citizen suit litigation.
The proposed store—which would be the corporation’s seventh location in the County—is currently under construction at Becky Mountain Road and Highway 276, on a property adjacent to Hogsed Creek, approximately 150 yards upstream from the Creek’s confluence with the French Broad River.
According to the ESA notice letter, should the project go forward in its present form, construction activities and stormwater discharges at the site will result in unlawful harm to a nearby population of Appalachian Elktoe mussels, a species listed and protected under the Endangered Species Act. The primary reasons of such harm, according to the letter, are that the retail location is being constructed entirely within the floodplain of Hogsed Creek and without any permanent system for managing and treating runoff.
The notice was filed on behalf of the Concerned Citizens of Transylvania County by the South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP), a nonprofit public interest law firm.
“I was convinced that the days of needlessly developing in flood prone areas were coming to an end, but then there is this project. Not only does this Dollar General and its parking lot have to be elevated out of the floodplain through fill, but that disturbance is happening beside one of the very few locations in the area with a known population of endangered species. It’s tough to understand,” said Michael Corley, Upstate Director of SCELP.
The Concerned Citizens of Transylvania County intend to file a citizen suit under Section 9 of the Endangered Species Act in 60 days if the project continues on its present trajectory. This legal action comes after citizen efforts to find an alternative location for the store were rebuffed by Dollar General.
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