The $5.5 billion state budget the House approved Tuesday was passed Wednesday by the Senate, including money to help safeguard Hunting Island from the erosion threatening to wash its beaches into the ocean.
"It's going to enable us to continue the beach renourishment project that we need to do there," said Rep. Catherine Ceips, R-Beaufort.
Hunting Island, which attracts more than a million visitors every year, is losing about 15 feet of beach a year to erosion. The $5 million will be added to the $3.2 million the state already has set aside for an estimated $9 million project to nourish and protect the park's beaches from erosion.
Ceips lobbied successfully earlier this year to get the money put into the House version of the budget, originally taking it from the state's Land Conservation Bank. The Senate decided the money should remain in the Conservation Bank, not be used for Hunting Island.
On Monday, a budget compromise agreed to by a House and Senate conference committee included the money for Hunting Island, but it will now come from the state's general fund instead of the Conservation Bank.
Ceips credited Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, the House Ways and Means chairman, with pushing the funding through the committee, and applauded the efforts of the Friends Of Hunting Island, which had members travel to Columbia to lobby in support of the park.
"It took a lot of work," Ceips said.
Ceips said she talked to Gov. Mark Sanford about the budget, and while he hasn't made any promises about Hunting Island, she's hopeful he'll sign off.
"It's such an important project for the state and for the nation," Ceips said. "Hunting Island is very unique and very special."
Sanford spokesman Will Folks said the governor will be looking closely at every item in the state budget and will "take as much time as the law allows" to go over it. Folks said the $5 million for Hunting Island, which could be eliminated with the stroke of Sanford's pen, is on the governor's "radar."
If the $5 million comes through, the project, which would include the construction of five groins, could start as early as this winter, after turtle season ends, and would take about four months to complete, said Ray Stevens, the park manager at Hunting Island State Park.
"That would stabilize the beach and drop the erosion rate from 15 feet a year to about six feet," Stevens said
The project's "life expectancy" is about 20 years, although some maintenance will be needed during that time, he said.
One of the most popular of South Carolina's state parks, Hunting Island's profits are used to keep the state's less financially successful parks alive. Officials with the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism department have called Hunting Island the "crown jewel" of the state park system.
Getting the groin project underway as soon as possible is incredibly important to Hunting Island's future, Stevens said.
"Every year we delay, that's another 15 feet of beachfront gone ... hundreds of trees, a lot of lost resources," he said.