In a unanimous vote on Wednesday, 111 members of the South Carolina House of Representatives rebuked Gov. Nikki Haley and the SCDHEC Board, which supported a permit allowing the State of Georgia to dredge the Savannah River to deepen port facilities in Savannah.
A bipartisan bill sponsored by Charleston Reps. Leon Stavrinakis (D) and Jim Merrill (R) and Columbia Rep. Jim Harrison (R), the legislation seeks to halt the permit and return the authority for such decisions to the S.C. Maritime Commission and the General Assembly, an authority that the representatives say the Governor and the DHEC Board usurped in issuing the permit, according to a statement issued by Stavrinakis.
“ This vote represents a loud, bipartisan rejection of this terrible decision by the Governor and her DHEC Board. We will not allow our environment to be destroyed and our businesses crippled for the benefit of the State of Georgia ” Stavrinakis wrote in the statement.
The bill now heads to the S.C. Senate.
“It’s an unfortunate over-step of the legislature’s authority ,” Haley Spokesman Rob Godfrey stated.
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Dredging Today Staff, January 26, 2012;