Seawalls and Bulkheads at DeBordieu Colony: What South Carolina Law Actually Allows
An oceanfront homeowner facing erosion might assume a seawall is the obvious answer -- at DeBordieu, and across the entire South Carolina coast, state law generally says otherwise, and DeBordieu's own erosion fight is a named case study in exactly why.
The 1988 Beachfront Management Act's Core Rule
South Carolina's Beachfront Management Act, passed by the state legislature in 1988, generally prohibits the construction of new hard erosion-control structures -- seawalls, bulkheads, and revetments -- seaward of the state's regulatory setback line along the developed South Carolina coast. Existing erosion-control structures already in place before the Act generally cannot be rebuilt if they become more than two-thirds damaged, meaning the Act was designed to phase out hard armoring over time rather than simply freezing the coastline's existing structures in place indefinitely. This rule applies statewide, along the entire developed South Carolina coast, including DeBordieu -- it is not a DeBordieu-specific restriction, but it is directly relevant to any DeBordieu oceanfront owner considering erosion protection for their own property.
Why the State Banned New Hard Structures
The Act's prohibition wasn't arbitrary -- it followed a mid-1980s blue-ribbon committee of scientists, municipal officials, legislators, and conservation leaders convened by the South Carolina legislature specifically to study beachfront management, whose findings concluded that hard armoring like seawalls and bulkheads had historically increased -- not decreased -- coastal properties' vulnerability to wave and wind damage, while simultaneously contributing to the loss of the dry sand beach that South Carolina's tourism economy depends on. The core engineering problem with a seawall is that it reflects wave energy rather than absorbing it, which tends to accelerate erosion of the sand immediately in front of and alongside the wall, effectively exporting the erosion problem to neighboring, unprotected beach rather than solving it.
DeBordieu's Groins: A Different, Specially Permitted Structure
DeBordieu's own erosion-management project, covered in more depth on this site's Beach Erosion Reality page, did not attempt to build seawalls -- it pursued a permit for three rock-and-concrete groins, structures built perpendicular to the beach rather than parallel to it, designed to interrupt longshore sand transport rather than to hold a shoreline in place directly. Groins occupy a different regulatory category than seawalls under the Beachfront Management Act; DHEC's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management retains authority to issue special permits for certain structures including groins under specific circumstances, which is the pathway DeBordieu's project took -- issued in 2018, litigated by environmental groups, and ultimately upheld through South Carolina's Administrative Law Court and affirmed by the South Carolina Court of Appeals in 2024. This distinction -- groins as a specially permittable structure versus seawalls as generally prohibited -- is the central legal mechanism that made DeBordieu's project possible at all.
What This Means for an Individual Oceanfront Owner
A DeBordieu oceanfront owner facing erosion on their own specific lot generally cannot simply build a new private seawall or bulkhead seaward of the state setback line -- the same statewide prohibition that shaped the Community Association's own groin-and-nourishment approach applies to individual property owners as well. Property owners with pre-1988 legal, existing seawalls or bulkheads may have different rights regarding maintenance and repair (up to the two-thirds-damage threshold) than an owner without an existing structure, but this page did not research the specific legal status of any individual DeBordieu lot's shoreline structures -- a South Carolina coastal law attorney and DHEC's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management are the correct sources to confirm what, if anything, is permitted on a specific parcel.
Soft Alternatives: Sand Fencing, Dune Vegetation, and Nourishment
Because hard structures are generally off the table, South Carolina's regulatory framework and coastal engineering practice generally favor 'soft' erosion-management approaches: sand fencing and dune vegetation to help stabilize existing dunes, and beach nourishment (the direct placement of sand, as DeBordieu's own 2015 and subsequent projects have done) to rebuild lost beach width. These approaches work with natural coastal processes rather than against them, though nourishment in particular requires periodic, recurring reapplication as sand naturally erodes again over time -- exactly the pattern DeBordieu experienced when roughly 500,000 of the 2015 project's 795,000 cubic yards were lost before the groin permit was even finalized. This page did not find current, specific guidance on sand fencing or dune-vegetation programs available to individual DeBordieu property owners -- ask the Community Association about any community-level or individual-lot soft-stabilization programs.
Before Making Any Shoreline Modification
Any shoreline stabilization work at DeBordieu -- hard or soft -- requires review under both state coastal regulation (DHEC's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management) and the Community Association's own Architectural Review Board, which reviews exterior modifications including landscape changes. Skipping either review creates real legal exposure: unpermitted hard structures seaward of the setback line can be subject to state enforcement action requiring removal, independent of any Community Association penalty for skipping ARB review. Any DeBordieu owner considering shoreline work of any kind should consult both a South Carolina coastal law attorney and DHEC's OCRM office before beginning any work, rather than assuming a contractor's informal advice reflects current state regulatory requirements.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: South Carolina's Beachfront Management Act (1988) as described by South Carolina's Department of Environmental Services (formerly DHEC), Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute (S.C. Code Regs. § 30-21), and Beachapedia's State of the Beach erosion-response summary for South Carolina; South Carolina Law Review's article on the Beachfront Management Act and DeBordieu Colony for the case-study framing and the Act's rationale; and Coastal Observer's and letstalkdirtsc.com's reporting on DeBordieu's specific groin permit, its 2018 issuance, and its 2024 affirmation by the South Carolina Court of Appeals, both sourced in more depth on this site's Beach Erosion Reality page. Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here include: the specific legal status (pre- or post-1988) of any individual DeBordieu lot's existing shoreline structures; current sand-fencing or dune-vegetation program details available to individual owners; and current DHEC enforcement practice for unpermitted shoreline modifications at DeBordieu specifically. Confirm the current legal status of any specific shoreline and any planned modification directly with DHEC's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, the DeBordieu Colony Community Association, and a South Carolina coastal law attorney before undertaking any shoreline work. Nothing on this page is legal or engineering advice.