ORDERS:
CONSENT ORDER OF DISMISSAL
Petitioner
South Carolina State Ports Authority (SPA) and the Respondent South Carolina
Department of Health and Environmental Control, Office of Ocean and Coastal
Resource Management (OCRM), jointly move this Court for dismissal of this
contested case.
This
matter arose from a dispute regarding the jurisdiction of OCRM to conduct a consistency
review under the South Carolina Coastal Zone Management Program Document over a
proposed lease agreement between SPA and the U.S. Department of Interior’s
Mineral Management Service (MMS). The proposed lease would allow SPA to
recover and excavate dredged material from the Charleston Ocean Dredged
Material Disposal Site (ODMDS) for use as fill for the construction of an
access road and a marine container terminal at the former Charleston Naval Base
(Project).
Subsequent
to SPA’s initiation of the administrative review process, OCRM requested approval
from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal
agency which administers the federal Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), 16
U.S.C. §§ 1451 et seq. and its implementing regulations, to review the
proposed lease for consistency pursuant to 15 C.F.R. § 930.54(a). By letter
dated June 13, 2008, NOAA issued its decision denying OCRM’s request to review
the proposed lease. As the federal agency administering the CZMA has ruled on
this issue, and the parties accept NOAA’s decision as final and binding, SPA’s
challenge to OCRM’s jurisdiction to conduct a consistency review in this
contested case is moot and this matter should be dismissed. See Mathis
v. S.C. State Hwy. Dep’t, 260 S.C. 344, 195 S.E.2d 713 (1973); Town of Blenheim v. S.C. Dep’t of Health and Envtl. Control, Docket No. 01-ALJ-07-0550-CC (S.C. Admin. Law Ct. July 2, 2002).
Therefore,
because the issue presented has been mooted, it is hereby ORDERED that
the above-captioned contested case is DISMISSED.
AND
IT IS SO ORDERED.
_________________________________
The
Honorable Ralph King Anderson, III
Administrative
Law Judge
1205 Pendleton Street, Suite 224
Columbia, South Carolina 29201-3731
Columbia, South Carolina
June 30, 2008
WE SO MOVE AND CONSENT: WE SO
MOVE AND CONSENT:
___________________________ ____________________________
Mitchell Willoughby Elizabeth
A. Dieck
Randolph R. Lowell Evander
Whitehead
Willoughby & Hoefer, P.A. South
Carolina Department of Health
930 Richland Street and
Environmental Control
Columbia, SC 29201 1362
McMillan Avenue, Suite 400
Tel: (803) 252-3300 North Charleston, SC 29405
Fax: (803) 256-8062 Tel:
(843) 953-0200
Fax:
(843) 953-0201
Philip L. Lawrence
Chief Legal Counsel Counsel
for Respondent
S.C. State Ports Authority South
Carolina Department of
Post Office Box 22287 Health
& Environmental Control
Charleston, SC 29413-2287
Tel: (843) 577-8777
Counsel for Petitioner
South Carolina State Ports Authority
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