South Carolina Town’s Growth Seeks to Outrace EPA Waters Rule

Hardeeville, S.C., was little more than a pit stop 20 years ago—the last gas pumps and Waffle House along Miami-bound Interstate 95 before crossing the Savannah River into Georgia.

Today, its vision is to be home to a giant new industrial and residential area called RiverPort serving a proposed new port terminal adjacent to a national wildlife refuge on the South Carolina side of the river. Wildlife officials say the project will degrade wetlands and could interfere with water quality and wildlife—but a Trump-era rollback could allow it to be permitted before the Biden administration can reverse it.

RiverPort is ...