Preserve our Beautiful Wetland Area

Love’s Travel Stop has, as of this year, bought a 26 acre piece of land that borders both Bluff Road, a busy roadway that connects highway I-26 with the downtown area, and a beautiful and ecologically biodiverse wetland, the only one left in the downtown area. This piece of land is dense with trees and serves as a buffer zone for the fragile wetland that lies directly behind it. There are some positives, I must concede, about the proposed construction of Love’s Travel Stop. First, the truck stop will provide jobs. Secondly, the truck stop, because it will be built on land that is zoned for the Cayce area, the business will bring money into Cayce. However, the negatives far outweigh the positives.
Wetlands have many values and functions that benefit society. Wetlands are extremely important for flood control, and when an impervious surface, such as concrete or asphalt covers the wetland area, excess water or rainfall is prevented from being absorbed into the soil and converted to groundwater, which can then slowly seep into a wetland to be stored safely. Wetlands slow down the speed of water flow and decrease flood situations drastically. When too much water is flowing over impervious surfaces quickly into streams and river, the amount of water builds up, and there is a much higher chance for flooding to occur. Also, when water can no longer soak into the ground, large amounts of pollutants from runoff go directly into the wetland pond, as well as into lakes and streams. When there is no buffer zone to protect the wetland to slow down the flow of water to the watershed, the wetland pond is strained from an influx of pollutants. Natural wetlands like the one on the junction of Bluff Road and South Beltline Boulevard are vital for taking runoff seepage and immense amounts of floodwater. One solution that companies use to correct problems with pollution and to slow down stormwater from draining directly into the wetland, is by building a stormwater pond; however, in order to construct a drainage pond, part of the wetland area will have to be destroyed in order to build it. Also, even if measures were to be put in place to avoid problems, because of the new truck stop, there will be increased traffic in the area, and consequently, more pollution from runoff.
An increase in the probability of flooding in this Wetland area means that there is larger chance of water backing up into the low lying, low income communities in the downtown area nearest the wetland. Cutting down trees in this area also means a loss of green space in these low income communities. The Heathwood Hall community uses this area as an educational space for teaching children about the environment. The destruction of the green space on the side of the swamp takes away the wetland’s natural and valued beauty. Furthermore, there will an increased amount of litter that will end up in the wetland swamp, as well as noise and light pollution.
Increased salinity, turbidity, toxicity, and decreased dissolved oxygen from runoff all affect aquatic life and, therefore, the food web within the wetland. When water moves over an impervious surface that has been heated from the sun, the water temperature goes up before it enters the wetland, and further changes the temperature in the wetland swamp. The temperature change greatly affects the organisms inhabiting the wetland. This habitat is a critical environment for migratory birds as well as breeding grounds for many other species. 156 plant and animal species listed as endangered or threatened depend on wetland habitats for survival. The wetlands are some of the most biologically important habitats in North America, and the fragmentation of wetlands can have detrimental impacts on wetland bird and aquatic populations by influencing habitat use, reproduction, and survival.
I would like to bring to your attention a piece of land that is for sale that is already cleared, is zoned for the Cayce area, and does not border a wetland. There are 280+ acres for sale located directly off of Interstate 77 on 12th Street in the City of Cayce. I hope that Love’s Travel Stop will consider this land more viable than the land borders Bluff Road.
I ask that you acknowledge the importance of preserving the 26 acres of land bordering the wetland on Bluff Road. Does the construction of this truck stop mean that we are building sustainably in a way that benefits both society as well as our environment?