CAYCE, S.C. — A handful of Cayce residents say erosion has ruined their yards and made it impossible to sell their houses, thanks to a creek they call ‘Cayce Canyon.' The residents want the City of Cayce to intervene.
“We are tired of being a hostage of Cayce,” said resident Karen Dawkins.
Dawkins has lived in the avenues of Cayce for thirty years. Her yard backs up to the riverwalk and right behind her fence is ‘Cayce Canyon.'
“Property values have decreased steadily,” Dawkins said. “Making it not feasible to sell our homes at the same time with the damage that continues to be done.”
The ‘canyon’ was once a small stream that carried water from a drainage pipe, but now it’s a deep ravine that residents say their yards are slowly falling into.
“We have lost one telephone pole already,” Dawkins said. “We've lost our fences. Our property has been deemed unsafe from the midpoint to what's now the bank.”
What used to be a flat back yard has become a steep hill, and now her house’s foundation is cracking. American Engineering Consultants review found that development in the area caused increased stormwater flow, and the ditch is significantly over capacity.
Dawkins has reached out to everyone she can think of for help.
“The first thing we did was contact our city leaders,” Dawkins said. “Our city leaders told us that they were not solely responsible, that they even did a water study back in 2016 and found that the water coming onto the city's property comes from different entities.”
City officials say they are aware of the issue. "We're constantly looking for funding, whether it's via grants or talking to our state representatives or federal representatives, to help tackle this project,” Cayce City Manager Tracy Hegler said.
The City of Cayce recently received a $10 million rural infrastructure grant. The money’s from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), and it’s going towards drainage issues in the Avenues. Hegler says a portion of this money is going to what residents call the ‘Cayce Canyon.'
“There'll be a little bit more on what we're calling the indigo basin, where we've started our work already,” Hegler said. “Some of our citizens are already seeing the great impact of that, and it will address what's kind of the next outfall in the Avenues drainage area, which is the Naples basin, and so we will be able to, we will be, we will be working on that.”
For residents, it may be the end of a decades-long issue.
“Cayce’s motto is 'Time for Life.'" We've been waiting over 20 years for ours,” Dawkins said.
Residents may see improvements soon, as the City of Cayce says the grant money must be spent in the next two years.