Veterans Nonprofit Seeks $850K Grant to Remove Toxic, Deteriorating Railroad Trestle from Cooper River

A crumbling, 70-year-old abandoned industrial railroad bridge jutting into the Cooper River poses an escalating threat to commercial boat traffic, delicate tidal wetlands, and marine wildlife with every passing coastal storm.

To address the hazard, Mount Pleasant-based environmental nonprofit Wounded Nature – Working Veterans has unveiled an $850,000 project proposal to dismantle the decaying structure and safely extract tons of chemical-soaked timbers from Charleston Harbor’s waters.

Built over tidal marsh across from Drum Island to offload cargo vessels, the defunct rail bridge has sat unmaintained for seven decades. Decades of weathering and violent storm surges continue to tear massive, heavy beams away from the superstructure, dropping them directly into active shipping and boating channels.

The structural timbers, treated with industrial preservatives, were soaked in arsenic and heavy coats of black coal-tar creosote. Once dislodged, the dense, blackened wood floats low in the water—roughly 90 percent submerged. The near-invisible drift logs present severe, hull-puncturing hazards to mariners during the day and are virtually undetectable after dark.

Beyond navigation risks, the chemicals present a persistent environmental hazard. Decaying treated lumber leaches toxic compounds into critical estuarine nurseries, degrading shallow-water feeding grounds that support local shrimp, oyster beds, and juvenile fish fry—a vital foundation for South Carolina’s commercial seafood harvest. The river corridor is also home to federally protected species, including loggerhead sea turtles, brown pelicans, bald eagles, dolphins, and West Indian manatees.

To mitigate the threat, Wounded Nature is requesting a one-year, one-time $850,000 grant to fund heavy marine salvage operations. Under the plan, work crews will deploy crane-equipped barges and specialized watercraft to pull down the top tier of the trestle along with secondary structural components at risk of collapsing during future storms. The salvaged wood will be barged to shore, loaded into transport containers, and hauled to a certified hazardous materials landfill for proper disposal.

The organization brings 16 years of specialized field experience to the operation, focusing on the removal of storm debris, abandoned vessels, and creosote-treated lumber from hard-to-reach coastal salt marshes. Project organizers confirmed they have secured legal authority for the cleanup zone alongside operational backing from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Pending grant funding, Wounded Nature plans to begin salvage operations immediately, measuring success through the documented total tonnage of toxic wood permanently diverted from the estuary.