LIBERTY — School district officials say they have worked out a tentative agreement with Upstate Forever and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control over a wetlands area on the property of the new Liberty High School.

Bob Folkman, who is in charge of the building program, said that when workers first started site work on the property, they entered the wetlands area, which includes a tributary of Eighteen Mile Creek, by mistake and then reported that mistake to DHEC.

“DHEC then had to come up with a plan to make the area whole again,” Folkman said.

According to the legal notice issued by DHEC, the work called for placing 247 linear feet of culverts in the tributary of Eighteen Mile Creek, and that as compensatory mitigation, the school district would restore 123 linear feet of stream and enhance 622 linear feet of stream with roughly a half-acre of “upland buffers.”

However, the environmental group Upstate Forever filed an injunction over the abatement requirements, Folkman said.

According to Heather Nix, the organization’s co-director of the clean air and water program, there were concerns about the scope of the project and the proposed mitigations.

Nix said Upstate Forever expressed their concerns during the comment period back in April but that those concerns were not addressed. So they felt it was necessary to file an appeal against the permit, she said.

“We’re working with a consulting firm to try to reach a compromise, and we hope to do that soon,” Nix said.

If a compromise is not reached, she said the appeal hearing will take place on Oct. 8.

But Folkman said he thinks the parties involved have reached a tentative agreement to satisfy the concerns of both Upstate Forever and DHEC.

He said once the injunction is removed, the work required by DHEC can be done, the site work can be completed, and the district can move forward with building the new high school.

He said the dispute, however, has not caused a delay in site work since the contractor has been able to work in other areas while it is resolved.

“It was just a hiccup,” he said.