The state set aside a day last month to share in the successes and evaluate the challenges of an ongoing initiative that aims to help communities prepare for and adapt to the risks including erosion, flooding and storm impacts that come with life on the coast.

The Resilient Coastal Communities Program, or RCCP, is managed by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management and provides financial and technical support for resilience planning and project development to local governments and recognized tribes within the 20 coastal counties. The four phases of the program are risk and vulnerability assessment and community engagement; planning, project selection and prioritization; project engineering and design; and implementation. Projects range from living shorelines to manage erosion to implementing a rain garden to reduce flooding impacts.

Coastal Resilience Coordinator Mackenzie Todd, who directs the program, explained to the 140 or so attending the daylong meeting on Sept. 24 that the “RCCP began about five years ago with a clear purpose to help coastal communities take what they already know about their risks and turn that knowledge into plans, policies, and projects.”

For RCCP’s phases 1 and 2, which take place concurrently, the division contracts directly with technical assistance providers to help communities assess their vulnerabilities, engage the public, develop resilience strategies, and prioritize projects. In phases 3 and 4, funding is awarded directly to communities to advance the selected projects through the design, permitting and implementation process.

Since its inception in 2020, the program “has served 60 communities through 125 grants at approximately $16.1 million. Through that work, communities have identified more than 300 resilience projects. Those numbers are worth celebrating, but they didn’t fully capture what it takes to get this work done. Behind every project is a community that identified a need, brought people together, searched for funding, and kept moving when the path became complicated,” Todd continued.

During the daylong workshop in the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center, participants representing government entities, academia and businesses heard about the different types of projects that qualify for RCCP such as living shorelines to control erosion and bioswales for floodwater management, from different communities that have successfully used the program like New Bern and Belhaven, as well as funding opportunities, navigating permitting processes, and advancing resilience strategies. The workshop wrapped up with breakout sessions on addressing permitting challenges, case studies on advancing resilience strategies, and an overview of nature-based solutions.

Attendees also screened a short film North Carolina Sea Grant produced about the program featuring staff and communities that have participated.

“We are marking an important milestone today: five years of this incredibly successful Resilient Coastal Communities Program,” NCDEQ’s Secretary Reid Wilson said from the podium early in the workshop. The RCC program began with the important idea that those “who know a community best should have a central role in determining how that community becomes more resilient. We do not have all the answers at DEQ. That’s why this partnership is so important because we are relying on local people who know what’s going on in those communities to help chart the course forward.”

These communities have worked to identify their risks and vulnerabilities, determine their priorities, develop resilient strategies, and then turn those strategies into actionable projects. “We want communities to have the tools to move from identifying the problem to developing a solution to finding the resources and the partnerships needed to actually put that solution into action. And over the past five years, we have seen communities up and down the coast do exactly that,” Wilson said. “Today does give us an opportunity to celebrate the progress and look to the future of the program,” adding that the day isn’t just a celebration, “we’re also going to plan how to make things better in the future.”

The program exists because of what Wilson called the “foresight and bipartisan support” from the North Carolina General Assembly. After hurricanes Florence in 2018 and Matthew in 2016 and recognizing that coastal communities needed additional assistance because of the challenges related to coastal hazards, the legislature appropriated $830,000 to the Division of Coastal Management, kicking off the RCCP.

State legislators recognized the success of the program in 2021 when members appropriated $1.15 million and in 2023 with another $10 million for projects, and the RCCP “team has been extra resourceful in figuring out how to pull in another $6 million from other sources.”

Todd explained earlier that morning in her comments that out of the $10 million the state appropriated in 2023, $1.25 million has been used as matching funds to bring in approximately $3 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the program has awarded around $7.2 million to 28 communities through grants. Expectations are to award the remaining $2.5 million this fall to those who are selected for funds out of this next round of applicants for the last two phases. Applications for which are due by 5 p.m. Nov. 10.

The state also made the two coastal resilience specialists positions permanent with this year’s budget, which has strengthened the division’s ability to support communities, but did not include new dedicated project funding, she added. “RCCP communities have built a growing pipeline of priorities, but we do not have yet dependable long-term funding to move those projects forward, so, that’s one reason why today’s conversations really matter. We want to understand where your projects stand, what barriers communities are encountering, and what support would make the greatest difference.”

Participants heard a brief overview of an independent external evaluation that Dr Miyuki Hino, an associate professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC Chapel Hill conducted in 2024 and 2025 with her team.

Coastal Resilience Specialist Jennifer Fickler told the crowd that the final report was released in November 2025, “and it asked three questions: Who is the RCCP serving? How strong and useful are the resilient strategies? And what effect is the program having on local capacity, policy, and investment?”

To answer these questions, the researchers compared participation patterns, conducted interviews, scored four resilient strategies, and compared local spending and grant activity between four RCCP communities and four similar communities that have not participated in the program.

The first finding was that the RCCP is reaching communities across the range of the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s economic distress tiers, income levels and racial demographics. Communities and contractors consistently identified the straightforward application, no local match, and the division managing contracts for phases 1 and 2 lower barriers for participants. At the same time, the smallest communities remain underrepresented with only 18% of eligible communities with 1,000 residents or fewer having participated in the program compared to the 46% of communities who have more than 1,000 residents.

Interviews showed that even when funding and contracting barriers are reduced, limited staff time and administrative capacity can still prevent a small community from participating or moving into the later phases, Fickler continued.

“The evaluation found that many communities really like using their tailored risk assessment and project portfolios to pursue additional funding, which is the goal,” she said, and all four communities received resilience grants after participating in the RCCP, and three had higher post-program grant totals than the comparable communities that didn’t participate in the program.

“While the sample size is pretty small and the time frame is relatively short, it’s encouraging to see that the communities secure additional resilience funding after participating in the RCCP. Again, that’s the goal,” Fickler said.

“Finally, most resilient strategies met the program’s minimum requirements. Common strengths included vulnerability assessments, stakeholder engagement, and community action team documentation,” she said. “The strongest strategies clearly connected phase 1 risks with phase 2 projects. There’s still room for improvement in addressing socially vulnerable populations, natural infrastructure, and future conditions.

Fickler continued that the evaluation points to four priorities to strengthen the program.

First is that the program can do more to reach smaller communities through targeted outreach and additional help with grant administration.

“Second, we can continue improving the planning handbook. The evaluation represents consistent asset scoring, clearer expectations with action teams, and stronger connections between future conditions and project selection,” she said. “Third, we need to close the gap between the project portfolio and readiness for implementation, engineering design. So, this includes stronger project scopes and cost estimates, along with assistance with procurement, grant administration, and other funding opportunities.”

And the fourth priority is the need to track what happens after a resilient strategy is completed, including projects that advanced, changes to local plans or policies, and outside funding received.

“The evaluation gives us an important outside perspective and is a starting point for strengthening the program,” Fickler closed.

Jamie and Paul Lane had expected to spend their week before Christmas fishing for perch in the Albemarle Sound. Instead, restrictions on gillnet use led to them losing an important part of their season. 

A Dec. 17, 2025, proclamation from the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries restricted gillnets across Management Unit A under the state’s federal permit for protecting endangered Atlantic sturgeon and sea turtles. Jamie Lane said four observed sturgeon interactions in a small-mesh fishery were extrapolated to nearly 85 estimated takes, threatening to shut the fishery down.

“Right there, a week before Christmas, there’s not a lot of other options at that time of year,” Jamie Lane said. “That’s very detrimental to your livelihood.”

This closure is part of a broader dispute over whether North Carolina’s Atlantic sturgeon population has recovered enough to call for less restrictive protections. The Lanes are part of a group of commercial fishermen asking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reclassify the Carolina population from endangered to threatened, arguing that sturgeon are more abundant, mortality is low and current regulations have reduced the risk from gillnets. Scientists and federal officials, however, say the population is depleted compared to historical levels, and that increases in juvenile fish or sightings by fishermen do not necessarily show that adult sturgeon have recovered.

Paul Lane, who has been commercial fishing for more than 40 years, said that sturgeon catches were once “talked about almost like a Bigfoot sighting,” and now, fishers cannot seem to stop accidentally catching them.

In their petition to NOAA, the fishermen point to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2024 stock assessment as evidence of recovery in the Carolina distinct population segment (DPS). They argue the assessment raises questions about how the population can be labeled depleted while its abundance has increased since 1998.

“They themselves, the ASMFC, noted their own self that there was a 100% probability that coastwide abundance has increased since 1998,” Jamie Lane said. “So even while they wrote it was depleted, they admitted the abundance had increased, and of all the different distinct population segments, the Carolina DPS was the number one in the recovery.”

The federal permit allows North Carolina’s gillnet fishery to continue, but it sets limits on interactions with sturgeon and sea turtles. Observers monitor 7-10% of large-mesh trips and 1-2% of small-mesh trips, and fishermen are required to report sturgeon interactions within 24 hours. Those observations are then used to estimate the number of takes across the fishery. If estimated or observed takes approach the permit’s limits, the state can enact additional restrictions or close fisheries.

The regulatory system has developed since the Carolina DPS was listed as endangered in 2012, with the state receiving its first sturgeon-specific permit in 2014 and replacing it with the current combined permit in 2024. Under the new permit, a “take” does not necessarily mean a sturgeon dies. Live, released fish can still count toward estimated takes, which the fishermen say is posing the most significant issue, as most sturgeon they catch are released alive.

The fishermen repeatedly use the 2024 stock assessment as evidence of recovery. But James Boyle, an ASMFC fishery management plan and an author of the assessment, said the figures are being misinterpreted. The assessment found a 77% probability that the Carolina DPS’s abundance index was higher at the end of its survey period than its reference point. That was the highest probability among all DPSs, but Boyle said the figures cannot be used to rank DPSs by recovery.

“It’s really hard to compare those across DPSs to say in that 77%, you’re comparing Carolina to Carolina from 1998,” Boyle said. “So that doesn’t mean that it’s recovered or that there are more fish there than in the Gulf of Maine, which has 45%.”

Coastwide, the assessment found a 100% probability that abundance was higher than in 1998. The assessment finds it likely the coastwide population has increased but is still depleted relative to its much larger historical population.

The fishermen also point to broader signs of improvement in the population, including the range of sturgeon sizes found in the assessment, from 5 to 72 inches, as evidence of smaller, younger fish indicating a healthy and growing population. But Dave Kazyak, a U.S. Geological Survey research biologist who studies Atlantic sturgeon, said the North Carolina surveys used in the assessment focus largely on young-of-year and juvenile fish. An increase in those fish can be encouraging, he said, but it does not necessarily represent the status of the adult population.

Kazyak said that distinction is especially important for species like the Atlantic sturgeon, which live up to 60 years. Most juveniles remain in their natal rivers for several years before moving to the ocean. Changes in the number of young fish may take years to translate into changes in the adult population.  

There is another complication, in that fish found in North Carolina do not always respect state boundaries. Kazyak said sturgeon from different populations can overlap, meaning a survey can capture a mixture of fish whose populations may be changing in different directions.

“If you’re just naively tracking abundance over time, you’re kind of getting a composite signal on how different populations are doing, and they may not all be going in the same direction,” Kazyak said.

Scientists also lack a direct estimate of the total number of sturgeon in the Carolina DPS. Instead, they use surveys to track if the population is changing over time. That makes it difficult to estimate exactly how many adult fish remain in the DPS.

That uncertainty extends beyond what happens after a sturgeon is released. Sturgeon are particularly susceptible to gill nets because their bony scutes can become trapped in the mesh. Kazyak said the amount of time a fish remains entangled can affect whether it survives in the long term or if it is able to continue breeding, meaning a live release does not necessarily tell researchers everything about the impact of the interaction.

“Because they live a long time, have a low rate of natural mortality and they don’t mature until they’re relatively old, it doesn’t take a lot of additional mortality from people to change the population trajectory,” Kazyak said.

Since the petition’s filing in January, the Lanes said their concerns have been met with deaf ears. They said they initially filed a 30-day notice of intent to submit the petition in December, then sent the downlisting petition to NOAA on Jan. 25. After receiving no response, they said they followed up in April, shortly before the 90-day deadline.

In May, Andrew Herndon, a NOAA Fisheries staff member handling the petition, told the Lanes that the agency had received their request and was working on it. By June, Herndon told them the review remained incomplete because of staffing shortages and competing priorities, according to the Lanes.

The Lanes later sent NOAA a 60-day notice of intent to sue over the delayed finding. Under the Endangered Species Act, NOAA is generally required to make a decision within 90 days on whether a petition provides enough scientific or commercial evidence to warrant further action, when practicable.

NOAA’s website currently lists the Carolina Atlantic sturgeon petition, received Jan. 28, as still awaiting its 90-day finding.

In an email, Herndon told Coastal Review that the petition is still under review, and he could not provide a timeline for completion. He said that after his assessment is finished, the petition will undergo internal review, which he has no control over.

The Lanes said, ultimately, their push for a downlisting is not an effort to weaken protections for sturgeon but to recognize what they see as a recovering population.

“We want to work. We don’t want to mess with the sturgeon,” Jamie Lane said. “We want their population to recover.”

A chemical manufacturing company responsible for contaminating the drinking water sources of tens of thousands of North Carolinians is not adequately curbing its releases of PFAS into the environment, a Wilmington-based environmental group says.

In a recent notice to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Cape Fear River Watch asserts that Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant continues to exceed emission and discharge limits established under a 2019 consent order.

Chemours “is breaking their word – they are violating the consent order and continuing to pollute our air and water with forever chemicals,” Cape Fear River Keeper Kemp Burdette said in a release.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are commonly referred to as “forever chemicals” because they are persistent and virtually indestructible in the environment. These human-made chemical compounds are used to manufacture a host of consumer goods, including stain-resistant apparel and nonstick cookware.

“We demand that NCDEQ use its authority to hold Chemours accountable and force the company to protect people’s health and the environment,” Burdette said. “If the state fails to protect its citizens, and chooses to protect Chemours instead, we’ll go back to court.”

A Chemours spokesperson refutes claims that the company is violating multiple provisions of the consent order with the River Watch group and DEQ.

“Chemours has taken significant actions in implementing the Consent Order, including installing advanced emissions controls and abatement technologies, water treatment and remediation systems, monitoring programs, and replacement drinking water supplies,” Cassie Olszewski, Chemours’ media relations and reputation leader, said in an email to Coastal Review.

Olszewski declined to answer specific questions because of potential legal action.

Jean Zhuang, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing Cape Fear River Watch, said in an email Monday that NCDEQ had not responded to its request to meet to discuss its compliance concerns with the agency and Chemours, but “we expect it to happen soon.”

“If Chemours and/or DEQ do not meet with us or address the Consent Order violations, then we will have to go to court,” Zhuang said.

Chemours, for decades, knowingly discharged PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River from its plant some 75 miles upstream of Wilmington.

Some of the known human health effects of exposure to PFAS include weakened immunity, low birth weight in newborns, thyroid disease, and increased risk for certain types of cancer. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency categorizes nearly 15,000 different PFAS.

In a nine-page letter sent Sept. 23 to Chemours and DEQ officials, SELC attorneys said the company has failed to develop and implement corrective action plans to remediate ground water contamination and has not cut down on its PFAS discharges into local waterways, including the Cape Fear River, and its air emissions under terms set forth in the consent order.

In March of this year, GEL Engineering found high levels of ultra-short chain PFAS in sampling it collected from Willis Creek, a tributary of the Cape Fear River. Those compounds are not among the list of 17 PFAS Chemours tests for to determine its load reductions in the creek.

“Today, contaminated groundwater discharging to Willis Creek is the leading source of PFAS entering the Cape Fear River from the Fayetteville Works facility,” SELC wrote in the letter. “Indeed, Chemours acknowledges that it has only decreased PFAS flowing into Willis Creek by about half – far short of the 75 percent reduction the Consent Order requires.”

Levels of pollution in Georgia Branch, another Cape Fear River tributary, are similarly high, the letter states, and Chemours has not shown that it has reduced total PFAS flowing into the Cape Fear River by at least 75%.

SELC attorneys also point out that Chemours reports PFAS-contaminated groundwater still migrates around the 1-mile-long underground barrier wall the company installed between the Fayetteville plant and Cape Fear River.

The company has reported total PFAS concentrations in excess of 130,000 parts per trillion at one groundwater seep. Concentrations of GenX “alone have reached 7,500 ppt,” according to SELC. Pollution at another seep is “similarly dire.”

DEQ Deputy Communications Director Josh Kastrinsky said in an email that the agency “remains committed to holding Chemours accountable for all remaining obligations under the Consent Order and ensuring that Chemours operates in full compliance with all environmental laws and regulations.”

The $590 million settlement reached between the state, 11 local governments, DuPont and Chemours in mid-September preserves DEQ’s full regulatory authority over the plant’s ongoing operations, including air emissions and water discharges, he said.

The agreement guarantees $455 million to be paid over the next 10 to 15 years to the state and local governments, including Brunswick and New Hanover counties, Wrightsville Beach, Village of Bald Head Island and the Lower Cape fear Water and Sewer Authority.

Roughly $55 million is expected to be funneled to a recently legislatively created Emerging Contaminant Mitigation Fund.

“While the State’s settlement recognizes that a number of the provisions of the 2019 Consent Order have been satisfied, the Settlement Agreement makes clear that several significant Consent Order obligations (including the requirement to provide clean drinking water to affected residents, address groundwater contamination and its impact on surface waters) remain incomplete and require further action by Chemours,” Kastrinsky said in the email. “In fact, the settlement bolsters the remaining Consent Order obligations in two important ways: 1) by establishing a reserve fund to continue the work under the Consent Order should Chemours be financially unable to do so; and 2) by reinforcing that NCDEQ will continue to enforce the remaining obligations under the consent order and establishing a process to expedite Chemours addressing some of the more significant remaining long-term obligations.”

State transportation officials have implemented emergency and temporary measures to help travelers leave the Outer Banks who have been trapped for days because of damage to N.C. Highway 12 associated with last week’s nor’easter.

In addition to expanding on Tuesday and Wednesday the emergency ferry route’s 24-hour schedule that began running Sunday between Rodanthe and Stumpy Point, a temporary lane of N.C. Highway 12 will open for northbound traffic at 3 p.m. Tuesday between the Marc Basnight Bridge to Rodanthe, a day ahead of schedule, North Carolina Department of Transportation leadership said Tuesday morning.

The section of N.C. 12 has been closed since early Thursday morning because a 1,000-foot section of pavement near the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center was damaged by repeated ocean overwash during the powerful storm, the state said.

Crews began rebuilding the protective sand dune along N.C. 12 after tidal conditions subsided Sunday, removed the damaged asphalt and grading, and constructed the temporary gravel road. Crews are to continue working to restore the highway to its previous two-lane, paved configuration, but do not have a timeline for when the road will be fully reopened to traffic.

When the state announced the section would open Tuesday instead of the originally scheduled Wednesday afternoon, officials explained that northbound traffic had already begun to line up overnight in anticipation of the road being reopened. “So, when the road reopens at 3 p.m., there will be heavy congestion. Drivers should be patient, pay attention and drive through the area with caution.”

As the northbound traffic congestion begins to subside, southbound and northbound traffic will alternate on the one-way temporary gravel stretch.

The state said late Monday when announcing the extended schedule that the emergency ferry will continue to carry vehicles and walk-on passengers between the two terminals until traffic congestion on Hatteras Island subsides and officials determine the emergency route is no longer required. The one-way trip takes about two hours. 

The expanded schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday is as follows:

• Rodanthe to Stumpy Point: 5 a.m., 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m., 9:30 p.m., 11 p.m., 2 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.
• Stumpy Point to Rodanthe: 5 a.m., 6:30 a.m., 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 8 p.m., 11 p.m., 12:30 a.m., and 2 a.m.

In addition, ferry service between Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry route has resumed on the following schedule:

• Hatteras to Ocracoke: 6 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m., and midnight
• Ocracoke to Hatteras: 4 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 10:30 p.m.

Those leaving Hatteras via Ocracoke will need to access another ferry from Ocracoke to either Swan Quarter or Cedar Island. Reservations for those ferries are highly recommended and can be obtained online at ncferry.org or by calling 1-800-BY-FERRY.

For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.

Hatteras access remains restricted

Dare County leadership reminded the public Tuesday that the county is still under a state of emergency, meaning that entry to Hatteras Island is restricted to Priority One and Priority Two individuals with proper credentials.

Restrictions will remain in place and apply to all routes, including N.C. 12, the emergency ferry and routes through Ocracoke Island. Entry into the emergency area by residents of Ocracoke Island in Hyde County is authorized.

Visitors and nonresident property owners will not be permitted to enter Hatteras Island at this time.

“Visitors with upcoming reservations on Hatteras Island should not travel toward the island at this time,” and there is no timeline for when visitor access to Hatteras Island will resume, the county said Tuesday. “Those with upcoming reservations on Hatteras Island should contact their accommodations provider directly for information regarding their reservation. Dare County is unable to make changes to lodging reservations or provide information about individual accommodations.”

This story has been updated to include funeral arrangements.

Dr. Joe Ramus was not the man with whom to debate science willy-nilly.

Ever the consummate critical thinker, Ramus was that person who knew that he knew the science upon which he built a storied career here on the North Carolina coast. Ramus, a professor, prolific researcher, former Duke University Marine Laboratory director, and past president of the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s Board of Directors, died Tuesday, Sept. 22.

As news of his death last week passed through the halls of the higher learning institutions and in the offices of the organizations to which Ramus devoted his time and talents, friends and former colleagues reflected on memories of the man known for his sharp, often dry wit who was passionate about understanding and protecting the coast.

“I considered Joe my older brother and Joe kind of treated me that way too,” Dr. Hans Paerl said with a chuckle during a Sept. 24 telephone interview.

That brotherly bond forged after Paerl, now a retired professor and researcher at the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, landed a job exactly the same year and in exactly the same coastal North Carolina county as Ramus.

By that point in time in 1978, Ramus had been a teacher and researcher at Yale University for some 10 years.

Ramus explained in a 2014 interview with Coastal Review that he enjoyed teaching at the prestigious university, but that Yale lacked a marine lab.

“Yale had a field station on Long Island Sound, and I spent as much time there as I could, but it wasn’t enough,” he said.

Naturally, Ramus did not hesitate when he saw Duke University’s advertisement for an open position at its Beaufort-based marine lab.

“I had 10-year plans: Yale for 10, Duke for 10, then somewhere else,” Ramus said in 2014.

But life and its funny way of upending even the best laid plans spare few, including Ramus, who fell in love with Carteret County and Jackie, a local girl he later married. They were husband and wife until his death.

Paerl who, coincidently enough, lived across the San Francisco Bay from the Ramuses’ Walnut Creek, California, home after his family moved from the Netherlands when he was 10, also applied for the job at the Duke Marine Lab, as well as one at Carolina’s IMS.

“It turned out that it was kind of a preordained marriage because John Costlow, who was the director of the Duke Lab, and Dirk Frankenberg, who was the director of our lab at UNC, they actually got together and decided well, why don’t we just have Joe go to Duke and Hans go to UNC,” Paerl said. “That started our long research careers that complemented each other really well because we needed some plant people at the coast at that time. It was a strong emphasis on fisheries and larger animals and mammals, leaving a big research gap in the role of plants in the coastal environment.”

Ramus’ research focused on larger coastal plants like seagrasses and seaweed. Paerl studied algae.

Together, they mentored graduate students, co-supervised various committees and researched plants in the coastal zone.

They would eventually team up in 2000 to create the FerryMon project, which equips North Carolina Department of Transportation ferryboats with specialized sensors and automated water samplers to collect and monitor environmental data in real time.

“It’s been a very successful merger of scientific expertise and interests, and it’s served the state extremely well because there is nothing out there monitoring water quality in Pamlico Sound on a day-to-day basis,” Paerl said. “FerryMon really filled that void.”

He credits Ramus for securing funding for the project long after money granted through the N.C. Disaster Relief Fund dried up.

“He was a great salesman. He knew how to use the right words with politicians and with the decisionmakers and I just went along with it,” Paerl said.

“Once you got over the fact that he sort of had to pontificate every now and then it was actually a great relationship,” he continued. “He had an interesting way of lecturing where he would not talk down to you but had this kind of air of confidence when he got up there on the stage. And, you know, he had every reason to be confident because he was a very smart guy and 90% of the time, he was right. I let him know about the other 10%.”

Ramus was awarded the Order of the Longleaf Pine, one of the highest civilian honors in the state, in 2019 for his contributions to science and education, and his environmental leadership as president of the Coastal Federation Board of Directors. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

Even into retirement, their careers continued to parallel. Paerl was bestowed the same honor earlier this year.

Duke University marine biology professor and former lab director Dr. Andy Read explained in a telephone interview Ramus’ role in overseeing the integration of the marine lab into what is today the university’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

“Joe liked to say that that was a very critical time for the marine lab because it gave us an intellectual home. Until that time, the lab had been pretty separate, and I think a lot of people at Duke didn’t really know that we had a marine lab,” Read said.

Forming the school, “really gave us a sense of mission to understand environmental issues that affected our coastal waters,” he said. “That was what he was passionate about, particularly about Pamlico Sound, and understanding both the natural and the anthropogenic factors that kind of forced those systems that we rely on so much.”

Read shared how the two would refer to one another by their line in succession as directors of the lab.

“He used to refer to me as Number Seven because I was the seventh director for the Marine Lab, and he was Number Four. So, we referred to each other as Number Four and Number Seven, which is pretty typical of Joe’s dry sense of humor,” he said.

“He did not suffer fools gladly, I will say that,” Read continued. “There are times that Joe would look at you from behind those glasses of his and you got the sense that what you were saying was being very carefully evaluated. You better be right and you better have the facts supporting your argument because Joe would look very critically at things for sure. He had high standards for science. He expected the people around him to have equally high standards and I think he expected people in positions of authority to appreciate the value of the science and what it means in terms of making decisions that could affect the quality of our environment and the quality of people’s lives.”

Coastal Federation founder Todd Miller remembers his first encounters with Ramus in the 1980s when the Coastal Federation was still a fledgling organization.

“He was a well-known scientist, and I would say intimidating in some respects before I got to know him well,” Miller said. “He just didn’t accept what you said. You had to present your case. I think he just didn’t take things on face value, so you had to be beyond your game if you were going to be convincing with him.”

Miller explained Ramus’ involvement with the Coastal Federation grew over time. And though the science was “always there, front and center in terms of his perspective on things,” Ramus was steeped in his community. He enjoyed spending time on his boat, fishing, and cycling.

“Joe’s legacy lives in the work he helped strengthen and in the people he encouraged to ask harder questions, listen more carefully and keep going,” Miller stated. “I will miss his counsel, his humor and his friendship.”

Those who wish to contribute in his memory, and in lieu of flowers, may donate to the capital campaign for North Carolina Coastal Federation’s Coastal Center or to the Ramus Fund at the Duke University Marine Lab.

To contribute to the Coastal Federation, visit the nonprofit’s “Give in Memory of Joe Ramus” page or make checks payable to the North Carolina Coastal Federation, P.O. Box 1360, Newport NC 28570, noting “Joe Ramus” on the memo line.

To contribute to the university fund, checks should be made payable to Duke University Marine Lab, with “Ramus Fund” noted in the memo line. Address: Duke University Marine Lab c/o The Ramus Fund, 135 Duke Marine Lab Rd., Beaufort, NC 28516.

Founder’s commentary

The North Carolina Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

In July, nearly 50 scientists, restoration practitioners, community leaders, government officials, and conservationists from Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom gathered at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, around a deceptively simple question: What will it take to make our coasts more resilient for people and nature — and restore coastal habitats at the scale and speed now required?

After three days of discussion, one conclusion stood out:

We increasingly know how to restore coastal ecosystems. Our greatest challenge is creating the partnerships, financing, science, policies, and community capacity needed to put that knowledge to work at a much larger scale.

When many of us began this work decades ago, coastal restoration was largely experimental. Today, projects around the world demonstrate that wetlands, oyster reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, rivers, floodplains, and coastal forests can be restored to improve water quality, support fisheries, reduce flooding, store carbon, provide habitat, and protect communities.

The Need for Scale

Restoration has matured from a collection of individual projects into an international movement. Our ambitions must mature with it.

Too often, we still proceed one project, one permit, and one grant at a time. Meanwhile, sea level rise, storms, declining water quality, habitat loss, and a warming climate operate across entire landscapes. We need sustained efforts encompassing whole rivers, estuaries, and coastlines — not scattered projects lasting only a few years.

Scientist Kevin Kroeger introduced us to the concept of LUNEs — Large Unreplicated Natural Experiments. At the scale at which restoration increasingly must occur, we cannot always wait for small, replicated experiments to answer every question before acting. Large restoration projects can themselves become carefully monitored experiments where scientists, practitioners, landowners, and communities learn together and adapt as conditions change.

The Cost of Moving Too Slowly

Events in Nepal provide a terrible reminder that the question of scale is not academic. A massive glacier and ice-rock collapse high in the Himalayas unleashed an immense half-billion-ton avalanche, triggering catastrophic flooding through the valleys below. The unprecedented disaster has claimed nearly 1,000 lives, with more than 4,000 locals and tourists still reported missing.

Scientists will need time to determine precisely how climate change contributed to this event. But it occurred against a clear backdrop of climate-driven change. Warming temperatures are melting glaciers and thawing permafrost, destabilizing high-mountain landscapes and increasing risks to communities below.

Nepal is thousands of miles from the coastlines we discussed in Townsville, but the lesson is painfully relevant. We experienced our own warning in North Carolina when Hurricane Helene brought catastrophic flooding to mountain communities in and around Asheville — far from the coast where we have traditionally focused much of our climate resilience work.

These events remind us that climate change does not respect boundaries between mountains, rivers, estuaries, and oceans. Places once considered relatively safe are increasingly vulnerable to impacts that can cascade across entire landscapes. They should not come as surprises, but as stark warnings that nowhere is immune—and that incremental responses will not be sufficient for changes occurring at this scale.

Adaptation — restoring wetlands, protecting floodplains, improving early-warning systems, and making communities more resilient — is essential. But adaptation alone cannot be our strategy. Unless the world also reduces emissions and ultimately removes some of the carbon already accumulating in the atmosphere, we will continually be adapting to a climate that becomes more difficult, expensive and dangerous to live with.

That is why one of the most provocative discussions in Townsville was also one of the biggest.

Scale in the Ocean

Kroeger challenged us to think at an almost unimaginable scale.

Beneath many coastal regions lie enormous deposits of limestone and other alkaline minerals. If we can learn to use these materials safely and efficiently to increase ocean alkalinity, we may be able to enhance natural processes through which the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in stable dissolved forms. Such action is likely necessary to remediate ongoing acidification of the oceans, since ceasing emissions will not be enough to restore healthy ocean acidity levels. Adding alkalinity to the oceans can be viewed as ecosystem restoration on the grandest scale.

The quantities involved would be enormous. Removing a billion tons of carbon dioxide annually through some mineral-based approaches could require processing and moving well over a billion tons of mineral material each year—approaching the scale of major global mining, shipping, and energy industries.

But perhaps that is Kroeger’s larger point.

For two centuries, humanity has constructed an extraordinary global infrastructure to extract fossil carbon from underground and transfer it into the atmosphere. Addressing that legacy may ultimately require comparable ambition to harness natural minerals, ocean chemistry, and other processes capable of moving some of that carbon back out.

Even a regional effort illustrates the challenge. If the Southeast U.S. Atlantic coast someday sought to remove 100 million tons of carbon dioxide annually through mineral-enhanced ocean alkalinity, deployment would have to occur on an enormous scale. The precise amount of mineral required would depend on its composition and how quickly and efficiently it reacts, but a mature program could require placement of 100 million tons or more each year, sustained for decades. Achieving that scale would require a major industrial system of mines, processing facilities, railroads, barges, ports, energy infrastructure, and extensive environmental monitoring.

Carbon removal at meaningful scale begins to look less like a conventional restoration project and more like building an entirely new industrial infrastructure.

The science is not ready for that scale today. Ordinary limestone cannot simply be spread into seawater and expected to solve the problem. We need to determine how minerals can be processed and dissolved efficiently, understand ecological effects and energy requirements, reliably measure actual carbon removal, and demonstrate that benefits substantially exceed impacts.

But that was precisely one lesson from Townsville: We need to begin testing solutions capable of eventually operating at scales commensurate with the problems we have created.

Scale on Land

Thinking big does not apply only to the ocean.

Coastal farms, forests, and other undeveloped working lands may become some of our most important restoration opportunities in coming decades. A farm or managed forest can potentially become tomorrow’s wetland, floodplain, or marsh migration corridor. Once that same land is covered with roads and buildings, those opportunities may disappear permanently.

That means partnering with willing farmers, foresters, and other landowners now — not necessarily to remove land from productive use, but to help keep working lands economically viable and undeveloped while preserving future restoration options.

Don’t Just Preserve — Restore

We also need to change how the world thinks about landscapes that have already been damaged.

Conservation has understandably emphasized protecting the best natural places that remain. But achieving coastal resilience will also require reclaiming wetlands and other habitats that previous generations drained, ditched, cleared, or otherwise degraded.

In coastal North Carolina, we intend to pursue international recognition under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands for a major restored wetland landscape. The point is not simply another designation. We want to demonstrate that internationally significant wetlands do not have to be places that escaped human alteration. They can also be landscapes that people had the vision and persistence to bring back.

Recognizing outstanding restored wetlands alongside pristine ones would send a powerful message: Restoration can recover some of what we have lost.

We hope our partners in Australia, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere will identify exemplary restored landscapes of their own so we can learn from one another.

Communities Must Own the Effort

Perhaps the most important lesson from Townsville is that restoration cannot succeed as something done to communities — or even simply for them. It must be done with them and ultimately become something communities see as their own.

For people who live and work along the coast, restoration is not primarily about acres of wetlands or miles of shoreline. It is about whether homes are safer from flooding and storms; whether pollution threatens fisheries, tourism, aquaculture, and recreation; and whether communities can withstand events capable of undermining economies built over generations.

Residents, landowners, businesses, fishers, farmers, Indigenous communities, local governments, and other interest holders also possess knowledge that can make projects better. Their participation builds the trust and long-term commitment needed to sustain restoration long after an individual grant ends.

When healthier wetlands, rivers, reefs, forests, and estuaries also mean cleaner water, stronger fisheries, reduced flood risks, economic opportunity, and safer communities, restoration stops being someone else’s environmental project.

It becomes a community investment worth protecting.

Regulation Must Catch Up

Restoration projects need strong environmental safeguards. But regulatory systems should evaluate restoration differently from projects that primarily cause environmental harm. Rather than focusing only on potential risks, regulatory decisions should weigh those risks against the environmental benefits of restoration—and the consequences of doing nothing. The goal should be rigorous review that protects the environment while enabling projects designed to restore it.

We need faster permitting pathways for proven restoration practices, coordinated agency reviews, science-based performance standards, and where appropriate, pre-approved categories of restoration projects.

Practitioners have responsibilities, too. Better permitting requires complete plans, sound science, and meaningful interest holder engagement. Reform should mean making good restoration easier — not lowering environmental standards.

Invest Like It Matters

Finally, none of this happens without sustained investment.

Government grants alone cannot meet the need. Wetlands, reefs, floodplains, forests, and other natural systems should increasingly be viewed as essential infrastructure — worthy of investment because they protect communities, improve water quality, sustain fisheries, conserve biodiversity, store carbon, and reduce future risks.

If we are serious about restoring entire coastal landscapes rather than isolated projects, our financing systems must become capable of supporting that ambition.

The Path Forward

The Townsville Summit did not produce one new solution. It produced something potentially more important: recognition that we must match the scale of our solutions to the scale of our problems.

Participants challenged the international community to at least double the pace and scale of coastal restoration, protection, and resilience investment by 2035.

That is ambitious.

It needs to be.

The encouraging lesson from Townsville was that people separated by thousands of miles are wrestling with remarkably similar problems — and developing solutions that can help one another.

The knowledge exists. The partnerships are growing. The consequences of moving too slowly are becoming increasingly visible.

Now we must make our coasts more resilient for people and nature, restore what we have lost, and begin confronting the forces driving these changes — at the speed of need.

Todd Miller helped organize the international Townsville Coastal Restoration Summit with Nathan Waltham of James Cook University and Roger Proudfoot and Eve Leegwater of the UK Environment Agency. The summit brought together scientists, restoration practitioners, community leaders, government officials, and conservationists from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to explore how coastal restoration can be advanced at the scale and speed now required.

NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH – Residents and property owners here made clear in a public hearing Tuesday night that more must be done to manage the erosion-battered oceanfront at the north end of Topsail Island.

Their preference? Build a 2,021-foot-long terminal groin at New River Inlet, move ahead with plans to pivot the inlet channel’s alignment to redirect the flow of water and capture migrating sediment, and continue maintaining a 5,100-foot-long dune and berm beach fill on the northernmost shoreline at the inlet through routine sand nourishment.

The preferred plan, one of five alternatives laid out in a draft environmental impact statement released by the Army Corps of Engineer’s Wilmington District earlier this month, is projected to cost nearly $80 million over 30 years. That includes the estimated $18 million price tag to build and maintain the terminal groin and $58 million to dredge the pivot channel and inject the north end of the town’s beachfront with fresh sand every four years.

According to the draft environmental study, forecasted shoreline changes over the next three decades would put at risk nearly 50 oceanfront properties and more than 750 individually owned housing units. Based on current property values, that’s a potential loss of more than $275 million over the next 30 years.

A massive wall of sandbags stretching about 3,600 feet along Topsail Island’s northernmost beach for more than 10 years has staved off destruction of oceanfront single-family homes, duplexes and condominiums.

Fran Way, a senior coastal engineer with Applied Technology & Management, or ATM, explained to a standing-room-only aldermen’s chamber at the town hall Tuesday, that the sandbags “are doing a good job.”

The wall of bags survived Hurricane Matthew, the most powerful storm of the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season, and “held up pretty well” two years later through Hurricane Florence, he said.

“But, obviously there’s still ongoing maintenance all of the time,” he continued.

An overwhelming majority of the more than a dozen people who spoke at the Corps-hosted public hearing said they support the town’s preferred alternative.

Full-time North Topsail Beach resident Terrie Hardy said that while she does not live at the north end of the town, “something has to be done.”

Hardy expressed full support for alternative 5 before reading a letter written by one of her neighbors, a retired Marine Corps officer, who could not be at the public hearing.

“He is an avid fisherman, a recreational boater who regularly uses New River Inlet,” she said. “Over the years, he has witnessed firsthand both benefits of channel dredging and realignment, as well as the continuing challenges associated with shoreline erosion, loss of beachfront access, and damage to private property.”

The North Carolina General Assembly’s decision 15 years ago to amend a longstanding ban on hardened structures and allow up to a little more than a half-dozen terminal groins to be built on the state’s coastal shores gives the town a chance it cannot pass up, her neighbor wrote.

“In his view, failing to pursue this opportunity would represent a missed challenge to implement a long-term solution to a problem that has affected the north end of North Topsail for decades,” Hardy said. “He has a direct and substantial interest in mitigating the severe and chronic erosion that threatens residential structures, infrastructure, public recreational assets and natural resources. As a resident and taxpayer, he strongly supports alternative 5.”

Another round

The hearing Tuesday represented what equates to another round of discussions about building a terminal groin at the inlet to curb severe erosion at the north end of the island.

The town in 2021 released a New River Inlet Management Master Plan, which included the construction of a terminal groin, or a wall-like structure built perpendicular to the shore at inlets to contain sand in areas of high erosion, like that of beaches at inlets.

North Topsail’s elected leaders at the time ultimately decided to pump the breaks on pursuing building such a structure, funding for which may under current law come only from the town’s coffers unless the General Assembly enacts legislation appropriating funds. The town instead turned its focus on post-Hurricane Florence recovery efforts, including restoring its dune system, which suffered an estimated $22 million loss.

This past summer, legislators mulled a bill that included a provision allowing state funds to cover permitting, building, or repairing terminal groins. That bill has since stalled in committee.

So too has a proposed bill to lift the coastwide ban on hardened erosion-control structures entirely.

Last month, the Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Panel released its final report, “Effects of Hard Structures on Sand, Open-Ocean Coastlines,” determining that blocking or trapping sand at one area of beach takes from another area of beach.

Chris Gibson, president of a local coastal engineering firm long-contracted by Topsail Beach for projects on the south end of Topsail Island, said that he is usually a proponent of “soft solutions” to managing beach erosion.

“However, North Topsail Beach is one of those places where a hardened structure is probably much more applicable because of the way the inlet behaves,” Gibson said. “The impacts longshore, further down the beach that may be a concern to people in southern North Topsail Beach, Surf City or Topsail, it just really isn’t there. It’s all in the sediment reversal inside the ebb shoal dimensions. I am a proponent of doing all-of-the-above scenario. I think that’s a good way to do it. You can’t look at the beach separate from the inlet. You can’t look at the inlet separate from the beach.”

Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Julie Youngman said Tuesday evening that she was speaking at the public hearing neither in favor of nor opposition to any of the alternatives included in the draft analysis.

“I think there are things that need to be studied in depth to make sure that any solution that’s selected works out for everybody,” Youngman said. Building a terminal groin “will not eliminate the need for repetitive and expensive beach nourishment and inlet dredging projects.”

Youngman referenced the Science Panel’s report.

“The report says all structural approaches in place with the intention of mitigating erosion by trapping the sand in place, like terminal groins, lead to the same inevitable impact – an increase in shoreline erosion downdrift. Just keep remembering the people downdrift,” she said. “The report concludes with this statement: ‘The science panel recommends that North Carolina maintain a cautious approach to any expansion of the use of hardened structures.’”

The Corps is accepting written comments on the draft environmental impact statement via its website through Oct. 19.

Corps officials said that the town anticipates submitting a permit application for their preferred alternative sometime around March 2027 and that, barring “unforeseen delays,” the Corps may release its record of decision next summer.

HATTERAS ISLAND — The 22^nd annual Day at the Docks — with two years off for the COVID-19 epidemic — on Saturday was a celebration of the rich fishing tradition here and the close-knit community that supports it.

The weather on the working waterfront in Hatteras Village was nearly perfect: bright sunshine with a pleasant breeze to moderate the temperature.

The first Hatteras Village Day at the Docks followed closely on the heels of Hurricane Isabel after it made landfall on Sept.18, 2003, and cut a new 2,000-foot-wide inlet just north of Hatteras Village. Organized by owners of the Albatross Fleet offshore charter fishing service, Ernie and Lynne Foster, the first Day at the Docks was a way to bring the community together and lift its spirits.

The signature event of the day is the Blessing of the Fleet. During the blessing, the commercial and charter fleets leave their docks to sail to Pamlico Sound and reenter the harbor, led by the Fosters’ vessel Albatross. The fleet is then blessed with prayer and song and then returns to the sound with Coast Guard’s 47-foot Motor Lifeboat Hatteras Inlet cruising at the end of the procession.

A wreath is carried to the water to honor the memory of those in the fishing fleet who had died during the past year. Tradition holds that two children bring the wreath to the Albatross, a custom that began, bystanders told Coastal Review, with the first Day at the Docks. That’s when Ernie Foster realized he had left the dock without the wreath, and a skiff had to be sent out to the Albatross with the wreath then handed to him by children.

The day, however, includes more than the somber blessing of the fleet. It is a day filled with family-friendly, festive events, such as the chowder cookoff, live music and cooking demonstrations.

Hatteras Village’s Toucana Grill took first prize in the chowder cookoff for their she-crab bisque. Third-place winner Hatteras Seafood sold out of their “elevated traditional Hatteras-style” chowder.

The cookoff is held as a fundraiser for the Hatteras Island Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to support cancer patients and their families living on Hatteras Island. The event was among a number of opportunities for attendees to support families of the Hatteras Island community.

“Taking care of our island and our island families is a valuable tradition,” Lynne Foster said in her opening remarks.

One of the most popular events of the day is the Youth Fishing Tournament — no rod or reel necessary. A bamboo pole complete with line, bobber and hook are provided.

In recognizing the most popular catch of the day, prizes are awarded for the heaviest pinfish brought to the pier, as well as prizes for the longest fish and heaviest fish overall. Organizers put this year’s participation at around 140-150 young anglers.

Dr. Ford “Bud” Cross said he was “elated” to learn that the nation’s second-oldest federal marine science laboratory is getting a new home to replace its old one on Pivers Island in Beaufort.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Aug. 27 that it plans to use $64 million from the 2025 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act to pay for construction of a new facility for the Beaufort Laboratory.

Cross has a right to be elated.

He was director of the facility from 1986 until his retirement in 2000, the culmination of a career that he began there in 1967 as a fisheries biologist.

“It was great news to all of us who have worked there,” said Cross, who is 86 and lives in Morehead City, where he served for many years on the planning board.

“I didn’t expect it in the current administration.

“I’m tickled pink,” he continued. “It’s a nice sum of money, enough to build something incredibly good, big enough not just for the lab itself but also for the state estuary reserve program.”

Cross said the lab has always done important fisheries research, intended to enhance protection of marine species and preserve economically important commercial and recreational fishing.

“I think we all left a great legacy of service to the community, and I believe that helped in the decision to fund construction,” he said.

The building closed in October 2024 after significant hurricane-related structural damage was discovered during a routine inspection of the building’s foundation.

“Now there’s a great opportunity to have a new facility that can meet today’s needs,” Cross said.

The Beaufort Lab was established in 1899 and predates NOAA by more than 70 years. It has housed what is now known as National Ocean Service and National Marine Fisheries Service’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center, and the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve.

“For more than a century, the dedicated experts at NOAA’s Beaufort Laboratory have produced world-class science that supports our economy, advances national priorities, and enhances coastal resilience,” Dr. Neil Jacobs, NOAA administrator, said in a press release on Aug. 27. “This state-of-the-art facility, located within the country’s second-largest estuary and adjacent to the Gulf Stream, will enable NOAA to continue its groundbreaking research while strengthening collaboration with industry and academic partners.”

Cross has lived a life dedicated to preserving and living with nature. For many years, he and his wife spent part of each fall and early on a 200-acre tract they owned in the frigid, wild Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

“It was just us and the owls and wolves,” he said. It was a quiet, serene life. We had an ATV and used it to clear some of the snow. We hated to sell it, but we were getting older.”

Back in Morehead City year-round now, Cross still conducts research and periodically gets together with mates from his time in the lab.

“There’s about 30 of us,” he said. “We get together for lunch twice each year. It’s a pretty tight-knit group.”

Numerous other lab employees have also served local governments in advisory positions.

One member of the lunch group is Dr. Don Hoss, who began at the lab in 1958. He succeeded Cross as lab director and held the post until his retirement in 2002.

“I think it’s just wonderful,” he said of the funding for the new facility.

“It’s a historic place, and a great research place and there is a need to keep it going.

“I had a great career, and we did a lot of good things.”

Dr. Hans Paerl, a retired professor and researcher at the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, welcomed the planned full-scale return of the Beaufort facility.

“We’ve always collaborated,” he said. “In fact, since they closed down, we’ve had some of their researchers in our building.

“There is a lot of overlap with our interests, especially on harmful algal blooms.

“It’s been very good having them here. And this (construction) announcement is great news for the entire marine science community.”

In its Aug. 27 press release, NOAA says the new lab will expand its scope in the following ways:

• Researching, monitoring and forecasting harmful algal blooms.
• Deploying uncrewed systems for underwater habitat mapping and coral restoration.
• Serving as a research hub to support South Atlantic fisheries management and stewardship of marine resources.
• Evaluating the performance of natural infrastructure for coastal protection. Managing the Rachel Carson National Estuarine Research Reserve and providing opportunities for education, research and compatible traditional uses.

Design and preconstruction work on the new facility is to begin in early 2027. The new structure will be above the floodplain and designed to withstand storms and flooding.

Learn more about the lab

• Listen to an interview with Dr. Don Hoss and Dr. Ford “Bud” Cross recorded in 2018 for a NOAA Fisheries oral history project.
• Explore the Beaufort Lab’s history in the context of its 125th year celebration in 2024.

The legislature cut from the budget this summer a state-run $275,000 environmental education program, leaving in the lurch the two staff members who manage the North Carolina Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs and the thousands who have relied on the resource over the last 30 years.

After months of uncertainty and an outpouring of support for the program, the public learned this week that the office and its North Carolina Environmental Education Certification Program will transition to Catawba College’s Center for the Environment starting Oct. 1 from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

Related: State budget eliminates Office of Environmental Education

“We ask our students to consider their stewardship as citizens, about how they can serve others,” Catawba President David P. Nelson said in the announcement. “We ask the same questions of the College. This program has served our state well, and we are glad to respond to this opportunity to serve the people of North Carolina by carrying on this important work.”

More than 1,600 environmental educators have been certified through the program and hundreds more were working through the multistep, multiyear process when the program was cut. The certification program is part of a broader state environmental education effort that began in the early 1990s.

Though details of the transition to the campus in Salisbury are being finalized, officials said in a press release that the transition will preserve the certification program, its staff, and all the programs and resources that connect educators across the state, including its listserv and calendar.

Certification participants and educators who use the program’s resources are not expected to experience delays or interruptions in access.

Lee Ball, executive director of the Center for the Environment, and staff from DEQ’s Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs announced the transition last week at the 35th annual conference of Environmental Educators of North Carolina, the state’s nonprofit professional association for environmental educators. The announcement drew a standing ovation, the press release explains.

“This transition will extend the Center’s work in environmental education and create opportunities for our students to learn from and work with educators serving communities across North Carolina,” Ball said.

“The Environmental Education program has been a resounding success for 30 years, awarding Environmental Education Certificates to more than 1,600 people,” DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson said. “Educating children about the natural world and their role in protecting it is more essential than ever. The Center for the Environment at Catawba College deserves a huge thanks for taking on the leadership of the program in the wake of the new state budget’s removal of its funding.”

Lisa Tolley, program manager for the environmental education program at DEQ, thanked Ball, the center, Catawba College, Wilson, the leadership of Environmental Educators of North Carolina and the statewide community of educators for supporting the transition.

“This transition preserves North Carolina’s environmental education legacy and allows an important statewide career-development and community-building resource to continue,” Tolley said.

Marty Wiggins, program consultant for the environmental education program, said the certification program will continue to serve the entire state.

“Our plan is to make a seamless transition to the Center for the Environment,” Wiggins said. “All of the resources that support the program, such as the NCEE listserv and calendar, will continue to be an integral part of the certification program.”

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries plans to hold a scoping period for the fishery in October on red drum, also known as puppy drum, redfish, bull drum, channel bass, or the state’s official state saltwater fish.

The monthlong scoping period is to give fishermen and other stakeholders an opportunity to share ideas on potential management strategies for the scheduled comprehensive review of the North Carolina Red Drum Fishery Management Plan.

The division is statutorily required at least every five years to conduct a comprehensive review of each state fishery management plan and scoping is the first stage of that process.

More information, including a scoping document with background information and links to the virtual meeting registration and public comment forms, will be made available closer to the opening of the scoping period, officials said.

Beginning Oct. 1, the public may provide input in writing or at any of the scheduled scoping meetings, including on Oct. 13 at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington; Oct. 15 at N.C. State University’s McKimmon Conference Center in Raleigh; Oct. 20 at Craven Community College in New Bern; and Oct. 22 at the College of the Albemarle in Manteo. There will be a virtual option for the Raleigh meeting. All meetings are 6-8 p.m.

Division staff have not developed management options for the red drum management plan but are to consider the input gathered during this time to determine if management changes are needed. If changes are identified, the division will draft an amendment to the plan. If no changes are, the division may develop an information update to maintain current management.

The North Carolina red drum fishery management plan must comply with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s red drum plan.

The Division of Marine Fisheries acts as staff to Marine Fisheries Commission and carries out the rules and regulations they establish.

The state reached a $590 million settlement last week with Chemours and related companies in a long-running lawsuit for damages related to their decades of discharging toxic compounds, including the product GenX, into the environment from industrial operations near Fayetteville.

Attorney General Jeff Jackson and North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson on Thursday announced the deal between the state, 11 local governments and Chemours and DuPont for decades of PFAS contamination in North Carolina. According to the statement, the settlement amounts to the largest total environmental damages recovery in the state’s history.

Environmental advocates say the deal doesn’t go far enough.

The compounds, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are persistent in the environment and virtually indestructible, earning the name “forever chemicals.” According to a recent United Nations Human Rights Council report, exposure can affect endocrine systems, with resulting fetal growth and development issues, immunotoxicity, increased risk of kidney and testicular cancers, liver damage, increased cholesterol levels, hormonal interference and reduced vaccine responsiveness.

“Chemours and DuPont devastated North Carolina’s water and natural resources for decades,” Jackson said. He said the deal forces the companies to pay for the harm they caused.

“DuPont and Chemours knew they were dumping toxic forever chemicals into our drinking water, but they put their profits over our people – which is why I sued them in 2020,” said Gov. Josh Stein in a statement.

“This settlement is a huge victory for North Carolina,” said Wilson. “These companies are finally paying for the damage they caused to North Carolina’s land and waters.”

Wilson said that, while no amount of money can fully compensate residents for the harm the companies had done to public health and the environment, the settlement strengthens the existing, 2019 consent order with the state and Cape Fear River Watch, under which Chemours is permitted to continue operating. That order required Chemours to cut GenX emissions by 99% and reduce air emissions by 99.99%.

Jackson called the deal “a massive step forward” toward funding clean water programs. He said the settlement “puts even more teeth behind the consent order with NCDEQ. Chemours made this mess, and we’re making sure Chemours cleans it up.”

Cape Fear River Watch released a statement, saying the settlement “won’t come close to making us whole again after all the harm DuPont and Chemours have done to the communities of the Cape Fear Region.”

The River Watch group noted that Chemours still wants to expand its Fayetteville Works facility and discharge more PFAS into the environment, and this while acknowledging that the company hadn’t identified all contaminated private wells, nor had it compensated the Cape Fear Utility Authority or its customers for the millions spent to upgrade water treatment plants.

“Chemours is still discharging high levels of ultra-short-chain PFAS—the hardest PFAS to filter—and those PFAS are still showing up in our drinking water,” the group said.

“We are one of the most severely PFAS contaminated communities in the country and it’s more than just our tap water,” Clean Cape Fear co-founder Emily Donovan said in a statement, adding that the Chemours Fayetteville Works facility discharged more than 250 different compounds into the Cape Fear River. “Our beaches, farms, backyard gardens, honey, fish and other wildlife were all contaminated at extreme levels. We are thrilled 11 counties will receive important funds to address clean drinking water. However, it doesn’t sound like much is left over for the state’s other natural resources like our soil, river sediment, fish and beaches.”

The agreement guarantees $455 million to the state and to 11 local governments that joined the deal, to be paid over the next 10 to 15 years. Of the total, $75 million will be allocated to the state with what officials said was “roughly $55 million going to an Emerging Contaminant Mitigation Fund recently created by the North Carolina General Assembly.”

The remaining $380 million, according to the announcement, will be divided among the local governments affected and had previously sued Chemours and DuPont. Among those are Brunswick County, New Hanover County, Wrightsville Beach, Village of Bald Head Island and the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority.

The deal creates a $135 million reserve fund from DuPont and sister company Corteva to guarantee the work that Chemours must continue under the 2019 consent order.

State officials, in the statement, said the deal was “a vast improvement over the Environmental Protection Agency’s deal with Chemours earlier this year, which promised only $90 million in environmental projects across three different states, with no guarantee of any of that money coming to North Carolina.” The EPA and Chemours reached that deal without consulting the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office or the Department of Environmental Quality.  

A case brought by the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority against Chemours and DuPont seeking additional contamination cleanup funds for the utility’s service area in Wilmington and parts of New Hanover County is ongoing and not affected by the settlement.

Jackson is litigating six other cases against other companies that manufacture aqueous firefighting foam that contains PFAS that have contaminated military bases, airports and fire training facilities across the state.

A group of more than 80 volunteers recently descended upon locations across Pender County here on the coast, as well as sites in Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland and Robeson counties, to participate in the most recent “Bat Blitz,” a three-night species inventory event across North Carolina’s coastal plain.

This particular Bat Blitz was co-organized by Lisa Gatens, the collection manager in mammalogy at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and Ed Corey, the inventory biologist for North Carolina State Parks. Like past Bat Blitzes, it is hosted under the umbrella of the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network, a regional consortium dedicated to bat conservation.

“This is the third one that we have organized together, and this particular one that’s housed in Singletary Lake State Park (in Bladen County), that’s our home base,” Gatens said. “We did this 10 years ago, and so in part we are going to be revisiting sites that we surveyed then, and we’ve added lots of new sites too.” 

Most of the participants are biologists from the North Carolina Bat Working Group, an organization focused on bat research and conservation. During the blitz, they gathered a great quantity of information on species diversity, population numbers, age, sex and general health.

They also checked for signs of white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has caused millions of bat deaths nationwide. The disease itself won’t be present during the warmer months, but Blitz participants examined bats for physical damage indicative of the fungus. White-nose has only ever been recorded in North Carolina’s mountain region, but because all bats are migratory to a certain degree, it’s something that researchers are always looking out for.

The exact nature of bats’ migratory patterns is something of an unknown, however. Some species only travel short distances and will return to the same roosting spots on a seasonal basis. But others, like the silver-haired, eastern red, Seminoles, and hoary bats, are more solitary and prefer to roost in trees, making them more difficult to track. And while these species are far less likely to contact white nose syndrome, they are more susceptible to other environmental hazards. 

“Those bats are actually impacted by poor placement of wind turbines. So if you have ridgetop wind turbines, that can impact migratory bats. It can also impact birds, too. But wind turbines can have severe effects on migratory bat species,” Corey said.

Bats are an incredibly valuable part of their ecosystems. They serve an important role as pollinators, and the economic benefits of healthy bat populations are documented. A single bat can consume its body weight in insects every night, which can be especially beneficial for farmers dealing with agricultural pests.

But Gatens believes that bats’ value lies beyond their monetary benefits. “They’re not doing this for us per se, and their value is inherent. It isn’t in what they do for us, in my humble opinion,” she said.

“A blitz is a way to efficiently cover a lot of area in a short period of time and gather an awful lot of data,” Gatens said. “If we don’t have a before and after, then how can we say what the impact is.” 

Gatens loves the blitzes for many reasons, not least of all because she just loves the work.

“You can walk along a trail during the day, but when you’re out there at night, everything looks and sounds and smells and feels different than it did in the day, and you’re experiencing it in a completely different way,” she said. “You get to work with fantastic people, and it really is just loads of fun.” 

Corey agreed. “I love it. It’s like Christmas every time you get to it. You never know what you’re going to see, and it’s just great to see. You know, great to see how people do things. So you can go out with 10 different people, 10 different leaders, and see 10 different ways of catching bats.”

The Army Corps of Engineers has released a draft environmental impact statement regarding the effects of North Topsail Beach’s proposed, unfunded inlet and shoreline protection plan that includes as its preferred alternative construction of a terminal groin at New River Inlet.

The Corps’ Wilmington District is soliciting public comments on the draft statement through Oct. 19. Input received is to be used to evaluate the proposed alternatives for a roughly 3.2-square-mile study area at the north end of Topsail Island in Onslow County.

A public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 22 at the town hall, 2008 Loggerhead Court, North Topsail Beach. Attendees may submit written comments and/or verbal comments regarding the proposed alternative Nos. 1-5 of the town’s New River Inlet Master Management Plan during the hearing. Submit comments online via the federal Regulatory Request System.

You may also submit comments to Emily Hughes at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District, Attention: Emily Hughes, 69 Darlington Ave., Wilmington, NC 28403.

The study area encompasses the town’s 1.5-mile-long north-end reach of Topsail Island and the milelong south-end reach of Onslow Beach, with both backed by shallow lagoonal estuaries and tidal salt marsh complex that extends to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The New River Inlet system drains the New River and connects the back-barrier estuaries with the Atlantic Ocean.

The Corps notes that the project falls within its jurisdiction as it would affect waters of the United States and navigable waters of the United States associated with New River Inlet and the Atlantic Ocean.

In addition to the town’s preferred alternative, options include no action, or status quo; abandon and retreat with no federally authorized beach or inlet management by the town; beach nourishment only; and beach nourishment and terminal groin.

The preferred Alternative 5 would include beach nourishment, terminal groin, and inlet management.

More detailed descriptions of each alternative are in Section 3 of the draft statement.

Comments received will be used in the development of the final environmental impact statement expected to be released in March 2027. All comments received will become part of the administrative record and are subject to public release under the Freedom of Information Act.

MANTEO — On an oceanfront beach where houses collapse and scatter their debris on the shoreline, the remains of their septic tanks sitting for months or even years in the swash and littering the sand adds insult to injury.

Exposed and broken wastewater treatment systems on eroded ocean shorelines in North Carolina have become an intractable public health and safety hazard, but the current regulations, while ineffective, have been stubbornly difficult to update. 

That persistent challenge was illustrated last week during a meeting of the state’s Coastal Resources Commission, when two proposed septic rule amendments were under consideration. But after much wrangling, the measures could not be wrestled to the ground, and the panel decided to table them for further review.

The nut of the problem is how the commission rules should restrict or permit repair and replacement of septic systems that become exposed.

“Under the existing framework, we’re seeing systems fail, be repaired, remain exposed, and subsequently fail again,” Cameron Luck, coastal policy analyst with the Division of Coastal Management, told commissioners during the Aug. 27 commission meeting in Dare County.

“The recurrence cycle is one of the primary issues these amendments are intending to address.”

In his presentation to the panel about the proposed amendments, Luck pointed to images of partly submerged septic tanks and debris from the systems scattered in the sand.

“You can see that as the shoreline is migrated landward, wastewater infrastructure that was once in compliance with setback rules is now exposed directly on the beach,” he said.

Currently, even imminently threatened structures can remain on the beach for up to eight years, barring it subsiding or collapsing, Luck said. The rule doesn’t force immediate removal of exposed systems; typically, the systems were in compliance with setback rules before the forces of erosion ate away the shoreline and the first, second or third lines of vegetation. 

“While Rodanthe and Buxton have provided the most visible and well-documented examples, this isn’t necessarily an issue that’s unique to Dare County,” Luck said. “The underlying concern is continued shoreline erosion.”

As explained in division documents, the proposed amendments to the existing rule would address repeated failures of onsite wastewater systems on the beach “due to shoreline migration,” while maintaining consistency with the state Department of Health and Human Services’ authority over the permitting of the systems. 

Otherwise, the proposals don’t change existing requirements for siting septic or commission standards for new developments within Ocean Hazard Areas. A repair or replacement of systems on the ocean side of vegetation or other appropriate lines would require a Coastal Area Management Act permit, but maintenance work would not need a CAMA permit. 

“Right now, the septic tank is considered part of the house — that’s one of the things that we talked about the last meeting was whether to separate the value of tank to its own entity versus the house,” said Commission Chair Renee Cahoon.

Cahoon later suggested that the commission needs to decide whether to make that change. “Right now, it’s always going to be a repair permit because the value of the house is always going to be worth more than the septic tank system,” she said. “If it’s not, then something’s wrong.”

Another complication to rulemaking is that the vegetation line and the demarcation of the public trust beach are not necessary the same, Cahoon said. In Rodanthe, for instance, “you have third-row houses that are considered landward of the vegetation line, but they’re not really on the beach themselves,” she said. “Whereas the first-row house probably is on the beach.”

In addition to the federal, state and county stakeholders, not to mention the private property owners, year-round residents and businesses in the villages, there are numerous nonprofits and special interest groups that have weighed in on how to improve the rules for the oceanfront water systems. 

Members themselves had a myriad of questions and comments about how to tweak the proposed amendments, and how inclusive or broad the rules should be, and even when failed systems should run out of chances.

“There are innovative systems that can be permitted … not everything is acceptable to repair,” Cahoon said.

And it is certainly unacceptable to allow damaged or abandoned systems to stay for years on a public trust beach.

“You just can’t keep septic tanks on the beach,” she said.

The commission agreed to ask Division of Coastal Management staff to review the amendments and return revised versions in time for the next meeting in October.

Coastal Review will not publish Monday in recognition of Labor Day.

WASHINGTON – Five days a week, John Richards drives the roughly 15-minute commute from his rural Beaufort County home to the Bayview Ferry Terminal or, as he calls it, the “working man’s ferry.”

The half-hour ferry ride across the Pamlico River to Aurora shaves off about 45 minutes that Richards would otherwise have to drive to get to his contracting job at Nutrien. A three-hour roundtrip commute from his home in Pinetown around the river to the phosphate plant would simply not be sustainable, he said.

“Working over there is the best opportunity I’ve got,” Richards said.

Like so many Americans, Richards and his wife feel the pinch at the grocery store and gas pump.

The young couple must now absorb another expense: mandatory ferry tolls.

“It’s like the man sticking it to you again,” Richards said.

The Richards were among a little more than 30 people who flowed in and out of a public listening session North Carolina Ferry Division officials hosted at Beaufort County Community College on Tuesday evening.

It was the first in a series of meetings the division is holding through next week to get public feedback on the new law that mandates tolling all ferry routes by Jan. 1, 2027. Remaining meetings are Sept. 3 at Knotts Island Elementary School, Sept. 8 at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras and Sept. 9 at Ocracoke School.

Related: Officials plan public meetings to address new ferry tolls

The division operates four untolled ferry routes: Bayview-Aurora, Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach, Currituck-Knotts Island and Hatteras-Ocracoke.

The state budget that legislators adopted earlier this summer is scant on details. Toll-generated revenue may be used only to buy new ferries.

The law does extend an offer to all permanent residents of the state’s 20 coastal counties and active-duty service members the option to buy a $150 annual commuter pass. That cost is per vehicle.

But other details, such as rates for individual trips and how payment systems will be implemented, have yet to be hashed out.

“We’re here to listen” to suggestions on those topics, N.C. Ferry Division Director Jed Dixon said at the meeting.

Residents who attend the listening sessions are given the opportunity to fill out a comment form, which asks questions including which ferry route the person most often uses, how frequently they use that route, how tolls will affect their daily travel, their preferred method of paying for tolls, the highest one-way toll they’d be willing to pay, suggestions regarding passes and accounts, and impacts they expect their community to experience.

Aurora resident Sherri Hollister said the little, historic town she calls home depends on tourists who flock to nearby beaches throughout the summer.

“We’re trying to build up the town,” she said. “If somebody has to pay for a ferry will they come to our town? The ferry is a tourist attraction in and of itself.”

But ferries are also the lifeblood for commuters going back and forth to work, taking their children to school, and going to medical appointments, she said.

“There has to be some kind of relief program for low-income families,” Hollister said of toll rates for permanent residents. “If not, they’re just pushing us away.”

Nearly a dozen coastal counties have adopted resolutions asking Gov. Josh Stein and state transportation officials to waive all tolls ferry system wide for vehicles registered in counties with ferry terminals.

Dare County commissioners on Tuesday joined Beaufort, Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Hyde, New Hanover and Pamlico counties in making that request.

The state ferry division operates 23 ferry vessels, which transport more than 1.4 million passengers each year.

Customers vary by route. For example, 82% of Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry riders are visitors, according to the division.

Meanwhile, 92% of riders on the Aurora-Bayview ferry route are residents, as are 80% of Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach ferry customers.

“I vowed till my dying day to fight this thing,” Oriental resident Larry Summers said on Tuesday. “The ferries have to be sustained another way.”

He blames state funding cuts on the division’s aging ferry fleet, writing in a local publication that those funding shortfalls “appear to be, largely self-inflicted.”

“They did this to themselves,” he said. “They’ve been cutting the corporate income and individual income tax rates for about 10 years.”

Greg Piner, also of Oriental, wrote in a guest column published by TownDock.net that the simplest solution to fund new ferries is to raise the gas tax by one-tenth of a cent.

He refers to it as the “72-cent solution,” one that would generate enough annual revenue to “allow the Ferry System to focus on what they are trained to do: safely transport as many vehicles as possible every day across the rivers and sounds of North Carolina.”

Dixon said that the division will take a phase approach to implementing a tolling system ferry wide to meet the Jan. 1 implementation deadline.

The division anticipates presenting recommended rates to the North Carolina Board of Transportation at its Oct. 8 meeting. The board is expected to take action on those rates the following month, with a legislative report ready for submittal to Raleigh in December.

MANTEO — Over two days last week, the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission and its advisory panel viewed presentations with vivid views of battered oceanfront buildings, severely eroded beaches and remains of various sand barriers and traps designed to hold back ocean forces.

With legislation that would repeal the state’s landmark ban on hardened structures parked in a state Senate committee awaiting further action, the commission had asked its Science Panel and agency staff to provide updated information in a report on the effects of seawalls, jetties and other permanent erosion control structures on the open ocean coastlines.

After months of research and minor tweaking, the final report, “Effects of Hard Structures on Sandy, Open-Ocean Coastlines.” was presented to the commission during its Aug. 27 meeting at the Dare County Government Complex. But through each iteration, the analysis remained consistent: Blocking or trapping sand at one area of beach takes sand from another area of beach.

According to the Division of Coastal Management’s recently updated erosion data, 140 miles of the state’s 320 miles of ocean shoreline are eroding at an average annual rate greater than 2 feet; 135 miles at less than 2 feet yearky; and 100 miles of beach is accreting. Some of the highest erosion rates are on the Outer Banks, where 32 oceanfront houses have collapsed in Rodanthe and Buxton since 2020.

“There is such desire — and it’s completely understandable — to stop long-term, chronic erosion,” Science Panel Chair Laura Moore told commissioners during her presentation about the final report. “Yet in some cases, there’s a desire for a solution, but there really isn’t a solution. What we can do is buy time.

“It’s like getting older, right?” she said. “The inevitable is going to happen, but we can make choices that allow us to do what we want to do for longer …  and long-term chronic erosion that’s been occurring for hundreds of years in these particular places is a little bit like that.”

Boiled down to its essence, not much has changed in the rationale since 1984, when North Carolina was one of the first states in the nation to ban the structures. Except now the state is not alone.

“Every state is moving away from hardened structures, but there’s not a complete ban,” Daniel Govoni, N.C. Division of Coastal Management policy section chief, told the commission, summing up a presentation of 17 coastal states’ current policies.

While Govoni said that it was difficult to compare the complexities of permitting erosion control structures, in general, he concluded, they all preferred beach nourishment and retreat, and the majority discouraged the structural measures.

‘What is the intent?’

For a long moment, members of the panel sat silently, pokerfaced. Soon, Commissioner Jordan Hennessy asserted that some measures may still be worth trying: “I think there are processes in other states we can look at,” he said.

Member Joseph Hollowell followed, asking what would happen “if some miracle comes along” that is a hardened structure that is banned in North Carolina.

“What is the intent of the science committee?” he asked. “Is it to formulate a campaign to keep the law as it currently is? Was it to be innovative … creative?”

Commission Chair Renee Cahoon responded that the CRC was “not trying to rewrite the law.” Instead, she said, the panel is trying to understand the options so it can provide recommendations to the legislature.

The commission decided at this point to interrupt the discussion to allow CRC Assistant General Counsel Christy Goebel to provide her overview of the hardened structures law, which began life as commission policy in January 1985. The ban was upheld in court in 2000, and the policy became state law in 2003. Then, in 2011, a law was passed that allowed four terminal groins, which trap sand near inlets or the end of islands, as pilot projects. The opening has since been expanded to allow seven groins.

Even with the law in place, structures have been allowed to protect infrastructure like roads and bridges as well as historic structures.

Today, she said, there are at least 15 hardened structures on the North Carolina shoreline. Sandbags, which have always been permitted as temporary structures, are currently allowed to stay in place for eight years. At least 12 sites currently have large sandbags as protective measures on the beach.

Hollowell then made a motion to support the proposed legislation to “do away with” the current hardened structures ban. That would open consideration of “all kinds of new technologies that seem to be out there,” he said.

Hennessy seconded the motion.

But Cahoon objected: “That’s asking this commission to take a political stand, which is not something the commission will do,” she said.

As an alternative, she suggested consulting with the North Carolina Collaboratory, which was established in 2016 by the General Assembly to handle research needs and provide expertise on state issues. “If the legislature passes a bill, they will ask us for direction.”

Commissioner Steve Shuttleworth asked for clarification on the motion.

“I would have a hard time supporting or opposing a motion to support something that I don’t understand what they’re asking us to vote on,” he said. “At the end of the day, my two cents, it’s political. It’s been political for 40 years. Sometimes the legislators go one way, and sometimes, now, they want to go a different way.”

Another commissioner, Katherine Skinner, also questioned whether such a motion was premature, considering that the proposed bill was stalled in committee.

“I feel incredibly uncomfortable backing a bill that has not had full debate in the House and the Senate,” she said. “And we are picking a side that we are not being well-informed on.”

The motion failed in a 6-4 vote, with three members abstaining. Then Hennessy followed with a similar motion, which also failed.

‘Life Is Full of Tradeoffs’

In his presentation on Aug. 26 to the Coastal Resources Advisory Committee, titled “Erosion Management Options, Life Is Full of Tradeoffs,” Spencer Rogers, a member of the Science Panel, detailed how waves and currents interact to transport sand to and from the beach. “The beach changes at rates that are far beyond what most people appreciate,” he said.

It is the water depth that controls the height of waves as they head to the beach. With shallower water, friction starts to slow down the wave, Rogers said. When the wave breaks, it forms a smaller wave. Even during a Category 3 storm in North Carolina, he said, the largest wave on land is likely about 6 feet.

Rogers said the wave-breaking phenomenon is critically important in thinking about development on the coast.

“That 30-foot wave is going to break miles offshore, not on your house,” he said.

Even though ocean currents don’t sound very fast — the Gulf Stream, for instance, is considered speedy with its typical 5 mph pace —  but they move tons and tons of sand daily.

On high-energy beaches, such as those on the Outer Banks, the coastal processes that move sand are intensified. That may explain why beach nourishment cannot be assumed to always mitigate the erosion created by hard structures like revetments or offshore reefs.

“The problem with that approach is that almost every place that is likely to come forward with an erosion problem … beach nourishment has already failed,” Rogers said.

Successful beach nourishment requires a moderate erosion rate and regular maintenance, he added. When the erosion rate is too high, which is likely the case in Buxton, “you really can’t afford long-term beach nourishment,” he said.

“And if beach nourishment is successful, you don’t really need a structure,” Rogers said.

The tradeoff between having a beach or protecting a structure works at Fort Fisher, which has an erosion rate of 10 feet and no beach, he said. But the historic structure is protected.

Such a tradeoff, Rogers noted, would no doubt be “more difficult” in locations like Nags Head.

In a letter to the division in support of the Science Panel’s report, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, said the hardened structures policy was a product of years of research and observation of impacts in other states.

“The report does not suggest that hardened structures are a solution without consequence,” wrote Ana Zivanovic-Nenadovic, the Coastal Federation’s chief program officer. “Rather, it demonstrates that these approaches involve significant tradeoffs that must be carefully weighed against their limited and localized benefits. At a time when sea level rise, stronger storms, and increasing coastal development are creating unprecedented challenges, North Carolina should continue to lead rather than retreat from the principles that have guided coastal management for decades.”

As the CRC wrapped up its hardened structures discussion on Thursday, several members expressed continued optimism that perhaps new technological advances in erosion-control methods, such as reef balls or offshore breakwaters, could offer reasonable mitigation to chronic erosion. But so far, Moore responded, the future offers no easy or ready solution.

“The Science Panel has reviewed all technologies that are available and there is not anything new and flashy on the horizon,” Moore said. “This is a so well-known, challenging problem that’s been addressed in different ways with differing degrees of success and adverse impacts along coastlines throughout the world for a long time. So there’s just not a magic silver bullet.”

The nation’s second-oldest federal marine science laboratory is getting a new home on Pivers Island.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Thursday plans to fund $64 million from the 2025 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act to build a new facility for the Beaufort Laboratory.

The longtime home of the Beaufort Lab, as it is more commonly referred, was shuttered in mid-October 2024 after significant hurricane-related structural damage was discovered during a routine inspection in the building’s foundation.

The Beaufort Lab was established in 1899 and predates NOAA by more than 70 years. It houses NOAA’s National Ocean Service and National Marine Fisheries Service’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center, and the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve.

“For more than a century, the dedicated experts at NOAA’s Beaufort Laboratory have produced world-class science that supports our economy, advances national priorities, and enhances coastal resilience,” Dr. Neil Jacobs, NOAA administrator, stated in a release. “This state-of-the-art facility, located within the country’s second-largest estuary and adjacent to the Gulf Stream, will enable NOAA to continue its groundbreaking research while strengthening collaboration with industry and academic partners.”

NOAA says the new lab will expand its research and services in the following ways:

• Researching, monitoring and forecasting harmful algal blooms.
• Deploying uncrewed systems for underwater habitat mapping and coral restoration.
• Serving as a research hub to support South Atlantic fisheries management and stewardship of marine resources.
• Evaluating the performance of natural infrastructure for coastal protection.
• Managing the Rachel Carson National Estuarine Research Reserve and providing opportunities for education, research and compatible traditional uses.

Design and preconstruction work on the new facility, which will be built above the floodplain and designed to withstand storm and flooding events, is expected to begin early next year.

Weather forecasts in areas of North Carolina this summer have played like a needle on a scratched vinyl record, bouncing backward in a repeating loop: dry and hot, dry and hot, dry and hot.

Well before high temperatures with heat indexes climbing into triple digits smothered the air hanging over portions of the state, coastal counties being no exception, the land beneath our feet was parched.

The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council, or DMAC, announced at the beginning of this year that the state was experiencing widespread dry conditions, the result of a drought the origins of which trace back to August 2025. About a week into the new year, 15 of the state’s 20 coastal counties were classified as abnormally dry.

By June’s end, Brunswick County Public Utilities customers were placed under mandatory water restrictions. As June turned over to July, drought conditions in that county further deteriorated.

Though the western portion of North Carolina’s southernmost coastal county as of Aug. 18 remained under exceptional drought, the highest drought classification, rain since July has relieved dry conditions marginally but enough to prompt the county to ease water, though not completely lift, water use restrictions.

North Carolina has since last month started to see some notable rainfall, particularly in the western part of the state and northern part of the coast, said Klaus Albertin, DMAC chair and water resources engineer with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources.

“Most areas are starting to see improvements, and a lot of the state, lawns, gardens, agriculture is looking good because we’ve been getting regular rains,” he said. “Not everywhere improves at the same rate. That’s kind of the tough part about the summertime in North Carolina. We’ll get some rains that are really spotty, so you’ll have areas that get 2, 3, 3½ inches, but then, not far away, they may only get a quarter of an inch.”

This helped some state reservoirs recover their water levels faster than others.

Rainfall in the watershed above Jordan Lake, for example, helped that reservoir bounce back to its target water level within a couple of weeks, Albertin said.

Falls Lake, which is a little more than 30 miles northeast of Jordan Lake, hasn’t been as lucky.

“It’s going to take some good rains or a lot of smaller, consistent rains to bring all of them back up to where we’d like to see them,” Albertin said.

As for aquifers, he said, “I would say, instead of weeks you probably are looking at months, and some of it just takes a while for the water to percolate down into the aquifers.”

Gabrielle Chianese, DWR’s Groundwater Resource Branch supervisor, explained that there are portions of the state where groundwater, or superficial aquifer wells, are showing decreases.

“However, the deeper aquifers, the only way the drought really impacts those deeper aquifers is due to higher usage,” including lawn irrigation, she said. “That’s when we’ll see impacts to the lower aquifers. But all of these seem to be recovering very well, especially the ones that the deeper aquifers that are being used more, we are seeing recovery in those so that’s good news.”

She encourages private well water owners to have their well water tested, a service typically provided by county health departments for a fee.

Parts of the state continue to face lingering rainfall deficits despite recent summer storms.

As of Aug. 18, Wilmington, for example, was at a 21-inch rain deficit.

“It just goes to show that we haven’t really had a whole lot of rain, especially in some parts of the state, since last August,” of 2025, said North Carolina State Climate Office Director Dr. Jared Bowden.

And the hot weather much of the state has experienced this summer has only aided and abetted drought conditions.

Intense heat paired with dry conditions creates what is called a “hot drought,” which amplifies the loss of moisture in the soil.

“If you basically dry out the soil then all the energy goes into heating up that surface and then it gets just hotter, so it feels hotter, and that’s because all the energy goes directly into heating the surface rather than evaporation,” Bowden said. “There’s this coupling process as the atmosphere continues to warm and it becomes thirstier that you get these hotter and drier droughts.”

This, he explained, is a fingerprint of the changing climate.

According to the State Climate Office, North Carolina over the last 120 years has warmed by about 1 degree Fahrenheit.

“This is less than Earth as a whole, which has warmed by nearly two degrees,” the office states.

But warming has accelerated in recent decades, with the period between 2009 and 2018 becoming the state’s warmest recorded decade.

Wetter weather patterns ahead?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in early June confirmed that the globe was officially in an El Niño year. El Niño is a recurring weather phenomenon that forms when the sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean are warmer than average.

And, Bowden said, its impacts are already being felt.

“Hurricanes, like them or not, they do contribute to our climatological rainfall into late fall in particular,” he said. “Basically, El Niño is decreasing the likelihood that we’ll have significant rains from a tropical-like system.”

What does that mean for say, Brunswick County? As we move into peak hurricane season, if the probability for a named storm is low, so too is the likelihood of short-term drought relief.

“But, as you go into the fall, when El Niño picks up in strength, the impacts are for a wetter winter,” Bowden explained.

In fact, in the coming months – October, November and into December – North Carolina could experience similar rain events to those of 2015, when there was in a strong El Niño.

“We had our wettest December on record, and the strong El Niño event of 1997 and ’98, we had our wettest winter on record for the state of North Carolina,” Bowden said. “That’s kind of where we’re headed. Ideally, it’s going to be months of needed rain. I mean, of course, you can get the big hurricane — even that would just really put a dent in something like that — but the odds of that type of event are not as likely. It will probably be more steady rainfall over the winter months that would bring places like Wilmington that are currently, over the last year, in 20-inches-plus deficit to get them back to normal. But, the short term is we might stay dry for a little longer across the state.”

Editor’s note: Coastal Review regularly features the work of North Carolina historian David Cecelski, who writes about the history, culture and politics of the state’s coast. More of his work, including the following from earlier this year, can be found on his personal website.

A few nights ago, I gave a lecture at the Walter N. & Henrietta B. Ridley Student Center at Elizabeth City State University.

For me it was a joyful evening, and I hope it was for all those who attended.

I so enjoyed getting to know so many remarkable students, and it did my heart good to observe the strong and loving bond between the students and the university’s faculty and staff.

I was on campus most of the day. From start to finish, as I visited with the faculty, and saw how they interacted with the students, I kept telling myself, “These are the kind of professors that I wish every college student could have.”  

I also had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. S. Keith Hargrove Sr., the university’s new chancellor. Chancellor Hargrove’s Installation would occur a few days after my visit, but I could already feel the excitement in the air.

I did not have a great deal of free time, but while I was on campus I could not resist taking a little time to explore the University Archives.

I had never visited the University Archives and its extraordinary collection of historical manuscripts, photographs, and artifacts before.

But Paige Hendrickson, the university archivist, gave me a wonderful backstage tour of the archives’ holdings.

Seen through her eyes, the University Archives is a place of a thousand stories.

Located on the second floor of the G. R. Little Library, the collection reaches all the way back to the university’s founding in 1891.

Originally called the Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School, ECSU began its illustrious history as a training school for African American teachers.

I found the historical treasures in the University Archives to be incredibly diverse and fascinating. They speak to every part of the university’s past, and they are also a unique window into the history of Elizabeth City and that whole northeastern part of North Carolina.

I have been thinking about some of the old photographs that are preserved at the University Archives’ holdings ever since that visit.

The photographs date to the period between 1892 and 1914 and feature some of the university’s first students and faculty.

I think that I was so moved by them because, over the years, I have repeatedly encountered historical accounts that refer to the school’s graduates teaching in the small towns and villages of Eastern North Carolina.

They were in the truest sense missionaries of knowledge. Many were destined to teach in the region’s towns and cities, but far more were bound for remote rural communities where books were rare and precious things.

I have seen historical accounts of the school’s graduates teaching in logging camps and lumber mill towns deep in the swamps.

I have seen historical accounts of them teaching the children of field workers in one- and two-room schools surrounded by miles of cotton fields and where it was considered an act of defiance to send your children to school instead of into the fields to work.

Similarly, I have seen historical accounts of Elizabeth City’s graduates teaching on remote, windswept islands and on the edge of tidewater rice fields.

In those early days, wherever they were, the school’s alumni were paid far less, given far fewer books and equipment, and were required to teach far more students in far worse buildings than their white counterparts.

Yet again and again, I have seen in historical records, they found a way. Not just to make do, but to enlighten, lift up, and inspire their students and often the local community as well.

In such places, the teachers who came out of the State Normal School, as ECSU was called then, often boarded with local families and were, in the truest sense, never really off work.

As symbols of knowledge and learning, they were caretakers of body, mind, and spirit. In community after community, children and adults alike looked to them for guidance and tutelage – and as role models.

In these old photographs, those early teacher trainees look so incredibly young and innocent, barely out of school themselves.

Yet when I look at them, I see all those places they went and taught, and the good they did, and all the children whose lives they changed for the better, and all the possibilities they opened up for those young people.

I think too of all the good that their students then did when they grew up, and the families they raised, and the thousand little ways that, over the course of their lives, what they learned from their teachers guided them.

I think about the dangers they survived, or that I pray they survived, and I think how often I have heard their former students, even when they were up in their 80s and 90s, remember those teachers with gratitude, reverence, and love.

In these photographs, the young people are often standing side by side with the school’s founding president, Peter Weddick Moore, a devoted educator who was the son of a couple born into slavery and whose father is believed to have been murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.

Whatever else I did at Elizabeth City State University – visiting the history program, touring the Rosenwald school, giving my lecture – I tried to keep the memory of these photographs with me.

In the last six years the Atlantic Ocean has demolished nearly three dozen privately owned oceanfront homes in Buxton and Rodanthe.

These collapsed houses represent a broader coastal management challenge, even pushing the commission that makes coastal development rules to reconsider a decadeslong ban on hardened structures built for erosion control, Dr. Reide Corbett said during a recent talk at Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island.

A coastal oceanographer and geochemist, Corbett, as of July 16, is the new interim dean of the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences on East Carolina University’s main campus. He spent the last 14 years as head of the Coastal Studies Institute, or CSI, in Wanchese, led by ECU. His talk was one of five in the “Water/Ways” speaker series last month organized to complement the Smithsonian traveling exhibit with the same name that was on display at the time.

“There’s no doubt that we are seeing changes along our shoreline,” and because there’s not just one thing driving coastal change, there’s not one simple solution, Corbett said early in the presentation.

“I’ll go ahead and put quotes around ‘solution’ now because I might not do it throughout the entire talk, because a solution to many of these challenges we face is likely only temporary. It’s not going to solve the problem. The process that is driving many of these changes won’t be solved by one thing.”

The process

North Carolina’s coast is protected by low-lying sand deposits called barrier islands. These mobile landforms that separate the mainland from the ocean are in constant but slow motion toward the mainland. This natural process is how these islands maintain elevation and width.

This is nothing new, “barrier islands have always changed,” Corbett said, but now these mobile landforms are developed. “For better or worse, it is where we are. These coastlines have been changing since there were coastlines. The difference is we have a lot of infrastructure today in the same areas where these coastlines are changing.”

The natural process of erosion on the oceanside and growth on the sound side of the island is being exacerbated by increasing sea levels, development associated with population growth, and storm impacts.

The National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration reported a few years ago that sea level is expected to rise 1 to 1.5 feet by 2050. “To put that in perspective, it took the last almost 100 years for sea levels to change 1 foot in coastal North Carolina,” Corbett said. “And from roughly 2000 to 2050, we’ll expect at least an additional 1-to 1.5-foot rise.”

That is a significant amount, and “When you look at what sea level is doing based on tide gauges up and down our coast, we are right on track to meet that if not surpass that” projection that he said has a 95% chance of happening.

To illustrate, when a house on the Outer Banks gets taken by the ocean, Corbett said the “narrative is ‘often why did people build here? Why would they put their house right there? It’s so vulnerable,’” but when the houses were built in Buxton, for example, in the 1970s and 1980s, there was 100 to 300 feet of beach, or a few dunes, in front at the time. Now, the ocean is on their doorstep.

It’s because these shorelines have been eroding for decades, some at 5, 10 or 15 feet per year every year. Then put a storm on top of that, or this past fall, three storms “one after another after another without any time for recovery, and what you end up doing is deflating the beach, dropping the elevation of that beach, removing significant amount of sand because of the energy in the system.”

There has been roughly a 1-foot rise in sea level since 1975 at this location, and erosion has continued anywhere from 4 to 8 feet per year there. “You put those two things together and this is what you have,” he said.

As Corbett said early in the program, “there’s not going to be a single simple solution for any community” and what may work for one won’t necessarily work for another.

Community questions

Communities need to ask themselves what they are trying to protect. “Is it an individual home? Is it a way of life? Is it an economy? Where are we acting? Where is it most vulnerable? What are we trying to protect? And where is that? You can ask ‘why are we trying to protect that?’ as well if you like. How far are we looking out into the future? Because I think that’s important to consider when acting on a potential solution.”

What can a community do once it decides on a path forward? There area a handful of options, starting with nothing, which Corbett said isn’t really a response. Some areas can be protected. For example, a living shoreline in an estuary could protect infrastructure. Accommodate the change and that might look like houses being raised or a bridge around a very vulnerable location or leave. “Nobody likes to hear the word ‘retreat’ because it seems like you’re giving up. And I don’t disagree with that,” he said, but the idea is to move out of those most vulnerable locations.

Corbett said that hardened structures are “being pointed to a lot today as a way of protection, a solution to the problem. And I think it’s important to recognize the tradeoffs.”

In North Carolina, hardened structures have not been used to control erosion in decades, because of a policy in the 1980s and then a law in the early 2000s.

Corbett noted on the presentation slide that the state law “prohibits the construction of a permanent erosion control structure in an ocean shoreline, including breakwater, bulkhead, groin, jetty, revetment, seawall or any similar structure. This ban was based on extensive studies and technical data documenting the detrimental impacts of erosion control structures, including 150 years of documented negative impacts of shoreline stabilization on the barrier islands of New Jersey.”

The different kinds of hardened structures come with their own sets of problems. A vertical structure like a seawall might protect what’s behind it but will lead to higher erosion rates on either side of the structure and a total loss of recreation beach in front of it, Corbett said.

The houses actively crumbling have pressed the Coastal Resources Commission to consider potential changes to its laws on hardened structures and charged its science panel, on which he serves, in February to draft a report on the various types of hardened structures for oceanfront and the advantages and disadvantages of each type. The report was first presented during the commission’s June meeting.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management, which carries out the development rules established by the commission, announced that the commission is to hear an update on the report during the Aug. 26-27 meeting in Manteo.

But with all those responses, “I think it’s important to recognize that the processes aren’t changing,” Corbett said.

Buxton has three terminal groins that were built in the 1960s that have deteriorated, and the narrative suggests that the deterioration and large holes in the structure farthest south has led to significant erosion.

“My argument is, it’s not just that. It’s an erosional system. There’s a lot of data to show that even with these groins, there’s a reason we moved the lighthouse,” said Corbett, referring to the Cape Hatteras Light, which was moved in 1999 a distance of 2,900 feet from where it was built in 1870 because of its proximity to the waves. “It wasn’t a stable system. And those groins have been there since the late ’60s. And so, this is an eroding system. And it’s been eroding regardless of whether those groins were there or not. And it will continue to erode whether we rebuild those groins or not.”

Nourishment does protect but is a temporary solution. It’s not changing the process causing the erosion.

Beach nourishment is when sand is taken from a borrow area and pumped onto the beach. The amount of time the new sand lasts on the shoreline is no longer projected to be seven years. Now the project planners are calculating for five years. But that’s not long enough either. The sand from a 2022 beach nourishment in Buxton only lasted two years until more was needed.

Corbett’s hypothesis is that nourishment projects are causing the shoreface to steepen 15 to 20 feet from the shoreline. He said he was considering looking further into this untested theory to see if the nourishment areas are becoming more vulnerable.

Data available on coastsat.space, which uses satellite imagery to map ocean shorelines, shows how the beach is changing and responding to a beach nourishment project.  

For south Nags Head, the first nourishment project was in late 2011 or 2012, and data shows that after nourishment, the erosion rate became significantly faster.

“You place a lot of sand on the beach, it’s unnatural. Yes, it provides a wider beach, but you also increase that erosion rate,” Corbett said. “I’m not saying this isn’t protecting infrastructure” but it doesn’t stop the process.

“Nourishment is a Band-Aid for that real physical process of erosion. It hasn’t slowed the process. It is a temporary solution that has to continue. You don’t do a single nourishment, you develop a nourishment program,” he said. “It’s $20 million today. It’s $20 million in five years.”

Ultimately, Corbett said communities need to decide what they want to protect and if they’re willing to accept the tradeoff.

Marine scientists and others at the University of North Carolina Wilmington are waiting anxiously for the arrival of a new $7.5 million, state-funded research vessel that will greatly enhance research capabilities and learning opportunities for students.

While the school’s marine science students hail from far-flung locations, a substantial number are from the Wilmington area and as many as 400 are from in and around Carteret County.

That’s important to UNCW Director of Marine Operations Jay Styron of Cedar Island and Wilmington.

“I’m excited,” he said Monday afternoon.

“We’ve been pushing for this for 16 years. I can hardly believe we’re finally at this point. We are grateful for the state funding. Delivery is imminent.”

The R/V Osprey was built for the university in Bellingham, Washington. Styron went to the shipyard recently and took the 78-foot-long, 27-foot-wide aluminum catamaran out for sea tests and said Monday it handled the tests beautifully.

“It was great,” he said. “It’s everything we hoped for.”

Size alone will be a difference-maker.

The RV Osprey is 15 feet longer than the vessel it’s replacing and will be the largest marine research vessel in the region, Styron said.

“It’s even bigger than the research vessel at the Duke (University Marine) lab” on Pivers Island in Beaufort, he said.

Duke’s vessel is a 77-foot, hydrofoil-assisted, aluminum catamaran built by All American Marine and delivered in 2019.

The R/V Osprey is en route to Florida, where Styron will pick up and sail the vessel home to a berth on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway off campus.

UNCW’s Center for Marine Science has more than 100 affiliated faculty representing all UNCW colleges. It features offices and laboratories for more than 40 researchers and scientists, 65 students and more than 60 staff members.

Styron said one of the major improvements the Osprey will offer UNCW and the region is enhanced geophysical work, especially in identifying locations of offshore sand.

“Sand is gold now,” he said, because local governments along the coast are constantly looking for sand to nourish beaches that are eroding because of sea level rise and the impacts of hurricanes and nor’easters.

In addition, Styron said, the vessel will enhance research into and monitoring of PFAS.

These compounds, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are manufactured chemicals used since the 1950s to make consumer products resistant to water, grease and heat.

Because of their persistence, they are often called “forever chemicals.”

They don’t break down easily in nature or in humans and are believed to cause high cholesterol levels, liver and immune system damage, low birth weights, some cancers and hormone disruptions.

In Wilmington, problems stem from decades of discharges into the Cape Fear River from the Chemours chemical plant upstream in Fayetteville.

But PFAS also have been found in other locations where water has been tested.

Styron said another use for the vessel will be retrieval of weather buoys associated with the Coastal Ocean Research Monitoring Program, or CORMP.

Styron said the university will seek donors to help cover operational costs for R/V Osprey, with a particular eye on the many wealthy people who have flocked to the North Carolina coast in recent years.

Ultimately, he said, he’d like to see an endowment, such as the one for marine science at Duke University, to cover all costs.

Styron added that the new vessel will enable increased collaboration with the many marine science and fisheries facilities in Carteret County and elsewhere.

Design characteristics

A press release from UNCW states that the vessel design will allow researchers to adapt to a variety of projects, providing dependable access to nearshore environments to make North Carolina an exceptional living laboratory.

“As the state’s coastal university, the (UNCW) Center for Marine Science serves as a hub for research that addresses regional, national and global environmental challenges.

“The R/V Osprey enhances the center’s capacity to support projects focused on coastal resilience, ecosystem health, fisheries, water quality and marine technology”

The custom-designed catamaran hull with hydrofoil allows for increased stability and maneuverability in choppy coastal waters.

The hull design, combined with the energy-rated engines and 6-foot draft, provides fuel- efficient performance on a stable platform.

It has an advanced navigation system to fully integrate with instruments and scientists during a cruise.

It includes radar, single-beam sonar, a multibeam sonar, an automatic identification system, or AIS, VHF radio, an an electronic amplification system, or hailer, and a forward-looking infrared, or FLIR, thermal and low-light camera system.

There are berthing spaces for up to 10 crew and researchers with quiet, comfortable rest areas during multiday sea operations, essential for safety and effective operational and scientific work.

Lab space is a climate-controlled environment for processing freshly collected samples, with running seawater, freshwater refrigeration, deep-freeze storage, chemical storage and microscopes. Dry lab space is used for computing and analyzing data collected during cruises. It allows active monitoring of built-in and overboard systems such as acoustic doppler current profiler, or ADCP, to study the water column, a WASSP multibeam sonar system, analytical processes running on scientific computer servers, Wi-Fi, monitors and connection points for geophysical survey equipment.

The 27-foot-wide aft deck is designed to maximize space.

Third in a series

Another year brought another wave of arguments over shellfish leases in North Carolina coastal waters.

Before summer officially began, legislators added language to a bill that would temporarily ban new leases in the waters behind Topsail Island. This provision was tacked onto legislation originally written to extend New Hanover County’s shellfish lease moratorium another five years, through to 2031.

This was the second consecutive year that representatives from Topsail Island’s three towns attempted to pause new leases in Stump and Topsail sounds.

House Bill 1113, sponsored by Rep. Ted Davis, R-New Hanover, also included a provision to extend a moratorium on new shellfish leases in Carteret County’s Bogue Sound until July 1, 2028. The bill was withdrawn from the legislative calendar and sent to the House rules committee on June 18. It hasn’t moved since.

New Hanover County’s request to continue blocking new leases from its waters was tucked into the state budget Gov. Josh Stein signed July 7. The law grants the county a two-year extension, not the five years originally sought.

That’s two more years that prospective shellfish farmers or those looking to expand their business will remain shut out of the waters in North Carolina’s two southernmost coastal counties. Brunswick County has had a shellfish lease moratorium in place since Harry S. Truman was in the White House.

Lease moratoria and poor water quality have resulted in areas closed to shellfish harvesting farther north, effectively bottlenecking growers into waterways that are still open, including those around Topsail Island in Onslow and Pender counties.

Clashes over shared public waters are not likely to ebb with the tide as North Carolina’s aquaculture or mariculture industry expands.

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries received by its Aug. 1 deadline 49 shellfish lease applications for six counties: Carteret, Dare, Hyde, Onslow, Pamlico and Pender, according to information provided by the division.

New lease applications cover a combined 55 acres of bottom and water columns. That includes 15.75 acres in Bogue Sound, where what turned out to be a seven-year moratorium expired on July 1.

In total, six lease applications were submitted for Onslow and Pender counties – four for Onslow and two for Pender.

“We have heard from some private residents and also some fishing guides and some commercial interests about their concerns about, in particular, column leases,” said William Snyder, chair of the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission. “We know that those concerns are still out there. I think that you could say that there’s some disappointment that we were not able to get the moratorium first and then get a study to confirm or deny the concerns that we have.”

Balancing act

On a positive note, he said, two studies on shellfish leasing — one commissioned by the General Assembly and one lead by North Carolina Sea Grant in partnership with the Coastal Federation — are examining how to balance future shellfish lease site selections, help shape future policy to protect the industry, and ease user conflicts.

“We’ve got to hang our hats on how these studies play out and listen to see what that tells us in terms of conflicting uses of our public trust waters,” Snyder said.

The North Carolina Collaboratory is expected to present an interim report on its study at year’s end.

Last week, Sea Grant and the Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, launched an online survey asking oysters growers in Pender and Onslow counties to share their experiences and perspectives on the use of public trust waters.

The organizations are hosting a meeting next month for shellfish growers.

Back in April, local elected officials, private property owners and recreational water users were invited a public meeting with Sea Grant and Coastal Federation representatives to discuss their concerns about leases in Stump and Topsail sounds.

People at that meeting overwhelmingly expressed worries about water column leases, or those where shellfish growers use floating gear to grow oysters at the water’s surface. Floating cages, they argued, impede boating and kayaking access, infringe on popular fishing spots, and impact waterfront viewsheds.

Recommendations shared with Sea Grant and Coastal Federation staff will help shape updates to the North Carolina Strategic Plan for Shellfish Mariculture, a plan commissioned by the General Assembly in 2017. This document is effectively the state’s roadmap for a sustainable shellfish industry.

The organizations also anticipate publishing next year a Geographic Information System, or GIS, database pinpointing areas where leases may or may not be suitable in the waterways behind Topsail Island.

“It’s important to acknowledge that many residents have some concerns about navigation and access and those are important to take into consideration as part of the conversation, just as the benefits of shellfish aquaculture,” Coastal Federation Chief Program Officer Ana Živanović-Nenadović told Coastal Review last month. “But ideally, those conversations should happen without having to close water bodies to new leases.”

Days after Bogue Sound’s shellfish lease moratorium expired, Carteret County Commissioner Marianne Waldroup and Rep. Celeste Cairns, R-Carteret, held a meeting with state fisheries officials, aquaculture specialists, marine scientists, the N.C. Fisheries Association and other stakeholders to discuss ways to minimize potential user conflicts in the sound.

Carteret Community College Aquaculture Department Chair David Cerino attended that meeting.

Cerino, who also grows shellfish, explained that there aren’t that many sites ideal for shellfish aquaculture in Bogue Sound. Areas dense with submerged aquatic vegetation, or plants that grow under water, portions of the waterway permanently closed around the Morehead City port, and areas closed to unexploded military ordnance, cut down lease space, he said.

“I think once it was shared that there wouldn’t be leases everywhere because they can’t site them there, most of the town representatives were less opposed to it being open for leases,” Cerino said.

The group agreed to hold future talks about identifying low-conflict spots in Bogue Sound and potential buffer zones from the land.

A history of public opposition

About 34% of the state’s coastal waters are permanently closed to shellfish harvest because of pollution and lack of monitoring capacity, according to the 2021-25 Oyster Restoration and Protection Plan for North Carolina.

Today, 6% of coastal waters remain closed to new shellfish leases, according to the Division of Marine Fisheries.

New shellfish enterprises have been blocked from waters in Brunswick County since 1949. Farther north, new leases have not been permitted in Core Sound since the mid-1990s. In 1996, legislators approved a permanent ban on new leases in the sound.

Those moratoria were implemented because of public backlash that leases violate the public trust, according to an April 2020 division report.

“Historically, public opposition to shellfish leases resulting from user conflicts has been a major concern,” states the report. “Shellfish moratorium have been imposed in recent years in areas where user conflict issues have been especially acute.”

Cerino called moratoria a “knee-jerk reaction” and a “nuclear option of just eliminating something because you’re maybe worried about a specific circumstance.”

“What that does is it funnels people to the areas that are still open because a lot of people are wanting to get into this business,” he continued. “I would like to see a moratorium on moratoriums, but I’m biased. They basically take away the opportunity to establish sustainable businesses that have positive environmental impacts and employment opportunities and increase our seafood production and improve local economies and water quality. There are definitely areas where we shouldn’t have shellfish leases, but they are not entire sounds, entire waterbodies that should be closed off.”

The rise in user conflicts has driven up the numbers of legal challenges against the Division of Marine Fisheries, according to the report.

But no growth goes without challenge, Živanović-Nenadović said.

“I think our waterfronts are consistently changing with our human activity. When you build a marina, you change the waterfront,” she said. “When the Coastal Federation builds a living shoreline, we change the waterfront. It’s important to always remember that those are valid and compatible uses of our public trust water bodies and have been deemed to have benefit to society, and that’s why they’re allowed and why we have a public permitting system in place for those uses.”

The challenge, she said, has been and continues to be bringing people together “to get to a point of shared values and understanding and accepting that these water bodies are for everybody to use.”

In 2019, the General Assembly charged the fisheries division with identifying potential shellfish aquaculture enterprise areas, or SEAs, in waters closed to new leases. SEAs are designed to speed up shellfish lease permitting and help reduce user conflicts by grouping leases in large pre-permitted areas.

The state had not established one of these areas at the time this story was published.

SURF CITY – If plans go accordingly, this town’s 6-mile-long stretch of ocean shoreline will undergo a major transformation by the end of the decade.

Portions of the beach are expected to be about 50 feet wider than they are today. A newly constructed berm and dune system designed to take the brunt of the ocean’s force during coastal storms and protect the hundreds of homes and businesses landward of the beach will rise from the sandscape.

The federal coastal storm risk management project that the town has been pushing to secure for more than two decades will initially inject about 6.5 million cubic yards of sand onto the ocean beach.

Surf City Mayor Teresa Batts, a lifelong resident, was so over the moon about the announcement earlier this summer that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been permitted to use previously appropriated federal funds to build the project she wrote (admittedly with the help of artificial intelligence) a song about it.

Batts struck up the tune, “sand money, honey,” Monday morning at the close of a signing ceremony in which the town and the Corps officially sealed their historic partnership.

Dozens of people, including current and former congressional leaders, local elected officials and representatives with the Corps of Engineers Wilmington District, gathered for the ceremony that was hosted on the beach next to the Surf City Ocean Pier.

“Before we sign this agreement, I want to take a moment to share, because this day didn’t happen quickly. This day did not happen by accident,” Batts said. “We faced a lot of delays, as many long-term federal projects do. But Surf City remained committed, Surf City remained resilient. I want to be clear that this is not just a town project. It’s not just a Corps project. It’s a project today because of dedication. It’s a project today because of hard work.”

The project’s origins go back to 2000, when Congress authorized a feasibility study to evaluate a long-term beach restoration project for Surf City and neighboring North Topsail Beach.

Citing money concerns, North Topsail Beach in July 2021 withdrew from the project, a move that initiated additional federal review and approvals.

About three years later, Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., secured language in the Water Resources Development Act 2024 directing the Corps to expedite a report specific to Surf City’s coastal storm risk management project.

This past June, the Wilmington District was given the green light to use previously appropriated Disaster Relief Act of 2019 fund for more than $292 million to build the project.

“From this point forward with the signing of this agreement, it opens the door for construction of the actual project,” Rouzer said Monday. “As anything that is noteworthy, as anything that is worthy, sometimes you have a few hurdles to clear. Sometimes you have a few obstacles you didn’t expect that you’ve got to work through. And so today really marks a great achievement for everyone that has been involved in this project.”

Wilmington District Commander Lt. Col. Kenneth Porter said the signing ceremony, “marks the beginning of the next chapter, turning this project from paper into sand, dunes, and real protection for the people who call Surf City home.”

“Surf City sits on a barrier island, and it’s exposed to the full force of the Atlantic,” he continued. “This community has felt that firsthand. Hurricane Florence (in 2018) alone caused significant damage to the beach structures and infrastructure along this stretch of coastline. Storms like that aren’t a question of if; they’re a question of when. And every year without a coastal storm risk management project in place is another year of unnecessary risk to homes, businesses, and the people who live and work here. That’s what changes today.”

Monitoring the shoreline and continued beach nourishment over the project’s 50-year life will provide a strong defense for generations to come, Porter said.

“This project is projected to prevent significant storm damage every single year, but the true measure of success won’t be found in a budget spreadsheet,” he said. “It’ll be measured in the homes that stay standing, the local businesses that keep their doors open, and the families who don’t have to rebuild their lives after the next storm.”

Corps officials said after the ceremony Monday that they anticipate opening bids for initial construction of the project in the fall of 2027, with work beginning in early 2028.

Construction is expected to take about 16 months and wrap around the spring of 2029.

Whether you call them lightning bugs, fireflies, or by their scientific name, Lampyridae, how could anyone not love a bug whose butt lights up like a miniature light bulb?

How do they manage that?

Their bioluminescence is a chemical reaction in a special light-producing organ called, aptly enough, the lantern. A heat-sensitive molecule called luciferin reacts with oxygen in the presence of an enzyme called luciferase. Far more energy-efficient than even fluorescent lights, a lightning bug’s light produces almost zero heat.

Since it’s hooked into their breathing, the light can be controlled by oxygen intake.

Many of us have fond memories of twilight summer evenings, gleefully spotting them rising and flashing, fairly begging to be chased and caught. Dancing foot to foot while excitedly asking mom or grandma for a (glass) Mason jar with holes poked through the lid. Then we’d go tearing back outside after an interminable wait, hoping the lightning bugs were still low enough to catch. Running barefoot this way and that through dew wet grass and humid air, leaping and dashing after their flashing lights, we were every bit as intent as an ambulance-chasing lawyer.

Most kids today don’t know the pure enthrallment of carefully snatching the lightning bugs out of the air and putting as many as we could catch in our jars so we could watch them light, over and over. Quite the trick, putting a new capture in without letting the others out.

Many of us older folks have wonderful memories of being all hot and sweaty, sitting on the steps in the dark and oohing and ahhing over our prizes, trying to anticipate which one would light up next. Come bath and bedtime, we’d release them to the night skies, only to repeat the same process again the next evening.

But what, exactly, do lightning bugs have to do with gardening?

Humans, being human, prefer things all neat and tidy: mown grass and trimmed verges and tamed woodlands.

What do lightning bugs need? Taller grasses, brushy understories, and deep leaf litter. While not a true bug at all, lightning bugs are instead flying beetles. Found on every continent except Antarctica, they prefer humid environments. More than 2,000 species of lightning bugs can be found worldwide, with around 150 to 200 in North America, alone.

In our efforts to have neat yards, we have inadvertently diminished the lightning bug’s ideal habitats, and that doesn’t even include the widespread use of pesticides.

Yeah, they’re cute bugs, but so what? Just because there are a lot fewer of them than there used to be, what difference does a few more or fewer bugs with an on-demand light make?

Besides the fact they’re cute as all get-out, scientists are discovering new things about lightning bugs all the time. Think of the possibilities of lights without heat.

Lightning bugs, like butterflies, go through different stages during their lifetime — four, to be exact. Egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Ever seen a glowworm? Lasting one to two years, that’s the larval stage of a lightning bug. A female lays 50 to 500 eggs in soil, damp moss, or leaf litter. The eggs usually hatch in three to four weeks. Some of the eggs also glow.

Lightning bugs spend most of their lives in the larval stage. Voracious predators of snails, slugs, worms, and others tiny critters, they live and hunt in soil, leaf litter and rotting logs. Oak trees are particular favorites as the lichens and fungi attract the types of foods lightning bugs nosh on.

Once the larvae is fully grown, it either makes a mud casing or attaches to a leaf or tree trunk. In a couple weeks, usually in late spring or early summer, the adult will emerge. The adults only live two to four weeks, and some species don’t even eat during that time. Their sole purpose — other than amusing children of all ages — is to reproduce.

Their flashing lights attract mates. If you know what to look for, the color, length, duration, and timing of the lights can tell you which species of lightning bug you have.

So what, exactly, do lightning bugs need to thrive and what can we do to ensure our kids and grandkids can see these delightful bugs for generations to come?

Lightning bugs need humidity, and they are often centered around water. There’s no lack of either here. They also need different levels of grasses, undergrowth and trees.

Does that mean your yard has to look like an abandoned junkyard? Absolutely not! Letting your yard grass get a little taller, even if nothing more than a narrow verge along the edge, close to a fence or woods will help tremendously. Planting native shrubs and flowers will also help. Think of your vegetation as steps, because fireflies need differing levels of greenery to thrive.

The larvae need duff — a damp layer of decomposed organic matter on the forest floor, under the fresh layer of leaves and sticks. Consisting of things such as decaying bark, roots, and other plant detritus, the duff harbors various fungi and bacteria. They also need the leaf litter itself, both to hide and hunt.

The adults often spend the daylight hours in bushes or taller grasses, anywhere there’s shade and adequate moisture. Depending on the species, sometime between twilight and dawn, the males rise and fly, flashing their beacons. The females tend to stay closer to the ground on bushes or plants, calling the males to them by flashing their own mating signals.

Lightning bugs also need dark. Light pollution has been a huge factor in their decline. Outside lights that are motion-sensitive, or lights that can be turned off are best. Tall trees can help shield them from pole lights.

Do yourself a favor and lighten up on yardwork. Let that pile of leaves stay. Let the grass go two weeks without mowing.

Saving one little bug in the grand scheme of things doesn’t seem like much. Unless you’re that bug.

Our amazing world would be a much darker place without these little treasures.

The Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Corolla is holding up remarkably well to be turning 151 in December, but the 162-foot-tall brick tower is showing its age.

To preserve the structure, the organization responsible, Outer Banks Conservationists, or OBC, has invested in a $1 million restoration that’s currently underway.

The work should be finished soon.

“We think by the end of October,” Meghan Agresto, lighthouse keeper told Coastal Review. “But of course, many lighthouse things are weather-dependent.”

OBC, the Manteo-based nonprofit organization that owns and operates the historic lighthouse, is having the work done near the top of the tower, where there are two rows of scaffolding with orange weatherproof sheeting that protects the workers and the work. The lantern room housing the focal plane is clearly visible. The work is on the exterior of the structure and the lighthouse can still be climbed.

“A crew of five masons and metalworkers who will repoint the exterior brickwork on the tower using natural hydraulic lime with a color to match the original, rehabilitate the historic gallery door, railings, and underside of the lantern deck,” Agresto said.

ICC Commonwealth, the same New York-based company that relocated the Hatteras Lighthouse in 1999, is doing the work.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was at the time threatened by years of erosion, so the 1870 structure was relocated 2,900 feet to the south to save it. The lighthouse, within Cape Hatteras National Seashore and managed by the National Park Service, is also undergoing restoration but that is a major, multiyear project.

After mentioning repointing the bricks – the process of removing crumbling mortar and replacing it — Agresto clarified that, unlike the Hatteras Lighthouse project where the brick has to be repointed and repainted, the red masonry exterior of Currituck Beach does not require paint.

In the 1870s when the Currituck Lighthouse was built, the metal that was used was iron and “rust mitigation is cyclical, so … we get that done every five to seven years.”

The last rust abatement was done between 2020 and 2021, and during that period, significant additional restoration was completed, including “crack repair on the lower bands of iron, and (we) replaced the cornice pieces on the roof, worked on rust around our tower windows, and stabilized the wood in those five windows,” said Agresto.

The current project is building on the work that was done six years ago.

In addition to the exterior work on the brick and metal, the gallery door inside the tower is being rehabilitated “by removing rust with needle scaling, and restabilizing afterwards,” Agresto said.

The gallery door that leads to the watch room is distinctive, the conservation group notes on their website, because the “Lighthouse may be the only one of its kind that still has the option to double-close a door to either the watch room or the outdoor gallery.”

The ongoing work is meticulous. For example, the tower’s lantern deck has what Agresto described as “unique sunburst prisms, which allowed light from the oil-burning lamp to also illuminate the interior.” Any prisms that cannot be saved, they will be swapped out with reproductions that bear marks to denote that they are replacements.

But the work is in the manner of past, cyclical rehabilitation projects, Agresto said, that “will ensure the lighthouse will remain structurally sound, historically accurate, and will continue sharing its sense of place and awe for future generations.”

Unlike the Hatteras renovation, work on the Currituck Beach Lighthouse is more routine, a periodic process that does not rely upon multimillion-dollar government grants, Agresto explained.

“Funding for big projects comes directly from our visitors, rather than from federal appropriations, which makes it possible for us to keep pace with cyclical maintenance instead of allowing needs to accumulate over decades,” she explained.

She also pointed out that the model for maintaining the lighthouse is close to the way it was originally done. She and her husband, Luis, live at the site, much like the original lighthouse keepers did.

“True to the station’s historic operation (we) live and breathe the lighthouse’s operation, maintenance, and preservation,” Agresto said.

The Currituck Beach Lighthouse was the last lighthouse built on the Outer Banks. Placed between the Cape Henry in Virginia and Bodie Island at Oregon Inlet, it illuminated the final stretch of dark, treacherous coastline along the Atlantic Seaboard.

Invented in 1822 by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, the Fresnel lens’ concentric prism rings focus the light from flame in the Currituck Light’s lantern room. Rated by the power of the lens to transmit light, the first-order Fresnel lens was the most powerful available.

When the Currituck Beach Light first shone on Dec. 1, 1875, the press took note. The Wilmington Morning Star reported on the front page of its Dec. 21, 1875, edition that “All masters of vessels trading between this port and the North of Europe or the Northern ports of our own country will realize the benefit of this most important aid to commerce. In a period of less than twenty-two years from 1852 to 1874, no less than fifty-six vessels went ashore on Currituck beach, many of them being totally lost.”

Just three years after the lighthouse became operational, one of the most horrific shipwrecks occurred along the Outer Banks. The three-masted steamer Metropolis ran aground on Jan. 31, 1878. Of the 248 passengers and crew aboard the ship, 85 were lost. The U.S. Life-saving Service, a predecessor of the Coast Guard, was excoriated in the national press for the loss of life, but the ship itself was unseaworthy when it left Philadelphia, bound for Brazil.

Despite that loss, the lighthouse had served its purpose. Placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, a North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources report written in 1999, claimed the lighthouse helped save lives.

“In spite of the resulting public outcry that the lifesaving station’s inefficiency doomed the Metropolis’ passengers, it can be argued that the lighthouse had done its job; had the ship’s captain not seen Currituck Beach Lighthouse in the distance and realized heading toward shore was his best option, probably all lives on board would have been lost,” the authors wrote.

SURF CITY — There was a time when even a quick summer thunderstorm turned stretches of one of the main drags on the island side of this town into a chain of shallow pools.

Habitual flooding on portions of South Shore Drive, aka N.C. Highway 50, effectively cut off residents and visitors on the barrier island south of the Surf City Bridge from safely accessing the mainland.

“That flooding that traditionally would have occurred there has really not happened in the last four years, which is just astonishing,” Town Manager Kyle Breuer said.

That’s all thanks to a multiphase, nature-based stormwater project that was designed and constructed to divert floodwater off the road and into catch basins.

That project, and the subsequent success thereof, became the catalyst for the town to look at putting similar stormwater controls along streets plagued by historic, chronic stormwater flooding.

Earlier this year, the town hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Roland Avenue stormwater project, one that included installing catch basins, an underground filtration system to rapidly clear standing water from the road and replacing a traditional road intersection with pervious pavers.

Roland Avenue was one of five stormwater flooding hot spots identified in Surf City through an islandwide resiliency project created under the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management’s N.C. Resilient Coastal Communities Program, or NC-RCCP.

NC-RCCP is a product of the state’s 2020 Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan, which was the result of Executive Order 80 signed in 2018 by then-Gov. Roy Cooper.

The program provides technical and financial assistance to communities in the state’s 20 coastal counties to support locally driven approaches to finding solutions and prioritizing projects designed to help communities bounce back from flooding and storms.

The multiphase program starts with inviting residents, business owners, and local government officials to identify climate-related risks and assess vulnerabilities in their community. In the second phase of the program, communities use that input, risk exposure and local needs to develop a resilience strategy and identify projects.

Surf City, Topsail Beach and North Topsail Beach officials came together in December 2021 for their first public meeting about an island-wide resiliency project.

They agreed that stormwater street flooding is an issue that affects all three towns. So, they created a partnership that would allow them to development solutions that were consistent from town to town, examine each completed project’s performance, and share those results with one another.

In all, 15 stormwater improvement sites have been identified across the 26-mile-long island.

Last year, Topsail Beach hired a civil engineer and consulting firm to map its stormwater system and study areas that experience chronic flooding. The study was released earlier this year.

North Topsail’s initial stormwater improvement plans focus on two areas deemed the most critical in that town – Island Drive at Gray Street and New River Inlet Road at Richard Peters Park. Projects for those areas are pending.

To date, three of the five projects identified in Surf City, including those on Seahorse Avenue, Roland Avenue and the intersection of Mecklenburg Avenue and North Topsail Drive are complete.

A project planned for intersection of Charlotte Avenue and South Shore Drive was, as of Coastal Review’s Aug. 7 interview with Breuer, out for bid. That project will entail replacing portions of asphalt with permeable pavers.

As for the fifth project, this one along North New River Drive, the town has “not addressed that one quite yet, but we will continue to look at that,” Breuer said.

Town officials also have on their radar Old Settlers Beach, an area commonly referred to as the canals at north side of town, as the likely location of their next stormwater capital improvement project site.

“We’re thrilled about the momentum that we’ve been able to carry through in the execution of the projects to try and start making a difference,” Breuer said. “I think we’ve been able to try and look ahead and try to get ahead of things and having a better understanding of how things are functioning from a stormwater perspective.”

The town has in two years received more than $2 million in grants for stormwater improvement projects through the Golden LEAF Foundation, N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, and N.C. Emergency Management.

“We’ve been really, really pleased that the last several projects there’s really been no town funding that has gone towards that,” Breuer said. “Staff has been very forward pressing on getting the projects done even though we’re a small down and we have limited staff capacity to be able to do that.”

Recognizing that “coastal resilience is not something that we can ignore,” the town in 2024 established a stormwater division and implemented a utility fee for all properties within town limits. The fee is $6 a month for a typical single-family home.

The town has also started implementing stormwater mitigation projects within its mainland borders. Last year, the town’s stormwater division restored ditch lines in the rights-of-way along Little Kinston Road.

“We’ll continue to evaluate certain things on the mainland, but a lot of the development that has occurred on the mainland is still going to be under a state-issued stormwater permit and, at this point, the town is not considering taking over those systems,” Breuer said. “We have discussed potential mechanisms for evaluating that, but that’s going to take a very strong partnership with the entity, like the homeowners association, to bring in an engineer to certify or qualify that that system is up to standards before we take on a major maintenance or liability issue with a system like that.”

North Carolina Sea Grant and the North Carolina Coastal Federation are inviting oyster growers in Pender and Onslow counties to share their experiences and perspectives on the use of public trust waters.

The information gathered through a survey and focus groups will help ensure that future recommendations for shellfish mariculture development are grounded in the practical experiences of North Carolina’s shellfish growers while supporting a balanced approach to coastal resource management.

North Carolina Sea Grant is leading this National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-funded project in partnership with the Coastal Federation to improve future shellfish lease siting in North Carolina. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

Through surveys, focus groups, and participatory mapping exercises with oyster growers and other coastal stakeholders, the project will examine potential use conflicts with commercial and recreational fishing, boating, waterfront property owners, and other coastal water users. The goal is to identify practical solutions to help inform future shellfish lease siting. Additionally, findings will support policy recommendations ensuring future siting decisions are informed by both stakeholder input and real-world experience on the water. 

In addition to the survey, North Carolina Sea Grant and the Federation will host two focus groups for oyster growers from Pender and Onslow counties in September. The discussions will provide an opportunity for growers to expand on their survey responses, participate in mapping exercises, share local knowledge, and discuss opportunities and challenges related to shellfish lease siting with project partners. 

Oyster growers in Pender and Onslow counties interested in participating are encouraged to complete the survey and indicate their interest in attending a focus group at the end of the questionnaire. Meeting details and location information will be sent to those who register. 

Preparing for future hazards by strengthening resilience to natural disasters across the state is one of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s top priorities, Secretary Reid Wilson told a few dozen Monday morning at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island.

He, along with Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, or APNEP, Director Bill Crowell were in the Down East Carteret County community to announce $300,000 through the engagement and stewardship grants program to support the eight projects chosen this year “that advance environmental stewardship and community engagement across the region,” according to DEQ.

APNEP is a collaborative program dedicated to understanding, protecting and restoring the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine system.

“We are seeing heavier rainfall, more frequent flooding, even on sunny days. While also, on the flip side, more droughts, more wildfires, and I don’t need to tell people from Down East that these conditions place enormous pressure on people’s lives, on infrastructure, and on our natural systems,” Wilson continued.

He said that maintaining healthy water bodies and estuaries is a critical part of this resilience work. “By protecting and conserving these natural systems, we help strengthen our communities and make them safer and better prepared for what is coming in the future.”

Grant funding is from the Environmental Protection Agency and DEQ, which hosts APNEP, the largest of the National Estuary Program’s 28 estuary partnerships. The region covers 36 counties in North Carolina and 18 cities and counties in Virginia.

Wilson said that through APNEP, the state invests “directly in communities through grants that support local efforts to protect and restore this amazing estuary,” and “will support projects that advance environmental stewardship and promote community engagement.”

DEQ has been awarding these grants for about five years, and “saw incredible boost in the number of applications. We got 29 applications for almost $1.6 million. Both of those, the number and the amount of money, are a record, and it demonstrates a clear need for continued funding of community engagement and outreach, so that we can really engage with communities up and down this watershed.”

And, Wilson continued, many of the grantees are bringing their own money and resources to the table, meaning that “every dollar can go a little bit further to protect this amazing ecosystem.”

Crowell briefly summarized the projects, starting with the Down East Resilience Network, housed by the waterfowl museum. The network has been awarded $29,700 to produce videos documenting stories from across the APNEP region and create opportunities for community interactions through field trips through their project, “Building Coastal Resilience Through Community Knowledge Exchange.”

Wilson described the Down East Resiliency Network during his opening remarks as “a truly remarkable grassroots effort” that brings together academics, community members, and local, state and federal government agencies to solve the challenges that the 13 unincorporated communities Down East face as they live on the front lines of environmental change.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, has been awarded $91,600 for “Planting a Culture of Coastal Stewardship: Native Landscapes and Outdoor Classrooms.”

The project is to expand native landscapes and promote water quality and stewardship throughout nature-based stormwater management projects and education activities across the region, Crowell said.

Carteret Community College, East Carolina University, North Carolina Sea Grant and the Mid-East Commission Council of Governments were awarded $49,178 to develop educational materials and implement the Beaufort County Living Shoreline Academy.

“Moving further upstream toward their headwaters, the downstream connections of the Albemarle-Pamlico, the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science will host a series of educational workshops that will focus on water quality and estuarine habitats and key stakeholders and governance structures that oversee the waters throughout the watershed,” Crowell said. The Durham-based museum was awarded $25,000 for “Downstream Connections in Albemarle-Pamlico.”

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh was awarded $57,915 to host School of Rockfish. Crowell explained that the project is similar to APNEP’s Shad In the Classroom program. Students will raise and release juvenile striped bass in partnership with fishery biologists for North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, while also learning about water quality and habitats in the watershed.

The North Carolina Estuarium in Washington has been awarded $4,396 for “Walking Workshops on the Pamlico” and “Meet and Eat: The Eastern Oyster,” which includes establishing new learning stations on coastal ecosystems and water quality along the town’s waterfront and boardwalk, and to support an oyster-focused program connecting area educators with oyster farmers at the estuarium.

Scouting America East Carolina Council based in Kinston was awarded $36,850 for Camp Bodie Field Science Academy to support explorers in developing and leading field science programming.

“The explorers will learn water quality monitoring techniques, habitat assessment, shoreline ecology, while serving as trained peers for mentors visiting groups, mentors and visiting groups to the camp and the eco center, along with public schools,” Crowell said.

East Carolina University’s was awarded $4,325 for a project to test different interpretation signs at Bertie Beach on the Chowan River, the Roanoke/Cashie River Center and the North Carolina Coastal Reserve’s Kitty Hawk Woods Reserve. This project is intended to improve trail signs and understanding of science communication strategies in eastern North Carolina.

“The Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary System is truly a national treasure. The NEP Citizen Advisory Committee is very pleased to support these projects and partnerships, working to promote engagement and stewardship in the region, and supporting our estuary of national significance,” Crowell said.

Core Sound Executive Director Karen Amspacher, when welcoming representatives from Gov. Josh Stein’s office, DEQ, APNEP and grant recipients, explained that there was never a plan for the “somewhat accidental” Down East Resilience Network that formed soon after Hurricane Florence hit Carteret County in 2019.

“We at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum never intended to be in the resilience business, but we are, and actually, we always have been. Our changing landscape, our crumbling roads, our soggy ground, our somewhat uncertain futures have caused us to be on the front lines of trying to accept and understand, adapt, plan and hope,” she said.

The hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to Carteret County each year to observe the wild herd roaming free on Shackleford Banks wouldn’t have much to see if the National Park Service’s proposal in the mid-1990s to dramatically reduce the herd had come to pass.

But when talk began in 1995 about removing a large portion of the wild horses to preserve island vegetation on the undeveloped barrier island, a part of Cape Lookout National Seashore, a group created a nonprofit to fight on behalf of the horses and won.

According to the grassroots nonprofit, the Foundation for Shackleford Horses, formed on Aug. 9, 1996, the park service’s plan to reduce the herd was detrimental, “Because you are talking about something that people identify with this place as much as they do the lighthouse or fishing or the beaches. The horses are an intrinsic part of this place, and this place is an intrinsic part of each one of us that loves it and calls it home.”

Foundation President Margaret Poindexter said the nonprofit evolved after a handful of concerned residents first gathered at public meetings, and then at public protests, in 1995. The foundation members consulted with scientists and collected data, research, and historical information, and approached then-Congressman Walter B. Jones Jr. to help protect the herd.

“Together, they stood up to the government’s ill-conceived policy proposal and blatant disregard for local interests, cultivated public, and eventually, bipartisan political support for their issue, which ultimately resulted in the enactment of unprecedented federal legislation in 1998, the ‘Shackleford Banks Wild Horses Protection Act,’ to ensure preservation and protection of a treasured resource, an ideal, a value,” Pondexter wrote in an email.

Since the legislation passed in 1998, the foundation has been cooperating with the National Park Service to make decisions about contraception, remove horses from the herd, veterinary intervention and humane euthanasia to end a horse’s suffering. DNA testing is also conducted to maintain the records documenting their lineage, and to monitor the overall genetic health of the herd, she continued.

The foundation is commemorating is 30 years at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, at Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island. Attendees are asked to bring a covered dish to share during the 6 p.m. dinner before the 7 p.m. program with special guest, behavioral ecologist Dr. Dan Rubenstein, who has studied the herd for decades and was one of the scientists consulted back in 1995. RSVP for planning purposes to shackhorsemail@gmail.com.

Poindexter said that Rubenstein’s “study of the horses has been instrumental in their protection and preservation” and the foundation “believes that, without the study and work of Dr. Rubenstein, the wild herd of Shackleford Banks would not exist today.”

The Princeton University professor and his graduate students have been studying and documenting the social behavior of the Shackleford horses for decades. He was named in 2008 Princeton’s Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology, an endowed professorship, and transferred to emeritus status in 2023.

Rubenstein, who had just returned to the United States from Kenya where he studies zebras, told Coastal Review last week that he remembers when the foundation’s founder and former president, Carolyn Mason, called him out of the blue 30 years ago about his decades of research on the herd.

“She said, ‘You don’t know me. I’m a librarian at Cherry Point, and we have a problem,’” Rubenstein said, “and she explained the problem, and we became friends. And the foundation was started. And long story short, the horses are still there.”

The equine ecologist learned about Carteret County’s wild horses almost by accident, he said, because of his interest in animal behavior while a zoology graduate student at Duke University in the early 1970s.

“I was on main campus, and I was at the beginning of this emerging field called behavioral ecology,” which Rubenstein explained as “behaviors related to the ecology, and it can go both ways. The behavior can change the ecology, or the ecology can impact the behavior.”

But, his interest in animal behavior started a few years before this while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. He read a study on the family structure of the herd in the Pryor Mountains on the Montana-Wyoming border. The scientist who observed wild horse behavior looked at how the horses organize their social lives.

“I read his papers and said, ‘I want to study those horses’ and the one reason I did is that we were learning in our classes that animals live in groups largely because they have relatives in those groups,” even though “there’s no automatic benefits to living in groups, only costs.” This is because of competition for resources. The cost can be minimized through kin selection, the evolutionary theory that animals help their relatives survive so their shared genes are passed to the next generation.

“Virtually all animal societies are based around mothers staying with their daughters or sons staying with their fathers. So there’s a kin relationship. Horses and bats are unique in the sense that they’re like Western humans. Everybody leaves home,” he said. “Horses represented the toughest case to understand why animals live in groups because the genetic connectedness was not there. So I was interested in that.”

He had planned to head west and study the wild horses on Pryor Mountain but while on a visit to Beaufort in 1973 he learned that there were wild horses on Shackleford Banks.

“I decided I’d go out and camp on the island for a week and learn how to study horses because I’d never studied horses. I didn’t have horses when I was growing up. I didn’t ride horses. I worked on crayfish for my undergraduate thesis at Michigan. I was in the river all the time, snorkeling, cold, miserable,” but with the horses, you can study the behavior.

“And that week was miserable. In the spring, it rained every day. The tent I borrowed had holes in the top. Didn’t have a fly,” but he met a local who had a fish camp on the island and told Rubenstein all about the Shackleford horses, including the myths surrounding the wild herd.

Calling the horses beautiful, he said it was fascinating how they were culturally connected to people from Harkers Island, one of the 13 unincorporated communities making up Down East in Carteret County.

“I also learned on my first trip that they were not behaving like horses should be. They were being territorial, and that has to do with the structure of the island. There are all these channels of water that come in, and the horses used those as boundaries that they didn’t have to mark. That would be dividing lines between groups, and so I got fascinated by that and that’s how I got started studying the horses. And one thing led to another, and the numbers that I had before they took the cows, sheep and goats off the island became the basis for the legislation,” he said, referring to when the park service removed the livestock but left the horses in the early 1980s.

Rubenstein said he’s looking forward to his visit to Carteret County and talking about the process of coming up with the management plan. “I’ll talk on the secret lives of horses, but I’m also going to talk about the secret lives of management,” and how the conservation program was built.

The park service is mandated “to open the land up for the public, but it’s to have land that is stable, sustainable, protected,” Rubenstein said Wednesday. “And horses do have an impact. You know they graze; they’re going to change the plant composition. But by having the numbers at a low enough level, their impact is very minimal, and so the process by which we came up with the management plan is what I’ll talk about to the public next Saturday night.”

Joan Collins is a regular Coastal Review contributor on topics related to Outer Banks history.

In January 2024, I shared a photograph believed to have been taken some time in the 1930s of a time when the historic Pea Island Station was commanded by a white officer in charge. I had heard my father speak of having served under a couple of white officers when he first reported to the station in February 1940. 

This also was before his uncle, Maxie M. Berry Sr., shown standing on the far left in that image and who began his career there several years earlier, would later assume this role. The story has always fascinated me, as it represents a time when even those most familiar with the inspiring story of the historic station don’t often think about or even realize occurred. Still today, many incorrectly believe that after Keeper Richard Etheridge took command in January 1880, the station remained staffed with an “all-Black” crew for 67 years, until March 1947 when my father, Herbert M. Collins, closed the doors for the very last time. Yet, this stunning photograph reflected otherwise.

Although the photograph I shared then did not include my father, one of the two men seated is Palmer Midgett, a name identified as being an officer in charge in my father’s early U.S. Coast Guard records of his service at Pea Island. These records also reflect the name William Scarborough, the man believed sitting on the right, as being an officer in charge while my father was there. At various times, both signed my father’s performance ratings. So, you can imagine my delight when the photograph published in my earlier January 2024 column first came to my attention. Although my father is not shown, it is an important reminder of his service at Pea Island and the service there of those before him, including his beloved uncle, Maxie M. Berry Sr.

With that background, imagine how delighted I was to learn of these newly discovered images from an unprocessed portion of the “SR.44.47 Conservation and Development Travel Photograph Collection, State Archives of North Carolina.” These photographs were discovered after an inquiry I had made when noticing a recent State Archives Facebook post of a 1938 photograph that is part of this collection. I quickly recognized the photograph as something I had never seen. My excitement was apparent when I telephoned Rebecca Stubbs, audiovisual archivist at the Division of Natural and Cultural Resources and urged her to dig deeper. I wanted to learn what additional photos might be on hand that I had never before seen in my years of researching this topic.

You can also imagine my shock to learn not only one additional photograph existed depicting a time when a white commander was in charge, there were several more – 19 images in total. The white commander shown in several of the images also appears to be William Scarborough, one of the two officers in charge and mentioned in my January 2024 article. Although the photograph in my earlier article was not among these new photographs found, it appears to have been taken on the same day. Palmer Midgett is missing from any of the new photographs found.

I am thrilled to have been granted permission by the DNCR to share this exciting news and this link, Pea Island US Coast Guard Station|Flickr, a digital album created for these 19 images. However, like the photograph published in my January 2024 article, the who, when, and why these newly discovered photographs were taken is not known. The newly found images were discovered in tins and then digitalized to reveal what was enclosed. They are being made available to encourage continued awareness and research about the historic Pea Island station.

Today, while many now know the inspiring story of Keeper Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers about their most famous rescue, the harrowing Oct. 11, 1896, rescue of the shipwrecked E.S. Newman’s crew, there are more stories to tell.

The story of why my father reported to white commanders during his early service at Pea Island is something I have been attempting to unravel in recent years, along with the story of “Checkerboard Crews,” racially mixed crews that existed on the Outer Banks during the Pea Island station era.

Look here for more soon on this and the fascinating story of George Pruden, the individual also mentioned in my earlier article. Pruden’s retirement in 1937, which he would later allege was forced, broke the continuous cycle of Black men being placed in command at the Pea Island station after Etheridge’s command.

The idea of a fish story is a tale of fantastic proportions. Webster’s defines it as an implausible, boastful story. Little wonder then that people look at you askance when you tell them of some amazing occurrence that took place when you were fishing by yourself.

With that in mind, we all have them. The longer you spend on the water, and the more proficient you get, you will tend to collect more crazy experiences that will make people look at you and say, “That story sounds fishy.”

The longer the time between the time the story took place and when it gets recounted, the more fishiness it adds.

The very first time I fished the coastal waters of North Carolina, near Morehead City, I was accompanied by my father. I had just purchased my own boat, an 18-foot modified-V, center-console skiff from Cobia. At the time of this excursion my experience in North Carolina saltwater fishing was limited to surf fishing and jetty fishing for reds, trout, and any other things I could wrangle near Fort Macon and Beaufort Inlet. Also, I had done extensive fishing around Tampa and of course all the waters in the state of New York from Lake Ontario to Long Island.

With a little local assistance from an Arendell Street tackle shop that no longer exists, Pete’s Tackle, we proceeded with the recommended jigs and soft plastic tails. We tried quite a few places with no luck. Then the tide changed, both literally and figuratively, we came around a corner using the trolling motor, and I hooked up with a redfish. Seconds later, my father did, too. Knowing the tendency of reds to school, we fired right back. Immediately, we had a double hookup.

We proceeded in this manner, catching and releasing red drum from 17 inches long up to 8 pounds. My father got the biggest. For years, this would be known as “The Day We Got All Those Redfish” in our personal lore. In all the ensuing 30 years of fishing around here, I never caught another fish from that location.

Pete Allred of Pete’s Tackle passed in 2012, and I think of him whenever I go by there.

When we were younger, my father and I would fish for the lake-run rainbow trout of Lake Ontario called steelhead. We usually fished the Salmon River which was an easy 30-minute drive away.  We were up there so often through the 1980s and early ’90s we had our own way of doing things.

On one particular slow day when it seemed like there wasn’t a single fish in the river, Dad found a fly that someone had dropped as he walked down the path.

“I’m going to tie this fly on and catch a fish with it,” he proclaimed proudly. Wouldn’t you know, after just a couple of casts, he did catch a gorgeous silvery steelhead that jumped and put on a wonderful show. So of course, from that day forward, any fly found along the riverbank, would then be tied on. I really can’t remember if it ever worked quite that well again, but he was never afraid of a good story.

As l went along in my fishing career, I became known for false albacore fishing. It took a few years before we could line up a trip for my father to come down and get after them. If you’ve been out there, the fishing can range from all-out blitzes to absolute nothing, sometimes in the same day. Let’s just say this time it was an amazing blitz with fish crushing bait everywhere. You couldn’t ask for a better situation to show one’s parent. We caught them as soon as we could get a fly or jig in the water. Game on.

It was just a couple of years later that he was unable to fish on the ocean. His balance went bad on him, and it was not a good idea anymore. But that day became “The Day We Got the Albies.”

The last time we fished together was at a bass pond. There were a lot there, and they were active. Cast a small Senko plastic worm, as we watch the line as it descends. A little twitch to the side, set the hook. These weren’t big fish like the 10-pounder he had gotten years before in a similar coastal golf course pond, or the 12-pound walleye from the Bay of Quinte in Ontario, or the bright chrome steelheads from the salmon river, but it was our day.

Later that summer I would have a stroke, and that was the last time we’d fish together. So, this was our final fish story. The funny part was, the bass were being so aggressive, I would begin a count when the plastic worm would hit the water, and if a fish wasn’t caught at 10, you had to switch the rod to the other guy. 

I’m sure at this point you know where this is going. The final fish story. Don Churchill passed on June 27, 2026. After we had a service for him, we went out to the lake where he kept his boat for 40 years. My brother spread his ashes on the point next to the marina. As we watched it sweep away, a large fish jumped, completely cleared the surface, and smacked back down.

Fish stories can be true.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is pushing forward its proposal to deepen the Wilmington Harbor by an additional 5 feet and widen segments of the shipping lane up the Cape Fear River.

The Corps-prepared final Wilmington Harbor 403 environmental impact statement, or EIS, sticks with a plan to extend the entrance of the federal navigation channel by about 9 miles, deepen the channel from 42 feet to 47 feet and widen portions of it from the river mouth about 28 miles to the Wilmington port. The construction, which is projected to begin in 2030 and take about six years to complete, is estimated to cost more than $1.3 billion.

The North Carolina State Ports Authority says the project is needed to accommodate larger, deep-draft container vessels at the Wilmington port in U.S. East Coast-Asia trade. Deepening the shipping channel would attract more import and export business and boost job growth in the state, ports officials say.

The Port of Wilmington is the 67^th largest port in the nation when measured by total cargo tonnage. In 2022, about 7.6 million tons of cargo, including 6.6 million tons of largely containerized foreign cargo, and 1 million tons of domestic cargo was shipped through the Wilmington Harbor, according to the Corp’s Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center.  

The final environmental impact statement and accompanying letter report, as required under Section 403 of the 2020 Water Resources Development Act, will be formally submitted this month to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works for review and then a record of decision, or the final stage of the approval process, will be published in the Federal Register.

Once that office receives those documents, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management may submit objections it raised earlier this year about the proposed project, one the division’s director wrote would have “significant adverse impacts to coastal resources.”

Looking back: Port plan would have ‘significant adverse impacts’

“The FEIS acknowledges the State’s federal consistency objection but does not resolve it,” a Division of Coastal Management spokesperson said in an email responding to a request for comment. “DCM and DEQ will continue to come to the table with the Army Corps and the State Ports to discuss a potential path forward.”

Wilmington District Public Affairs Specialist Jed Cayton explained in an email to Coastal Review last month that federal rules outline how a state agency must reply when that agency objects to a federal agency’s consistency choice.

“The regulation provides several potential paths forward, including not proceeding with the action, attempting to resolve differences with the state, or determining that the federal action is consistent to the maximum extent practicable with the state’s coastal zone management program,” Cayton wrote. “The Wilmington District is consulting with its higher headquarters to determine the specific course of action regarding the State’s non-concurrence with the USACE’s coastal consistency determination.”

The Corps anticipates that the record of decision will be issued in October.

Division officials argue that the Corps’ draft EIS failed to adequately assess cumulative flooding impacts or thoroughly detail areas where dredged material would be placed, did not sufficiently account for potential effects on fisheries habitat, freshwater wetlands, shorelines, or state, historic and other sites along the Cape Fear River, and did not evaluate PFAS in the lower Cape Fear River sediment.

Residents, environmental organizations and local governments have widely expressed similar concerns, saying that the project will threaten historic and cultural resources along the river, accelerate erosion and exacerbate flooding, destroy habitat, is not economically justified, and will disperse contaminants in the riverbed’s sediment into marshes and onto public beaches.

“The Final Letter Report and FEIS continue to show that this project is unnecessary and extraordinarily damaging to the environment,” Southern Environmental Law Center attorneys wrote in a July 31 letter in response to those documents. “The costs of this harbor expansion continue to climb as the alleged need and purported benefits simultaneously dwindle. On top of the questionable economic considerations, the project would come with a host of permanent harms to the natural environment of the Lower Cape Fear, cherished by locals and tourists alike.”

The letter, written on behalf of more than a half-dozen environmental and nonprofit organizations, including the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, concludes, “Before the Corps finalizes the record of decision, we implore the Corps to reevaluate the economic justifications for this project, complete all required consultations, and address the significant questions regarding the project’s environmental impacts.”

Looming questions, PFAS concerns

The Corps has identified several areas in which it would place material dredged from the channel, including on nearby beaches in Brunswick and New Hanover counties and bird islands in the river. Dredged material would also be used for intertidal marsh restoration, fish habitat enhancement structures, riverbank protection, and back-bay marsh restoration.

About half of the construction dredge material would be placed for beneficial use instead of within federal offshore sites, according to the final EIS.

But worries persist over whether that material is contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that have been discharged into the Cape Fear River for decades by upstream industries.

“Known contamination exists upstream, but it is not known if the sediment proposed to be dredged is contaminated,” the final EIS states. “At the time this EIS was prepared, this concern and the associated controversy remain, and the lack of resolution is hindering resolution of other issues that require state agency approvals and certifications.”

There are no federal or state human health limits for PFAS in sediment.

“The proposed project is not expected to contribute to PFAS contamination or impact drinking water contaminant concentrations. The sediment will be tested in accordance with all applicable requirements, including any new standards that are developed, prior to construction, and the results will be used to guide decisions related to use and disposal options based on the testing results and applicable criteria.”

A peer-reviewed study published by the Royal Science of Chemistry in 2022 confirms the presence of PFAS in the sediment in areas of the Cape Fear River.

The study targeted six PFAS, including legacy chemical compounds PFOA and PFOS, which have been phased out of production and replaced by what are referred to as emerging compounds. For this study, scientists focused on emerging compounds HFPO-DA, commonly referred to as GenX, PFMOAA, PFMOBA and PFMOPrA.

After collecting sediment samples between September 2017 and October 2019, scientists found that the highest concentration of PFAS was found in the sediment at Lock and Dam No. 1, some 39 miles upstream of Wilmington.

The overall trend of the data researchers collected found that PFAS in the Cape Fear River’s sediment “is decreasing as you go down the river,” said University of North Carolina Wilmington Professor Dr. Ralph Mead, program director of the NC PFAS Research Network and one of the study’s corresponding authors.

“There’s PFAS in the sediment, and while the concentration changes, of course, the distribution of PFAS compounds change as you move along the river itself,” Mead said in a recent telephone interview.

“One of the interesting things about the Cape Fear River is, as you move down the river, of course the salinity is going to increase. That salinity increase, depending on the freshwater flow, you can have salty water downtown by the hotels down on the riverfront,” he continued.

This leaves a question that does not yet have a clear answer. If a particle of sediment with PFAS in it floats down the river, will the salt make the particle hold on to PFAS or let it go?

“We all like to think that sediment is the ultimate sink for a lot of organic compounds, but sometimes, if the conditions and water chemistry is right, there can be a desorption that can take place,” Mead said.

He pointed out that researchers also detected a series of unknown fluorinated compounds in their sediment samples that were found by using high-resolution mass spectrometry, which can clearly distinguish tiny mass differences between molecules.

“The significance of this is we do not have standards for any of these compounds,” Mead said. “So, there’s potentially more PFAS present than we know of. I think this all ties back to the idea that there’s a lot of research that’s left to be done. There’s just a lot of questions out there and it’s not just the Cape Fear, there are other waterbodies as well that are impaired.”

Adverse impacts, outstanding issues

The final EIS identifies two “general types of meaningful adverse impacts,” including the destruction of fish habitat during construction and loss of freshwater, forested wetlands in the lower Cape Fear River.

The Corps would compensate for fish habitat loss by improving fish passages at lock and dams No. 1 and 2 more than 35 miles upstream of Wilmington “to enable anadromous fish to access quality habitat upstream of those facilities.”

The proposed plan to offset impacts to freshwater wetlands include preserving high-quality freshwater forested wetlands and upgrading lower-quality sites along the lower Cape Fear.

“Along with the adverse impacts, some beneficial effects would be expected,” according to the final EIS. “The deepened and widened channels would allow the cargo to be transported on a smaller number of larger and more modern and efficient vessels. In addition to the economic benefits, these transportation efficiencies would result in fewer vessel transits through the harbor yielding beneficial effects such as reduced fuel consumption, air emissions, vessel strikes to animals in the channels and shoreline erosion,” when compared to leaving the channel at its current depth.

The final EIS also notes that several controversial issues have been raised about the proposed project.

“Most were addressed and resolved,” the final EIS states.

But other controversial and outstanding issues remain, those “that require more time or additional action to resolve,” including federal review of the project’s impacts to endangered species and their habitat.

The Corps anticipates executing a programmatic agreement with agencies including the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ State Historic Preservation Office “this summer,” Cayton wrote. A programmatic agreement aims to address a project’s impacts on cultural and historic resources.

There are nearly 30 historic sites and properties within the proposed project’s area of potential effects, according to the State Historic Preservation Office.

Those sites include Dark Branch, a community in unincorporated Brunswick County where land remains largely owned by the descendants of previously enslaved residents, and Orton, a sprawling, former rice plantation.

Orton’s owner, billionaire hedge fund manager and conservation philanthropist Louis Moore Bacon, remains firmly opposed to the proposed harbor project, one he argues would threaten the expansive, historic rice field system and earthen dike in which he’s invested tens of millions of dollars to restore.

“The Cape Fear’s West Bank exists today because generations of conservationists, landowners, public agencies and local communities made the deliberate decision to protect one of North Carolina’s most important ecological and cultural landscapes,” Bacon said in an emailed statement to Coastal Review. “It would be a profound mistake to unravel that achievement with proposed Wilmington Harbor Dredging Project, which would threaten permanent harm to protected wetlands, wildlife habitat, historic rice fields built by the hands of enslaved African Americans and the historic Gullah Geechee cultural landscape. Before moving forward with what would be irreversible losses, we should be certain the project’s economic rationale still holds, and that every environmental and cultural consequence has been transparently and scientifically evaluated. Once these resources are compromised, nothing can fully bring them back.”

The busiest, most popular route in North Carolina’s vehicle ferry system — the first and, until recently, the largest system in the country — has been between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands on the Outer Banks. Until the state budget was signed into law last month, no proposal to toll the only vehicle access to Ocracoke Island had made it to the governor’s desk. Now it’s part of a provision in a bill that requires tolls be established and implemented for the state’s four free vehicle ferry routes.

The law provided barely six months to develop a plan, identify funding, build the physical and digital infrastructure and inform the public. Immediately, requests were made to extend the Jan. 1 deadline; letters were written, amendments were offered. And during last week’s North Carolina General Assembly sessions to adjust the budget bill, legislators who pushed the tolling provision refused to budge.

“There’s no way,” said Sen. Bobby Hanig, a Currituck County Republican, in response to Coastal Review’s questions regarding the majority’s refusal to consider an extension. “Everyone involved is working their tail off to make this happen … but it’s going to be impossible.”

As Hanig sees it, legislative leaders insisting on the accelerated schedule for tolling show they are “agenda driven” because so little thought has been put into addressing the impacts on the people who use the ferries, or even on the complexity of tolling the sprawling system that serves diverse needs and populations. For instance, school buses were exempted at the last minute, he said, but what about state-owned vehicles, student drivers, emergency workers, waste management trucks, delivery drivers, essential workers?

“You can tell it’s agenda-driven by how it’s probably the worst-drafted provision in the budget,” said Hanig, adding that he had drafted seven amendments to address the deficiencies, including the implementation date for tolling, but legislators at last week’s session wouldn’t hear any of them.

Even the purported reason for tolling doesn’t measure up, he said.

“You know they’re doing this under the ruse of putting it toward new ferry purchases. Well, the best-case scenario, from talking to people that are working on this is, ‘Probably the best we will net is $5 million a year.’ Well, you know, a sound class ferry costs $60 (million). So do the math.”

Telephone messages and emails to Sen. Vickie Sawyer, R-Iredell, and Sen. Mike Lazzara, R-Onslow, both proponents of the tolling measure and its Jan. 1 implementation, yielded no reply.

At the very least, Hanig said, it makes sense to wait for the state auditor to complete the audit of the Ferry Division that is underway and is expected to be presented to the legislature at the start of the 2027 session in January.

Signed by Gov. Josh Stein on July 7, the budget bill’s ferry provision requires tolls be set to fund vessel replacement and upgrades as specified by the Ferry Division’s schedule. The tolling infrastructure and technology must be covered by funds in the division’s operational budget. In addition, the law included an annual systemwide pass for residents and active-duty military to be set at $150 per vehicle, but provided no exemptions or discounts.

Also, Stein noted after signing the bill that he had found the ferry toll provision problematic. “North Carolina’s ferries for many are not a luxury; they’re an essential part of our state’s transportation system that residents rely on for daily life,” the governor said in a statement. “In many cases, ferries are the only practical way for families to access jobs, schools and health care.”

The Ocracoke Access Alliance, which advocates for the ferries, had sent a letter to legislators asking for the tolling to be delayed for a year to provide a more realistic timeframe to set up a program. Alliance Executive Director Justin LeBlanc told Coastal Review that the group had requested an allowance for a free annual residential pass for full-time residents of Ocracoke, “so that we would have at least one route available to us to be able to go to from our homes for free.”

Neither request was granted.

Until recent years, islanders had successfully fought back each time tolling of the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry bubbled up in Raleigh. Since the only way to “drive” on and off the island is on a vehicular ferry, islanders contended ferries are to them the same as a highway like U.S. 64, which is not tolled in northeastern North Carolina, is for other state residents.

But this time, LeBlanc said that it was better to work with the state to find a reasonable way to help keep the ferry system operational. As stated in the 2024 Ferry Division Vessel Replacement Study, many of the 23 ferries in the state’s fleet are old, with an average age of 26 years in 2023 and the vessel Silver Lake at 55 years old. In today’s dollars, the ferries, which are categorized from small to large as river class, Hatteras class and sound class, cost anywhere from $25 million to $55 million per vessel.

LeBlanc said that the alliance had suggested rates of $20 per round trip, or $10 each way, for the Hatteras ferry, with adjustments for inflation over time.

“There is no established tolls in the legislation now,” he said.

The bill directs the Board of Transportation to develop the tolls under the Ferry Division’s advisement. Boiled down, LeBlanc said, the toll comes down to how much of ferry vessel replacement costs should be covered by tolls, and what is the replacement schedule?

“Because if you want to try to cover 100% of vessel replacement costs, tolls are going to be exorbitant,” he said.

In addition to the Hatteras-Ocracoke route, the Currituck-Knotts Island, Bayview-Aurora and Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach routes have to date been free to ride. The Cedar Island-Ocracoke, Swan Quarter-Ocracoke and Southport-Fort Fisher routes, as well as the Ocracoke Express passenger ferry, are tolled. According to the ferry report, the 70-year-old North Carolina ferry system transported more than 1.5 million passengers and 700,000 vehicles in 2023, making it the second-largest state-run ferry system in the U.S., behind only Washington state.

While discussions continue behind the scenes, Ferry Division officials said they are fully engaged in the process and remain committed to providing access to the state’s coastal communities.

“The N.C. Department of Transportation Ferry Division will work closely with the N.C. Board of Transportation and stakeholders to execute the state budget requirement that tolls be established on all ferry routes,” Tim Hass, Ferry Division communications officer, said in an email. “In the coming months, we will begin discussions about the pricing system, method of tolling and other infrastructure that will be required for this implementation.”

Geologist Dr. Stan Riggs quoted the scientist Loren Eiseley, who said, “If there’s magic on this Earth, it’s contained in water,” to the more than 150 gathered Saturday for the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s 23^rd annual Pelican Awards.

“And water, if you think about it, is everywhere,” Riggs continued. “It’s everything. It’s what we’re made out of. It’s what drives our coastal system. Where the water comes in contact with the land, that’s a high, high-energy environment. Not on a pretty, sunny day, but when the storms come in, you know there’s energy there. There’s wind. There’s water. There’s power, and we have to learn to live with that. Doesn’t mean we pack our suitcases and walk away. We have to understand it.”

Riggs, professor emeritus of geology at East Carolina University, was at the podium inside Carteret Community College’s Joslyn Hall accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award “For Distinguished Leadership and Lifetime Excellence in Coastal Research, Science, and Stewardship.”

He was among the 13 individuals and groups recognized this year by the nonprofit organization’s staff in its office in Wanchese, headquarters in Carteret County, and office in Wrightsville Beach.

“Today we honor extraordinary people and partnerships that are making a lasting difference for North Carolina’s coast through collaboration, dedication, and shared commitment. Our honorees are helping to ensure a healthier coast for generations to come,” April Clark, president of the organization’s board of directors, said early in the program.

Riggs, who has been studying the coastal environment for more than 60 years, told the crowd that he had spent his career working with others to take a holistic approach in understanding the planet. About 15 years ago, he and other researchers representing a range of disciplines began pooling their resources to learn about North Carolina’s coastal systems.

“In 2010, there was a big change in North Carolina,” when some laws put in place in the 1970s and 1980s were threatened, and there was a population surge putting pressure on the coastal system and “we understood the science, but the science doesn’t do a darn bit of good for anybody if it’s just in a scientist’s head. And one of the things that became clear was that we weren’t making the science available to the public.”

He and a group of partners decided to start a foundation called North Carolina Land of Water, or NCLOW, that focuses on the education and application of science and its dissemination to the public. Then, in the late 2010s, he realized that there was a lot of information and data that nobody would ever see.

“So, I decided to sit down and start writing a book. One book led to two books, led to  — all of a sudden, I was up to number 10,” books that “I didn’t know what to do with.”

He then approached a bunch of publishers, but with the first book being around 850 pages, and wanting lots of photos, maps and history, a mixture of everything in the book, these companies “finally pointed their finger at me and said, ‘We’re in a business to make money, and you’re talking about a $200, $300 book,’” he said, in describing the rejections.

“I finally realized that ‘OK, if we’re going to make this happen, we got to do it ourselves’ but then it means we need a team of people who know how to do this,” he said, and a team appeared, leading to the recently published volume 1, “Cape Lookout National Seashore: Paradigm for a Coastal System Ethic.”

Riggs closed with words written by photographer and poet, John Riggs: “If water is life; abundant water is abundant life. And abundant life is abundant Spirit. She not only thrives in these wild places, she dances, she sings aloud, and she rages. My how she rages!”

Coastal historian

Historian Glenn Blackburn, professor emeritus of history at University of Virginia’s College at Wise, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award “For Excellence in Coastal History and Conservation Writing.”

Blackburn, author of “Saving Great Places” and “A Spectacular Coast and Its Guardians” spent the last two decades researching the Coastal Federation’s growth from when it was founded in 1982 to becoming a leader in coastal protection and restoration.

Blackburn told the audience that he first learned about the organization 20 years ago when learned how the organization spent 10 years fighting the development of an undeveloped island that was habitat to birds and turtles. Then he learned about a fight early in the organization’s history to stop peat mining on the Albemarle peninsula, saving thousands of acres of wetlands.

“Shortly after that, the Stump Sound fight,” when the organization teamed with the community to stop a developer from ruining oysters and fishing in the Onslow County waters.

It “began to hit me,” Blackburn continued. “This is an environmental group that wins. That’s unusual. This is a story that needs to be told. That’s what got me started on these two history books.”

During his opening remarks, Executive Director Braxton Davis shared a list of the organization’s milestones, including that later this year the organization plans to have a grand opening for its new headquarters called the Coastal Protection and Restoration Center and event venue, Pelican Landing, located on N.C. Highway 24.

The effort to raise the funds to build the new center began in 2020, construction began in February 2025, and staff have moved in over the last month.

With the grand opening planned for this fall, the organization recognized its Capital Campaign Cabinet with a Coastal Visionary Award “For Extraordinary Leadership and Commitment to Establishing the Coastal Protection and Restoration Center.”

Chief Development Officer Sarah King, when presenting the award, said the “truly inspirational” group’s steadfast work “allowed us to raise over $10 million to establish new coastal protection and restoration center.”

As part of the Coastal Visionary Award, King recognized honorary chair, Hugh Cullman, who “was actually the very first person that we shared this idea with, and he was so encouraging.”

Vic Medlin, speaking for the family members attending, accepted the posthumous award for Cullman.

“He loved the North Carolina coast,” and “completely believed in the federation’s vision of providing a better place to live, work, and visit, and he believed in that vision, and he showed it in his donations,” Medlin said. “And on behalf of the Cullman family, we’d like to say thank you again.”

Cabinet Chair Charles C. Meeker said the campaign was a team effort and reminded him “that the federation has a lot of friends, friends who care about the federation and its work, friends who are willing to give substantial donations to make the campaign a success.”

Northeast coast awards

Joy Cook “For Leadership and Dedication to Coastal Protection, Recreation and Cultural Resources.”

Now retired, Cook dedicated nearly 30 years to North Carolina State Parks, including nine as superintendent of Jockey’s Ridge State Park, thanked the organization and its staff for being “one of the easiest and most wonderful relationships that I’ve had the honor of working with.”

Jayne Young “For Outstanding Volunteer Service Advancing Coastal Environmental Education.”

The retired educator, who was recognized for volunteering her time supporting coastal environmental education and inspiring students, told the audience that it is “an honor to be recognized for something we just have so much fun doing.” Having been an educator, “you never know the one that’s going to come back to you years later and say, ‘Well, remember when we did this, and because of that, we’re doing this now.’”

Sean Ellis “For Exceptional Volunteer Contributions to Coastal Stewardship and Community Service.”

The organization said Ellis is being recognized for his countless hours supporting the oyster shell recycling program and maintenance projects around the Wanchese office.

Ellis, who was unable to attend, said in a recording that the award means a lot to him, and thanked his family for their support, his friends at the Coastal Federation, and “most of all you, the sponsors and people who are here today, who keep this program going. Thank you for your continued support and confidence.”

Central coast awards

North River Laurel Road Ladies Outreach Committee “For Grassroots Leadership Advancing Coastal Resilience and Community Action.”

Based in Carteret County’s North River, Laurel Road, and Merrimon communities, the grassroots group was recognized for being trusted leaders and advocates who have “united neighborhoods, amplified local voices, and built partnerships that are helping these historic coastal communities respond to increasing coastal hazards,” according to the organization.

President Matilda Stewart and Vice President Mary Ann Monroe told the crowd that they were truly honored to receive the award on behalf of their community, adding that the “achievement belongs to us as a whole group. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it is that our big goals are only achieved with the help of others.” 

Jason Vanzant “For Inspiring Future Coastal Stewards Through Education and Partnership.”

The schools in parks specialist for Hammocks Beach State Park was previously a classroom teacher who focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, that has partnered with the Coastal Federation to connect students with nature-based solutions.

Vanzant said that he is both honored and humbled to receive the award that represents so many others, including the staff, rangers and superintendent of the state park.

Thomas L. Kirmeyer and Nan Bowles “For Dedicated Partnership and Commitment to Advance Watershed Restoration.”

The Coastal Federation recognized the couple for demonstrating “extraordinary conservation leadership” for selling their 8.25-acre waterfront property along Ward Creek in Carteret County at half its market value.

Bowles said that when she is asked what she does, “I respond, I’m a member of the marsh community of Ward’s Creek, along with my husband Tom and our dog Spot. We live on the edge of the forest, on the edge of the marsh, on the edge of Ward’s Creek, which flows in two directions, on the edge of North River, on the edge of Back Sound, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, with water that flows around.

“In the 37-plus years we have lived here, we have gained interconnections with members of the community. Community members such as the other people who live on our road. Leaping lizards, jumping frogs, the mosquitoes who remind us of the importance of, that we can offer respect and honor, even when someone irritates Us. Dragonflies who are skillful at changing direction. Great blue herons who show us how to see the bigger picture. The marsh grass, black needle rush, and vibrant green spartina grass, both of them having strong, firm roots, and the jumping mullet bringing us healthy humor and laughter. And when we dig beneath these interconnections, we discover stories and lessons that have to point us the way to being the best humans we can be.”

Southeast coast awards

Lindsay Addison “For Dedicated Partnership Advancing Coastal Habitat Conservation and Restoration.”

The coastal biologist for Audubon North Carolina has spent more than a decade protecting coastal birds and their habitats.

Addison told the audience that she is appreciative and honored that the Coastal Federation selected Audubon North Carolina’s Coastal Program for this award and recognition.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t say Audubon North Carolina manages 40% of the state’s nesting coastal waterbirds, and the way I feel about that is I feel to be a very fortunate, very lucky observer of these of these birds, these habitats, and in these landscapes,” Addison said, adding birds are an important part of the overall coastal ecosystems, and important indicators of the health of the coast.

Conserve the Point “For Community Leadership in Protecting and Stewarding the South End of Topsail Island.” 

The nonprofit organization based on Topsail Island formed in 2022 to preserve and protect the south end of Topsail Beach, called The Point, from development. In 2024, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust purchased the 150-acre property to save the undeveloped property.

The group’s secretary Nancy Pettens, said on behalf of the board, that the award is a “tremendous honor” that belongs to every donor, every volunteer, everyone who thought this place was worth saving. “Most of all, I think it belongs to the Topsail Beach community, near and far, whose passion and generosity made it a reality for us and for future generations.”

Warren Darrell “For Outstanding Volunteer Leadership in Coastal Resilience and Community Engagement.”

The organization called him an “exceptional volunteer whose passion for learning and sharing coastal science inspires communities across southeastern North Carolina.”

“I love this coast,” Darrell said. “The work of the Coastal Federation helps to mitigate the harmful effects of global warming by absorbing atmospheric carbonate our shoreline from erosion and by providing his biological habitat.”

Coastal media partnership

Coastal Review, which is published by the Coastal Federation, this year recognized the Hatteras Island-based online news service, Island Free Press “For Excellence in Collaborative Coastal Community Journalism.”

The two publications have partnered for the last decade to expand coverage of critical coastal issues affecting Hatteras and Ocracoke islands.

Editor Joy Crist said she and owner Donna Barrett were “beyond honored to receive this award” and thanked the Coastal Federation for “allowing us to cover so many stories that are positive or hopeful in a news cycle that’s busy and sometimes discouraging.”

Editor’s Note: After Sam Bland retired from his position as superintendent at Hammocks Beach State Park, he joined the staff of the North Carolina Coastal Federation. While a coastal specialist in the 2010s, he would periodically write about his time in the field for Coastal Review. Now traveling the country, Bland drops a line every once in a while to share a new adventure with his readers, such as the following:

Many years ago, as a teenager, I was driving through Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Onslow County. This was pre-9/11 when civilians could take the shortcut through the base to bypass the heavier Jacksonville traffic.

On one of the lonely roads that travels through the lofty pines and scattered wetlands, I was well away from the main base area. I came upon a traffic jam of cars parked helter-skelter on and off the road. It looked like an apocalypse, or maybe the rapture had just happened.

People were abandoning their vehicles and gathering down the road.

Thinking it was some type of car wreck, I parked and trotted up the road to see if I could help. There, in the middle of the road, was a gargantuan snapping turtle holding the road hostage. With its long neck extended and snarling mouth agape, it defiantly stopped traffic. It could have easily been mistaken for a low coffee table that had fallen out of the bed of a pickup truck.

An early summer downpour had put this snapper on the move, seeking new habitat. Or maybe it was a female looking for a nesting site. Thinking that I could easily save the day and get traffic rolling, I cautiously approached the island-sized turtle. With its belly on the pavement, it slowly rose up on its tippy toes with the poise of a ballerina. Standing tall on its feet, it turned its colossal shell in my direction and established a fighting posture. I was now put on notice.

Sneaking up behind the impressive snapper, I tried to grab the back of the shell with my bare hands. Its thick, meaty tail slapped my arm forward toward the head of the turtle. I released the shell just a whisper before its long neck, tipped with a razor-sharp beak, whipped around, snapping at my fingers. The gathering crowd roared with laughter, cheering on the turtle.

The horde, now standing with their arms crossed, waited for the trainwreck to leave the station. Undaunted, I taunted the beast into biting onto a small tree branch. With the branch now clinched between its jaws, I tried to drag it off the road. The snapper then snapped the branch as if it were a No. 2 pencil.

Throwing me a lifeline, someone from the crowd tossed me a ratty old towel, saying “try this.”

Now, like a matador with a cape, I faced the monster. I dangled one end of the towel above the irritated reptile like a fishing lure. As it lunged after the bait-like rag, it moved closer to the edge of the road. Continuing to tease the snapper, it had soon moved itself onto the grassy shoulder of the road. It then latched onto the towel and was sort of hooked like a fish.

At this point, I was able to drag the turtle off the road and down into a low, wet, marshy area. As I walked up the slope and back onto the road, the crowd greeted me with a round of polite applause. I headed to my car, fingers intact.

Prehistoric beasts

Surfacing amid the Cretaceous Period, these prehistoric-looking beasts have been around for 90 million years. Hearty as can be, they even outlasted the dinosaurs, avoiding all the mass extinction and destruction caused by that devastating asteroid. Like the horseshoe crab, they too are called “living fossils.” Their physical makeup has been expertly designed for their habitats and has changed very little from ancient times.

Known scientifically as “Chelydra serpentine,” the common snapper is found in the shallow, mucky substrate of ponds, lakes, creeks, canals and freshwater wetlands. With their long snake-like neck and tail, the scientific name accurately describes their serpentine features.

These aquatic reptiles are quite content to spend their days saturated in their watery home in search of food. Digging into the mud, with only their eyes and snout exposed, they will patiently wait to ambush prey. With algae often growing on their shell, they blend in, looking like a submerged log.

Like nature’s version of DoorDash, they stealthily wait for a fish, water snake or frog to drift within striking distance. With speed much faster than the blink of an eye, their long neck and head launch as if spring loaded at close to 170 mph. Violently powerful jaws that some have described as “Vice-Grip pliers with razor blades” and their hooked beak secure the prey. They will also eat plenty of aquatic vegetation, algae and scavenge on dead animals.

After heavy rains, I once waded into an ephemeral wetland to rescue a fledgling blue jay. The bird had been feeding on water insects from a branch floating on the surface. Frantically calling and flapping its wings, I thought its foot was caught in the tangle of branches. When I reached down to pull up the jay, I saw that a small 4-inch snapper had chomped down on its foot. As I pulled them both out of the water, the turtle dropped away and the bird took flight in a splash and dash. This is when I learned that snappers like to eat birds as well.

A moment of paralyzing panic

As a young teenager growing up in rural Beaufort County, many scorching August afternoons were spent cooling off in the slow-moving tributaries of the Pamlico River. Tagging along with my older brothers and their friends, we would launch from the bridges that spanned the creeks along dusty country roads. One after another, we exploded into the water, expertly demonstrating the cannonball dive. Someone usually brought along a few pilfered field-fresh watermelons that were plunked into the water to cool down. The sweet red flesh that had been roasting in the hot summer sun would be perfectly chilled for a refreshing post-swim treat. We had to keep tabs on the melons and push them back and forth to make sure they didn’t drift away with the current.

I know that every kid splashing in that tea-colored creek had their own life issues, perhaps even demons, that they were dealing with. But this was a moment of all-is-forgotten, dog-paddling, carefree freedom. An idyllic, Southern, coming-of-age scene. Reflecting on it now, it reminds me of the Jimmy Buffett song, “Life is Just a Tire Swing.” That is until the snapping turtle showed up.

Under the golden glow of the sun low on the horizon, our blissfully innocent summer swim was suddenly interrupted with a blood-curdling cry, “Snapperrrr!” A moment of paralyzing panic seized each swimmer. With just our heads bobbing above water like the watermelons, we stared at each other in silence. And then mayhem ran rampant. Flailing at the water, we all made a desperate dash to the lone makeshift ladder of two-by-fours nailed onto a support piling of the bridge. The ladder was clogged with kids scrambling up and over each other before tumbling off the bridge railing and back onto the blacktop. There I was, frantically dog paddling, the last one still in the water, waiting to go up the ladder. Curling my toes, I could feel the snapper closing in.

Despite their reputation, snappers are quite meek and easygoing while in the water, rarely aggressive toward humans. Out of the water, however, these relics have the looks of a scoundrel itching for a fight. On land, these anciently handsome creatures can become quite defensive if they feel threatened. Feeling vulnerable, because they are unable to fully retract their head, legs and tail into their shell, they become fighters.

Extending their legs, they will jack up their shell high into the air, looking like a sturdy workbench. With this stance making them appear bigger, they are now emboldened enough to gape open their flesh-shredding beak and let out a startling hiss. Come too close and the neck will launch towards you at an inescapable velocity. Those untrained in handling a snapper will soon learn that their neck can reach half the length of their body.

A persistent mother

When I lived in Emerald Isle, my property had two small, marshy, organic wetlands within the surrounding maritime forest. Every spring, during April, the same female snapping turtle emerged from the muck to lay eggs in the backyard. In the loose, sandy soil of an ancient sand dune she would dig a shallow pit and deposit close to 30 eggs.

During my first year on the property, I didn’t see her nesting, but I discovered the aftermath of a marauding raccoon: Leathery eggshell casings littered the ground, ripped open by a hungry bandit devouring the yolks.

The following spring, my wife, Bright, saw the turtle heading to the backyard with the weight of the world on her back. When the turtle had crawled out of the wetland, she carried with her a big hunk of mud complete with dead leaves and vegetation on top of the shell. Looking like a moving atoll, perhaps this is what inspired the Native American legend of Turtle Island.

We watched as she peppered the yard with false nests to frustrate and discourage predators. Then, she finally dug a proper pit and dropped around 20 eggs. Sand was flying everywhere as she meticulously covered the nest. Her head was coated in a sand mask with her eyes barely poking through.

To protect the nest from gray foxes or raccoons, I anchored a four-foot wire mesh over the nesting area. I removed the mesh after a few weeks and once the scent of the nest had evaporated. About 70 days later we found baby snappers searching for the marshy bog.

Each spring, almost to the day, she would return to nest in our backyard.

Even through an adult snapper can occasionally fall victim to an alligator or river otter, these ruggedly armored reptiles have little to fear. Young snapping turtles don’t fare as well. They must face a gauntlet of predators such as raccoons, foxes, herons, minks and even owls. Since they aren’t physically able to defend themselves yet, they deploy a chemical weapon.

When threatened, they will emit a most putrid musk to repel any predator intent on causing harm. I learned this lesson the hard way when I rescued a small snapper off a busy roadway. It thanked me by releasing the gag-inducing musk that would quickly ensure its freedom from my hands.

Folklore, mystique

For some reason, snapping turtles have often appeared during my life. Throughout time, cultures around the world view animals as signs, messages, symbols and even omens. The coyote is known as a trickster and can be viewed as a warning, the eagle is seen as power and the wolf signals loyalty. The snapping turtle carries with it, patience, tenacity, survival, perseverance and integrity.

Along the way, this ancient relic has developed a larger-than-life mystique. For generations their reputation has steeped and marinated in the hypoxic waters where they live. Folklore, myths, legends and outright lies have been dredged up from the muddy wetland bottoms.

One of my favorite myths is that if a snapping turtle bites you, it will not let go until it hears thunder. As a child running barefoot and feral through the swamps, I was often cautioned by the old-timers. With a wag of a finger, they would lecture, “Beware the snapper, its bite will linger until the sound of thunder.” I guess they thought it was an effective strategy to keep kids from wandering into and getting lost in the marshy woodlands. I thought it was a bunch of crap. Yet, this country folklore persists today.

While the origin of this legend can be debated, it appears to have solid standing in Native American storytelling. Two publications, “Kickapoo Tales” (1915) and Ojibwa Texts (1917-19), tell the story of an otter that gets bitten by a snapping turtle. This Algonquian folklore saga has been titled, “When Snapping Turtle Went to War,” or “Snapping Turtle on the Warpath. Told by the Ojibwe storyteller, Glistening Footprint, the story was documented by the Native anthropologist William Jones around 1905.

In the story, otter was sent to kill snapping turtle. But the snapper was on the otter’s plan and hid to ambush otter. Snapping turtle chomped down onto the otter’s private parts. The pain was unbearable and the otter begged to be released.

Recounted in different Native variations of the story, the snapper replied:

• “When the Thunder-god has come back, I will let you go.”
• “Not till the Thunderers come resounding will I release you from my mouth.”
• “I won’t let go till the thunderbirds come.”
• “Verily when the Thunderers cry then will I let thee go.”
• Or, “Not until a great thunderstorm will I release him from my mouth.”

The Thunderers, thunderbirds and Thunder-Gods all represented the storm spirits that had the power to conjure up thunder, lightening and rain. Otter implored snapper to be liberated from its steely grip. Then, the story continues: “Sure enough, the Thunderers began to cry. Then indeed was the Otter let go.”

After jumping off that bridge, I was now the otter, a frantic kid with a snapper bearing down. Was the myth true? I didn’t want to take any chances and get into a delicate predicament like that of the otter. Without a thunderhead in sight, I leapt out of the water and onto a bridge piling as if a frog being chased by a largemouth bass. Free from being mauled by the snapper, I bear-hugged the creosote-soaked pole with my legs and arms. I slowly shimmied my way up the timber for the final push onto the road.

Gripping with all the strength my lean 12-year-old body could muster, I pushed upward. Immediately, pain literally sliced through my fingers. The cap of the piling was covered with thin sheets of tin to prevent water from seeping into the timber. Years in the elements had caused the edges of the tin to curl up creating a sharp blade perfect for gashing open flesh.

Red ran thick down my forearm as I kept my right hand above my heart to slow the bleeding. My left hand was somehow unscathed. The swim party was now over and I needed to go get stitches in my ring and middle fingers. In a borrowed car, my older brother peeled out with barking tires as we raced off to a clinic.

As we crossed the bridge, I glanced over the railing, looking for the predacious snapping turtle in the waters below. The only thing I saw was the watermelons as they made their leisurely escape down the stream. Like the popular song at the time, this was my “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.”

Sitting in the exam room, clothed only in my dripping wet cutoff blue jeans, I could smell the oily creosote that now stained my shorts, arms, legs and chest. Taking pity on me, the kind doctor stitched me up and sent me on my way without charging me a dime.

The beak of a snapper didn’t injure me that day, but the fear of a powerful myth did. Time has absorbed and faded the scars from my fingers, but I can still feel the thickened skin from the cuts. Whenever I rub my fingers over the old wounds, the memory returns as vivid as if it was yesterday. I think of that phantom snapping turtle from time to time and I can’t help but smile knowing that the experience has made my life richer.

Celebrate the strength and resiliency of Hatteras Islanders at this year’s annual Day at the Docks, a free, two-day event in September.

Now in its 23rd year, Day at the Docks showcases the traditions of Hatteras Island watermen and those who live in the community by sharing with visitors how the fishing industry works. The event highlights the community’s recovery from Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

The “Spirit of Hatteras” celebration is set to kick off Friday, Sept. 18, with Seafood Under the Stars, a chef prepared, five-course dinner with optional wine pairings featuring locally sourced seafood. This year’s dinner includes an nonseafood option for those who don’t fancy seafood.

Seafood Under the Stars is $60 or $80 for those who prefer to add a wine pairing. The dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Hatteras Civic Center and is limited to 120 seats.

Reservations and tickets for the dinner may be purchased online. Anyone with dietary concerns may email hatterasuninterrupted@gmail.com.

On Saturday, Sept. 19, the celebration begins at 10 a.m. where festivalgoers are invited to witness the Blessing of the Fleet, tour boats, see exhibits and competitions, sample local seafood, and shop for unique gifts for sale by vendors. Kid-specific activities include a fishing tournament, games, crafts and a bounce house areas.

Participants may register for the Fishy 5K Fun Run, which begin at 8 a.m.

The festival will be held at Oden’s Dock, 57878 N.C. Highway 12.

About a tenth of a mile of beach and swimming area in Buxton will be temporarily closed to the public starting Aug. 3 while the southernmost groin is repaired.

The work is taking place in conjunction with a beach nourishment project in the Hatteras Island village expected to begin this week.

Dare County commissioners, during a special meeting June 15, voted to award $8.6 million to repair the groin to SJ Hamill Construction Co. “which has the experience, resources and project history necessary to successfully complete this type of coastal construction,” according to the county. The marine and heavy civil contractor is based in Charleston, South Carolina.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore officials said Monday that the 600 feet of beach flanking the site where the work is taking place, as well as the adjacent ocean area to the east, will be closed until repairs are complete. The county anticipates that to be by the end of the year, but if weather or material lead times cause delays, the contractor must have the project fully completed by June 1, 2027.

The groin being repaired is one of three the U.S. Navy constructed in 1970 in response to coastal erosion adjacent to Naval Facility Cape Hatteras, now known as the Buxton Beach Access or Buxton Formerly Used Defense Site. Two groins were built to the north of the former location of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and one just south.

The park service granted the permit in April for the permitted repairs that include the removal of deteriorated materials and installation of new steel sheet piles, with stone scour protection at the base to help prevent erosion.

For the beach nourishment project intended to protect N.C. 12 from ocean hazards, the Houston, Texas-based Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. is to begin this week the roughly three-month project to place 2 million cubic yards of sand along Buxton’s beachfront, according a county July 14 update.

An advocacy organization created to improve transportation access to Ocracoke Island and the Outer Banks is urging state lawmakers to the North Carolina Ferry Division’s deadline to begin collecting tolls on all of its ferry routes by one year.

In a July 23 email to members of the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee, Ocracoke Access Alliance Executive Director Justin LeBlanc wrote that the Jan. 1, 2027, deadline to implement tolls is less than six months away.

“Initial analysis suggests that this deadline is unrealistic and is neither technically nor operationally feasible,” LeBlanc wrote. “The Hatteras-Ocracoke route and several other ferry routes have never been subject to tolls. Unlike the Ferry Division’s existing tolled routes, the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry operates on a high-volume, first-come, first-served basis. The current reservation and toll collection system is not designed to accommodate these operations. Implementing tolls on these routes will require the development, testing, and deployment of a new collection system – potentially utilizing E-ZPass or comparable technology – to ensure efficient operations and minimize disruptions to residents, businesses, and visitors.”

Legislators included the new tolls in Senate Bill 257, the first state budget to be passed since 2023. Gov. Josh Stein signed the long-awaited budget on July 7. The law does not set fare amounts.

LeBlanc stated in a release Friday that the organization is not requesting the General Assembly reconsider its decision to authorize the tolls of all seven ferry routes.

Extending the deadline to Jan. 1, 2028 would give the Ferry Division sufficient time to build the infrastructure needed to implement tolls and the Board of Transportation time to “complete a transparent public process, and ensure that the toll collection begins in an orderly and efficient manner,” LeBlanc stated.

“Rushing implementation benefits no one and increases the likelihood of operational problems for residents, businesses, and visitors alike,” he said.

Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, and, and Sen. Norman Sanderson, R-Pamlico, expressing their opposition to the tolls, initially voted against the budget. Both men voted for the budget in the final tally.

Hanig plans to seek legislative language to delay the tolling implementation date and other ferry provisions.

Guest Commentary

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues.

Few public projects have generated as much discussion in southeastern North Carolina as the proposed replacement of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. Citizens have raised thoughtful questions about the bridge’s cost, the possibility of tolls, impacts on surrounding neighborhoods, and perhaps most notably, one simple question:
Why does the replacement bridge need to be 135 feet high?

It is an entirely reasonable question.

Recent public discussions, including a white paper published by the Brunswick Forest Residents Civic Association (BFRCA), have suggested that the bridge could be substantially lower if Congress simply eliminated the federally authorized navigation channel north of the existing bridge. Some have argued that doing so could reduce project costs and perhaps even eliminate the need for tolls.

Those ideas deserve thoughtful consideration. Public participation has always been one of the strengths of our democratic system, and citizens should never hesitate to ask difficult questions about major public investments.

As someone who spent more than four decades with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working in navigation planning, environmental review, and water resources development, I welcome that conversation.

At the same time, I believe an important piece of information has been largely missing from the public discussion.

A federal determination that changes the conversation

Recently, the Wilmington District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed its review of the proposed bridge replacement under Section 14 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, commonly known as Section 408.

Most citizens have never heard of Section 408, yet it may be one of the most important laws affecting the future of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. Section 408 requires the Corps to determine whether a proposed alteration would impair the usefulness of a congressionally authorized federal Civil Works project. In this case, the authorized project is the Wilmington Harbor Federal Navigation Project.

After completing its technical review, the Corps reached a clear conclusion. A replacement bridge providing less than 135 feet of vertical clearance above mean higher high water would negatively affect the usefulness of the federally authorized navigation project.

Under the Corps’ own regulations, once that determination was made, the evaluation of lower-clearance alternatives had to stop.

Whether one agrees with that determination or not is almost beside the point. It is now part of the official administrative record.

That changes the discussion.

The debate is no longer simply about whether a lower bridge might cost less or appear more practical. Before that question can even be answered, another question must first be addressed: Should Congress change the federally authorized navigation project itself?

That is a much broader public policy question than bridge height alone. It involves navigation, interstate commerce, transportation planning, environmental review, economic development, emergency preparedness, and federal law.

Understanding that broader framework is essential if we hope to make informed decisions.

Why this matters

Many residents have moved to southeastern North Carolina only within the past decade. They understandably may not be familiar with the many decades of congressional authorizations, navigation studies, environmental reviews, transportation planning, and public investments that have shaped the Cape Fear River and the Port of Wilmington.

That history matters.

The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge was never simply a highway crossing.
It has always been part of a larger transportation system connecting maritime commerce, regional highways, railroads, emergency evacuation routes, military facilities, and the communities on both sides of the river.

Looking at the bridge by itself is a little like trying to understand an airport by examining only the terminal building.

The bridge, the harbor, the port, and the transportation network all function together.
That is why replacing the bridge is considerably more complicated than choosing a preferred height.

Understanding the federal navigation project

One of the most common misunderstandings in the current discussion involves the nature of the federal navigation project itself.

Many people understandably assume that because relatively few large commercial vessels travel north of the bridge today, the federal navigation channel above the bridge is no longer necessary.

On the surface, that seems like common sense. If the ships are not using the channel, why preserve it?

The answer lies in understanding what Congress actually authorizes.

Federal navigation projects are not created by the Corps of Engineers. They are established by Congress to serve long-term national interests, including interstate commerce, navigation, economic development, and, in some cases, national defense.

The Corps is responsible for administering those projects within the authority granted by Congress. It does not possess unilateral authority to redefine or eliminate them simply because navigation patterns change.

That distinction is critical.

Changes in vessel traffic may certainly justify future studies. They may even support recommendations for congressional action. But they do not automatically change the existing federal authorization.

Transportation infrastructure has always been planned with a long-term perspective. We do not widen highways only after congestion becomes unbearable. Nor do we abandon airports because air traffic temporarily declines.

Similarly, federal navigation projects are intended to accommodate both present and future needs.

That does not mean existing authorizations should never be revisited. It simply means that changing them requires careful analysis rather than assumption.

The relationship between bridge and harbor

The recent Section 408 determination illustrates something that planners have understood for decades. The bridge and the navigation project cannot be evaluated independently. The navigation project establishes engineering requirements that directly influence the bridge.

Likewise, the bridge affects navigation, freight movement, emergency response, regional mobility, and economic development.

This relationship is not unique to Wilmington. Throughout the country, ports depend upon highways. Highways depend upon bridges. Bridges support freight movement.
Freight movement supports regional economies. Each component influences the others. That is why transportation planning increasingly views infrastructure as interconnected systems rather than isolated projects.

When citizens ask whether a lower bridge is possible, they are really asking whether the entire transportation and navigation system should operate differently. That is an important discussion. But it should be recognized for what it is. It is not simply a bridge design question. It is a regional planning question.

Where current discussion raises important questions

One reason the current public discussion has been valuable is that it has encouraged citizens to look more closely at decisions that will shape our region for generations. Those questions deserve thoughtful answers.

The cost of replacing the bridge is substantial. Taxpayers have every right to understand why a particular alternative has been selected and whether it represents the best long-term value.

Questions about tolls are equally understandable. Thousands of Brunswick County residents depend upon this crossing every day. Any recurring toll would affect commuters, businesses, retirees, and working families throughout the region.

Neighborhood impacts also deserve careful consideration. Transportation projects influence homes, businesses, churches, historic districts, and community character.
Every reasonable effort should be made to minimize unnecessary impacts while meeting legitimate transportation needs.

These are not obstacles to progress. They are exactly the kinds of questions responsible citizens should ask.

Public involvement has improved countless infrastructure projects throughout this country. Engineers identify technical issues. Environmental scientists evaluate ecological consequences. Transportation planners assess mobility. Residents contribute local knowledge that professionals may overlook. Good public policy benefits from all of these perspectives. The goal should never be to determine which side wins the argument.

The goal should be to make the final decision better because every important question has been asked — and every answer has been grounded in evidence rather than assumption.

That is the standard our community should expect as this discussion continues.

Where I reach different conclusions

While I believe the recent public discussion has been healthy, I reach different conclusions on several important issues.

The first concerns the assumption that eliminating the federally authorized navigation channel north of the bridge would naturally result in a lower bridge and substantially lower project costs.

Perhaps it would. But no one can responsibly make that claim without first completing the technical, environmental, legal, and economic analyses necessary to support it.
Changing a congressionally authorized Federal Navigation Project is not simply a matter of drawing a new line on a map.

Congress certainly possesses the authority to modify or even deauthorize portions of an existing navigation project. However, exercising that authority has historically required far more than a legislative amendment. It would require detailed engineering studies, navigation analyses, environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), economic evaluation, consultation with affected federal and state agencies, and careful consideration of the long-term interests of interstate commerce, military readiness, and the Port of Wilmington.

That process exists for good reason. Federal infrastructure projects are intended to serve not only today’s needs but also those of future generations.

The Corps’ recent Section 408 determination illustrates precisely why that process matters. Unless and until Congress changes the authorized navigation project, the Corps has concluded that a bridge with less than 135 feet of vertical clearance would impair the usefulness of the existing federally authorized navigation project. That determination does not prevent Congress from changing the project in the future, but it does establish the legal and engineering framework within which today’s bridge replacement must be evaluated.

The idea of ending the federally authorized navigation project at the bridge or eliminating the authorized navigation channel north of the bridge has become part of the public discussion. Congress unquestionably has the authority to modify or even deauthorize portions of a federal navigation project. The more important question, however, is not whether Congress can do so, but whether Congress should.

Such a decision deserves far more than a simple legislative amendment or a reaction to current navigation patterns. It would require comprehensive engineering, navigation, environmental, and economic analyses, together with consultation among federal and state agencies, the maritime industry, local governments, and the public. It would also require careful consideration of the long-term interests of the Port of Wilmington, regional transportation, interstate commerce, military readiness, and public safety.

That is not an argument against changing the navigation project if future studies ultimately demonstrate that such a change serves the public interest. Rather, it is an argument that decisions of this magnitude should be based upon a complete technical and public policy record — not upon a single objective such as reducing bridge height or construction costs.

The discussion should therefore begin not with the question, “Can we build a lower bridge?” but rather with the question, “Should the nation modify a congressionally authorized navigation project that has served the Cape Fear River for decades?”
Those are fundamentally different questions.

The question of tolls

One issue on which my position is unequivocal is tolling.

I do not support tolling the replacement Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. My opposition, however, is not based solely on the financial burden tolls would place on local residents. It is based on a broader principle of fairness.

The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge is not simply a local bridge. It is one of southeastern North Carolina’s most important transportation assets.

Every day it carries commuters between Brunswick and New Hanover Counties. It serves as a principal hurricane evacuation route for thousands of residents and visitors. It supports military readiness through its connection to Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point. It carries a substantial share of the freight traffic serving the Port of Wilmington, one of North Carolina’s most important economic engines.

The replacement bridge will also provide something the existing bridge has never offered: a safe, dedicated pedestrian and bicycle connection across the Cape Fear River. That addition will reconnect the two counties in ways that encourage walking, cycling, recreation, tourism to our fledgling Eagles Island Park, and healthier transportation choices, while creating new opportunities for residents and visitors to experience both communities. It is an investment in quality of life as much as in transportation.

These combined benefits demonstrate that the bridge serves far more than motorists. It serves commerce, public safety, emergency preparedness, military logistics, recreation, tourism, and community connectivity throughout the Lower Cape Fear region.

The economic benefits generated by the Port extend far beyond Wilmington and Brunswick County. They benefit manufacturers, agricultural producers, retailers, businesses, and consumers across North Carolina.

When infrastructure supports statewide commerce and statewide economic prosperity, it should be viewed as a statewide responsibility. That is why I believe the Town of Leland acted wisely in adopting Resolution R-26–032, encouraging equitable participation by the North Carolina State Ports Authority in funding the replacement bridge.

The resolution does not suggest that the Ports Authority should finance the entire bridge. Nor do I. Rather, it recognizes a principle of sound public policy: When major public infrastructure produces broad statewide benefits, the costs should be shared equitably among those who benefit.

The port depends upon the transportation system. The transportation system depends upon the bridge. The bridge, in turn, supports statewide commerce, local communities, military readiness, emergency preparedness, and regional mobility. Those relationships are inseparable.

Accordingly, I believe discussions regarding project financing should include the State of North Carolina, the North Carolina State Ports Authority, and other beneficiaries of statewide commerce — not simply the commuters who happen to cross the bridge each day.

A bridge that serves the economic interests of an entire state should not be financed primarily on the backs of local motorists.

Planning for the next century

Another issue often overlooked in public discussions is time.

The replacement Cape Fear Memorial Bridge is not being designed solely for today’s traffic. It is expected to serve southeastern North Carolina for the next 75 to 100 years.
No one can predict exactly how the Port of Wilmington, regional population, freight movement, military requirements, or transportation technology will evolve during that period.

History teaches us that infrastructure frequently shapes economic growth rather than simply responding to it. The interstate highway system transformed American commerce. Container shipping transformed global trade. Ports expanded because transportation systems were built with future opportunities in mind.

Likewise, the pedestrian and bicycle facilities planned for the new bridge recognize that transportation needs evolve. Communities increasingly value safe, multimodal connections that improve mobility, encourage recreation, reduce reliance on automobiles for short trips, and strengthen relationships between neighboring communities.

Current navigation patterns are certainly relevant. But they are only one part of a much longer planning horizon. Responsible infrastructure planning requires us to think not only about today’s conditions, but about the needs and opportunities of future generations.

What every citizen should expect

Whether one supports the current bridge proposal, favors a different design, opposes tolls, or believes Congress should revisit the navigation project, every citizen should expect the same thing from government. Transparency.

Citizens deserve to understand why particular decisions are being made. They deserve to see alternatives evaluated objectively.

They deserve to understand the assumptions underlying cost estimates, traffic forecasts, environmental analyses, and funding proposals.

They deserve clear explanations — not slogans.

Likewise, public agencies should welcome informed questions.

Some of the best improvements to public infrastructure projects have come from citizens asking questions that professionals had not fully considered.

Public involvement strengthens projects. It should never be viewed as an obstacle.

At the same time, informed public discussion carries its own responsibility. Questions should be answered with documented evidence.

Engineering judgments should be supported by technical analysis.

Legal conclusions should be grounded in applicable law.

Public policy decisions should reflect long-term public interests rather than short-term political pressures.

When those principles guide the discussion, everyone benefits — even when reasonable people ultimately disagree.

Building the future together

The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge debate is about far more than bridge height. It is about how southeastern North Carolina prepares for the future.

Reasonable people will continue to disagree about navigation requirements, project costs, neighborhood impacts, and funding mechanisms. Those disagreements are healthy.

What should unite us is a commitment to making decisions based upon evidence rather than assumption, thoughtful analysis rather than speculation, and long-term public benefit rather than short-term convenience.

The recent Section 408 determination does not end this discussion. It does, however, remind us that major infrastructure decisions are shaped by decades of congressional authorizations, engineering analysis, environmental review, and transportation planning.
Understanding that framework allows us to ask better questions and make better decisions.

If North Carolina recognizes the Port of Wilmington as a statewide economic engine — and I believe it should — then the transportation infrastructure that allows that port to function should likewise be recognized as a statewide responsibility.

The replacement Cape Fear Memorial Bridge will connect neighborhoods, counties, businesses, cyclists, pedestrians, emergency responders, military installations, and one of North Carolina’s most important seaports. It will serve the people of this region for generations.

It should unite our communities — not divide them over who should bear the cost. That is not simply a transportation policy. It is a matter of sound planning, regional partnership, and fairness.

Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or our publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

Water has carried Tatiana the Trash roughly 70 miles downstream from where it and dozens of other reusable bottles were released into a Northeast Raleigh creek more than a year ago.

Dan the Debris doesn’t appear to have made it far from where it was placed into Marsh Creek in the spring of 2025.

Today, there are 60 cheekily named bottles that can be tracked as they journey, or not, from the freshwaters of the creek and the Neuse River and into the brackish waters of the Pamlico Sound.

They’re part of an ongoing study examining how stormwater flushes litter into local creeks, how far that litter travels downstream, and the direct link between urban trash and plastic pollution in our waterways.

“Even though we’re up here in Wake County, the Neuse River carries a lot of our pollutants down to the coast, where our coastal neighbors, unfortunately, have a cumulative impact of our river in the watersheds upstream,” said Christy Perrin, sustainable waters and communities coordinator with Waters Resources Research Institute and North Carolina Sea Grant, and co-principal investigator of the study.

To get an understanding of how litter gets into our waterways and travels downstream, researchers are digging deep to pinpoint litter hotspots and identify correlations between storms and how much trash enters individual streams during those storms.

Researchers will use their findings to guide location-specific interventions to help prevent litter from reaching waterways.

The study was funded in 2024 through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant Office.

As part of the study, researchers installed three litter traps in Marsh Creek, a small watershed that flows into Crabtree Creek near Interstate 440 and into the Neuse River. After each rainfall, the team removes trash captured in the traps, counts each piece of litter, and documents the different types of litter collected.

“Every time it rains, stormwater will wash trash and pollutants from sidewalks and roads and streets into our local streams,” said Madison Haley, a doctoral student in North Carolina State University’s Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department. “Here, we’re able to understand from specific storms how much trash is entering and then moving through watersheds. What we’re finding is that the higher the peak of that flow, the more trash we see.”

Researchers have found a clear link between the amount of trash captured by litter traps and the size of the nearby human population.

“The less populated a watershed is, the less trash we see typically. And the more urbanized a watershed is, the more trash we see typically,” Haley said.

Researchers teamed up with volunteers of The Great Raleigh Cleanup, a nonprofit founded in 2020 that has removed more than 45,000 pounds of litter from the city’s landscapes, to take stock of the amounts of litter along roads within the Marsh Creek watershed and identify litter hotspots.

“We do notice that roads that see higher traffic have more litter,” Haley said. “Roads that see lower traffic have less litter. Roads that are more industrialized tend to have more litter. Roads that are residential tend to have less litter.”

There is no perfect formula for pinpointing exactly what creates a litter hotspot, she said, but researchers have uncovered a definite pattern.

And they’re trying to find patterns in how litter is carried by waters downstream – how long it takes litter to get from headwaters into the river and all the way down into the Pamlico Sound.

That’s where the bottles, with a little help from citizen scientists, particularly those recreating in waters closer to the coast, come in.

Each 1-liter Nalgene bottle holds a GPS tracker and a bright-colored note with a QR code that links to the project website.

Eventually GPS tracker batteries run out of juice.

“If you ever see a bottle, there’s a chance it could be one of ours” with a tracker that has lost power, Haley said.

She asks anyone who spots a bottle while recreating on the Neuse River or Pamlico Sound to check to see if it is one of theirs. If you find one of their research bottles, simply scan the QR code, log its location, and then place it back in the water.

“It’s a good time for folks to be out there paying more attention and recreating and seeing if they can find our bottles, but also picking up trash in the process,” Haley said, noting that this month is Plastic Free July. “The point is that folks can connect more than what we do here in Raleigh, and what we do in these urban areas can impact our neighbors downstream, and everything that we do here doesn’t necessarily stay in our own community. The plastic persists for a very long time, and it moves through our waterways and our environments.”

Researchers initially released 40 bottles into Marsh Creek in April and May 2025.

Haley explained that the bottles traveled slower than researchers anticipated and they wanted to understand how bottles moved in different areas of the Neuse River. So, last February, they placed 10 more bottles into the Neuse River just upstream of Goldsboro. In April, they released another 10 bottles into the river in Kinston.

“We’re finding that the Neuse River is not just a conduit of water from Raleigh to the ocean but also is turned into this place where we’re storing lots of our trash,” Haley said. “Trash is just sitting there in the Neuse River for potentially long amounts of time, and so this study, we can see those bottles if they are sitting and staying in certain places for a long amount of time. We can see where trash is being stored within the river itself.”

She said she understands how it might be easy to get disheartened about the issue of litter.

“We all see it everywhere,” she said. “But to know how many people are interested in our work and how many people are interested in helping us is incredibly – it’s exciting and hopeful. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

The Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District has awarded a multimillion project to address severe shoreline erosion along Snow’s Cut in New Hanover County.

The project to stabilize the bank along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway was awarded to heavy civil marine construction and highway bridge construction firm Cape Romain Contractors Inc. of South Carolina for $7,015,897.42, the district announced Tuesday.

“This project addresses ongoing, severe shoreline erosion along Snow’s Cut, a vital engineered waterway that connects the Cape Fear River to the sound waters of the AIWW,” Corps officials stated. “Erosion poses long-term risks to local infrastructure, navigation safety, and neighboring parklands.”

The shoreline will be stabilized through targeted measures designed to prevent the bank from failing further, protect public property, and “ensure the continued resilience” of the channel.”

Work is expected to begin in the heavily trafficked maritime channel in the coming months. The Corps said it will manage project oversight and quality assurance.

The Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership has found that the amount of seagrass the state has lost over a 14-year period totals about 25 square miles.

The federal-state program that manages the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System located in northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia recently published these findings, an update to its 2021 report on the extent of high-salinity underwater grass in the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary.

APNEP Quantitative Ecologist Dr. Tim Ellis, an author of the study, explained that, although the study confirms that North Carolina has the largest amount of seagrass habitat along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, the critical coastal resource is declining, with an estimated loss of approximately 16,000 acres, or 16%, from 2006 until 2020.

Using data from three aerial surveys of soundside, high-salinity estuarine waters, or where seagrasses would most likely be expected to grow, between Manteo and Bogue Inlet, researchers found that the real extent of seagrass in 2006-07 was 109,607 acres, in 2013 was 95,157 acres, and in 2020 was 88,531 acres. That is a decline of about 1% a year, “despite suitable habitat available for expansion.”

These flowering plants that are fully submerged and are completely dependent on sunlight to flourish are often called subaquatic vegetation, SAV, seagrasses or underwater grasses. In addition to keeping “waters healthy by providing habitat, food, and shelter for aquatic life, sequestering carbon, protecting shorelines, absorbing and recycling nutrients, filtering sediment, and acting as a barometer of water quality,” seagrasses “enrich shallow aquatic environments around the world, providing sanctuaries for mollusks, crustaceans, and finfish as well as sustenance for waterfowl and other herbivores,” according to the report.

The declining trend is seen worldwide, “primarily due to water quality degradation, coastal development, dredging, fishing, boating, and other related aquatic activities, sea level rise, warming water temperatures, and tropical cyclones.”

North Carolina is experiencing annual rates of seagrass loss at or below the global average, but that’s cold comfort. “Because seagrass is sensitive to water quality, including nutrient and sediment pollution, a continued decline in the acreage of these underwater meadows indicates that the overall health of North Carolina’s estuaries may be declining,” APNEP states.

Ellis said that seagrass is a sensitive indicator of estuarine health because of its direct and complex associations with its surrounding environment. Seagrasses are also ecosystem engineers, meaning these plants modify the areas they inhabit by trapping sediments and absorbing nutrients to improve water clarity and by creating habitat to support biodiversity and biological productivity.

The study notes that the decline in North Carolina is not evenly distributed. “In the central portion of the study area, from Hatteras Inlet to Barden Inlet near Cape Lookout, seagrass acreage decreased 2.0% per year compared with a decline of 0.8% and 1.4% per year in the northern and southern portions of the study area, respectively.”

Over the 14 years there were three notable changes in the estuarine system’s seagrass meadows that were identified in the study, including that the total area of seagrass meadows is declining, the rates of change in extent vary, and coverage is shifting away from continuous toward more patchy and fragmented meadows.

Related: Work begins for periodic update of state coastal habitat plan

These “seagrass meadows are becoming more fragmented, meaning large, continuous beds are transitioning to more isolated and disconnected patches,” Ellis said. “This affects how well seagrass can provide critical habitat for fisheries and wildlife, stabilize sediments and protect shorelines, contribute to good water quality, and endure and respond to environmental changes, including major storm events.”

Over the period that the three surveys were conducted there were 10 tropical cyclones that directly impacted the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary, physically disturbing meadows, water quality and the stability of the barrier island inlets and flood deltas, APNEP notes.

Impact on marine life

Study co-author Jud Kenworthy, who researched seagrass for his more than 30-year career before retiring from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, said in an interview that “what we’re seeing in the patchiness is that we’re losing the cover of grass. Not only are we losing the total amount (of seagrass) in the entire coastal system, the increase in patchiness is also a decrease in cover where the seagrasses are actually occurring in those patches.”

The implications of seagrass patchiness and reducing cover cascade through everything, especially all the fisheries that depend on this habitat at some point in their life stage. “They’re exposed to less vegetation and a tendency for less cover due to the increase of patchiness,” he said.

Although some species will be affected by that process more than others, it could result in changes in food availability for different commercial and recreational fisheries cherished in North Carolina as part of the social and economic fabric, Kenworthy said.

When asked what species will see the biggest hit, Kenworthy said there’s probably a list of at least a dozen, including the keystone commercial and recreational fisheries like red drum, spotted sea trout and flounder, any species of shrimp, plus any marine life that use the estuary as a nursery and depend on the resources in seagrass beds.

Kenworthy added that many species totally dependent on the seagrass beds are not harvested but are food for larger predators.

“The one that comes to mind is the pinfish,” which consume seagrass. “Nobody that I know of eats pinfish, but a lot of people use pinfish for bait, and of course, pinfish are a major source of food for a lot of the larger species,” Kenworthy said. If there’s no seagrass for pinfish or other prey for larger species, the foundation of the food chain is going to be affected.

Kenworthy explained that if estuaries lose SAV, all the important ecosystem services like capturing, trapping and recycling nutrients, stabilizing sediments, storing carbon in the soil and providing habitat places for plants and animals, especially their food, are going to be affected.

“How dramatically these services are affected is going to depend on whether we find some sort of balance where the seagrasses reach an equilibrium or whether they tend to continue to decline,” he added.

Continued monitoring

Ellis said continued monitoring of seagrass allows APNEP and partners to closely track changes in the estuary to evaluate the effectiveness of existing conservation and management strategies and to adapt those strategies quickly as needed to meet desired protection and restoration goals.

“Based on the experience gained during these three surveys and our better understanding of the ecology of the seagrass ecosystem in North Carolina, APNEP and partners have intensified and expanded seagrass monitoring efforts, completing new subregional surveys of the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary in 2021-2025,” Ellis said.

In addition to aerial surveys, he continued, which are now conducted during both spring and fall each year to better capture the different peak abundances of the state’s temperate and subtropical seagrass species, monitoring also includes in-water sampling to collect information on species composition and abundance, depth, and water quality.

“Analysis of these additional survey data are underway and will enable APNEP to provide a more complete picture of seagrass status and trends in the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary,” Ellis said.

Ellis said It takes a lot of funding and coordinated effort to monitor seagrass in North Carolina, especially given its widespread distribution across the coast. APNEP relies on regional partnerships with state and federal agencies, universities, and others to build and maintain the collaborative network and leveraging of resources needed to address the many financial and logistical challenges of conducting a long-term seagrass monitoring and assessment program.

What’s causing the decline?

Why it’s happening though, that “is the $64,000 question,” Kenworthy said. “I don’t think you can pin any one thing on seagrass decline.”

Ellis agreed that understanding the causes of the changes they’re seeing is complicated “because seagrass in North Carolina faces many challenges, including rising and warmer waters, more frequent and intense storms, varying and marginal water clarity that limits the amount of sunlight that reaches the plants, and physical damage from human activities.”

Regardless, “the situation warrants the attention of managers to both better protect the resource where it remains and to evaluate restoration opportunities in areas where it no longer exists but could potentially thrive again.”

Kenworthy points to water quality, especially water clarity, as the biggest issue right now that can be managed immediately and reasonably. The plants in this warmer environment​ have high light requirements​,​ and when there’s turbidity and phytoplankton in the water from nutrients or sediments ​released from the land, the actual clarity of the water declines,​ and the plants get less light​.

​”Our biggest manageable challenge is to at least sustain or improve the clarity of the water.”

Publisher’s Perspective

North Carolina’s coast is one of our state’s greatest assets. It is an economic engine, a source of food and livelihoods, a natural defense against storms, and an irreplaceable part of our heritage.

That is why the budget recently approved by the North Carolina General Assembly deserves recognition. It makes meaningful investments that will benefit the coast, and the entire state, for years to come.

At a time when bipartisan accomplishments can seem increasingly rare, legislators came together to protect our waters, strengthen coastal communities, and ensure that future generations inherit a healthier, more resilient coast.

Among the important achievements is the establishment of permanent funding for the removal of abandoned and derelict vessels. These boats are more than eyesores. Left unattended, they pollute coastal waters, damage marshes and oyster habitat, threaten navigation and become even more hazardous after hurricanes.

For the past several years, the North Carolina Coastal Federation has partnered with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, and other organizations to build the state’s largest abandoned vessel removal program. Hundreds of vessels have been removed from public waters in the years following Hurricane Florence. That work has relied on a patchwork of temporary state, federal and private funding. Without a permanent solution, the program was in jeopardy.

The General Assembly changed that in this year’s budget by providing recurring funds to remove abandoned and derelict vessels. With stable funding, North Carolina can respond more quickly after storms, attract additional federal dollars and keep dangerous vessels out of our coastal waters for years to come. Sen. Michael Lee of New Hanover County deserves special recognition for his sustained efforts and support for this funding.

The budget also supports projects that improve water quality, strengthen coastal resilience and help preserve the natural resources that sustain both our economy and our quality of life. Healthy coastal waters and habitats support commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, military readiness, property values and local jobs throughout coastal North Carolina. Taken together, these investments recognize that protecting the coast is not simply an environmental priority, it is an economic one.

These accomplishments did not happen by accident.

They reflect years of collaboration among legislators, state agencies, local governments, conservation organizations, fishermen, business leaders and coastal residents who understand that good stewardship and a strong economy go hand in hand.

Sen. Norm Sanderson and Rep. Celeste Cairns, both representing Carteret County, also deserve particular praise for their leadership on the Coastal Federation’s budget requests this year.

And I want to recognize the many members and supporters of the North Carolina Coastal Federation. Our ability to advocate effectively — in coastal communities and in the halls of the Legislative Building in Raleigh — is possible only because thousands of citizens, businesses, foundations, and other partners invest in our mission. Their support gives us the expertise, credibility and persistence to work across party lines and help turn good ideas into public policy.

Advocacy is often measured by what makes headlines. More often, however, it is built through patient relationship-building, sound science, practical problem-solving, and a willingness to find common ground. This year’s budget demonstrates what can happen when those ingredients come together.

Of course, our work is far from finished. North Carolina continues to face growing challenges from storms and flooding, aging infrastructure, development pressures and changing coastal ecosystems. Meeting those challenges will require continued partnership, innovation, and sustained investment.

This budget reminds us that protecting North Carolina’s coast is not a partisan issue. It is an investment in our economy, our communities and the natural legacy we will leave to future generations. That’s something every North Carolinian can celebrate.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality staff are in the process of updating the state’s long-term strategy to protect coastal habitat, a necessity for a sustainable seafood industry.

According to the strategy called the Coastal Habitat Protection Plan, or CHPP, the need for a coastwide habitat plan came about in the 1990s because of growing concerns about fish populations, declining coastal habitats, and deteriorating water quality.

The CHPP was mandated by the Fisheries Reform Act of 1997, and the first plan was adopted in 2004 by the Marine Fisheries, Environmental Management and Coastal Resources commissions. The document, which was designed to “achieve the long-term enhancement of coastal fisheries by identifying, protecting, restoring, and enhancing critical fish habitats,” and is updated every five years.

CHPP is to provide “information on the habitats’ distribution and abundance, ecological functions and importance to fish production, status and trends, threats to the habitats, and includes recommendations to address threats,” according to DEQ’s Division of Marine Fisheries.

The Division of Marine Fisheries staff that make up the CHPP team, with guidance from a steering committee, have been working on the 2026 update. Charlie Deaton, habitat protection supervisor with the division, presented an status update to the Environmental Management Commission during the July 9 meeting in Raleigh.

He said the staff are drafting issue papers for the 2026 update that are broadly organized under three different themes: ecosystem-based management for coastal habitats, seagrass protection and restoration, and planning for multi-decadal wetland change, all of which build on previous editions of the CHPP.

The outlines of these papers are to be presented to the steering committee by web conference 1-3 p.m. Wednesday, the division announced July 15. The full agenda and link to the meeting are on the NCDEQ website.

Deaton said that the last full rewrite of the plan was in 2016. New issue papers were added to the 2016 CHPP as the 2021 update, and “we are continuing efforts on these issue papers and introducing a few more with this edition of the CHPP.”

Deaton reminded members that the 2021 CHPP prioritized submerged aquatic vegetation, or SAV, protection and restoration through water quality improvements. The chapter on seagrasses “had 13 different recommended actions, but the big one that this commission has heard the most about is the recommended water clarity standard to ensure that adequate light penetration allows for seagrass growth.”

According to that document, seagrasses are “critical for healthy fisheries, such as shrimp, blue crab, red drum, and flounder and provides valuable ecosystem functions.” The state has one of the largest seagrass habitats on the East Coast, but water quality impairment coupled with climate change stressors can limit their growth, reproduction, and distribution.

The chapter for the 2026 update on seagrasses will use data from the Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary Partnership’s recent findings on seagrass decline. APNEP, a partnership of NCDEQ and the Environmental Protection Agency, has been fundamental in CHPP development in some capacity since its inception.

From 2006 to 2020, the state’s estuaries continue to lose more than 1% per year of its seagrass extent, which “might not sound like a lot, but that’s 15% in the time period. And if you look 30 years into the future, that’s another 35% that we would be losing if we continue at this rate. So, it’s a concerning rate of loss,” Deaton said. “We’ve lost 50% of our continuous seagrass meadows, and the losses have been most notable at the deep edge of the seagrass beds. So that implies a connection to water quality and decreased water clarity, light not penetrating deep enough.”

This new seagrass chapter is to build on the 2021 CHPP’s proposal to develop a water clarity standard, which was referred to the Environmental Management Commission’s water quality committee where it’s on hold. 

Turbidity “remains the biggest threat we see to seagrasses, and so it’s something we really want to get some action on,” Deaton said. Staff are also going to work on a permitting framework for active seagrass restoration projects, which could be planting seeds or transplanting seagrasses in areas that no longer have seagrass but should still have the conditions to support it.

The paper is also to explore habitat protections under the Marine Fisheries Commission authority. The commission considered restrictions for shrimp trawling in 2023 but decided against those. Instead, staff was asked to look into what that rulemaking might look like.

For the ecosystem-based management chapter, Deaton said that staff are reviewing how the Division of Marine Fisheries uses mapping and monitoring data to guide species management work. Staff will determine goals and targets on how to better integrate the research, as well as create indicators with data from the North Carolina Collaboratory’s study on 25 years of the Fisheries Reform Act.

“The other half of the ecosystem-based management chapter is advancing strategic habitat areas,” Deaton said, that were identified in the first edition of the CHPP as a priority. “These are areas that are defined as high quality, connected habitats that were identified to protect biodiversity and ecological function through a nonregulatory approach.”

The “Planning for wetland change” chapter concentrates on laying the groundwork for thin-layer placement. Other states are exploring this method to accent natural sediment accumulation by taking dredged material and placing it directly on the marsh in a layer of 6 to 18 inches.

North Carolina doesn’t have a permit for the process, meaning any applications for thin-layer placement must be approved through the Coastal Resources Commission’s variance process for rule exceptions.

“We have a couple projects in the hopper right now that may reach the variance process in the coming year or two and seeing those as potential pilot projects. If they show promise, this is something we could explore to make a little easier to for restoration practitioners to implement,” Deaton said.

“The other half of the sea level rise and coastal wetlands picture is marsh migration,” he said.

Coastal Review photographer Dylan Ray is the 2026 Hugh Morton Photographer of the Year in the North Carolina Press Association’s annual editorial contest.

According to the association, “The Hugh Morton Photographer of the Year award recognizes a photographer’s body of work for the contest year and is the most prestigious photography award we give.” The award is named for the photographer, developer and conservationist born in Wilmington in 1921 who “was part of the post-World War II era of tourism development in North Carolina and was friends and colleagues with notables from across the state,” according to a biography on the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources website. “He took close to a quarter-million photographs which are now part of the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives at UNC-Chapel Hill.”

Judges, in selecting Ray for the photography award, were to consider content and composition along with technical quality and ability to convey a story. See the gallery of Ray’s work below. Click on an image to see the context in which it first appeared.

Coastal Review competes against about two dozen other publications in the association’s online-only division. In all, Coastal Review received five awards.

Coastal Review Staff Writer Trista Talton was recognized with the first-place award in the News Enterprise Reporting category for “Oak Island residents say oceanfront lots unsuited for homes.”

Catherine Kozak received second place in the Beat Feature Reporting category for “Red Wolves Recovery Efforts,” an entry that included “Biologists heartened by red wolf program’s recent successes” and related coverage. Kozak was also recognized with a third-place award in Beat News Reporting “Barrier Island Challenges.” This entry included a two-part series, “Shifting sands, hardened beaches: A new review,” and other stories about erosion, the loss of homes and revived old coastal policy debates as pertaining to the Outer Banks.

Coastal Review Assistant Editor Jennifer Allen was awarded a second place in the Multimedia Project category for “‘Smell of money’: Menhaden Chanteymen’s music still echoes.”

The awards are for work published between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026.

Editors and publishers were notified of the contest decisions this week, with results downloaded alphabetically by administrators and sent out. Coastal Review was notified around midday Thursday.

The association plans to announce all winners, including the General Excellence awards, Sept. 10 during the association’s annual convention at the Embassy Suites in Cary.

“We will have a full day of sessions, training, networking, and a reception to kick off the evening,” said North Carolina Press Association Member Services Director Katie Mozingo in the email notification.

Contest organizers expressed thanks to contest judges from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association “and numerous volunteers nationwide.”

Coastal Review is a daily, nonprofit, news and feature service covering the North Carolina coast and published with editorial independence by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group dedicated to protecting and preserving the North Carolina coast. Coastal Review provides objective reporting, information and commentary on issues, policy and notable figures and history with a specific focus on the environment and people of the state’s 20 coastal counties. 

MANNS HARBOR – Just weeks after the first community meeting was held here to discuss an upcoming project to construct long-sought wildlife crossings under a section of U.S. Highway 64 by the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, the North Carolina General Assembly passed its budget that included — much to the surprise of some — millions in recurring funds statewide for wildlife crossings and habitat connectivity.

For conservationists who have for years advocated for the passages as necessary safety measures for human and animal alike, it was fantastic news.

“We’re extremely excited about the $10.2 million in the state budget for wildlife crossings!” Ron Sutherland, chief scientist at the nonprofit Wildlands Network, said in an email.

“We knew there was bipartisan support for the measure, but it has been so hard to predict anything coming out of the state legislature for so long.

“From what we can tell, this is now the largest commitment by any state on a recurring basis for wildlife crossings,” he added, “so we’re grateful for the leadership on this issue.” 

Recently, Sutherland, among others, had worked to help raise $6.25 million in matching funds toward the U.S. 64 project that included an anonymous donation and contributions from Wildlands Network, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Last year, the North Carolina Department of Transportation was awarded a $25 million grant from the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program established by the 2021 $1 trillion federal infrastructure law.

According to the department, the proposed $31.25 million project would construct 11 wildlife passages of various sizes, with corresponding fencing along 2.5 miles of U.S. 64 from the east end of East Lake on the Dare County mainland to west of Robertson Landing Road. The preliminary design and environmental review process is targeted for completion in 2027. The project, which is included in the State Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, is slated to begin in 2028 and be completed in 2031.

At the public meeting on June 23 in Manns Harbor — a small community near East Lake — Matt Seymour, NCDOT’s project manager, explained that most of the project, built on swampy land and much of it adjacent to canals, would involve construction of underpasses, which would require elevating the road. Some crossings would provide small wooden bridges and little tunnels for animals. Fences along the road, fronted with vegetation, would serve as guides to lead the animals to the passages.

“Planning and design will also consider construction access, maintaining traffic flow on this critical route, and minimizing impacts to nearby canals and swamps, private property, utilities, wetlands, historic sites and community resources,” NCDOT said on its online project site.

Several residents in the audience expressed concerns about locating crossings too close to private property.

“The bigger ones, where we’re anticipating bear and wolf, they won’t be in residential areas,” Seymour responded.  “We have to be sure we’re strategic with the fencing.”

Seymour said that NCDOT is working closely with staff from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on designing the crossings, as well as listening to concerns and suggestions from residents who coexist with wildlife in the area.

“The Service is a project partner and collaborator on the wildlife crossing grant,” Rebekah Martin, manager of the Coastal North Carolina National Wildlife Refuge Complex, wrote in a later email. “We are particularly involved in planning, permitting coordination, and refuge-level decision-making to ensure the project meets refuge purpose and mission requirements while benefitting both public safety and wildlife.”

Notably, the Alligator River refuge is populated not only by thousands of wild animal species, ranging from tiny salamanders to massive black bears and — yes — alligators, it is the only habitat in the world with endangered wild red wolves. Many thousands of the refuge creatures, including numerous rare wolves, have been among the annual victims of vehicle traffic. 

Swerving to avoid deer carcasses on the dark road, veering around huge alligators that emerge in headlights and bracing when an animal is accidentally hit have been regular survival tactics for local drivers on U.S. 64, which crisscrosses more than 158,000 acres of protected refuge lands. The highway also cuts through the 1.7 million-acre recovery area of private and public lands in Beaufort, Dare, Hyde, Tyrrell and Washington counties that have been intensively managed for the red wolves by the refuge since 1987.

But U.S. 64 in Dare County also serves as a major travel corridor back and forth to the popular Outer Banks beaches, as well as a critical hurricane evacuation route, with millions of vacationers driving through areas thick with animals moving through the landscape and dashing across roads.

Over the last decade, in fact, vehicle strikes are the leading cause of mortality in red wolves, according to the Red Wolf Essential Survival Crossings Under Evacuation Route (RESCUER) project report.

Although the latest population is not yet available, red wolves number about two dozen or more in the management area.

“Installing wildlife fencing to reduce (collisions) along with multiple wildlife underpass structures to provide habitat connectivity for species including the critically endangered Red Wolf, black bear, white-tailed deer, mesomammals, small mammals, and herpetofauna is an essential mitigation measure to address impacts from US 64 through Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge,” according to the report.

Numerous hot spots for wolf mortality that had been identified by recent research, according to the report, are targeted in the first phase of the proposed wildlife crossings project along U.S. 64.

Looking back: Conservation group’s US 64 study finds ‘remarkable carnage’

Looking ahead to the additional wildlife crossings made possible by the recurring state funding, Sutherland said that the money will be spent statewide, including in Western North Carolina, and likely on the highest-priority projects for protecting both wildlife and human safety.

“It is too soon to know if new crossings for US 64 will be in the mix or if the state is going to focus on other regions given the existing $31 million project for 64,” Sutherland said in an email, responding to questions from Coastal Review. “I suspect there may be some enthusiasm for repairing the existing three crossings further west on 64 between Plymouth and Roper — the crossings are fine but the fencing is buried in the tree line and apparently full of holes for wildlife to sneak through.”

State Auditor Dave Boliek’s office released its performance audit of the Department of Environmental Quality’s Pre-Regulatory Landfill Program on Monday, revealing what the report called a shortfall in the statewide monitoring of former landfill sites.

The report found that 78%, or 534, of the 688 identified landfill sites where municipal solid waste disposal occurred without regulatory oversight have never been investigated under the DEQ program. Eleven of the list of top 100 of 629 program sites prioritized for investigation because of risk are in coastal counties.

The audit noted that, for most of the pre-regulation sites, it’s unknown what contamination may be present, whether it has spread to nearby properties or water supplies, or whether current conditions pose a risk to nearby residents. More than 80% of the landfill sites are within 1,000 feet of what are described as “vulnerable areas,” which includes homes, schools, daycares, churches, or drinking water wells.

“The Pre-Regulatory Landfill Program is a complex issue that creates challenges from a regulatory, legal, funding, and administrative standpoint,” said Boliek in the news release accompanying the audit. “But the bottom line is there are hundreds of potentially hazardous landfill sites across North Carolina, and despite tax dollars supporting a program meant to investigate these sites, 78% haven’t been examined. This audit lays out the facts, giving taxpayers a reliable update on a longstanding government issue.”

The program was established as part of the Division of Waste Management in 2007 to identify, assess, and remediate sites that accepted a wide range of waste prior to 1983. That’s before when modern environmental regulations were adopted. The list includes public and private sites near homes, schools and drinking water sources that could contain hazardous materials that pose health and environmental risks.

The risk ranking reflects scoring as of April 2025. In addition to the risk ranking, the audit includes an appendix listing all landfills alphabetically by county, then by risk priority rank within each county, if applicable. Another appendix identifies sites where issues related to property access have prevented or delayed investigation or cleanup and shows how long those delays have persisted in years.

The average estimated cost to investigate, assess and remediate a site is about $1.9 million. That would put the total cost, if applied to the remaining sites, at close to $1 billion. According to the report, of the 97 sites investigated since the program started, DEQ has secured 370 acres of waste, sampled 1,642 water supply wells and provided an alternate water supply to 30 homes.

According to the announcement, the DEQ Division of Waste Management agreed with the findings and the auditor’s recommendations. The audit lists all landfill sites, including sites pending access permission and sites that have been addressed, prioritized according to risk.

Among the ranked priority list’s top 100 sites in coastal counties are the following:

• No. 5, Jacksonville Wastewater Treatement Plant Landfill at Sturgeon City in Jacksonville, Onslow County.
• No. 9, Burnt Mill Creek Landfill in Wilmington.
• No. 11, Buxton Dump in Dare County.
• No. 30, Belltown Road Dump in Craven County.
• No. 44, Winnabow Landfill in Brunswick County.
• No. 53, Bolivia Refuse Disposal in Brunswick County.
• No. 67, Otway Community Refuse Dump in Carteret County.
• No. 73, Pantego Refuse Disposal in Beaufort County.
• No. 84, Rural Garbage Service in New Hanover County.
• No. 92, Ray’s Rural Dump in Onslow County.
• No. 98, Carolina Beach Refuse Disposal in New Hanover County.

Harrison Marks remembers looking past his father’s shoulder at the excitement unfolding on stage.

Marks can only assume he was scooped up and out of The Waterside Theatre on Roanoke Island because “The Lost Colony” performance was “more than he could stand” at the tender age of 3 or 4.

That’s one of his earliest memories in the upper Outer Banks, the seaside destination his father sought in lieu of Virginia Beach, a resort city the family patriarch believed to be too developed by the 1950s.

“I really have to check myself to not be completely like him in terms of lamenting,” Marks said.

The outgoing executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust has nothing to gain by dwelling on the days when the Outer Banks and wider coastline were scattered with little more than fishing hamlets.

“We are an attractive place to live,” Marks said. “Unfortunately, what that means is, just like I was attracted to be here, many other people are attracted to be here, so I’m very conscious of the fact that we have to prepare for growth and accommodate growth in a smart way. But, if we want to maintain the character of eastern North Carolina, I think it’s really important to set aside some space and that’s what this job has allowed me to help do.”

This fall, he will officially step down as the nonprofit’s executive director to assume the role of senior adviser.

Associate Director Jesica Blake, a keystone employee of the organization for more than 20 years, will take over as executive director on Oct. 1.

“I am deeply honored to be entrusted with this role,” Blake stated in a July 1 release announcing her promotion. “The Coastal Land Trust has been my professional home for more than two decades, and I understand its mission, its people, and its potential at every level. I look forward to building on the extraordinary foundation Harrison and his team have created, and to doing whatever it takes to protect the lands and waters of coastal North Carolina for generations to come.”

Marks isn’t keen on accepting the praise directed his way since the announcement.

“One of the things that’s bother me a little bit is I’m getting credit for every good thing that’s happened in four years. Most of those things were in motion and I was lucky enough to be here as they happened. Jesica’s just so ready to do this and to the degree I helped in that happening at all, I’m really, really pleased about that,” he said.

He’s proud of the organization’s accomplishments during his time as executive director, notably the Coastal Land Trust’s April 2025 acquisition of land on the southern tip of Topsail Island known as “The Point,” one of the last remaining privately owned, undeveloped tracts on the state’s barrier islands. Earlier this year, the land was transferred to the state, which will maintain and protect the property.

The organization is scheduled to close on the third phase of its conservation partnership on the Newport River with the North Carolina Coastal Federation and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

That project entails the protection and restoration of more than 2,000 acres of land along the river.

And the organization most recently announced it had reached an agreement with a developer to permanently protect more than 3,200 acres of Sledge Forest, a sprawling tract of land in northern New Hanover County that features ancient forests, vast wetlands, and riverine habitat.

When Marks became the interim executive director a few years back, he figured he’d only be in the job for six months, tops.

By then, the Richmond, Virginia, native had pivoted careers from the banking industry to the great outdoors.

Marks was on his way to earning a degree in biogeography at Dartmouth College when, while conducting research in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, he discovered that fieldwork was not for him.

“I thought if I do something like this, I’m going to end up hating the outdoors,” he said.

After graduation, he landed a job at Wachovia National Bank, which was headquartered in Winston-Salem at that time.

He may have spent his successful executive years indoors rather than in nature, but the work still provided him with a profound sense of purpose.

“I felt like it was a little bit of a calling,” Marks said. “Historically, if you worked at Wachovia, you didn’t make as much money as you would if you were willing to work at some other places, but you stayed because it felt like it mattered you were there.”

He no longer had that feeling when Wachovia merged with First Union in 2001. He retired from banking in the early 2000s at the age of 55.

Less than a decade later, Marks, after returning to his environmental roots, would oversee the 2015 merger of two of the state’s oldest grassroots conservation organizations, the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation and Neuse River Foundation.

Marks was Sound Rivers executive director for four years before retiring a second time in 2017.

He and his wife, Suzie, sailed the east coast and the Bahamas for the next couple of years. He’d been an active member of the Coastal Land Trust’s finance committee by the time he joined the organization’s board of directors in 2021.

He thought the couple had made their last move, from New Bern back to Winston-Salem, when he stepped in as the Coastal Land Trust’s interim executive director in September 2022.

They were on the road from their Winston-Salem home to Wilmington when his wife opened with the ultimate ominous conversation starter: “We need to talk.”

She pointed out how he was really enjoying the work he was doing with the Coastal Land Trust. She would support him staying on as executive director if that’s what he would like to do.

“That really opened the door,” Marks said. “The board was starting its search for a permanent executive director and I went back to the board and said, ‘I’d be willing to stay on if you want me.’”

The board did.

Marks and his wife purchased a home in Wilmington a couple of years ago on a plot of land on the banks of a small cypress pond, a sanctuary for Anhinga, egrets, mallards and geese.

“I don’t think you could blast us out of here,” Marks said. “Winston-Salem is a wonderful place to live. It’s close to the mountains, which is nice, but we really are fundamentally water people. We’d much rather be here near the water, so we’re here for good.”

Dozens of people from across the country warned at a public hearing that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to repeal federal drinking water limits for “forever chemicals” erodes public trust and endangers millions of Americans.

Those who spoke Tuesday during the online hearing the EPA hosted that lasted more than seven hours resoundingly opposed the agency’s plans to strike down enforceable standards for four per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and push the deadline in which water utilities must comply with limits for related compounds PFOA and PFOS by two years.

“These are dangerous to our health and incredibly persistent in the environment,” said Kathy Westman, a registered nurse and member of the Alliance for Nurses for Healthy Environments, a global nursing organization. “Nurses witness firsthand the health impacts and harms. PFAS can increase risk of certain cancers, alter endocrine responses and impact pregnancy outcomes as you all know. You can’t make America healthy while allowing toxic chemicals to flow. Please protect our citizens.”

Westman was among a host of healthcare professionals, researchers, waterkeepers, lawyers, environmental advocates, retirees, high school and college students, and private citizens who urged the EPA against rescinding current federal standards for PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS, and HFPO-DA, commonly referred to as GenX. They spoke from their offices and homes from the Carolinas to California, Maine to Florida, and Texas to Illinois.

They concurred that extending the deadline for water utilities to comply with enforceable standards for PFOA and PFOS from 2029 to 2031 would only further delay drinking water safeguards for Americans.

The Trump administration argues that giving drinking water systems the flexibility to opt in for the two-year extension would give them more time to sample source water for contaminants, test new controls, and train their workforce to manage those controls. And, the argument continues, rescinding current federal standards for PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS and GenX is necessary to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Under the proposal, the EPA would provide nearly $1 billion in new funding to states to address PFAS in drinking water and another $1 billion through the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities program.

Opponents of the proposal argue that it is contrary to the message the EPA is trying to send by providing that funding.

Madhvi Chittoor, a 15-year-old climate activist and United Nations child adviser from Colorado, said rolling back PFAS protections “sends us in the wrong direction.”

“The hazard index is important because people are exposed to complex, multiple PFAS mixtures and removing it ignores the cumulative risk that families,” she said. “Weakening these protections shifts the burden from polluters to families and local water utilities, while disproportionately impacting low-income communities. That is not environmental justice.”

The EPA now categorizes nearly 15,000 different PFAS.

PFAS are used for the ability to repel water, stains and grease to produce a host of consumer goods, including food containers, waterproof gear, stain-resistant carpet and makeup.

They are often called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down in the environment.

Some of the known human health effects of exposure to PFAS include weakened immunity, low birth weight in newborns, thyroid disease, and certain types of cancer.

Dr. Jamie DeWitt, a former associate professor at East Carolina University and now professor at Oregon State University, was a member of the EPA’s PFAS science advisory board that reviewed the science behind the maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, for PFAS established under the current rule.

“I can say with confidence that the rules for these four PFAS were based on the best available science,” she said. “The only guarantee the public has of being protected from these PFAS in their drinking water, including communities impacted by high levels of these chemicals and populations especially vulnerable to these chemicals, is to let the rules stand. The agency has an obligation to protect the public’s health from hazardous contaminants in drinking water, and rescinding the rule is really the unlawful thing to do. Let this rule stand to ensure that the public is protected.”

For more than two decades, DeWitt has been studying the toxicity of various PFAS, including those found in the Cape Fear River.

Chemours, a DuPont spinoff, directly discharged PFAS, including GenX, from its Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County for some four decades.

Just last month, the U.S. Justice Department announced a proposed $450 million, multistate settlement agreement with Chemours over PFAS pollution.

Critics argue that, other than a $22.5 million civil penalty to be paid over three years to the EPA and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the settlement terms fail to directly put money toward reducing PFAS discharges.

Gov. Josh Stein said that he expects the settlement will have little, if any, meaningful impact in North Carolina, where state-led sampling found that in 2024 more than 300 public water systems serving more than 3 million residents contained PFAS levels above the EPA-established maximum levels.

Stein recently signed a $34.4 billion state budget that boosts funding for PFAS-related initiatives through the Department of Environmental Quality. This includes $45 million for PFAS water infrastructure projects, $10.2 million for the Bernard Allen Emergency Drinking Water Fund to sample private wells and supply alternative water, and $3 million for DEQ staffing, water testing and sampling.

Dr. Micah Nishigaki, a family medicine physician in Texas, said the current federal drinking water standards for PFAS are critical to public health.

“We’ve known for decades now how PFAS are linked to liver diseases, low birth weights, certain cancers, damage to the nervous immune systems, and higher cholesterol levels,” she said. “These pollutants lurk in our water, which millions of us drink and use for our daily needs. The 2024 PFAS ruling estimated that with these current regulations we can prevent tens of thousands of illnesses and thousands of deaths. That means less people needing to be hospitalized, less chronic illnesses worsened by these toxins, reduced strain our overburdened health care system, and fewer death certificates of loved ones who suffered from the effects of these pollutants that we would have to sign. Weakening these regulations wouldn’t do anyone’s health good.”

Marc Boom, senior director of public affairs with the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit organization made up of more than 750 former EPA staff and political appointees, said the EPA should be moving faster to protect people from PFAS, not weaken standards, “before communities ever receive the benefits.”

“Families across the country have already waited years for protections against these forever chemicals,” he said. “This proposal would make them wait even longer. The central problem is that the EPA is not following the science. EPA is not saying these PFAS are safe. They are not showing that the health risks have gone away.”

Trevor Hickman, an environmental and process engineer from New Jersey, asked the EPA to stick by its current regulation to make water utilities comply with enforceable standards for PFOA and PFOS by 2029.

“I think it all just boils down to the fact that it’s much easier to remove these chemicals at the source in the drinking water rather than deal with the ramifications down the line,” he said. “We’re talking about spending 10, 20, 100 times as much money in the coming years instead of dealing with the problem now. And putting it off two additional years is putting two more years of chemicals into our water, into our land and cleaning them up once they’re there is so much more difficult. To everyone in the EPA, I think you know what the right thing to do is, and I think that when you go to sleep at night, if you make the right decision, you’ll rest easy.”

The steady rush of a 32-foot-tall Smoky Mountain waterfall is what greets the hundreds of thousands of visitors that filter each year through the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

The impressive sight is the start of an up-close journey through aquatic habitats found from the “Mountains to the Sea,” the theme the staff came up with when the facility that opened its doors in 1976 was upgraded in 2006. As visitors walk through the aquarium, they’re able to see thousands of aquatic animals in a range of habitats.

“We came up with the theme of ‘Mountains to the Sea’ so that the five galleries at the Pine Knoll Shores aquarium would highlight some of the animals and features all across the state,” former director Jay Barnes said.

Compared to when the Pine Knoll Shores site opened 50 years ago, the facility is nearly unrecognizable.

Launched as the North Carolina Marine Resources Centers in the 1970s at the same time as the Roanoke Island and Fort Fisher locations, which were also revamped 20 years ago, the research hubs were rebranded in 1986 as the North Carolina Aquariums.

N.C. Aquariums Director Hap Fatzinger told Coastal Review that since its inception, the goal of the educational facilities has been to focus “on creating incredible guest experiences that create connections to people, animals and the natural world.”

Having three aquariums along the state’s coastline was a strategic measure to ensure residents would have access to learn about the treasures of our coast. The education hubs grew in popularity, and gained strong legislative support that allowed for the aquariums, which were accredited in 1990 by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, to expand in the early 2000s into the 65,000- to 93,000-square-foot facilities they are today, Fatzinger added.

With the addition in 2011 of Jennette’s Pier at Nags Head to the aquarium system, the four locations see a total of more than 1.4 million visitors a year.

The aquariums today stands “as vibrant gateways to discovery, conservation and connection, bringing visitors face-to-fin with aquatic life and ecosystems,” according to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which the aquarium division is under, and “have inspired conservation action to protect the ocean and waterways through unforgettable encounters with aquatic life, while expanding access to science education and contributing to conservation research, rehabilitation, and emerging rescue work.”

Though the three N.C. Aquariums officially turn 50 in September, there are several anniversary and birthday events happening throughout the year, including the “Birthday Splash” during regular aquarium hours 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Pine Knoll Shores, followed at 7 p.m. by the ticketed 70s-themed “Rock the Reef” for those 21 and older.

“For 50 years, the North Carolina Aquariums have played a vital role in inspiring visitors, strengthening coastal communities, and protecting the natural resources that make our state so special,” DNCR Secretary Pamela B. Cashwell said earlier this year in a press release. “This anniversary reflects decades of visionary leadership, sustained community support and dedicated staff who have ensured the Aquariums remain places of learning, wonder, and conservation for generations of North Carolinians.”

Barnes began his career at Pine Knoll Shores in 1980 and later was appointed as director there, a role he held for more than 20 years before retiring in 2009. He then joined the nonprofit partner organization, the North Carolina Aquarium Society, from which he retired as director in 2023.

When the sites first opened in the 1970s, the centers were shoestring operations with few on staff and tiny budgets, Barnes explained about those early years. Funding was so poor that there wasn’t air conditioning at the Fort Fisher site, and there were very few exhibits, all of which were created by staff.

“We were open seven days a week, but we only had a full-time staff when I joined of five people,” Barnes continued.

With the help of several volunteers and some interns that came every summer, “we pieced together enough support to keep the doors open,” he said. “We were trying to build something from nothing.”

The building was there, but when it comes to the exhibits, “we had to go collect the animals, build the displays, and try to offer something to the public that was educational, and we did a lot of programming too,” Barnes said. “We started working a lot with schoolchildren, and the schools loved us, because it’s a free opportunity to bring their classes to the coast and get their feet wet in the marsh and learn a few things about sea life.”

Then, programming began to evolve, and “it’s amazing to think about this small staff that we had, the small budget that we had in those early days, and the fact that it was free admission. When you have free admission, I think that one of the things that happens is people’s expectations are not real high.”

Barnes said that after being open to the public at no charge for many years, “we realized that if we were ever going to make progress financially, we were going to have to bite the bullet and develop an admission charge,” which the legislature approved, to build a fund that would go back to the aquarium.

This was in 1986. In addition to being renamed that year as North Carolina Aquariums, the division moved from the North Carolina Department of Administration over to what is now the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and the nonprofit partner, North Carolina Aquarium Society was formed to support aquarium efforts.

Barnes said that the rebranding “made perfect sense” because the leadership at the time recognized that people were visiting the sites for the exhibits that featured fish, sharks and turtles.

“We changed departments, changed our name and began an admission fee, and that’s when things really started to look up in terms of the kinds of improvements we were able to make in the years to come,” he explained.

In the late 1990s, the aquarium society was successful in generating support from the General Assembly and began looking at capital funding to improve and expand the aquarium sites. Roanoke Island underwent the first round of renovations unveiled in 2000, then Fort Fisher reopened its upgraded site in 2002 and Pine Knoll Shores in 2006.

As director, Barnes said he was excited about having $15 million for a big renovation but Hurricane Floyd struck North Carolina in 1999 and as a result, the funding for Pine Knoll Shores was rescinded, “which we understood the reasons why; there were a lot of people hurting across North Carolina and that (renovation) funding went to help.”

The Aquarium Society’s Board of Directors came up with a plan the General Assembly passed to allow private financing for the renovations.

“The aquariums then essentially borrowed the money to build the renovation at Pine Knoll Shores, and we got that underway in 2004,” Barnes said.

The previous building was around 35,000 square feet, the upgrades tripled the footprint to 93,000 square feet at a cost of $25 million, according to state documents.

“It was a very exciting time for me as director to be able to work with our staff to come up with what we wanted the new aquarium to look like and how we wanted it to be laid out,” he said, adding they reused portions of the previous facility, redesigned the traffic flow, added lots of new exhibits and came up with the Mountains to the Sea theme.

By joining the staff just four years after the site opened, he said it was an opportunity to grow with the organization.

“And I have to say, all of us are proud of what has transpired over the years with not only increasing the funding and the staffing, but the exhibits just got better and better over time, and the work that the aquariums do now is light years beyond where it was back in those days with regard to research and conservation and the number of people that we reach.”

The evolution from the small, state-owned facilities to one of the most popular tourist destinations and conservation organizations in the state is really something we can all be proud of, he added.

‘Birthday Splash,’ ‘Rock the Reef’

The “Birthday Splash” on Saturday, which is included with admission, is expected to be a “vibrant ’70s-inspired day” featuring special animal encounters, hands-on themed crafts, historic photos and video exhibits throughout the aquarium, a 1970s-themed selfie photo booth, and birthday treats.

That evening, the aquarium will be transformed into retro-inspired lounge for “Rock the Reef,” which continues in the 1970s vein. Open to those 21 and older, the event will feature live dueling piano music, curated food and beverages, a ’70s outfit costume contest, and a celebratory toast with a commemorative champagne flute.

“We’d like to thank our local community for all of the support they’ve given us over the last 50 years,” Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium Director Clint Taylor said in a release. “To show our appreciation, we’re showcasing our history, sharing stories and photos, and highlighting our progress and how much we hope to continue to grow.”

Tickets are $50 per person and $40 for members. The event is sponsored by Southern Bank with all proceeds to benefit the nonprofit Aquarium Society.

Other celebrations include Roanoke Island aquarium’s Golden Gala on Sept. 9 and a Birthday Bash on Sept. 12, a birthday party at Jennette’s Pier and Fort Fisher, which is undergoing a 30-month renovation project, is to hold birthday beach cleanup events throughout the year.

Lawmakers on Thursday sent their approved and long-awaited budget to Gov. Josh Stein, who on Tuesday signed the $34.4 billion spending plan, one that includes notable coastal environmental spending and policy provisions, as well as a blow for commuters who rely on the state ferries that have long been free to ride.

Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly unveiled the measure, Senate Bill 257, on Tuesday, June 30. Despite short notice and the exclusion of Democrats in negotiations, the bill passed both chambers last week with bipartisan support. It’s the state’s first full budget in more than two years.

On Thursday, Stein told reporters he would carefully weigh its provisions, some of which further diminish the governor’s appointment powers.

“North Carolinians expect their elected officials to come together across our differences to deliver for people,” said Stein in a statement released upon signing the budget, in which he also added that the budget addresses serious concerns such as clean, safe water and disaster recovery.

Stein said the budget “makes meaningful investments” in community colleges and increases salaries for teachers and public safety officers. But the measure “has real flaws” and “unconstitutional and wrong-headed provisions,” the governor said.

“The legislature slashed more than 1,000 state government positions, making it harder for us to keep people safe and healthy,” Stein said in the statement.

The budget includes a provision mandating that the North Carolina Department of Transportation begin charging tolls on the state’s four free vehicle ferry routes. The measure does not set fare amounts. This prompted Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, and Sen. Norman Sanderson, R-Pamlico, to cast preliminary “no” votes earlier last week, but both senators voted affirmatively in the final tally. Sanderson had been successful in striking down proposed ferry tolls during his tenure in the legislature.

Coastal environmental advocates were largely pleased with the bill’s coastal provisions, including those pertaining to water, wastewater, and stormwater projects. Among these are Flood Blueprint and other resiliency projects, creation of a state-nonprofit partnership with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, publisher of Coastal Review, to remove abandoned and derelict vessels from waterways, measures to protect wildlife and natural lands, and efforts to study and address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, pollution.

“This is a very strong budget for North Carolina’s coast,” said Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis. “From investments in removing derelict vessels and improving stormwater management to addressing PFAS, the legislature and governor have reinforced their bipartisan commitment to making our coastal waters cleaner and safer. These investments will also strengthen the coastal economy by protecting the natural resources that support our communities, businesses, and way of life.”

The nonprofit Coastal Federation was also more fully empowered to establish and administer a stormwater retrofit pilot cost-share program and award grants, including to support a temporary position in the Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources. This position would be to provide compliance assistance for existing stormwater permitholders.

The Coastal Federation was also awarded a $1 million grant for its Center for Coastal Protection and Restoration in Carteret County. That project will be completed this summer.

The budget incorporates language from Senate Bill 1053, the 2026 Water Safety Act, introduced by Sen. Michael Lee, R-New Hanover, and with Sen. Danny Earl Britt Jr., a Republican representing Hoke, Robeson and Scotland counties, and Sen. Val Applewhite, a Democrat representing Cumberland County, as cosponsors.

This section defines “emerging contaminants” as PFAS and 1,4-dioxane and establishes an Emerging Contaminant Mitigation Fund under the Division of Water Infrastructure seeded with $45 million nonrecurring under the Department of Environmental Quality to support efforts to offset the compounds’ negative effects on municipal and county public water and wastewater systems. The fund will also go to support detection, reduction, and prevention of exposure to PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, and related research and development. Another $10 million is to cover costs of emergency drinking water supplies resulting from emerging contaminants.

“For nearly a decade, families in the Cape Fear region have carried the burden of PFAS contamination they did nothing to create,” Lee said in a statement in response to Coastal Review. “This budget delivers the most significant state investment yet in confronting that problem: a new $45 million Emerging Contaminant Mitigation Fund to help local utilities test for and treat PFAS, more than $10 million in additional help for families on private wells, and a statewide sampling initiative to trace these compounds back to their sources. The fund is also built for the long haul, because when polluters settle in court, those dollars will flow directly into cleaning up our water. Add the moratorium on new water transfers out of the Cape Fear basin, and this budget treats clean water as exactly what it is: a public health imperative and the foundation of our region’s future.”

The budget authorizes the State Water Infrastructure Authority to award grants from the fund on a priority basis to public water or wastewater system operators to cover costs associated with sampling, treatment, emergency response, remediation and technical assistance to eliminate PFAS and 1,4-dioxane discharges.

About $7.68 million in federal infrastructure money is budgeted for grants for projects addressing emerging contaminants. And $16.5 million in federal Clean Water Act Emergency Response funding will go toward grants to help wastewater systems address emergencies.

The budget appropriates $1 million in recurring funds to DEQ for positions and operating costs associated with the increased need for emerging contaminant research and response. The department may create up to five positions for this purpose. An additional $7 million in nonrecurring funds are provided for the collection of samples for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane research to be conducted by the North Carolina Collaboratory at the University of North Carolina, as directed in the Water Safety Act language.

The Collaboratory is appropriated $15 million for research, development, and remedial activities associated with PFAS and its effects on firefighters. This includes funding of a partnership with the Office of the State Fire Marshal and North Carolina State University to develop and implement a pilot program for deep-cleaning firefighter protective gear to mitigate PFAS exposure and remediation activities related to PFAS at or near fire stations.

The Collaboratory, in cooperation with DEQ, is to conduct a two-phased study to identify and quantify measurable industrial PFAS discharges in the state, first, by collecting samples from publicly owned treatments works and National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permitholders and then sampling other significant dischargers. The final Phase 1 report is due to DEQ, the Environmental Management Commission and the Environmental Review Commission no later than March 31, 2028, and Phase 2 no later than March 31, 2029.

The Collaboratory must also conduct a study of PFAS contamination in biosolids.

The Collaboratory is further directed to conduct a Cape Fear River Basin study with $1.5 million appropriated for that purpose through the end of the decade, when a report is due, and conduct a study of long-term water supply needs in river basins experiencing high rates of growth.

Of the total $4.5 million in Collaboratory operating funds, $170,000 nonrecurring is to support the FerryMon water quality monitoring program that employs sensors mounted to state ferries, and $160,000 nonrecurring for the ModMon river monitoring, a Neuse River Estuary modeling and monitoring project.

DEQ’s total appropriation, net of $295.5 million in receipts, is $111.9 million.

Abandoned vessels

The budget directs the Wildlife Resources Commission to contract with the Coastal Federation to remove and dispose of commission-identified abandoned and derelict vessels with priority given to those in public waters. This refers to vessels left for more than 30 days in a wrecked, junked, or substantially damaged or dismantled condition, docked, grounded, or beached upon the property of another without owner consent.

The measure also provides for expedited vessel abatement during declared emergencies and liability protection for removal work absent gross negligence.

Lee told Coastal Review that owner protections are “built in” to the legislation. After a 30-day notice period, such vessels are deemed forfeited. Funding for removal is to come from boating registration fees, 10% of the total, which is estimated to generate about $1.01 million.

“Our coast has lived with abandoned and derelict vessels for too long,” Lee said. “This budget finally builds a standing program to get them out of our waters, with a dedicated funding stream and the Coastal Federation as the state’s partner on removal.”

The Coastal Federation launched its first coordinated, large-scale, marine debris cleanup in 2019 and has worked with the Wildlife Resources Commission on abandoned boat removals since 2021. The organization’s larger clean water effort dates back much earlier.

“Several of the investments included in this year’s budget strengthen programs that have been central to the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s mission of protecting and restoring the coast for decades,” Federation Chief Program Officer Ana Živanović-Nenadović told Coastal Review Tuesday. Noting the bipartisan support of coastal conservation, she explained how reducing amounts of polluted stormwater runoff keeps estuarine waters clean, supports shellfish harvesting and sustains healthy fisheries.

“Funding for abandoned and derelict vessel removal improves public access and navigation while restoring habitat. Together, these investments will deliver lasting benefits for North Carolina’s coastal ecosystems, communities, and economy,” she said.

Resilience spending

The budget appropriates $4.5 million for projects defined in the Flood Resiliency Blueprint, a planning tool geared to increase community resilience to flooding, and $850,000 for time-limited, associated DEQ positions. Another $250,000 is appropriated to the Resilient Coastal Communities Program to convert two temporary staff positions to permanent. This program administered by the Division of Coastal Management provides financial and technical assistance to help local governments in the 20 coastal counties become more resilient to flooding.

Other provisions

Lee said the budget also modernizes the state’s beach and inlet management planning with a required four-year cycle of planned maintenance and resiliency projects and with DEQ’s updated plan due July 1, 2027. The measure provides roughly $11.5 million combined for coastal storm risk management at Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, and Kure Beach.

The budget eliminates two Department of Environmental Quality positions assigned to the Environmental Justice initiative. It also eliminates the state Office of Environmental Education.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, released a statement in which he said he was “glad” Stein had signed the bill into law and that he “recognizes how vital this budget is for the people of North Carolina.”

The North Carolina Democratic Party also released a statement, noting that after more than 1,000 days, the state finally has a budget that addresses some of the most urgent needs. “While this budget isn’t perfect, it takes real steps in the right direction,” party officials said.

As the Manns Harbor Bridge over the Croatan Sound nears its 70th birthday, it’s getting what North Carolina Department of Transportation Resident Engineer Pablo Hernandez recently called “the first major renovation that I’m aware of in my 28-, almost 29-year career here in Dare County.”

The bridge, he added quickly, needs work, but overall, “the fact is that we got almost 70 years out of it without a tremendous amount of maintenance investing.”

Hernandez also added that the work that had been done, mainly minor concrete repairs and a paint job about every 25 to 30 years, “but the current project seems to be the most complete.”

When the William B. Umstead Bridge, as it is officially known, opened to traffic in December 1956, Outer Banks newspaper the Coastland Times described it as “a fine Christmas present for the Southern Albemarle region,” adding that it “will make possible a lot of holiday visiting, particularly on the Dare County mainland.”

The bridge connects mainland Dare County with Roanoke Island and the Outer Banks. This delivered 20th century amenities to the isolated hamlets and towns of mainland Dare County that had yet to be electrified. With the bridge carrying connections for electric power and telephones, “some eight families will have electric lights for the first time” in the sleepy fishing village of Mashoes. And in the longstanding, unincorporated Manns Harbor community, “the bridge makes possible modern telephone,” the Coastland Times reported.

Although the bridge may appear to be in surprisingly good shape, it is a solid 40 years beyond its expected lifespan, and when the $33.75 million project began in summer 2023, uncertainty remained about the extent of repairs needed.

The original price tag has risen: “Estimated projections of total costs are currently around $45 million,” Hernandez wrote in an email. “We are doing what we can to control the costs but not to the detriment of the structure.”

“Until you’re there, you don’t know what you’re going to find, just like with an old house,” Hernandez said, “you start renovating it, and things need attention.”

The project is a blend of modern materials and traditional, often hands-on applications. Resurfacing the deck, for example, was completed using an epoxy that included an aggregate material to provide a textured surface. During the application process, the bridge was closed for nine months.

“All of those layers of the epoxy, as well as the aggregate to provide the textured surface, were all applied by hand, so over 300,000 square feet of bridge deck was rolled and squeegeed with these four separate layers of epoxy,” Hernandez explained.

The decision to apply the new surface in this way, instead of using “specialty trucks and pavers,” was in part because of the bridge’s 70-year-old design and the weight of the materials. “We don’t put a lot of what we call dead load on the bridge,” said Hernandez.

Other factors were also considered. “The deck was in surprisingly solid, good condition,” Hernandez said, “so there was no need to remove an inch just to put back another inch.”

The epoxy used is a viscous material that seals any cracks that may have developed.

Hernandez said the bridge design has a “certain robustness to begin with. It’s kind of like building a a deck on your house when you use a six-by-six post or an eight-by-eight or four-by-four post.”

Home to purple martins, pre-dedication damage

The bridge has for years been home to thousands of purple martins during summer. Hernandez, in response to Coastal Review’s query, was emphatic that the birds’ droppings had not damaged the bridge. He pointed out that the aerobatic birds roost on the bridges steel beams and atop the caps, concrete members that support the steel beams and are only there at night.

“From my experience, we have not seen a tremendous amount of bird droppings,” he said. Hernandez cited as evidence one night when he was with the Purple Martin Society conducting bird surveys. “We provided a boat and there were hundreds of thousands flying around. I don’t think anybody got nailed (with droppings).”

The most recent work has been below the bridge deck and the view down there is concerning. On the north side of the bridge, toward the mainland side, an entire piling is missing. In its place, iron girders support this part of the bridge. A March 1957 storm took out the piling before the bridge was officially dedicated the following month.

A grain barge, the C. W. Curlett “struck the bridge when it got out of control, said to have been due to the failure of one of the two motors. It swung down and struck the North side of bridge, shattering one of the huge concrete piles, so that the reinforcing steel inside it was exposed and bent,” the Coastland Times reported.

Just to the east of the bridge’s center rise, workers have been lowered to assess its condition. One worker taps the concrete with a hammer while another makes notes of their observations.

“They are listening for a hollow or dull sound,” Hernandez explained. “This indicates a deteriorated concrete layer.  If it is solid, it will have a distinct sharp, pinging sound.”

Repairs to the concrete pilings are now the project’s focus. The concrete is showing its age, largely because of the limited materials available in 1956, as compared to current designs. The bridge pilings, Hernandez said, were only “mildly” reinforced. “It just has reinforcing bars in it.”

The reinforcing bars, or rebar, is exposed through cracks in the concrete. Repairs involve removing any rust from the iron and replacing the concrete. Although there is visible rust on the rebar, the one-inch bars are still in good shape with only basic maintenance needed to clean the rust and repack the concrete.

Hernandez compared the Manns Harbor Bridge pilings to those supporting the nearby new Lindsay C. Warren Bridge, aka the Alligator River Bridge, a project to replace the early 1960s-era structure that Hernandez also supervises. The pilings there are prestressed, by “basically taking a very dense and durable cable and stretching it, pouring concrete around it, and then letting that elastic force come back in (and) help squeeze the concrete together, so you get a denser piling that can go through a lot more cycles without any kind of cracking.”

Looking back: State awards $450M deal to build new Alligator River bridge

The cracks in the Umstead Bridge were not unexpected after seven decades. Temperature variations and cycles of freezing and thawing in a marine environment will cause the material to develop small fissures. Once air reaches the rebar, the iron begins to rust. Conversely, below the surface of the water, in what is considered anaerobic conditions, “the concrete is dense and sound, and the rebar is protected from water and oxygen,” Hernandez replied in an follow-up email. “The majority of the deterioration of the concrete and rebar is in the splash zone where there his ample oxygen to facilitate the corrosion process of ferrous metals.”

Repacking the piling concrete is one of the most labor-intensive, hands-on parts of the project. After removing the damaged concrete and cleaning the rebar of rust, barges form a protected area around the work zone under the bridge. On a barge deck, workers mix Speed Crete Blue Line, a product described by Hernandez as a “rapid-setting underwater concrete repair mortar.” According the manufacturer, Euclid Chemical, the product will set in three to five minutes after coming in contact with water.  

Three divers are also employed in the repairs, reaching into buckets of mortar, pulling out a handful and pushing it into the voids and continuing the process until the piling is back to its original specs.

The mortar creates an airtight seal, protecting the rebar inside the piling. Then the pilings get an additional layer of protection.

“After we do the concrete piling, we come back with an epoxy-saturated carbon-fiber sheet of fabric and wrap that around the piling shell,” Hernandez said.

The bridge is considered one of the state’s “high-value bridges,” Hernandez said, referring to bridges within a $50 to $70 million range replacement cost.

Hernandez noted an NCDOT assessment of the bridge that asked, “Could we invest in a significant bridge preservation effort to get another 20, 30 or 40 years of life out of those structures?”

The repairs, Hernandez said, are going well, but the work originally slated for a Nov. 26 completion date that is “around the corner,” is unlikely to wrap up as scheduled. “Unfortunately we’re not going to be complete with the concrete repairs.”

A construction materials company’s proposal to expand its limestone quarry in northern New Hanover County threatens more than 140 acres of mostly high-quality wetlands and vital fish habitat, environmental groups say.

Martin Marietta’s preferred plan to enlarge its Castle Hayne quarry would permanently destroy 143.46 acres of pristine wetlands and 9.7 acres of open water that connect to those classified as primary nursery area, strategic habitat area, and essential fish habitat, the groups argue.

The proposed expansion of the 1,700-acre quarry that sits between the Northeast Cape Fear River and Holly Shelter Road could also decrease natural flood defenses, environmentalists say.

Advocates are pushing regulators to deny the company’s first-choice plan, arguing that other options Martin Marietta has identified to source limestone to meet the demand of future construction needs carry fewer ecological consequences.

They’ll get their chance to voice their concerns on water quality impacts from the proposed 358-acre expansion in northern New Hanover County during a public hearing hosted by the North Carolina Division of Water Resources on July 14. That hearing is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Heide Trask Senior High School auditorium, 14328 N.C. 210 in Rocky Point. Speaker registration will open at 5:30 p.m.

More than half a dozen environmental groups have asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny Martin Marietta’s Clean Water Action Act Section 404 permit application. A federal 404 permit regulates discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, including wetlands.

In a May 22 letter to the Corps, those groups, including the Southern Environmental Law Center, Cape Fear River Watch, Carolina Wetlands Association, Coastal Plain Conservation Group, North Carolina Sierra Club, North Carolina Wildlife Federation, and Save Sledge Forest, said Martin Marietta’s permit application does not include a thorough analysis of the project’s impacts to environmental resources, including wetlands.

Those groups also argue that the company’s other project alternatives, including expanding mining operations at the company’s Rocky Point quarry, would be “less damaging” to wetlands and waterways.

“Where Martin Marietta is proposing to expand its Castle Hayne quarry, it’s just closer to so many sensitive and high-quality waters,” said Julie Youngman, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The Rocky Point quarry is not very far away. It could provide the same value to the local community and provide the same source of building supplies, but still cause far less environmental damage. I think that’s what all of us are focused on ‘why aren’t you thinking about that location.’”

Martin Marietta’s application details six potential project alternatives, alongside a no-action alternative.

The possible expansion of the company’s Rocky Point quarry, which sits about 3½ miles away from its Castle Hayne site, would destroy a little more than 152 acres of wetlands and 13.28 acres of freshwater ponds, according to environmental groups.

“At first glance, this alternative would result in the net loss of more wetlands than Martin Marietta’s preferred alternative,” the May 22 letter states. “However, the quality and function of the wetlands at the Rocky Point or any other major waterway. Unlike at the Castle Hayne Quarry, an expansion of the Rocky Point site would not pose the same concerns about runoff and water quality. Likewise, this off-site alternative is not located near important fish habitat or a nationally significant floodplain.”

The letter urges that any expansion of the Rocky Point quarry be conditioned on Martin Marietta maintaining a 100-foot minimum internal buffer zone to protect adjacent wetlands from the direct effects of mining activity.

“The Cape Fear River in New Hanover County is already suffering from enough sources of degradation that if an additional one could be avoided, the state and federal agencies should think hard about doing so,” Youngman said. “The Castle Hayne community is also shouldering more of an environmental burden than maybe is fair between a proposed development and various industrial operations around them. They don’t need more mining to cause more water quality and noise and traffic hardship for them.”

Later this month, lawyers for several Castle Hayne residents are expected to go before the New Hanover County Board of Adjustment to appeal Hilton Bluffs, a proposed 1,800-home development covering 600 acres of a 4,000-acre tract that includes Sledge Forest. The forest includes ancient trees, vast wetlands, and riverine habitat.

If Martin Mariett’s preferred alternative to expand its Castle Hayne quarry is approved, the groups are urging regulators to require the company to produce an environmental impact study.

DWR is accepting written comments on the proposed expansion through 5 p.m. Aug. 13 using an online form for project No 20260387, version 1 with the project name listed as “Castle Hayne.” Mailed written comments may be submitted to Stephanie Goss, 401 Permitting, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC  27699-1617.

The term “skyscraper” often evokes a Northern metropolis full of towering masses of steel, thousands of panes of glass, and the occasional King Kong sighting.

In reality, a skyscraper is just a multistory building with a frame made of steel instead of a load-bearing mass of wood, brick or stone. With such a broad definition, the skyscraper is part of the social and economic fabric of nearly every city and sizable town in the country. Elizabeth City is among these cities. While its population has never exceeded 19,000 residents, the city does boast one skyscraper that is more than 100 feet tall. That building is the Virginia Dare Hotel, downtown on McMorrine Street.

The Virginia Dare Hotel was part of a regionwide emergence of Southern skyscrapers in the 1910s and 1920s. Southern companies wanted to take advantage of new technology and construction techniques to build higher than ever before. These structures were nowhere near the size of the behemoths in Chicago and New York, where buildings topped 300 feet by the 1890s and reached 700 feet by 1913. Southern skyscrapers were more modest, with lower heights and light ornamentation, often boasting a few sculptures or terra cotta details.

It is remarkable to consider the size of towns that could handle a steel-frame skyscraper. Elizabeth City in 1930 had about 10,000 residents, while the town of Sanford built a five- and six-story steel-frame building at a time when it had less than 5,000 residents.

One of the most common occupants of Southern skyscrapers was hotels. The skyscraper hotel, perfected in New York with the Plaza and the Park Savoy, catered mainly to business travelers and white-collar city workers. Elizabeth City in the 1920s was certainly a potential home for a hotel skyscraper. It was the largest city for 50 miles and an important trading post on the Albemarle Sound, the nearby Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, and the Norfolk Southern Railway. The city in 1924 had dozens of insurance companies, four investment firms, three mortgage companies, and two laundries, one of which was labeled “Chinese” and likely run by one of the 64 Chinese-born individuals in all of North Carolina at the time. These many modern businesses, along with the nearby Outer Banks, drew a wide variety of travelers who could appreciate the modern amenities a skyscraper hotel could offer.

Completed in 1927, the Virginia Dare Hotel provided many of the modern amenities that these travelers expected. With a construction group organized by the local Kiwanis, the 100-room hotel cost about $500,000 to build. The nine-story hotel offered private baths, a telephone in each room, posh furnishings, and an attached garage with steam heat. It sat atop a shopping arcade that housed cotton brokers, gift shops, and a hat store in its early years.

The heyday of the Virginia Dare Hotel was relatively brief. Skyscraper hotels floundered in the 1950s as railway travel waned. Travelers wanted inexpensive, family-friendly accommodations where they could park their cars. They wanted to stay at new, modern, and inexpensive motels. Even though many downtown hotels like the Virginia Dare had parking decks, they were built for an earlier age’s cars. Many big hotels were not located on major highways, and when they were, their sumptuous decorations did not appeal to families on car trips.

By the 1960s, moreover, these buildings were becoming old and old-fashioned, with repair and renovation budgets unable to keep up. Many of the famed skyscraper hotels throughout the nation fell on hard times in the years after World War II, with the Park Savoy in New York being torn down in 1965 to make way for a nondescript office building.

The Virginia Dare was no different. It closed in 1971 and lay vacant for several years in the 1970s, according to the News and Observer’s Feb. 8, 1971, edition. The closing of the Virginia Dare symbolized a long period of decline for Elizabeth City. Many of its large shipping, lumber, and railroad-related businesses closed in the years after 1950, although the last large vestige of industrial Elizabeth City, its textile mill, stayed open until the 2000s. The city lost population in the 1970s for the first time in over a century.

Unlike numerous other skyscraper hotels, the Virginia Dare Hotel has received new life in recent decades. It has been part of a long trend of historic hotels being reimagined as affordable housing under various federal Housing and Urban Development programs. These programs provide rental assistance, tax credits, and other funds to help renovate historic structures and convert them into safe, affordable apartments for thousands of low-income families throughout North Carolina. HUD programs have also preserved other notable skyscrapers throughout the state, from the famed Sir Walter Hotel in Raleigh to the Kinston Hotel and Goldsboro’s Waynesborough Hotel.

The process of renovating the Virginia Dare occurred in fits and starts during the next few decades after 1971. While it opened for affordable housing soon after the closure of the hotel, the process of keeping the decades-old building safe and habitable for a large elderly population was a challenge.

Debra Stallings worked as a maintenance technician for one of the most recent managers of the Virginia Dare. She noted that the building was a unique challenge for any affordable housing company in rural North Carolina, a region without many tall buildings. 

Stallings recalled that the view from the top floors was “beautiful,” and that “it felt like water as far as the eye could see.” But in exchange for such views, the management company had to deal with a myriad of problems including old plumbing, clogged trash chutes, and ancient elevators. Stallings had to help tear down the old water tower perched atop the building and hire a crane operator in order to make repairs to the building’s HVAC system. She remembered once when the elevator broke and needed a replacement part from Virginia. She, other staff members, and tenants had to take turns hand-cranking a service elevator so residents of higher floors could get out of their apartments. 

Today, the Virginia Dare still stands proudly above the Elizabeth City skyline. Its shopping arcade contains a barber shop and one of the town’s most popular bakeries. The apartment complex is owned by Tredway, a national affordable housing company with properties in states from New Jersey to Nevada.

The firm entered a new 20-year commitment to the Virginia Dare back in 2023, so that for the foreseeable future, the venerable former hotel will continue to serve the local community, providing a needed resource at its home on the Albemarle Sound.

Coastal Review will not publish Friday, July 3, in observation of the Fourth of July holiday.

Duke Energy has agreed to ax its wind lease off the coast of Brunswick County, instead pledging to reinvest funds into grid enhancements and additional power generation.

The U.S. Department of Interior announced Monday that the Charlotte-based company will terminate its offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay wind area roughly 22 miles offshore, south of Bald Head Island.

“This settlement allows Duke Energy to refocus $129 million in ways that directly benefit our customers and communities in the Carolinas,” Duke Energy Carolinas’ Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe stated in a release. “Under this agreement, Duke Energy will reinvest nearly $129 million in additional generating capacity, which may include advancing new nuclear and natural gas generation, and grid enhancements to strengthen reliability, support continued growth in the Carolinas and keep costs as low as possible.”

Related: Carolina Long Bay wind energy firm takes Trump buyout

The company’s decision leaves the more than 110,000-acre Carolina Long Bay wind energy area now tenant-free, as driven by President Donald Trump’s push to dismantle renewable energy projects and replace them with fossil fuel and nuclear power.

In March, TotalEnergies accepted a $1 billion federal buyout of its wind energy leases off the New York and North Carolina coasts, including roughly half of the Carolina Long Bay wind energy area. The France-based global energy company said it would invest the refunded money in a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Texas and other fossil fuel projects.

Duke Energy paid $155 million in May 2022 to lease the other half of the offshore wind area.

“President Trump’s vision of unleashing affordable, reliable American energy for our country’s communities and using common sense to put the American people first is being implemented,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated in Monday’s announcement. “Duke Energy will now be able to convert a national security concern into projects that will lower the costs for its customers in North Carolina and surrounding states.”

Projects in the Carolina Long Bay wind energy area were estimated to generate up to 3 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power about 657,000 homes, and provide more than $4 billion in net economic impacts.

Though the now-dead projects were years away from providing offshore-generated electricity to land-based power grids, advocates of wind energy argue it is a stable, predictable source of energy.

“We are disappointed to see another offshore wind farm opportunity taken off the table for North Carolina,” Southeastern Wind Coalition President Katharine Kollins said in a release. “At a time when electricity demand is surging and grid reliability is under increasing strain, we need to add energy options, not remove them. It is unfortunate that the federal government continues to pick winners and losers in the energy space, especially when we’ve seen strong performance from the four existing offshore wind farms currently operations in U.S. waters.”

There are still active offshore wind leases along North Carolina’s northern coast, off the shores of Kitty Hawk. Those leases were purchased a few years ago by Avangrid Renewables and Dominion Energy, the latter of which is wrapping construction of a 2.6-gigawatt project nearly 30 miles east of Virginia Beach.

Courts have recently overturned the Trump administration’s actions to quell offshore wind development in the United States, including an order last December to stop work in five offshore wind energy areas on the East Coast, including Dominion Energy’s Hampton Roads, Virginia-based project.

But those rulings have not hampered the administration from continuing to target offshore wind projects.

Since announcing its deal with TotalEnergies, the Interior Department has solidified similar agreements with a handful of other companies to terminate their leases off the coasts of California, Maine, New Jersey and New York.

In early June, New York’s attorney general was joined by state attorneys general from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont in challenging TotalEnergies’ federal buyout.

Chris Herndon, chapter director of the North Carolina Sierra Club Chapter, in a statement urged state Attorney General Jeff Jackson to “review the legality of this ‘deal,’ and consider joining other states in challenging the Trump administration in court.”

“Duke Energy and Donald Trump are worsening the energy affordability crisis that’s plaguing North Carolina families and small businesses throughout the state,” Herndon said in a release. “It’s a disgrace that Duke Energy would walk away from an affordable, reliable offshore wind project that our state was counting on to create family-sustaining wages for workers and fixed-price clean electricity to power our state’s economy.”

Pasha Feinberg, an offshore wind strategist with the international nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, called Duke Energy’s agreement with the federal government a “lose-lose proposition.”

“We need more electricity, not less,” Feinberg stated in a release. “Canceling clean energy projects is self-defeating. Paying off companies so they will abandon them is just ludicrous. The Trump administration is wasting our money paying companies not to produce energy. It’s long past time for the Trump administration to end its war on new energy so that customers’ bills won’t keep rising and our nation can meet its growing electricity demands.”

Despite last week’s abysmal report from the state auditor of the funding prospects for the long-planned Mid-Currituck Bridge, the proposed project connecting the Currituck County mainland to its northern Outer Banks beaches will remain officially alive in the state transportation plan, at least for the time being.

The auditor’s Rapid Response Special Report issued June 22 painted a dire fiscal picture: The current $1.2 billion projected cost of the bridge had more than doubled since it was approved in 2019, the project’s borrowing capacity based on toll revenue had plummeted by about 42%, and a funding shortfall of $702 to $832 million would be nearly impossible to fill.

The audit also found that the transportation department had discovered that between 2012 and 2019, the traffic volume, population growth, and tourism growth on the Outer Banks region had all been significantly less than originally projected. In response, projected daily vehicle counts had to be reduced at all the locations that were measured.

“The people of Currituck County following this project have been dragged along for 30 years,” State Auditor Dave Boliek said in a press release. “What the team at the Office of State Auditor found is that despite spending money, no dirt has been moved. Taxpayers are more than $60 million in the hole on a 30-year project that certainly remains far from completion.”

Meanwhile, the agencies working on the bridge, North Carolina Turnpike Authority and the North Carolina Department of Transportation, said they remain committed to the project, which still has $173 million allocated for it in the State Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, the state funding document.

“While the project’s current funding gap presents a real challenge, the transit authority and NCDOT continue to work closely with our regional and state partners as well as federal stakeholders to identify and pursue every available funding pathway, including federal discretionary grant programs, toll revenue and public-private partnerships, which is a key next step for the project,” Turnpike authority Chief Communications Officer Logen Hodges said in a June 26 email, responding to an inquiry from Coastal Review. “We look forward to continued collaboration with our local and regional partners as we work to continue advancing this critical infrastructure project.”

The budget difficulties portrayed in the audit were not a surprise — transportation officials had presented the details about the bridge project shortfalls and options during a Feb. 18 meeting with the Albemarle Rural Planning Organization, or ARPO, and its two boards, the Rural Transportation Advisory Committee and the Rural Transportation Coordinating Committee. ARPO was also informed that it had until April 17 to notify them whether to keep the STIP funds for the bridge, or ask for them to be released to be used elsewhere in the 14-county Division 1.

The Albemarle Commission, a regional planning and development body for northeastern North Carolina, has served as the lead planning agency for the ARPO since May 2002, according to its website. Since then, the RPO has been working cooperatively with NCDOT on development of long-range regional transportation plans, providing related data and prioritizing projects for the STIP.

On April 15, the Albemarle RPO, which serves Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington counties, voted to keep the $173 million earmarked for the Mid-Currituck Bridge for the next year, allowing time to pursue alternative funding sources. It would also allow consideration into whether the project would potentially score high enough to submit in the next STIP prioritization cycle.

Since the release of the audit, the panel has not yet had its regular meeting that would provide an opportunity to discuss the findings, Rural Transportation Advisory Committee Chairman Lloyd Griffin, who is also a Pasquotank County commissioner, said in an interview. But for that matter, the April vote had a built-in reaction to the project’s worrisome budget chasm.

“I think the response from the RPO is that we’re giving it one year,” he said. “After that time, it would go back to discussion … We would have to see where the other counties come together on that.”

In other words, if the money wasn’t forthcoming, he said, the RPO could vote to have the STIP funds redistributed. Or, depending on the funding status, they could decide to have the project reapply for scoring.

“However, Boliek was very specific about the feasibility of obtaining additional funding,” Griffin said, referring to the unlikelihood of the rural project scoring well enough in the competitive process that carves up funding largely based on population and traffic numbers.

“If there are no funds this year, then we’re just going to have to say, ‘Hey look, we’re just going to have to move on with the STIP,’” he said. Division 1 is the largest transportation district in the state, he added, and those Currituck bridge funds sitting now in the STIP are “a lot of money” that should be put to good use one way or another.

Ever since the bridge was first identified as a need in 1975, the project has had a series of challenges, including inconsistent political and financial support. Supporters have maintained from the beginning that the bridge, which would connect the Currituck mainland at Aydlett to Corolla, on the Currituck Outer Banks, was critical for hurricane evacuation, as well as a shortened route that would relieve summertime bumper-to-bumper traffic from the Wright Memorial Bridge in Kitty Hawk along N.C. Highway 12 to Corolla. The 4.66-mile-long bridge would cross Currituck Sound, and a 1.5-mile-long bridge would cross Maple Swamp on the mainland side, about 25 miles south of the Virginia state line, saving as much as an hour for some travelers.

But opponents contend that it would only make traffic to the resort area worse, and year-round communities on both ends of the bridge lack the infrastructure needed to deal with the additional traffic or visitors. Environmental groups also say that the bridge would cause pollution and harm wildlife and submerged aquatic grasses in the Currituck Sound and surrounding habitat areas.

Two legal matters challenging the bridge, the most recent of several cases filed over the years, are still pending, said Julie Youngman, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, a Chapel Hill-based nonprofit, in a recent email responding to questions from Coastal Review.

Representing No Mid-Currituck Bridge, a group of residents opposed to the bridge, and the Sierra Club, an environmental nonprofit, a petition for a contested case hearing was submitted to the state Department of Environmental Quality in November, she wrote. The petition challenged the state Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, permit the state had issued, she said, arguing that the bridge would disrupt the communities on both sides of the bridge with increased traffic and development and have negative effects on drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.

That petition was pending in the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings, but it has been stayed, pending resolution of another petition that was submitted to the state in December challenging the CAMA permit issued by the Coastal Resources Commission.

“We are asking the Currituck County Superior Court to rule on whether the CRC exceeded its authority when it purported to limit the issues we could raise,” Youngman wrote in the email. “Once we get resolution on this issue, the permit challenge can proceed in Office of Administrative Hearings.” The second matter is set to be heard at the Dare County Courthouse during the week of July 27, 2026, she added.

Youngman said “enough is enough” and NCDOT must either acknowledge that it is not going to be able to build the $1.2 billion bridge, it will release the $173 million STIP funds, or it has to explain how it will manage to fund the bridge’s construction.

“Much of the information presented by the state auditor echoed concerns raised by SELC and our clients over the past decade,” Youngman said. “In its initial analysis of the bridge, NCDOT severely overestimated the amount of traffic and growth that would come to the region in the future. Since that time, the price of the bridge has increased dramatically, while the forecasts of toll revenue have decreased. As a result, there is simply no viable financial path forward for the bridge.”

The SELC agrees that traffic congestion on the south end of Currituck County and northern beach communities in Dare and Currituck counties needs to be addressed, whether it’s with a traffic circle (roundabout) or management of pedestrian crossings or other strategies. But Youngman said that for a proposal that over its lifetime has already expended $61 million of tax dollars, “with nothing to show for it,” it’s high time to switch course. 

“We are disappointed that despite all the past waste of money, time, and other resources, NCDOT is continuing to press agencies to issue permits and expend resources litigating those permits in court,” Youngman wrote.

“It is beyond time to put this project to bed and to focus all our energies on solutions for the Outer Banks that are actually viable and can be much more quickly set in motion.”

A coastal land conservation group has reached an agreement with a developer to permanently protect a sprawling tract of land in New Hanover County featuring ancient forests, vast wetlands, and riverine habitat.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust announced Thursday a tentative purchase and sale agreement with Charlotte-based Copper Builders to preserve more than 3,200 acres of Sledge Forest.

“This is one of the most significant conservation opportunities in New Hanover County in a generation,” Coastal Land Trust Executive Director Harrison Marks said in the press release. “More than 3,200 acres, a landscape larger than Carolina Beach State Park, will be permanently protected in the heart of one of the fastest-growing counties on the North Carolina coast. That is what this agreement means.”

The fate of the deal hinges on the construction of Hilton Bluffs, a controversial 1,800-home development covering 600 acres of the privately owned 4,000-acre tract. The project, conditionally approved by the New Hanover County Technical Review Committee in March, continues to face heavy backlash among locals and thousands of activists backing the Save Sledge Forest movement.

“We appreciate what Coastal Land Trust is trying to do here, but we believe that this approach just doesn’t go far enough,” Castle Hayne resident and Save Sledge Forest cofounder Kayne Darrell explained Thursday during a telephone interview. “This community is steadfast in our belief that no development at all is best for our community and Sledge Forest. This agreement does not in any way change Copper Builder’s proposed Hilton Bluffs development of 1,800 homes on 500-plus acres. That remains exactly the same. And while conservation of these unbuildable wetlands in Sledge Forest is important, it does nothing to reduce the impacts of that development in this small, rural community.”

In the announcement last week, the Coastal Land Trust stated it “is not taking a position” on whether Hilton Bluffs should be approved.

“Its commitment is straightforward: if the project proceeds as currently approved, the Coastal Land Trust will ensure that more than 3,200 acres are permanently protected, publicly accessible, and managed to the highest conservation standards,” the organization stated.

Sledge Forest is home to ancient trees, including 500-year-old bald cypress, longleaf and loblolly pines more than 300 years old and some of the Southeast’s largest remaining Atlantic white cedar.

The forest is designated a North Carolina Natural Heritage Program Nationally Significant Natural Area, sheltering 13 imperiled plant species and several at-risk animal species. Last year, the forest was added to the Old-Growth Forest Network’s national list of threatened forests.

Sledge Forest is also part of the Northeast Cape Fear River floodplain, one of the largest landscape corridors in the southeastern part of the state.

“What we would be conserving is really the heart of the property,” Marks explained Thursday in a telephone interview. “It is the most ecologically important area of this entire tract.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Copper Builders will donate 1,200 acres to the Coastal Land Trust at no cost. The nonprofit will purchase 2,000 acres through a bargain sale.

“The bargain sale certainly helps matters,” Marks said, adding that the organization will apply for grants and that “some kind of fundraising is likely.”

Thousands of people have viewed and shared on social media a video clip and story of waterside tours of the forest.

Darrell highlighted the “extraordinary response” the videos had generated from people across the country. Within days of the videos posting, another 1,000 people had signed Save Sledge Forest’s petition, she said.

As of Friday afternoon, the petition had more than 15,500 signatures and counting.

At its meeting next month, New Hanover County Board of Adjustment is expected to hear appeals from adjacent Castle Hayne property owners regarding the proposed subdivision.

They argue that Hilton Bluffs would add thousands of additional vehicles on rural roads that cannot accommodate them, strip the landscape of hundreds of acres of trees and increase the threat of flooding, disrupt the surrounding ecosystem, and potentially compromise a state-designated inactive hazardous site on adjacent property.

“We intend to remain focused on the legal appeal of our county’s erroneous conditional approval of the Hilton Bluffs project,” Darrell said. “We’re going to continue to move forward with this appeal process and we’re going to do so with confidence and determination. We’re prepared to challenge this development as long as it takes.”

WILMINGTON – Officials and environmental groups in North Carolina are blasting Chemours’ proposed $450 million federal settlement over PFAS pollution, saying the deal will do little for the state.

The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday announced the multistate agreement, touting it as the federal government’s first comprehensive settlement over per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances pollution.

Under the terms of the settlement, Chemours is expected to pay the Environmental Protection Agency and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection a $22.5 million civil penalty over three years, and pump in $90 million over 15 years “to further reduce PFAS emissions and enhance certain existing off-site drinking water programs,” according to a company release.

The company will spend an estimated $60 million installing pollution controls for surface water discharges and air emissions at its West Virginia plant, cover an estimated $280 million in costs to provide clean drinking water for more than a decade to residents of communities around its facilities in West Virginia and New Jersey, and “evaluate options and implement corresponding controls to reduce releases of PFAS and other toxic chemicals from its facility in North Carolina,” according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Gov. Josh Stein expressed doubts about whether North Carolina, one of three states named in the agreement, will actually receive any portion of those funds.

“It’s entirely possible that North Carolina doesn’t get a dime from this federal settlement,” Stein said Wednesday afternoon during home visit with a Wilmington-area family that uses a state-funded water filtration system to remove PFAS from their drinking water.

“The settlement that they just announced today will not have any meaningful impact for the state of North Carolina or the people of North Carolina,” he said. “It may help West Virginia, it may help New Jersey, but it really doesn’t do much for North Carolina.”

Clean Cape Fear Co-founder Emily Donovan agreed.

“If Chemours is unable to control its own pollution for follow the law without a constant stream of lawsuits, then maybe it has no business making toxic forever chemicals,” she stated in a release. “We’re not sure who this favors. It isn’t those of us in North Carolina who have been dealing with nearly half a century of PFAS pollution from the Fayetteville Works facility.”

Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Jean Zhuang said the settlement is devoid of meaningful enforcement and “appears designed to shield Chemours from real accountability.”

“The Department of Justice has wrapped a sweeping set of allegations involving drinking water contamination affecting millions of Americans into a resolution that largely asks the company to monitor itself and develop plans, while surrendering its claims tied to contamination from multiple facilities across multiple states,” Zhuang stated in a release. “At the same time DOJ is resolving its litigation on such lenient terms, Chemours is actively challenging federal PFAS drinking water standards in court, seeking a massive expansion of its North Carolina facility, and continuing to release extremely high concentrations of ultra-short-chain PFAS – chemicals it knows are likely ending up in drinking water for roughly half a million North Carolinians.”

Public hearing set on standards

Wednesday’s announcement comes as the Environmental Protection Agency rolls ahead with a proposal to strike down the nation’s first-ever health standards for PFAS, chemical contaminants found in the drinking water sources of millions of North Carolinians.

The agency is scheduled to host a virtual public hearing on July 7 regarding its plans to rescind and reconsider current federal standards for HFPO-DA, commonly referred to as GenX, PFNA, PFHxS and PFBS. The agency also wants to push the deadline in which water utilities must comply with enforceable standards for PFOA and PFOS, chemicals that are no longer manufactured, by two years from 2029 to 2031.

Meanwhile, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission is considering monitoring and minimization rules for discharges of PFOS, PFOA, GenX, and 1,4-dioxane, which the EPA classifies as a likely human-carcinogen, into the state’s surface waters. The proposed rules have been widely criticized for lacking specific discharge limits and penalties for PFAS dischargers found to be in violation of the rules.

Stein said he is “not happy” with the EPA’s and commission’s proposals.

“These are both unfortunate steps that do not give the people the assurance that they deserve that their drinking water is clean,” he said.

Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County for decades directly discharged GenX and other chemical compounds into the Cape Fear River, the drinking water sources for tens of thousands of residents in the Cape Fear Region.

Stein pointed out that Chemours, under a 2019 consent order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Cape Fear River Watch, has already been required to mitigate discharges and emissions of PFAS from its Fayetteville Works facility.

“What we need help from Chemours today, and the settlement doesn’t address this point, is we need Chemours and DuPont to pay to help us clean up the pollution that exists in our communities,” he said.

As part of ongoing environmental remediation efforts in the state, Chemours has been required to test tens of thousands of private drinking water wells for PFAS contamination throughout the Cape Fear Region. The company must provide temporary drinking water supplies to households with wells that contain levels of PFAS above concentrations established by environmental and health officials until a new, permanent supply, whether through a home filtration system or hook up to a public water system, is provided at the company’s expense.

Although the well water at the home of Brenda and Vance Moore tested positive for PFAS, levels of types of those contaminants in their drinking source did not rate the thresholds that make Chemours responsible for providing alternative water supplies to them.

Thousands of North Carolinians are in the same situation, state officials, including Stein and N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson, explained Wednesday during their visit to the Moores’ home in Porters Neck, an unincorporated community in northern New Hanover County.

“My question is we’re 10 miles from the river,” Brenda Moore said about the Cape Fear. “How did these chemicals get here?”

Moore, a breast cancer survivor, said she can’t definitely prove that her illness, or her daughter Lauren’s skin and thyroid problems, stem from drinking PFAS-contaminated water for years. Still, “you wonder,” she said.

PFAS are a group of chemicals used to make water-, stain- and grease-resistant consumer goods. The EPA now categorizes nearly 15,000 PFAS, most of which have yet to be studied for their potential effects on human health. But some of the known human health effects of PFAS included weakened immunity, low birth weight in newborns, thyroid disease, and certain types of cancers.

The Moores qualified for funding through the Bernard Allen Emergency Drinking Water Fund, which reimburses residents for water treatment systems or, where feasible, public waterline connections when their wells are contaminated.

The North Carolina General Assembly in 2006 created the fund to improve the state’s response to drinking well water contamination and help low-income households receive safe drinking water.

In 2022, DEQ opened the program statewide, allowing residents with PFAS-contaminated private drinking water wells to receive assistance in cases where an individual or company is not held responsible for the pollution.

The program funded the approximately $3,500 reverse osmosis filtration system installed under the Moore family’s kitchen sink in October 2023.

Stein said North Carolina will continue its legal actions to get compensation from Chemours and its affiliated companies for responding to PFAS pollution.

“There is a lot of pollution that already exists throughout southeastern North Carolina and the polluters should be the one to pay and clean it up, not us, the people, and that’s why I took them to court and that action is continuing,” he said.

There’s been a lot of talk and writing about how ocean levels have been rising and will continue to rise. The current projections are that the ocean will rise an estimated 12-14 inches by 2050 and ever higher in the ensuing decades.

With all of the very technical and well-researched and documented writing published about this topic, let’s take a look at what that means for us as anglers and other people who enjoy the coastal waters.

Fourteen inches of rise may not seem like a big deal when accounting for the vastness of the entire ocean, but there will be definite changes. They won’t be great.

Dr. Shintaro Bunya, an avid angler, is also a research scientist at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Center for Natural Hazards Resilience. His work involves hydrodynamic and coastal modeling, specializing in developing and applying numerical models to simulate and forecast storm surges, compound flooding and the general physics of coastal water movement.

His goal is to provide the data and tools that government agencies and local communities need to better understand and prepare for coastal flood risks. This all means that he is right in the middle of what is going on concerning coastal flooding.

First, let’s talk about tides. It will happen gradually but the number of times the tide will rise over the streets in coastal towns will increase.

“The data confirms that sea levels are not just rising; the rate of that rise is accelerating,” Bunya recently said to me.

Obviously, this will make it more difficult for smaller beach towns than bigger cities due to limited resources, but even the biggest coastal cities like Miami and New York will have problems with saltwater in the sewage treatment plants. South Florida towns already see high tides coming into lawns almost every day. Some days the low tide will be what the high tide used to be.

Higher tides will disperse fish over wider areas. With more places to access, fish will be more difficult to locate. It’s likely that they will be less abundant, also because of increased pressure on fish populations from humans and water quality issues. What this means is that fishing will become increasingly difficult and individual anglers will have less and less success.

Access to the water will become increasingly difficult as well. Many of the places we use now may become inaccessible as water rises, as documented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“According to NOAA’s tide gauge measurements, we have observed about 11 inches of rise since 1950 along the North Carolina coast and we face a unique challenge here because our land is also slowly subsiding (sinking),” said Bunya.

Let’s take boat ramps for example. These are already built upon the lowest ground available in order to accommodate parking next to the water. During high tide conditions, parking lots may become flooded, ironically making the ramp unusable due to there being too much water.

Some communities may become unlivable. In certain areas, high tides will make it impossible to access places. At this time, only the very highest tides cause this flooding. The popular term that has been coined by the TV weather stations is “King Tides.” These are the very highest water level periods, which coincide with the periods of full moon, especially during September and October.

People who live in Down East Carteret County are familiar with having to drive alternate routes or even plan their trips to the grocery store around the tides.

“What was once considered a ‘100-year flood’ is happening much more frequently,” Bunya said. “We are seeing a marked increase in high-tide flooding (often called ‘sunny day flooding’), where coastal streets and yards flood even without a storm, simply because the tide is higher than it used to be.”

Higher tides such as these will occur more frequently. Anglers will find the fish so spread out they will be extremely difficult to locate. In many places, as has been already mentioned, the tides will get so high that locals will find themselves stranded for hours and possibly days at a time. Military-style vehicles with super-high ground clearance will be needed in order to drive around numerous coastal communities. Going fishing will not be a great concern.

Personally, I have been stuck with no recourse a time or two already and have had to either take long detours or find a place to hang out as the water receded. The increased sea levels will make it harder for commercial fishers to make a living in seaside communities because access points will become inaccessible and because the fish will be more difficult to locate. Also just driving from one place to another will be difficult in these places.

According to a 2024 NOAA report, Beaufort will face 60 high-tide flooding days by 2050 and 338 by 2100. Wilmington will experience 30 high-tide flooding days by 2050 and 323 by 2100. This will make it extremely difficult to travel and work in those communities. From there on, the situation only gets worse.

Again, according to Bunya, “By the end of the century, we are looking at a likely range of 2 to 4 feet of rise, though scenarios up to 7 feet are possible.”

So the next several decades will provide challenges to already existing infrastructure such as bridges and culverts that were not built to withstand such saltwater intrusion. The groundwater will be inundated and the tillable soil in areas such as Open Grounds Farm, a roughly 45,000-acre farm in Down East Carteret County operated by a corporation based in Italy, will be threatened. Work and school will be disrupted due to the inability to travel. Tropical storms will be more of a problem in the future because storm surge will be on top of higher water levels than measured historically.

There is a lot to ponder here. Hiding our heads in the disappearing sand will not make the problem go away.

Few things infuriate fishermen more than reeling in a hard-fought saltwater fish only to find it half eaten by a shark.

The phenomenon known as shark depredation has for decades vexed recreational anglers and commercial fishermen.

More than three-quarters of a century have passed since Ernest Hemingway masterfully captured the heartbreak of shark depredation in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novella “The Old Man and the Sea,” a tale about an aging Cuban fisherman’s dayslong battle to reel in a giant marlin only to have it devoured by sharks.

Yet, in recent years, this conflict has seized the spotlight as a modern-day challenge.

A team of researchers took a deep dive into the history of shark depredation, pooling their knowledge and data spanning the course of the last 100 years. Their recently published study in the ICES Journal of Marine Science examined shark depredation across Atlantic recreational fisheries from the waters in Maine to Texas and the U.S. Caribbean.

Researchers focused on three groups: recreational anglers, target fisheries and sharks.

What they found is that, while there is a perception that getting sharked is an emerging issue, the reality is that anglers, the fish they target, and the sharks that target those fish are crossing paths more than ever.

“It appears to be more of an urgent and more of an immediate problem now, not necessarily because shark populations have exploded, but because of this combination of all sorts of factors,” said Dr. Marcus Drymon, a lead author of the study.

Drymon, an associate extension professor at Mississippi State University and marine fisheries specialist with Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant, explained that, yes, shark populations have increased over the past quarter-century, “but it’s just much more complicated than that.”

To understand just how complicated, researchers traced back to some of the earliest instances of documented shark depredation chronicled by none other than Hemingway himself.

Hemingway had already proved himself a literary powerhouse when, in the early 1930s, he sought to become the first angler to reel in an intact bluefin tuna from the vibrant turquoise and electric blue Caribbean waters off the Bimini coast in the Bahamas.

“And, consistently, when he would hook up to one of these big fish, they would get torn apart by sharks before he could land the fish,” Drymon said. “That happened for a few years and then those experiences led him to develop different techniques.”

Hemingway modified his fishing gear to make it stronger, and he switched up his angling tactics.

“When Hemingway did that around 1935, it led him to becoming the first person in recorded history to land an intact bluefin tuna in the Bahamas, and it just shows that this conflict has been around for a long time. It’s just that back in Hemingway’s day, there were very, very few other boats on the water trying to do what he was doing and shark populations, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, were in a relatively pristine state,” Drymon said.

That changed in the 1940s with the onset of World War II. The United States, cut off from shipments of cod liver oil from Norway and Iceland, was in desperate need for a cod liver oil substitute.

The high demand for vitamins contained in cod liver oil, including vitamins A and D, led to the nation’s first shark processing plant in Port Salerno, Florida. The plant closed in July 1950. By that time, synthetically produced vitamins had swept the market, rendering the commercial shark fishery in the country obsolete.

At the same time, recreational fishing was on the rise. Post-war Americans had more leisure time, and a new generation of boatbuilders were turning a product that was lighter and powered by smarter engines.

The surge in recreational shark fishing drove the creation of the National Marine Fisheries Service Cooperative Shark Tagging Program in 1962.

Shark landings by recreational anglers remained low through the 1960s and into the early 1970s.

That would all change in the mid-1970s when (cue the theme music) “Jaws” was released in theaters across the country. The runaway blockbuster captured the imaginations of audiences the world over.

“It would be difficult to overstate the impact of ‘Jaws’ on the public’s perception of sharks, a concept coined ‘the Jaws Effect,’” the study states.

By the early 1990s, heavy exploitation of Atlantic shark populations led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Fisheries Service to introduce its first shark fisheries management plan.

By the early 1990s, shark populations in the Atlantic had been heavily exploited, prompting NOAA to implement the first fisheries management plan for sharks, he said. Shark populations that are overfished take a long time to recover because they are inherently slow growers, late to mature, and have relatively low reproductive output.

“We’ve now had 30 years of really successful efforts on the part of NOAA fisheries to rebuild and recover these shark populations and I would say that what we’re seeing today is a result of those management efforts,” he said. “But, there are downstream effects, because today there are so many more anglers on the water. The way they see it, there’s more sharks than they’ve ever seen. Sure, if they’ve only been fishing for the past 20 years, that is absolutely the case. But I would make the argument there’s nowhere near as many sharks now as there were in the 50s and 60s.”

The study notes that shark depredation is a widespread issue. There are at least 51 target species, notably red snappers and some groupers, vulnerable to predation by 22 species of sharks, according to the study.

Two of those species, the sandbar shark, which is federally protected, and the bull shark, are the worst offenders.

To lessen the impacts of those and other depredators, researchers suggest anglers take a page from Hemingway’s book, figuratively, or course.

“Our specific recommendations in terms of behavior change are relatively simple,” Drymon said. “The first one is, if and when you get depredated by a shark, move spots. I don’t say that lightly. I realize that’s a frustrating thing to have to do, especially if your spot’s a long way out in the middle of nowhere. But that is a good practice to follow.”

Second, try to avoid highly fished areas where there’s constant pressure on target species.

“Sharks are much more likely to habituate and hang out there and learn that depredation provides an easy meal for them,” Drymon said.

Third, be open to using deterrents Drymon and other researchers are currently testing.

“Our objective, our heart, is to give these deterrents to as many anglers as we possibly can, have them help us in the testing process with the hopes that those deterrents can let people fish at their favorite spots without being depredated as much as they normally would have,” he said. “As these deterrents continue to be developed, we’ll continue to try to test those and make our best recommendations to anglers and fishermen as to which ones are effective and which ones are not.”

Drymon said he’s also not opposed to the sustainable harvest of species of sharks that, like the bull shark, are not federally protected.

“If populations are not overfished and are not experiencing overfishing and there’s fishery management plans that allow for quota and harvest of those individuals, I think that’s a great, great option,” he said. “Just like any other fish in the ocean, I think that there is a time and a place for harvest of these animals provided that it can be done sustainably and provided that markets are in place for fishermen to profit from that harvest. I would be happy to help the establishment and the development of sustainable markets for shark products, particularly in the United States.”

If the Coastal Resources Commission Science Panel’s draft report to the state last week was a master class in explaining ocean beach erosion processes along the state’s 320-mile Atlantic Coastline, there may have been some state legislators who were wishing they could cut class.

Lawmakers hustled to get a proposed bill lifting a four-decade ban on oceanfront hardened structures moved to the Senate Appropriations Committee days before Science Panel Chair Dr. Laura Moore, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor in the Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, presented the 47-page draft, “Report on the Effects of Hard Structures on Sandy, Open-Ocean Coastlines,” to the commission during its regular meeting Thursday in New Bern.

Senate Bill 1009, which would lift the ban on hardened structures such as breakwaters, bulkheads, seawalls, jetties, revetments, and terminal groins, was advanced by the Senate Agriculture Committee Wednesday to the Appropriations Committee.

Another, related bill, Senate Bill 1001, also was referred to the same committee. The measure would allow use of state funds for permitting, building, or repairing terminal groins, which are sand-trapping walls built perpendicular to the shore at inlets.

Moore, along with her colleagues on the nine-member Science Panel, is a coastal scientist who has done extensive research on the North Carolina coast. The draft report the panel produced, divided into sections — an introduction to shoreline changes and dynamics, and some erosion management practices; effects of sand-trapping and -blocking structures; case studies of some structures and lessons learned; coastal erosion policies of other states; and finally, some recommendations based on best science and engineering — but offered no easy solutions to address the alarmingly severe erosion along parts of the coast, or ways to protect coastal infrastructure.

The report is intended to provide scientific and technical information for policymakers, regulators and legislators.

“Section two is really the meat of the report, and this is where we talk about the effects of structures that trap sand and structures that harden the shoreline … the purpose, the physical effects, adverse effects, ecological impacts,” said Moore. “We frame all of this largely in terms of trade-offs, because there are benefits and there are costs. And really, it’s all about trade-offs.”

Pointing to a slide illustration of a section of coast showing sand moving in and out of an area, Moore explained that whether there is accretion or erosion is a result of the way wave processes and shoreline orientation in the offshore seabed are directed at various sections of beach, and whether more sand is moving in or out.

“When I teach this in class, I tell my students, ‘this is just like your checkbook,’” Moore told the commission. “If you are adding more money in than you are spending, then you have a positive balance, and you’re in the black. And if you are taking out more money than you are actually adding to your checking account, you’re going to be in the red. In this case of the shoreline, we’re going to be eroding.”

Moore said it is not the big hurricanes that lead to the dramatic destruction now most evident on Hatteras Island in Dare County, where 32 houses in recent years have collapsed into the ocean in Rodanthe and Buxton.

“I’ll say that storm impacts are probably what tend to come to mind first for those who are thinking about the problems we need to address along the coast,” she said. “However, it is long-term chronic erosion that makes homes and infrastructure vulnerable to storm impacts. Most of our coastline has been naturally eroding over the long term to varying degrees, with some locations having very high natural background erosion rates, such as the northern flank of Cape Hatteras, which eroded at rates greater than 20 feet per year between 1852 and 1946 and for the many centuries preceding that time.”

But, Moore added, oceanfront construction rules are generally based on a 30-year setback, although buildings last longer than 30 years. Another complication is that large storm impacts are reaching farther landward, an impact that will be seen more in the future, she said, and sea levels are expected to be about a foot higher by 2050, compared with 2000. Along with other climate impacts, “mitigating erosion and protecting or trying to reduce risk to infrastructure will unfortunately become more and more challenging,” Moore said.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Buxton resident Brian Harris, representing the Hatteras Island village’s civic association, asked the commission to support the proposed legislation and “a responsible, modern approach” to erosion control. While calling Buxton’s devastation “not just a failure of nature, but a failure of man,” he urged the commission to seek a bipartisan approach and work with partnerships for innovative solutions.

“Coastal policies drafted 40 years ago were never meant to be a suicide pact for our coast,” Harris said. “Hatteras and Ocracoke are now in state of emergencies, and as North Carolinians, we can all just simply do better.”

But with decades of flashing lights from early users of seawalls and groins, illustrated by New Jersey’s skinny beaches in front of seawalls, coastal scientists have warned that sand barriers and traps rob beaches of sand by creating down drift erosion or blocking sand travel onto the shoreline.

“North Carolina lawmakers have kept this policy in place for generations because these structures don’t work,” said Zach Wallace, Audubon North Carolina Policy Director, in a June 11 prepared statement. “They rob sand from other parts of the beach, making erosion worse and putting habitat and coastal communities at greater risk. It’s like balancing a budget by moving debt onto someone else’s books.”

In its recommendations at the end of the report, the science panel urged careful consideration of the adverse impacts and use of experts before moving forward on any proposed projects, which are nearly always expensive, long-term commitments. Even urgent situations such as the house collapses on Hatteras Island cannot change the realities of a hardened coast.

“The Buxton case study illustrates that groins can temporarily change where erosion occurs, but they do not eliminate the underlying erosional processes,” as one recommendation stated. “Further, attempting to maintain an intended shoreline position requires regular nourishment and hardened structures deteriorate over time and can be damaged during storms, necessitating repeated structural repair and emergency measures.”

North Carolina lawmakers pushed forward a pair of bills Wednesday that, in tandem, would repeal a decades-old ban on hardened coastal erosion-control structures and secure state funding for terminal groins.

Senate Bill 1009 aims to erase the state’s 40-year prohibition on hardened structures, including breakwaters, bulkheads, seawalls, jetties, revetments, and terminal groins.

A provision in amended Senate Bill 1001 would allow state funds to cover permitting, building, or repairing terminal groins, rock- and steel-constructed wall-like structures built perpendicular to the shore at inlets to contain sand in areas of high erosion.

Both measures were advanced Wednesday morning to the Senate Appropriations Committee, but not without pushback. The next step for these bills is unclear as the Senate Appropriations Committee does not meet regularly.

Before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Energy, and Environment voted on the bills Wednesday morning, Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, questioned how state rules may be written to equally protect oceanfront properties facing severe erosion and adjacent properties that may be negatively affected by erosion-control structures.

Asking rulemakers, in this case the Coastal Resources Commission, to write such rules would be “asking them to pick winners and losers,” Mayfield said.

“It’s the vast majority of downstream, I say downstream, I don’t know if it’s called something else on the coast, but downstream properties are disadvantaged when these sorts of structures go in,” she said.

Hardened erosion-control structures have long been controversial because they capture sand that travels down the beach nearshore, depleting the sand supply to the beach immediately downdrift of the structure, stripping land that is natural habitat for, among others, sea turtles and shorebirds.

Sen. Michael Lazzara, R-Onslow, one of the primary sponsors of the bill to lift the hardened structures ban, responded to Mayfield by asking whether the many homes destroyed by landslides and floods caused by Hurricane Helene in 2024 should not be permitted to be rebuilt.

“It’s the same thing on the coast. We’re losing a lot of homes due to these erosions and anything that we could do to mitigate that is just responsible, the same that we’re addressing that in western Carolina. I think these natural storms have a lot of erosions, whether it’s in the west or the east and people are affected by it,” Lazzara said.

Mayfield said she appreciated the analogy, but that thousands of homes will not be rebuilt in western North Carolina “because the land that they were on doesn’t exist anymore.”

Furthermore, she said, Hurricane Helene was not a once-in-a-lifetime storm, but rather a “once-in-a-10,000-year storm.”

“But that’s not what happens on the coast, right?” she continued. “On the coast, we have storms much more frequently, not nearly as intense, but much more frequently, much more flooding on a regular basis. And, again, I acknowledge that there are houses standing in the water right this very moment, and we need a solution to that, because having them fall down and disintegrate in the water is not the right answer, but also, using these structures to try to protect homes – Mother Nature is undefeated. I’ll just say that.”

Republican Sen. Bob Brinson, who represents Beaufort, Craven and Lenoir counties, pointed out that Senate Bill 1009 also would direct funding to the North Carolina Collaboratory to update the state’s Beach and Inlet Management Plan. That plan was last updated 10 years ago.

He told the committee that sand nourishment, a method by which sand is typically removed from nearby inlets or offshore and placed on the beach to build up eroded ocean shorelines, is not always an appropriate erosion-mitigation measure.

“As I addressed last week, beach nourishment also is getting more and more expensive and not lasting as long,” Brinson said. “And so, in repealing the hardened structure ban, it’s giving our state the opportunity to explore other options rather than saying ‘no’ or ‘never’, it’s ‘how about this’ and ‘how about’ because it will be site specific.”

Some members of the committee asked whether other alternatives have been explored to address problems associated with escalating erosion along portions of the state’s coastline. On the Outer Banks, more than 30 homes have toppled in recent years on ocean beaches that vanished because of erosion.

“We shouldn’t keep banging our heads against the wall, doing the same thing over and over again,” Mayfield said. “That’s not helping. Homes will continue to be put at risk. Businesses will continue to be put at risk. I think it’s time to start looking for permanent solutions to problems we’re seeing on the coast and the only way that I can see to do that is to have a permanent buyout fund. You know, government works best when it steps in to where the private market doesn’t work, and the private market doesn’t work on the coast right now.”

Brinson said the repeal does not focus solely on homes, but also public infrastructure, including the erosion and overwash-embattled N.C. Highway 12.

“This gives the CRC the authority to drop rules for these hardened structures, which will be informed by the Beach and Inlet Management Plan that we’ve tasked the Collaboratory to do, and also the science board under the CRC and their report that’s coming out,” he said.

The science advisory panel’s report, intended as a guide for coastal managers and policymakers to tackle the escalating erosion along the state’s coastline, is on the CRC agenda for discussion Thursday in New Bern.

“Our constituents are tired of hearing ‘no, you can’t do this,’ and ‘no, you can’t do that.’ Repealing this ban gives the state the ability to say, ‘here’s what you can do,’” Brinson said.

Nearly 15 years have passed since the North Carolina General Assembly repealed the law banning permanent, hardened erosion-control to grant a handful of beach communities along the state’s southern coast the option to pursue installing a terminal groin at an inlet area.

Since then, Bald Head Island and Ocean Isle Beach have been the only local governments to fund and build terminal groins on their beaches.

As the law stands, state funds may not be used for terminal groins.

A provision in Senate Bill 1001 would allow money from the Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund to be tapped for costs associated with the permitting, construction or repair of a terminal groin. In order to receive funds, terminal groin projects would have to meet specific requirements, including a determination that the structure would benefit public lands and that costs to build or repair a groin will “not include the costs of financial assurance or costs of implementation of any component of the applicable inlet management plan.”

Lazzara indicated Wednesday morning that the language pertaining to state funding for terminal groins in Senate Bill 1001 may be revised.

Coastal Review will not publish Friday in recognition of the Juneteenth holiday.

Dr. Joel Fodrie has been named the new director of Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort.

Most recently director of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, Fodrie will succeed outgoing director Andy Read, who was in the leadership role for 10 years and will remain on the faculty once Fodrie comes aboard, Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment said Wednesday.

“The Duke Marine Lab is a gold standard among centers of coastal and marine research, both in the social sciences and the natural sciences. Its coastal setting is ideal for exploring how humans and natural systems affect one another. I’m very excited about working with the faculty, staff and students to support, and even enhance, place-based research and teaching that has local and far-reaching impacts,” Fodrie said in a statement.

Fodrie will join later this summer the lab that “has centered on field-based discovery, immersive learning and close mentorship” for nearly nine decades, the university said.

“As director, Joel will build on Andy’s legacy and further strengthen strategic connections between Beaufort and Durham while guiding the Marine Lab’s next chapter as a world-class leader in marine science and research,” said Lori Bennear, Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School.

Fodrie earned his bachelor’s degree in biology and history from UNC Chapel Hill, and his doctorate in biological oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California, San Diego.

His research focuses on coastal and estuarine ecosystems, fisheries ecology and the resilience of marine communities and his scholarship includes more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and extensive external grant support.

“Joel has the research, academic and leadership expertise we were looking for in a director. But beyond that, he brings a reputation as a trusted community partner deeply appreciative of and knowledgeable about North Carolina coastal ecosystems,” said Erika Weinthal, the Nicholas School’s John O. Blackburn Distinguished Professor, who chaired the Marine Lab director search committee

Among various honors, Fodrie received recognition as an Early-Career Research Fellow with the Gulf Research Program, part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. In 2024, he was named one of five recipients of the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy, a five-year term professorship to recognize and honor outstanding teachers and scholars.

“On a personal level, I grew up in Beaufort, North Carolina, and have known about the significance of the Marine Lab essentially my whole life,” Fodrie said. “I certainly view this as a one-of-a-kind opportunity to help shape the direction and impact of the Lab to ensure wise and sustainable use of our coastal and marine ecosystems.”

While state lawmakers consider two bills that would eliminate the state’s longstanding ban on hardened structures along the ocean shoreline, a report providing details about the effects and effectiveness of coastal erosion-control structures is expected to be presented this week during the regular meeting of the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission.

The commission, which meets at 10 a.m. Thursday at the DoubleTree in New Bern, had assigned to its science advisory panel in February the task of creating the document that is intended as a guide for coastal managers and policymakers to address increasingly destructive erosion along the state’s 320 miles of coastline — dramatically illustrated in recent years by more than 30 houses on the Outer Banks falling into the ocean.

Two measures in the North Carolina General Assembly, Senate Bill 1008 and Senate Bill 1009, had not advanced as of the time this story was published, with some legislators expressing caution about taking action prematurely.

“I guess I’m a little concerned about putting the provisions of these two bills in place before that study comes out,” said Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, Wednesday during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Energy, and Environment. “My instinct is, ‘Let’s just see what happens there, see what they say, see what that leads us to do that’s different than what’s here.’”

Impacts of climate change on long-term erosion rates are also a factor to consider, said Wake County Democrat Sen. Lisa Grafstein, noting that the topic may be covered in the CRC Science Panel report.

Sen. Bob Brinson, R-Beaufort and also representing Craven and Lenoir counties, told the committee while introducing the bills that while coastal communities suffer direct economic and personal losses from severe erosion, the general public is also affected. Alluding to safety concerns from fallen house debris spreading along public lands and waters, he said that there are also losses to the local tax base and tourism revenue as well as to visitor access to the seashore.

The two bills are different sides of the same coin, that is, the stated goal of allowing the option to build hardened structures that are now banned, if deemed appropriate.

The primary sponsor of the bills is Sen. Bobby Hanig, a Currituck County Republican who also represents Dare County in Senate District 1, which includes the Outer Banks’ beaches in both counties. Hanig did not respond to messages left on his cellphone seeking comment.

Senate Bill 1008 would establish a pilot program that authorizes construction of shoreline-stabilization projects at locations where oceanfront houses are at imminent risk of collapse. A limited number of projects would be evaluated and recommended by the North Carolina Collaboratory, which the General Assembly authorized in 2016 to apply scientific scrutiny to projects in the state that may serve the public good.

Senate Bill 1009 would eliminate the prohibition of temporary or permanent erosion-control structures and create regulations to ensure the structures “will not result in significant adverse impacts to private property or to the public recreational beach.”  In addition, the bill would require funding the Collaboratory to update the state’s 1,000-plus-page Beach and Inlet Management Plan, which was last fully updated in 2016.

Brinson told committee members that whatever pilot projects are approved would include strict limitations and monitoring requirements and would not be funded by the state. Still, in defending the need to eliminate the ban to allow the erosion-control structures, he cited the hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars spent in maintaining and repairing N.C. Highway 12 on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. But Brinson was referring to areas where virtually none of the typical hardened structures would work for long — if at all. Even if seawalls or other structures were affordable at those locations, the intensity of the coastal conditions would either soon undermine or pummel the structures, or create worse situations at the site or downstream.

Sandbags, which are considered temporary structures under coastal law, have been widely used for decades on the Outer Banks and coastwide. In a sign of the increasingly difficult challenges created by rising seas, shifting channels, and steeply and rapidly eroding beaches, today’s larger and tougher sandbags also often fail to hold back destructive surging surf for long. Protective coastal management measures have been evolving toward more nature-based solutions such as living shorelines, as well as combined measures, such as beach nourishment and one or more of various types of structures, according to an April 2025 study, “Challenges and lessons learned from global coastal erosion protection strategies,” published in the journal iScience.

And while erosion-control structures may buy time, coastal scientists warn that consequences are not always quickly evident. For instance, in one of the few success stories Brinson noted among the handful of existing hardened structures on the North Carolina coast, the terminal groin at Oregon Inlet also has had a significant, albeit slower moving, negative impact.

While providing the intended protection of the Bonner Bridge, now the Marc Basnight Bridge, and the tie-in to N.C. Highway 12, the groin has also caused a hazardous shoal to grow into the navigational channel, which is at risk of becoming much narrower and deeper as it is pushed closer to the groin. That could present a huge issue to Dare County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which share responsibility and costs of maintaining channels in the inlet, the only sound-to-sea passage between Virginia and Hatteras.

North Carolina’s ban on hardened structures first went into effect in 1985, when the Coastal Resources Commission put rules in place restricting their use to very few instances, such as protection of historic structures. After a court ruling upheld the ban, it was put into law in 2003.

In a recent social media post, Rob Young, the director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, wrote that the both political parties in the General Assembly voted in favor of the law because they recognized the harm the structures had done in other states, as well as in North Carolina.

“It was, and still is, good science and good policy,” Young wrote. “Seawalls destroy beaches and increase erosion on neighbors’ properties. Seawalls on individual parcels create a nightmare for coastal managers.”

But Young pointed to the provision in Senate Bill 1009 that would “ensure” no adverse impacts to public and private property, creating “an impossible standard to meet,” he noted.

“The bill would open the door to a coastal management free-for-all,” he wrote.

Second in a series

SNEADS FERRY – The easy chatter of shellfish farmers gearing up for another day of work broke through an otherwise quiet morning landside of the lower New River’s sun-gleamed waters.

The air that early June day still hung cool over the small marina a handful of shellfish growers share as their waterfront hub in this storied fishing village in Onslow County.

Though they run independent shellfishing businesses, this tightknit group supports one another, sharing a passion for what they do for a living and the hardships that come with it.

“This just happened naturally,” oysterman Cody Faison of Ghost Fleet Oyster Co. said before firing up the motor of his well-weathered skiff. “Oyster farming, they’re stronger as communities. What you find here is five farmers who help each other out.”

Like Faison, many of the folks working shellfish leases in Onslow and Pender’s coastal waterways are first-generation aquatic farmers, men and women in an industry challenged by seasonal shellfish mortality events, water quality impacts, and, as of late, fewer areas in which they can farm.

“Part of the reason that all these farms are here is because they can’t go north and they can’t go south,” Faison said.

Temporary and permanent shellfish lease moratoriums in coastal counties to the north and south of Topsail Island have pushed growers to the waters of Topsail Island. The steady increase in shellfish leases has amplified concerns among property owners, boaters, and recreational fishers who argue shellfish farms, particularly those with floating cages, restrict access to prime fishing locations, obstruct scenic waterfront views, and create navigational hazards.

This is the second year in which local officials are pushing for a temporary shellfish lease moratorium in the waters behind Topsail Island.

On Tuesday afternoon, the House Rules, Calendar, and Operations Committee passed proposed House Bill 1113 sponsored by Rep. Ted Davis, R-New Hanover. The bill aims to extend New Hanover County’s shellfish lease moratorium by another five years, appropriate a one-time, $10,000 fund for public education activities related to that county’s lease pause, extend a leasing moratorium in Bogue Sound to July 1, 2028, and impose a two-year moratorium on new leases in parts of Onslow and Pender counties until July 1, 2028.

“This will not prohibit people from going out and getting oysters,” Davis said in the committee meeting Tuesday. “What this prohibits is any more of these new things being put into the water. And, I will say that one of the concerns is the fact, you know, people have the right to use the water. It’s a public trust, and when these cages are put up, it can inhibit people’s enjoyment of that public trust. I know where I live, if a boat was to hit one of these cages, it could be bad. If somebody water skiing on a jet ski, or anything else, hits one of these cages, it’s going to be bad.”

Growers argue a moratorium in Stump and Topsail sounds would only put the squeeze on areas that do not have moratoriums, including waters around Newport, Morehead City and Beaufort.

Faison is not alone in worrying that language in the proposed bill, which currently targets the sounds directly behind Topsail Island, might be changed to include all waters in Pender and Onslow counties, a move that would shut down new leases in bays and creeks in the New River.

“What if this moratorium goes from two to 10 years?” Faison asked during a recent tour of shellfish leases in the lower New River, where he farms a 4-acre water column lease in Traps Bay.

Faison worked his way up to this lease, starting out in the business roughly six years ago by subleasing from a fellow farmer in Topsail Sound. He personally believes the state should promote subleasing. He encourages anyone considering entering the business to go that route.

He doesn’t judge which types of gear or leases other growers use. Farmers who use Seapa baskets, which are smaller and weigh less than typical, heavy-duty wire-mesh floating cages, suspend the baskets from lines that they attach to PVC pipes. That’s why some water column shellfish lease farms are so populated with the pipes, Faison explained.

Faison’s lease is dotted primarily with low-profile floating bags, a method he has found that works best for him.

“This is the future,” he said as he coasted his boat next to a line of bags in his lease. “I think this is going to be my success. I’m not saying this is right for every other farmer.”

For North Carolina oyster farmers, floating gear is the only method for producing the much-sought, high-quality oyster that looks just as pretty on the plate as it tastes, he said. Oysters must be symmetrical, their outer shells clean and barnacle-free.

“We’re all growing oysters for the raw bar, and you can’t do that on the bottom,” Faison said. “There’s no other way to do it. We don’t have enough tide swing.”

Floating gear allows farmers to replicate low tide, giving oysters a twice-daily dry spell that helps them build stronger shells, deter barnacles, and extend their shelf life.

Those North Carolina-grown, presentation-perfect oysters served to customers at area raw bars cost a pretty penny to cultivate.

“Oyster farming is a very tough way to make money,” Faison said. “I think people think we’re out here just killing it.”

According to an economic analysis published in 2024, the average startup cost to launch an off-bottom oyster farm ranges from less than $60,000 for a single line of floating bags to more than $200,000 for 24 lines.

“The total annual cost, including depreciation and interest on invested capital, labor, fuel, seed and other expenses, is estimated to range from approximately $50,000 to operate a single line of floating bags to approximately $250,000 to operate twenty-four lines,” the study states.

As boats go, the 19-footer that Faison bought off a local fisherman is about as basic as they come. There’s no console. No seats — just a couple of stacks of colorful baskets placed to one side of the otherwise flat-bottomed, open vessel.

“Is the better way to look at this a lot more moratoriums or more strict on the DMF side?” Faison said, referring to the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, which permits shellfish leases. “I don’t know the answer. I don’t know that any of us quite yet know how to bridge this gap. Instead of trying to fight for really positive change, we’re just fighting. We’re strong as this big, massive group of people working together for a common goal.”

Nearly a dozen new and amended state fisheries rules touching on everything from false albacore management to shellfish leases and franchises are now in effect.

The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission’s rule changes became effective June 1.

Under the new rules and amendments, North Carolina is now the second East Coast state behind Massachusetts to manage the false albacore, or “little tunny” fishery.

Rule 15A NCAC 03M .0523 authorizes the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries director to issue a proclamation to manage the false albacore fishery if landings exceed a predetermined threshold. The director must be given prior approval before issue a public notice regarding that fishery.

“The rule establishes means to manage this fishery in North Carolina in case the fishery continues to expand,” according to a division release.

Under one of the new amendments, fishers who use pots are required to mark their pots with one, not two, forms of identification.

Amendments to shellfish leases and franchises that codify current procedures and align with state laws include the following:

• Removing franchises from productions requirements and termination procedures.
• Clarifying that production requirements for shellfish leases are based on the date a shellfish lease was granted or last renewed.
• Clarifying who determines eligibility for additional shellfish lease acreage, the time at which the determination of eligibility for additional acreage occurs, what is considered additional shellfish lease acreage and what is considered acres under a shellfish lease.

Also in effect are amendments to five permit rules, including:

• Requiring seafood dealers that reports trip tickets electronically to report quota monitoring logs electronically.
• Codify four permits in permanent rule that have been required by proclamation, including a dealer permit for the estuarine flounder fishery and the Estuarine Gill Net Permit. There are no changes to the permit requirements.
• Clarify a fish dealer is required to submit a trip ticket for fish not sold, consistent with the North Carolina Mandatory Harvest Reporting law and Marine Fisheries Commission rules for commercial harvest reporting requirements.
• Codify into rule a permit condition that has been required by proclamation that makes it unlawful to refuse to allow Marine Fisheries Commission employees to obtain data for the conservation and management of marine and estuarine resources.
• Broaden the definition of “educational institution” to include schools and educational organizations.
• Add links to webpages in rules for supporting information that can change frequently.
• Repeal the Horseshoe Crab Biomedical Use Permit due to lack of use. Harvest continues to be allowed during the open commercial bait harvest season.
• Add email as an additional means to satisfy call-in requirements for the Scientific or Educational Activity Permit and Weekend Trawling for Live Shrimp Permit.
• Remove the requirement to notarize a permit application and, instead, require only the initial permit general condition form to be notarized.

Fittingly, it was a Carolina blue sky that greeted University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee H. Roberts as he joined Institute of Marine Sciences researchers for a boat ride Tuesday morning to Cape Lookout National Seashore’s undeveloped barrier islands, a stark contrast to the celebratory gridlock on Franklin Street that the Orange County city can expect after a big win.

Roberts was in Carteret County to meet with faculty and students and learn more about their research at the lab in Morehead City, one of the handful of stops for the chancellor’s second summer tour this year in eastern North Carolina.

The first summer tour in 2025 covered the western part of the state. The 2026 tour began May 29 with two days at Fort Bragg. After Carteret County, he stopped in New Bern, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington and the USS Battleship North Carolina.

Roberts told Coastal Review Tuesday afternoon from inside the institute that these tours are the university’s connection to the state, and its people are “the source of our strength at Carolina.”

Because most of the state’s people do not live in Chapel Hill, Roberts explained that “it’s important to get out around the state and see people where they live and work and see as many communities across the state as we can.”

Roberts continued that most communities don’t have a facility like this one, “where we’ve made a large investment for a for a long time, and so this has been a particularly important part of Carolina’s history, having the physical outpost here, but the work Carolina scientists and researchers are doing is in every nook and cranny of the state, trying to help move the state forward.”

His visit Tuesday included a tour of the lab with a small group, including area media, led by Institute of Marine Sciences Director Dr. Joel Fodrie, a professor in the Earth, marine and environmental sciences department.

Fodrie said that the institute is approaching its 80th year, and the existing building was built about 25 years ago to house research for environmental processes, like water quality, biogeochemistry and geology.

Throughout the tour, Roberts was able to observe research as it was happening and speak to the scientists as they analyzed microbiomes on the coast’s shark species, collected data on how much sediment flows downstream from inland waterbodies, and harvested seagrass seeds for large-scale seagrass restoration. Fodrie also made a point of introducing Roberts to the facilities and administration staff as well, highlighting their important role in keeping the the lab running smoothly.

During a pause by the office of Dr. Rick Luettich, former institute director, the alumni distinguished professor out of his office to talk about an ongoing flood data collection initiative called the Sunny Day Flooding Project.

Luettich said they’ve been working with people on campus, in city and regional planning, and with N.C. State University on the project that uses sensors installed in storm drains and ditches to record water levels.

Luettich pointed to the neighboring office where research specialist in physical oceanography Tony Whipple was building the sensors that measure in real time how “frequently flooding is occurring now, not when a big storm comes, but just when it’s a King Tide, or with sea level rise.”

Luettich said there are sensors in New Bern, Beaufort, Carolina Beach and Down East Carteret County, and there’s a website that shows in real time what the water levels are in these understudied areas.

“We haven’t been really paying attention to whether they flood, but we’re seeing that they flood very frequently, and more and more often as sea level’s rising. So really interesting collaborative project that we’re kind of right at ground zero for,” Luettich said.

On the second floor, UNC Institute for the Environment Director Dr. Michael Piehler paused working on what he called a “really cool experiment” looking at salinity intrusion in farms to chat with Roberts.

Piehler said the “experiment is working on a farm where salinity is coming in and seeing how that affects both the way that the farmers experience the soil and the way we see it as a processor of nutrients, so it’s just another great case of IMS being a beautiful thing.”

When Fodrie directed the group outside of the facility, he gestured to what looked like abstract sculptures with concrete-saturated rope as the medium.

He said these were different types of structures used to build living shorelines, and the university is collaborating with the companies that make these alternatives for hardened bulkheads and seawalls for shoreline restoration.

“We get to play a valuable role,” Fodrie said. “We’re engaging a lot of companies that are doing that to help them refine their projects and protect shorelines better, and in more environmentally friendly ways” he said about what he called the bourgeoning industry.

Fodrie also used the tour to show the chancellor existing needs at the research lab.

The outdoor experimental tanks are high on Fodrie’s list to be modernized and be more accessible to all students for experiments and research, and they’re looking to expand the 2,100-square-foot dormitory that sleeps about 20.

“We would love to have students here,” for the semester, Fodrie said from inside the cramped living space beside the lab, and want to expand the dorm to accommodate about 32 beds. “We have the footprint. We have the space” and plans have been drawn.

“Our grad students have had an increasingly hard time finding a place to live,” Fodrie said. They used to rent beachfront homes and “that game is over. So, we have a real housing crunch.”

In the past, students could pool their resources and together rent the larger beach houses for a reasonable amount, but the by-owner vacation business has priced the students out.  

In the shorter term, Fodrie said IMS is going to invest in turning the existing dorm into four apartments that sleep four each.

“We’re going to actually reduce capacity to 16,” and the apartments will be small, but they’ll be perhaps livable for a whole semester. That only gets us to 16 and we’re trying to get to 32. It’s a good short-term fix, but not a long-term solution,” Fodrie said.

Roberts told Coastal Review after his tour of the lab that the university has had a presence on the coast for 80 years, and “when you spend time here, you realize why. How important it is to undertake the kind of research that our scientists and faculty are pursuing.”

The coast is crucial to the state and to its future, from standpoint of fisheries and the environment, the research into sustainability, oyster farms, and dozens of other areas of research everywhere you look.

“We have 75 people here year-round. It’s a remarkable effort supported by the people of North Carolina, and, and for a good reason, because what’s happening here is integral to North Carolina’s future,” he said.

In a follow-up interview, Fodrie told Coastal Review that the facility serves as UNC’s vanguard for meeting challenges facing the coast, as well as for discovering solutions in focal areas that include coastal resilience, water quality, human health, and fisheries.

“Knowing how broad and diverse the chancellor’s responsibilities are, we are very gratified and appreciative that he would choose to visit the Institute to learn more about our ongoing efforts to serve North Carolina and also explore with us ways to expand our capacity in research and teaching/mentoring,” Fodrie said.

Roberts’ choice to visit the institute also highlights the unique and high-impact role that it has played in UNC’s mission over the last 80 years, since the institute was created, Fodrie continued.

“In this regard, one telling statistic we discussed related to the Impact Awards that UNC uses to recognize graduate students that conduct research focused on serving the needs of North Carolina,” Fodrie said, explaining that IMS-based graduate students represent less than 0.2% of all UNC graduate students during the last decade but represent about 14% of all award recipients over that same period.

“In turn, we also appreciated the chance to learn more about the chancellor’s broader goals and priorities for UNC during his team’s visit, and therefore how IMS might continue to grow our impact within and beyond the university.”  

SNEADS FERRY — Nearly a dozen abandoned marine vessels left to rot in North Carolina’s coastal waters are expected to be removed by July.

Crews this week pulled a dilapidated commercial fishing trawler and a sunken cabin cruiser from Wheeler Creek, a working waterway nestled off the New River in Sneads Ferry.

Mainstream Commercial Divers Inc., an underwater construction, maintenance, inspection and commercial diving company headquartered in Murray, Kentucky, also removed two rusted, battered barges from waters in the Onslow County fishing village.

On Monday, crews removed two vessels from the waters around Carolina Beach. Removal of the stranded commercial shrimper Claire Skye is scheduled for later this year. The vessel, currently stranded in Stump Sound near Morris Landing Clean Water Preserve in Holly Ridge, cannot be moved until its resident osprey chicks leave their nest built atop one of the trawler’s outriggers.

This marks the latest wave of abandoned and derelict vessel, or ADV, removals spearheaded by the North Carolina Coastal Federation through a $450,000 grant from the BoatUS Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on safe, accessible recreational boating for all Americans and promotes environmental stewardship.

The Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, was awarded the grant earlier this year to oversee the removal and disposal of 12 ADVs littering waters in Carteret, Chowan, New Hanover and Onslow counties.

Ted Wilgis, the Coastal Federation’s marine debris program manager, said Wednesday that the organization is actively working to remove another 30 ADVs.

“There’s probably another 10 to 20 more that we know of that we can’t get funding for,” he said, noting that money the organization has received through a four-year, $4.5 million federal grant, state appropriations, and BoatUS Foundation for ADV and marine debris removal is expected to run dry by late summer.

Along with seeking state funding for ADV removal, the organization is working with state lawmakers on legislation to establish a formal North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission abandoned and derelict vessel program, grant liability immunity to the commission, it’s agents and contractors, and other state agencies during removal operations, and permit emergency removals during declared emergencies.

“There are hundreds of vessels out there that haven’t been investigated yet,” Wilgis said. “There are areas where there are a lot of vessels that are kind of in a limbo state. There’s a big demand for removals and, especially in this economy, there’s going to be more and more.”

Unwanted and derelict vessels are often left by owners who can no longer afford to maintain them. During severe storms, some vessels break from their moorings and are either left adrift only to sink in tidal areas or strand in marshes, on shorelines or in reefs.

ADVs obstruct waterways and pose serious pollution risks because of their potential to leak fuel and other hazardous materials such as hydraulic fluid and oil. Most recreational boats are made of fiberglass, which can break down over time in the water.

ADV removal is usually a painstaking process that in some cases can take up to a couple of years to complete, depending on the location and condition of the vessel. Removal can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars for smaller recreational vessels to more than $100,000.

“It varies on where it is and how long it’s been out there,” Wilgis said.

BoatUS Foundation launched a national initiative supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program to remove hundreds of ADVs from coastal waterways. The project also includes the development of a national database to track ADVs.

More than $7 million in grants have been awarded to cover the costs of direct ADV removals in Alaska, Guam, Oregon, Washington, Louisiana, Maine, the U.S. Virgin Islands and North Carolina, according to BoatUS Foundation Project Coordinator Michael Moore.

The organization is hosting in early December its Turning the Tide Summit, a four-day event where government agencies, environmentalists, marine professionals and recycling and waste management experts from across the country will gather to discuss ways to responsibly and sustainably remove and dispose of ADVs and boating-related debris, and share new technologies and innovative recycling programs.

More than 450 ADVs have been removed from North Carolina’s coastal waters either through the Coastal Federation’s marine debris removal program, local governments, the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management or the Wildlife Resources Commission, Wilgis said.

In 2020, the North Carolina General Assembly authorized and funded the commission to inspect, investigate and remove ADVs associated with Hurricane Florence and other coastal storms. The agency also publishes a database that identifies ADVs and prioritizes their removal.

Beach towns and coastal counties have also in recent years taken steps authorizing their law enforcement agencies to remove abandoned vessels within their jurisdictions.

The unoccupied oceanfront structure at 46000 Ocean Drive in Buxton that collapsed Tuesday night is the fifth to collapse this year, and the 32nd house since 2020 to be demolished by the Atlantic on Cape Hatteras National Seashore beaches.

The collapse will not cause any delays for the beach renourishment project scheduled to begin later this month for the Dare County village.

Because varying amounts and sizes of hazardous debris is scattered along the beach to the south of the collapse site, National Park Service officials are “strongly urging” visitors to avoid the beach and stay out of the water from the Village of Buxton south to the Cape Point area.

Officials also have temporarily closed beach access from the north end of Buxton through the lifeguarded beach to access the situation.

Dare County Manager and Attorney Bobby Outten told Coastal Review Wednesday morning that the collapse will not affect the planned Buxton beach nourishment project.

The contractor for the project is a few weeks from mobilizing and the beach will be cleaned up by then, he added.

Catherine Kozak contributed to this report.

This story has been updated to correct the name of Duke University’s Jackson Ewing.

As part of a potential coupling of two regionally powerful electric utilities, a proposed agreement between Virginia-based Dominion Energy and Florida-based NextEra Energy includes a small corner of North Carolina territory in the state’s northeast. But Dominion’s main attributes lie over the border to the north, with its access to a slew of data centers in Virginia as well as what will be the nation’s largest offshore wind energy operation off Hampton Roads.

NextEra Energy, already the nation’s largest electric utility by market value, announced last month that it had reached a $67 billion, all-stock deal with Richmond-based Dominion Energy to essentially absorb its business.

“It’s too soon to tell if this will be overall good thing for North Carolina,” Director of Energy and Climate Policy Jackson Ewing at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, told Coastal Review in a recent interview. “There are several reasons to think that it might be.” But, he added, the opposite may also be true.

As the regulatory process plays out, including securing approval from the North Carolina Utilities Commission, the details and consequent ramifications of the massive deal will become more evident.

“The combined company will be more than 80% regulated, serve approximately 10 million utility customer accounts across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina and own 110 gigawatts (GW) of generation across a broad mix of energy sources,” the companies said in a joint press release on May 18.

With a market value of about $190 billion, NextEra’s marriage to Dominion, which is valued at about $59.4 billion, would become the “world’s largest regulated electric utility,” according to the release, allowing the business to “drive affordability in the long term by leveraging scale and … efficiencies as the company makes smart investments on behalf of its customers to meet growing power demand.”

The agreement still requires approval from the companies’ shareholders as well as federal and state regulators.

“We have not received any filing,” Lucy Edmondson, chief counsel with the public staff at the North Carolina Utilities Commission, told Coastal Review in late May.

Once it is filed, she explained, the commission would issue a procedural order that issues a docket number. At that, the details of the process moving forward would be publicly available online to view in the docket. By law, the cost-benefit to customers would be investigated, and the commission typically would schedule public hearings.

Although Edmondson said that there is no legal requirement on how long the process should take, the companies said in their announcement that they expect the transaction to close in a year to 18 months.

Ewing, with the Nicholas Institute, agreed that when scale is increased in utility industries, gains in efficiency can follow. For instance, the ability to streamline processes across a larger scale can lead to operational efficiencies, he said, and those can lead to cost savings for customers.

“So, with the larger scale, it’s certainly possible that the merged NextEra-Dominion entity could put more investment into modernizing the grid and developing clean energy sources,” he said. “NextEra has a really well-established track record of building out utility-scale renewable energy. With a greater capital base, potentially lower borrowing costs, and with more influence over their supply chains, you could have some dividends that come from that.”

On the other hand, Ewing said, negative consequences could be lying in wait down the road.

“When scale increases, you also risk having utility policies and approaches that are less appropriate for a particular small service territory,” he said. “In the case of Dominion, just being the northeastern part of North Carolina, this is going to become a relatively small piece of a much larger puzzle with the merger.”

In other words, Ewing elaborated, being a little fish in a big pond could decrease opportunities to innovate development of infrastructure tailored to the local environment or limit creation of programming that responds to those particular customers.

Dominion Energy North Carolina currently provides electricity to about 130,000 customers in much of the northeastern area of the state, including parts of Dare, Pasquotank, Currituck, Hertford, Pitt and Washington counties, among others.

As part of the proposal, $2.25 billion in bill credits would be spread, after the deal closes, over two years to Dominion Energy customers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the announcement.

The newly reorganized power provider would also fund an additional $10 million annually in charitable support for five years in communities within the three states. And it promised to continue “robust” utility assistance programs for customers facing hardship.

Additionally, Dominion Energy would continue to operate with the same moniker, relative to each of the three states, such as “Dominion Energy North Carolina.”

But the titles at the top will change. John Ketchum, the current chief executive officer at NextEra will become chairman and CEO of the combined company, and Robert Blue, the current CEO at Dominion, will become president and CEO of regulated utilities and a member of the board of directors.

In light of industry-wide electric bill increases, critics have noted bloat in CEO salaries. According to an April 21 article in Energy & Policy Institute that analyzed CEO salaries at investor-owned electric and gas utilities, in 2025 Ketchum was paid $24.2 million, the third highest salary, and Blue was paid just over $16 million, the 10th highest.

Even absent bumps in the regulatory road, electric utilities have been in the crosshairs of public ire as consumer’s power bills continue to climb upward. Mixed in the dismay with growing costs, data centers, which are typically large facilities that can be noisy and often strain local resources such as water, are popping up in communities, sometimes without residents’ previous input or even knowledge.

Nationwide, data centers, which are critical to power the boom in artificial intelligence, or AI, have become such a huge public concern that famed citizen activist Erin Brockovich has gotten involved, creating a website, brockovichdatacenter.com, to collect reports from consumers.

Virginia has some of the highest numbers of centers in the country. Numerous public reports estimate that there are more than 600 data centers in the state, mostly in Northern Virginia. According to an Oct. 25, 2025, article in Inside Climate News, citing a report from Cushman & Wakefield, as of last June, the state had 6,247 megawatts of data centers and an additional 2,610 megawatts under construction.

The existing centers are not the only asset the Florida company will gain in the proposed utility coupling.

When Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, aka CVOW, is completed in 2027, the 2.6 GW project will become the largest offshore wind farm in the United States. With 176 turbines, the project would generate enough energy to power as many as 660,000 homes and is expected to save customers about $3 billion in fuel savings in its first decade, according to Dominion.

While the result of NextEra’s environmental stewardship remains to be seen, Ewing said that an important point in its favor is the company’s record as an aggressive developer of renewables.

“Their integration with the supply chains for renewable energy and batteries and their capital base will allow them to build that out more aggressively than Dominion would have been able to,” he said. “And so there it is kind of a shot in the arm to big renewable and battery storage builds, which is positive for the environment.”

On the flipside, he said, large utilities tend to seek significant centralized control. For instance, NextEra has been resistant to compensating rooftop solar users in Florida for the energy it produces, and he expects that approach could carry over to North Carolina.

“It’s not dismissed those things out of hand, but it has not given many of the consumer advocates what they wanted in terms of compensation on that metering,” he said. “And it has been much more on the side of, ‘Well, the utility controls the grid, we’re responsible for this infrastructure, we don’t want to socialize those costs.’”

NextEra is also showing more of an appetite to build natural gas plants, Ewing said. Still, those types of sites take about five years to come online, where renewables can usually produce energy quicker and at less cost.

“So that’s the thing we all need to be watching, is how that actually progresses in reality in coming years,” Ewing said.

With this year’s Atlantic hurricane season beginning Monday, which is forecast to have below-normal activity, state officials are urging residents to prepare now for tropical weather impacts because “North Carolinians know that it takes only one storm to affect communities statewide.”

Gov. Josh Stein said Monday in a press release marking the start of hurricane season that this time of year brings uncertainty for families across the state.

“I encourage all North Carolinians to make a plan now to keep themselves and their families safe in case of a storm,” he explained. “Just as you prepare your family for hurricane season, the state emergency management team is preparing by closely monitoring forecasts, updating response plans, and coordinating with federal and local partners.” 

Related: Don’t get complacent with tropical outlook; ‘it only takes one’

The State Emergency Response Team has been preparing for the hurricane season that ends Nov. 30 by reviewing lessons learned from past storms, updating response procedures, meeting with all levels of government, coordinating with the private sector and nonprofit organizations, and conducting exercises.

“Preparation is the key to resilience during hurricane season. We encourage all North Carolinians to take time to develop plans and take proactive steps with their loved ones before a storm impacts our state,” N.C. Emergency Management Director Will Ray said Monday. 

Ray added that preparation includes “creating evacuation plans in case you must leave your home, securing all important documentation in a waterproof container, and checking your insurance policies to make sure you are properly covered. Home and flood insurance are especially important resources in returning to normalcy after a disaster.”

Officials recommend taking the following steps to be prepared before disaster strikes:  

• Put together an emergency kit with up to a week’s supply of nonperishable food, including one gallon of water per person per day, and prescription and over-the-counter medication.  
• Be aware of any unique needs for babies, elderly, or disabled members of the household, as well as pets.  
• Have multiple ways to receive severe weather warnings such as a weather alert app on your phone, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio or other device and extra batteries to listen to NOAA Weather Radio, or app or radio access to local news outlets. 
• If you live along the coast or are planning to visit the beach this season, Know Your Zone! This is how local governments order evacuations along the coast when storm surge is a threat. Visit KnowYourZone.NC.Gov to search by address.  
• Establish an emergency evacuation plan and meeting point if your group becomes separated.
• Have a printed list of family member’s phone numbers, social media handles, email addresses, and medical information in case mobile devices lose power or otherwise become disabled.
• Have copies of important papers such as birth and adoption certificates, driver licenses, or military IDs. 
• Meet with your insurance agent so you know what is covered should a storm affect your neighborhood. 
• Prepare a full list of personal items, along with photos and videos of every room in your home, to help with insurance settlements or tax deductions.  
• Be sure you know how to shut off your utilities safely. Water, electricity, and gas are key services that can also cause special problems during an emergency. Do not try to turn the gas back on yourself. Call a trained expert. 
• The N.C. Flood Inundation Mapping and Alert Network, or FIMAN, features access over 700 flood gauges across the state. Visit Fiman.NC.Gov to search for the flood gauges closest to your home and to sign up for alerts.  

To become involved in preparedness efforts where you live, officials recommend learning about schools, workplace, and neighborhood emergency plans and join in preparedness exercises and drills.

Other ways include volunteering with a Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, to learn about disaster preparedness and receive training in basic disaster response skills, or contacting N.C. Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster at ncvoad.org for more ways to help.  

For more information on how to prepare for hurricane season, visit ReadyNC.Gov. 

The Hatteras-Ocracoke vehicle ferry route has been switched to an alternate schedule while dredging operations are underway in Sloop Channel.

The temporary schedule went into effect Saturday and is as follows:

• From Hatteras to Ocracoke: 5:30 a.m., 6 a.m., 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., noon, 12:30 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
• From Ocracoke to Hatteras: 6:30 a.m., 6:45 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9:45 a.m., 10 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 2 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.

The federally contracted dredging operation is expected to take about one month to complete pending weather conditions, according to a N.C. Department of Transportation release.

The ferry route will return to its full summer schedule when dredging is complete.

Sloop Channel, which provides the entryway to the ferry’s South Dock terminal on the north end of Ocracoke Island, is being dredged by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractor.

Ferry users may sign up for real-time text or email updates on weather and mechanical delays through the Ferry Information Notification System at www.ncdot.gov/fins. 

In 1973, three young children were racing up the sand dunes of Jockey’s Ridge in Nags Head when they heard the squeaky treads of a bulldozer as it leveled the sides of the slopes. Stunned, they raced home, tearfully sounding the alarm to their mother, Carolista Baum.

Ms. Baum rushed over to the dunes and defiantly stepped in front of the bulldozer, stopping the destruction of this iconic geographical monument. For good measure, she later returned to remove the distributor cap to disable the mechanical beast.

With the town starting to trend as a tourist destination, real estate was booming. This enormous pile of sand was coveted, a target in the crosshairs of ambitious developers. With her bold act of protest, Ms. Baum threw a monkey wrench into the development plans of Jockeys Ridge, protecting a unique coastal landmark. In a short time, Jockey’s Ridge would soon become a state park, setting in motion the life work of one George Grantham Barnes, who died April 23. He was 73.

A geologic wonder, the grains of sand that form the Jockey’s Ridge dune system began piling up thousands of years ago. Ancient quartz sands from the Appalachian Mountains flowed down into the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricanes and storms eventually washed the sand up and onto the beaches. Their howling winds pushed the sand inland, creating monstrous dunes along a section of the North Carolina coast now known as the Outer Banks.

On Jockey’s Ridge, the salty winds blow life into the dunes, constantly reshaping the sand, creating a dynamic living system. These dunes have micro ecosystems of dune grasses, maritime shrub thickets, maritime forest, ephemeral ponds and an estuarine shoreline along the Roanoke Sound. It’s a place so unique that it was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1974.

A native of Lumberton, George Barnes attended the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Not long after college, in the late 1970s, he first donned the green and gray uniform of a fledgling park ranger at Goose Creek State Park near Bath. Under the moss-laden live oaks that lined the quiet north shore of the Pamlico river, George settled in to the life of a park ranger.

Just east of Goose Creek, at Nags Head, the juggernaut of Ms. Baum and the nonprofit, People to Preserve Jockey’s Ridge, were successful with their “Save Our Sand Dune” initiative. Working with the N.C. Division of State Parks, the emergence of a new state park was now a reality. Truly a grassroots effort led by the residents of Nags Head. Their advocacy work, raising funds and lobbying politicians, was rewarded in 1975 when the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated funds to establish the park.

Private donations, federal funds and The Nature Conservancy also helped bankroll the purchase of the initial acreage.

During its inception, the first park ranger to patrol the dunes was Phyllis Goodwin. Her time at the ridge was brief, and by 1980, Ranger Barnes was selected by the superintendent of state parks to be the ranger in charge. At first, he commuted from Goose Creek, returning home each day. A real lone ranger, he was the only staff member at the park.

Starting from scratch, George was handed the metaphorical keys to a brand-new park. Given the opportunity of a lifetime, he was now the steward of a natural and cultural landmark so beloved that folks demanded its preservation — a daunting task that must have seemed overwhelming.

In the early days, when the dark summer thunderheads rolled in, he was lucky to have a fickle pickup truck to take shelter in. Ms. Baum checked in frequently to catch up on park operations and to let him know that he was not alone and that the community was there to help.

Carolista Baum’s feisty tenacious nature was buffered by George’s cool, laid-back style. They developed a mutual admiration for each other build on respect and their shared interest in making Jockey’s Ridge the best park it could be.

Ann-Cabell Baum and her siblings were the children who tattled on the bulldozer operator to their mom, Carolista. She remembers, as a child, riding over to the park with her mom on her visits to see George. Over time, she recalls, “he became one of the family, eating many meals with us outside under the shade of the porch.”

On occasion, George and Carolista clashed over their views on issues concerning the park. Recalling her mother, Ann-Cabell said, “She held his feet to the fire.” But despite any disagreement, “she always had his back.”

In 1981, George received some much-needed help when he hired Fran Crutchfield as an additional ranger for the park. She remembers the green, bare-bones, state-contract Chevy pickup truck with a “three on the tree” transmission. They shared the cramped truck cab as the park’s first unofficial office, along with a tiny windowless shed that housed a rotary-dial phone, manual typewriter and a makeshift assortment of tools.

Weekly staff meetings were held, just the two of them, at a local restaurant that served as their conference room. Fran remembers, “We would catch up on things, problems, concerns, and goings-on at the park, over lunch at Sam & Omie’s (Restaurant in Nags Head).”

For many years, the only incoming calls on the shed phone were from N.C. State Parks District Superintendent Cliff Phillips. As George’s longtime supervisor, Mr. Phillips told me that Ranger Barnes faced unique challenges not found at other parks.

With the sand dune ridge now a park, many past activities there conflicted with the philosophy, values and regulations of a state park. It was Ranger Barnes’ duty to curtail those uses.

He also had the unenviable task of enforcing new opening and closing hours in an area that once had 24-7 access. Both changes were unpopular. When neighbors complained, George and Fran had to even shovel windblown sand from private property back onto to park property. Try as he might, George was unable to control the wind.

With the park falling completely within the town limits of Nags Head, it was understood that the performance of the new park staff would be highly scrutinized. At times, George was feeling the heat as if in a pressure cooker. His calm and good-natured demeanor was often taken to task. This iconic dune was important to the Outer Banks beach community. Individual special interests were not shy about expressing their thoughts on how the park should be managed. He tangled with commercial, recreational and civic concerns. At times, he felt political pressures as well.

Undaunted, Barnes seemed as comfortable in the presence of state senators and representatives as he did with his fellow surfers as they sat in the lineup waiting for the swells to roll in. His decisions were made in the best interests of the park to maintain the integrity and dignity of the resource. He operated from a legal mandate straight from the North Carolina Constitution to “… preserve as a part of the common heritage of this State its forests, wetlands, estuaries, beaches, historical sites, openlands, and places of beauty.” During these times, Ann-Cabell Baum said, “He never wavered. It must have been tough for him.”

Mr. Phillips also remembered, “He rolled with the punches,” of which there were many.

George set about developing a park to address visitor interests while keeping intact the core park values of stewardship, conservation, recreation, education and safety. His easygoing demeanor, along with his trademark dark sunglasses, often hid the drive he had for his work. Slowly, the infrastructure commonly associated with a park began to grow: parking lots, restrooms, a staff office and maintenance shop, boardwalks, picnic shelters, a visitor/interpretive center, hiking trails and a recreational concession center.

Under his leadership, the staff grew. Rangers trained in environmental education, resource management, emergency medical, and law enforcement now patrol the park to service the growing visitation.

He also initiated coastal resiliency projects with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, including a living shoreline project along the Roanoke Sound boundary. Working with Southern Shores resident Peggy Birkemeier, a junior ranger program was established along with the Friends of Jockey’s Ridge, a nonprofit group supporting the park since 1990.

But George knew he didn’t accomplish all this on his own. He was quick to credit his supervisors, excellent rangers and the community that supported his vision of what the park could be. Throughout it all, Mr. Phillips said, “George Barnes led the way. He was loyal to the preservation of this park and was a dedicated person who can be given credit for his leadership in all areas of operations for Jockey’s Ridge.”

John Fullwood, who worked with Superintendent Barnes as a ranger at the park for 15 years, remembers George’s passion for his job.

“George had a big heart,” Fullwood said in a recent phone conversation. “If he loved something he gave 100 percent, and he loved Jockey’s Ridge.”

Over the years, George mentored hundreds of seasonal employees that wanted to work at this alluring state park. Many of these employees went on to work in careers involving management, protection and education fields related to environmental and natural resources. On such employee was Ben Wunderly, who worked at Jockey’s Ridge in the mid 1990s.

“His mentoring instilled in me an appreciation for the state park system and a deeper understanding of the connection one can have with a place, like the large sand dunes of Nags Head, or any natural area for that matter,” Ben said.

Ben has also gone on to have a long career, including as a park ranger. He is currently the central sites manager with the N.C. Coastal Reserves and National Estuarine Research Reserves.

As the tallest sand dune on the East Coast, its golden sands glow like a beacon on the horizon. For years, the ridge guided early sailors as they sought passage through the hazardous waters of the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Visible from the U.S. Highway 64 Virginia Dare Bridge, the dunes now flash like a neon sign guiding visitors to a natural oasis within a sea of rental cottages, hotels, restaurants, gift shops, outlet malls and miniature golf.

Here, visitors can learn about the park’s geology, weather, plants, wildlife, habitats and cultural history. Children — and adults — still race up to the top of the 80- to 100-foot-tall dune much like thousands before them. From the top, one can see far out to sea, catch the flicker of the Bodie Island Lighthouse and watch the endless swells as they race to the beach. In the evening, under the golden warmth of the setting sun, time seems stop, if only for a second. Over a million visitors a year are now drawn to the lumpy dunes of Jockey’s Ridge State Park, arguably the premier attraction for visitors to the Outer Banks.

After 32 years at the helm, George retired from Jockeys Ridge in 2009. He continued to keep his ear to the ground with his hand on the pulse of the park. Now, as a park watchdog, he continued to speak out on park issues that concerned him, as well as serving on the board of directors of the nonprofit Friends of Jockey’s Ridge.

Jockey’s Ridge had become part of his identity; it was who he was.

In retirement, he could often be found not far from the ridge, sitting on the beach at the end of Conch Street. In the good company of his family and dogs, he would be reading a novel, soaking in the beach life that he treasured so much. Wearing his Wayfarer sunglasses, with the wind in his hair and the sun on his face, George was in his nirvana.

George loved the Outer Banks. He didn’t need to go anywhere else, as he was already where he wanted to be.

In late April, George passed away after a long illness. Even though his footprints on the sandy slopes of Jockey’s Ridge have long since been erased, he is well remembered.

“The visitors that hike and play on the sands of Jockey’s Ridge may never know that this special place is intact due in large part to the hard work, long hours and dedication of this good man,” said District Park Superintendent Scott Daughtry, now retired, upon learning about Superintendent Barnes’ passing. “Thank you, old friend, for helping make the joy of the ridge part of the lives of uncounted people that you never knew.”

George’s good friend and Fort Macon State Park Superintendent Jody Merritt, also now retired, told me, “George had three main loves in his life: his family, the beach and state parks. These three things were all that George needed.”

Mr. Merritt added that the wind will always reshape the sands, “but the impression George left on the ridge is permanent. He spent his life guarding the shifting sands. His legacy is written upon the hearts and lives of those he served and the land he protected”.

We are all benefactors of the gift of his legacy. A legacy that the Outer Banks community, the Division of State Parks, the State of North Carolina and George Grantham Barnes can be proud of for generations to come.

Celebrations of George Barnes’ life are set for 2 p.m. May 30 at First Presbyterian Church in Lumberton, and 2 p.m. June 20 at Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head.

Dr. Jared Bowden wanted to be the man you tuned your television to each day for a weather update.

His sole aspiration when he stepped onto the campus of North Carolina State University as a freshman in the mid-1990s was to become a broadcast meteorologist.

Today, that dream is but a fading memory for the Rocky Mount native who was recently named director of the North Carolina State Climate Office. Bowden’s new post became effective May 1.

That title, and the responsibilities that come with it, bring full-circle his passion for climate research, his love for his home state, and his desire to educate and serve his fellow North Carolinians.

“I take it very seriously that I want to do things to benefit our state,” Bowden, 47, said in a recent telephone interview. “What I love about this job is that it’s a public service center, so I’m serving the public and I’m trying to help the public with their problems related to climate.”

The State Climate Office is North Carolina’s leading scientific partner for understanding weather, climate, and atmospheric data. Its mission is to deliver climate-related services to local governments, state and federal agencies and businesses and residents.

The office was established in 1976 and originally housed at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. In 1980, the office was relocated roughly 25 miles east from the Tarheels’ campus to the home of the Wolfpack, Bowden’s three-time alma mater.

Bowden was about 2 years old at the time, toddling around in his parents’ house where his father, Donald Bowden, was presumably already kindling his oldest son’s desire to pursue a career in weather meteorology.

Up until his dad’s death in November, “everyone considered him the weatherman of the family despite me having the degree,” Bowden later wrote of his father in an email.

Bowden earned bachelor’s degrees in meteorology and marine sciences at the end of an academic year that, about a month into its beginning, exposed him and thousands of fellow eastern North Carolinians to one of the most destructive hurricanes in the state’s history.

After making landfall near Wilmington in September 1999, Hurricane Floyd dumped rain for more than 60 consecutive hours in some areas of eastern North Carolina, where just 10 days earlier rain from Tropical Storm Dennis had inundated waterways and saturated soil.

Bowden vividly recalls seeing rescue crews — swift water rescue teams and helicopters — temporarily stage in an area that was a short two-minute walk from his parent’s home near Stony Creek, a picturesque stream that converges with the Tar River.

His childhood home was ultimately spared from flooding, but his hometown would be changed forever.

The Tar River crested at more than 31 feet in Rocky Mount, where flooding claimed lives, wiped out local businesses and homes, and damaged Tarrytown Mall, eastern North Carolina’s first enclosed shopping mall, beyond repair.

“It was really an eye-opening experience to be honest with you,” Bowden said. “People that have experienced this type of flooding know firsthand of how devastating it is and it’s not just you, but also the broader community that’s impacted.”

That experience instilled in Bowden a drive to better understand extreme weather.

His senior year at State would be one where, as he put it, he got “sucked into the research world.” There, he discovered he was particularly good at atmospheric modeling.

Bowden went on to earn a master’s and doctorate in atmospheric science, landing a job as a postdoctoral researcher at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Research Triangle Park office, where he worked with “some of the best atmospheric modelers in the world.”

From there, he settled into a world of research related to atmospheric modeling, eventually accepting a job as a research assistant professor at UNC Chapel Hill.

“But that kind of took me away a little bit from my passion of climate,” Bowden said.

When the position of associate director opened up at the State Climate Office in 2024, he applied for the job, one that would get him back to not only his love of climate research, but climate research specific to his home state.

Bowden was named interim director of the State Climate Office in August 2025 following former director Kathie Dello’s departure to become the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s assistant secretary for resilience.

The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resilinecy was established in the fall of 2018 in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, a storm that dumped more than 35 inches of rain in parts of eastern North Carolina and racked up an estimated $22 billion in damages in the state.

“We’ve seen quite a number of events over the years, and even in Rocky Mount there’s been events that haven’t been related to tropical systems that have created some really big flood problems,” Bowden said. “I didn’t see those types of things growing up. It is what I would say is a new normal that eastern North Carolinians are facing. But, as you know now, no place is safe within our state. From the mountains to the coast, everybody’s experienced something.”

Portions of western North Carolina continue to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that made landfall at Florida’s Big Bend and swept north. Wind and rain generated from the storm claimed the lives of more than 100 North Carolinians and caused an estimated $78.7 billion worth of damage.

Within just the last decade, the state experienced its hottest year on record in 2019. Last year, more than 5,000 heat-related emergency room visits were reported in North Carolina.

As of May 19, more than half of the state’s 100 counties are experiencing extreme drought. Most of the 20 coastal counties are under severe drought.

“The pendulum is swinging much more aggressively both ways and that’s what our state has to be prepared for,” Bowden said. “We have to work closely with our partners, we have to reach out to various groups to understand what those challenges are so that we’re able to serve them better.”

The office, which is comprised of 10 staff, is in the process of creating HANC, or Heat Atlas for North Carolina.

“It looks at, if you were to think about a hundred-year, three-day heatwave, what would that temperature be for your locations,” Bowden said. “That’s something I’m really excited about and we’re thinking about how to extend it to a broader footprint into South Carolina and possibly Georgia.”

The Division of Marine Fisheries wants to bring the public into the blue crab stock assessment development process.

The division’s stock assessment scientists plan to review what a stock assessment is and how this data set is developed during a WebEx meeting from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, May 28. Register online to attend the webinar or attend the listening location at the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries Central District Office in Morehead City.

The Marine Fisheries Commission, which puts in place rules, policies, and management measures for fisheries, adopted the original North Carolina Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan in late 1998, Amendment 1 in 2004, and Amendment 2 in 2013, according to the division’s website. The division, under the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, acts as staff to the commission.

A review of the management plan was scheduled for July 2018, but the commission decided in August 2016 to begin a formal review, assess the status of the blue crab stock and identify more comprehensive management strategies, and began developing amendment 3.

As part of that amendment, the division used data from 1995 to 2016 for a benchmark stock assessment, which is a comprehensive assessment conducted every five years by reevaluating data and modeling methods. Results indicate that the state’s blue crab stock was classified as overfished in 2016, according to the division.

The 2018 benchmark stock assessment shows the state’s blue crab stock is overfished, which means that the population size is too small, and overfishing is occurring, or the removal rate is too high.

Amendment 3 was adopted in February 2020 to rebuild the blue crab stock. All Amendment 3 management measures have been fully in place since January 2021.

The division attempted to update the stock assessment in 2023, but staff and external peer reviewers had concerns with model specifications and the results and decided not to use the update to manage the species.

Existing data from division sampling and monitoring programs indicate a continued decline of blue crab stock.

The division’s stock assessment team is going through data now to develop a new benchmark stock assessment and gave an update to the Marine Fisheries Commission during its business meeting May 14 in New Bern.

Stock Assessment Program Manager Matt Damiano explained that part of his motivation to hold the webinar at this stage in developing the assessment is because a member of the fishing community brought to his attention that historically, the only public-facing part of the division’s process has been the peer-review workshop, when the stock assessment is essentially done.

“This webinar is something of a halfway point to where I would like to go with our stock assessment process, which is to make it more public facing,” he said, adding that he has been planning the webinar for several months.

Damiano said that he and Stock Assessment Scientist Matt Zink, the other member of the program’s team, have made progress on the stock assessment update.

“We have been able to analyze all the sources of data that we’re interested in including in the stock assessment, that essentially involves Matt and I digging through the data and determining whether it is usable and what it is telling us,” he said, adding that they’re using data collected through different programs.

The estimated pattern for 1974 through 2024 has fluctuated quite a bit, as marine populations tend to, and saw the highest abundance during the 1990s followed by a marked decline in blue crab abundance after around 2010.

“There have been some modest increases toward the end of that time series, but overall, there is a negative trend for the last 14 years,” Damiano said.

During the same time, the size of blue crabs in the Pamlico Sound have gotten smaller in general, while blue crab size in Albemarle Sound has been stable.

The fishery-dependent data from fish houses points to the size structure being stable, “which is likely more a function of people bringing a really stable set of sizes of crab to market than it is having to do necessarily what’s going on in the population,” Damiano said.

“Another interesting feature is when we looked at abundance over space, it has declined most in the Pamlico Sound, but the Albemarle Sound is still essentially the one big hot spot for blue crab,” he added.

“If you are fishing in Albemarle Sound, things may seem better than they actually are for the population,” but Damiano stressed that “two things can be true at the same time. You can be doing very well if you’re fishing in a particular area, but the population throughout the whole state can still be moving in a different direction.”

Damiano told the commission that for the webinar May 28 he plans to give a brief review of what a stock assessment is and spend some time on what happened with the peer review of the 2023 updated stock assessment.

“I get a lot of comments on why that did not pass peer review and wasn’t recommended for use and management,” Damiano explained, but those who reviewed the assessment left a “clear roadmap for how to improve it,” he said. “It’s those exact steps that they recommended that Matt and I have been taking with this stock assessment and that’s going to give a lot of context to why we did the analyzes we did, and why we’re considering the methods we are for the stock assessment.”

Damiano added that while the peer reviewers did not recommend the model for use in management, and the division decided to heed that advice, “I think the peer review was actually a success in that sense, because they identified really clear problems that we need addressing in the next model.”

The peer reviewers were Dr. Jie Cao, assistant professor at N.C. State’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology, or CMAST, and Dr. Yan Li, at Duke Cancer Institute Biostatistics Shared Resource at Duke University.

In an interview before the commission meeting, Damiano, who has been with the division about a year, pointed out that the only opportunity for the public to really engage with a stock assessment during the peer review, which is at the end of the process.

“That’s the only workshop that’s technically open to the public, and so I am trying to change that kind of incrementally as I learn what the communication needs are related to stock assessment. And it starts with this webinar,” he said.  

“We’re trying to create a space where we can be transparent about the work that we’ve done so far on the blue crab stock assessment, which is still ongoing, and solicit some feedback from the people,” such as their concerns about population, other sources of data to consider and give the public background for “some of the choices that we’re making while we’re doing the analysis. Really, it’s more just me trying to show my work and begin the dialog where we previously really haven’t had.”

He added that he hopes the webinar opens a line of communication that wasn’t there before.

The below-normal activity predicted for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season doesn’t give North Carolinians a pass on preparation this year.

“For the Atlantic hurricane season, NOAA is predicting a below-normal season for 2026, with roughly a 55% chance of being below normal, a 35% chance of near normal, and a 10% chance of above normal,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Administrator Dr. Neil Jacobs said during a media conference Thursday morning from NOAA’s Aircraft Operations Center at Lakeland Linder International Airport in Lakeland, Florida.

“This equates to eight to 14 named storms with winds at or above 39 miles an hour. Of these, three to six hurricanes with winds at or above 74 miles an hour, and one to three major hurricanes, that’s your Category 3 to 5 with winds at or above 111 miles an hour,” he added.

Jacobs is referring to the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, which categorizes maximum sustained wind speeds for tropical storms. Categories 1 and 2 are windspeeds between 74 and 110 mph, categories 3 to 5 are major hurricanes with speeds from 111 to 157 or higher, according to NOAA. Hurricane season begins Monday, June 1, and ends Nov. 30.

“Even though we’re expecting a below-average season in the Atlantic, it’s very important to understand that it only takes one,” Jacobs said, adding there have been Category 5s that made landfall in the past during below-average seasons.

During the news conference Thursday morning, Jacobs said that “what’s driving this forecast is largely an El Niño event. There’s a 98% chance of El Niño conditions occurring later this season, and an 80% chance that this El Niño will be moderate to strong.”

NOAA National Weather Service Director Ken Graham, who spoke after Jacobs, reiterated that “it just takes one,” and urged the public during the press conference not to “let words like ‘below average’” change the way you prepare.

“Now’s the time to start thinking about your hurricane preparedness,” Graham said. “Early preparedness is absolutely everything. Period. End of story. The actions that you take today really get you ready for the hurricane season.”

Especially a season like this, “there’ll never be a Hurricane Just-a. We’ll never make that a name. There’s no such thing as just a Cat 1, just a tropical storm, just a Cat 2. That is absolutely not the case,” Graham said. “It doesn’t matter what it is, you got to look at the size, the forward motion, little wiggles matter on the impacts. Even the smallest storm, if it’s slow enough and big enough, it’s going to create catastrophic flooding and storm surge.”

Graham said that the public needs to pay attention to every single one of the storm “systems, and the actual impacts, not the category, not the name, but the actual impacts associated with that storm, and that includes the tornadoes, heavy rain, damaging winds, even the high surf and rip currents, as well, including storm surge.”

Erik Heden, warning coordination meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Newport office, said in an interview with Coastal Review that just because the forecast calls for a below-normal season, residents shouldn’t let their guard down.

“Just because the outlook says it’s going to be a low year doesn’t mean we won’t be impacted,” he said, adding “It just takes one storm. The graphic says a 55% chance below-normal year, but if we get one storm, it really doesn’t matter what the prediction was, it could be a big deal for us.”

Heden also warned in the interview against making decisions based on the category of the storm.

“Categories are only wind,” he said. Wind is to be respected, but the other storm impacts are more likely to be more frequent in terms of issues in our area.

“Water is what kills people. About 85% of people that die in hurricanes, it’s water related — nothing to do with the wind. but it’s, it’s things like rip currents, storm surge, and flooding. Those are the three things that would get us if we get a storm.”

Two years ago, the Southeast faced a potential tropical cyclone that didn’t have a name. No. 8 resulted in almost 20 inches of rain in the Wilmington area, and last year Tropical Storm Chantal produced six to 10 inches of rain in Raleigh.

Steven Pfaff, meteorologist-in-charge for the National Weather Service’s Wilmington office, in an email to media partners Thursday morning, also expressed concern that the forecast for below-normal activity can cause messaging challenges because people may misinterpret what it means for any potential local impacts.  

“All it takes is one storm to define a hurricane season regardless of the outlook,” his emphasis, “Given southeast NC’s and northeast SC’s hurricane history our communities must prepare the same way every year,” Pfaff continued. “Now is the time to prepare for hurricane season, and remain vigilant this summer and fall.”

Jacobs said during the press conference that for official forecast guidance, go to hurricanes.gov.

“June 1 is almost here. Be ready, have a plan, listen to your state and local emergency managers. Preparation is essential. You can learn more at ready.gov,” Jacobs added.

Heden told Coastal Review that the best way to stay informed in eastern North Carolina is to remember “if it’s the weather you love, it’s weather.gov,” where there’s up-to-date information, as well as on the office’s website, Facebook or X.

Coastal Review will not publish Monday in observation of Memorial Day.

An Outer Banks nonprofit has a two-day program planned for next weekend that digs into historic and modern-day agricultural practices as part of its mission to honor the indigenous Earth ethic.

The Secotan Alliance … and Beyond’s “In the Spirit of Wingina 3: Seeds of Wisdom and Sustenance,” begins at 9 a.m. Friday, May 29, and continues starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 30, in the Virginia S. Tillett Community Center in Manteo.

There is no charge to attend, but organizers ask those interested in attending to register online through the website. There are also volunteer opportunities listed as well.

Gray Parsons of Frisco is a descendent of the Machapunga-Mattamuskeet, and is president of the Secotan Alliance … and Beyond.

Parsons founded the Outer Banks-based nonprofit in 2023 to honor Chief Wingina and indigenous environmental history. Wingina was chief of the Roanoke-Secotan tribe that inhabited Roanoke Island and the nearby mainland. Wingina established the Secotan Alliance with other village leaders to resist English colonization. The alliance territory included current-day Dare, Hyde, Beaufort, Washington and Tyrrell counties and its inhabitants were of Algonquin culture and spoke what has been called a “Carolina Algonquin” dialect. The chief’s attempt to expand the alliance farther inland resulted in his beheading by the English military in 1586, the website explains.

The mission of the nonprofit “is to educate the public on the traditional indigenous principles of the Secotan Alliance under the leadership of Chief Wingina specifically in terms of their application and value in today’s world…and to educate the public regarding the need and the methods to protect Mother Earth through individual, community, corporate and government actions based on the traditional indigenous earth ethic.”

Parsons explained to Coastal Review that this year’s program is following a similar outline as the first two events, though the focus has changed a bit.

The dual mission doesn’t change, “that will always be paramount, but the focus of how we accomplish that will change from year to year,” Parsons said. The inaugural program in 2024 focused on indigenous environmental history and last year’s program emphasized the unique leadership roles of women.

“This year it’s on Seeds of Wisdom and Sustenance,” Parsons said, and will focus on agricultural patterns with an emphasis on ancient, indigenous agricultural methods on May 29, and modern-day gardening with some connectivity to the ancient on May 30.

The keynote speaker for the two-day event is retired professor Dr. Tom Shields, who will speak Friday morning about the “Images of Sustenance: Writings and the Archaeology of Foodways from the 1580s.”

Shields taught early American and frontier literature, at East Carolina University. His publications focus on the Spanish and English literature of colonial North America, particularly the “Lost Colony” and 17^th century English explorer and writer John Lawson. Shields helped establish the Roanoke Colonies Research Office at ECU in 1993, according to the university.

Shields told to Coastal Review that the first idea that many of us had of what Native American life was like along the Outer Banks in the 1580s came from the John White watercolors and the Theodore de Bry engravings based on those drawings. He referenced the website, Virtual Jamestown, where the watercolors and engravings are indexed and compared.

John White, who was eventually made governor of the “Lost Colony,” was an English artist and cartographer who accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh on his voyage to the Americas in 1585. He was brought along to create a “visual representation of the people, plants, animals and way of life in the New World,” according to the National Park Service. Based in Germany, de Bry engraved a set of plates to illustrate scientist Thomas Harriot’s account of the 1585 journey to the Roanoke colony, “A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia,” published in 1595.

“These were done about the same time that Ralph Lane, governor of the 1585-86 English colony on Roanoke Island, wrote the line promoters of North Carolina still like to use, that this is ‘goodliest soil under the cope of heaven,’” he said, adding it’s just as often given as “the goodliest land under the cope of heaven.”

“Whether ‘soil’ or ‘land,’ the emphasis tends to be agricultural — how well maize (corn) grows, sometimes along with beans and squash, the classic Native American Three Sisters companion planting,” he continued.

“The idea of a North American agricultural paradise created in these works influenced how Europe viewed Native America back then, and it continues to influence how people think of that past even today. The pictures and writings from the 1580s English expeditions are still important primary sources about the Algonquian tribes that lived in the region.”

However, Shields explained, archaeological work along the Outer Banks and “throughout the inland Sound Country of northeastern North Carolina paints a more complex picture. The various Algonquian settlements of the inner and Outer Banks shared a language and culture. At the same time, the foods that dominated people’s diets — an important part of any culture — differed according to where the various settlements were located in the region,”

New to the lineup is North Carolina Extension Master Gardener Cheryl Anby of Manteo. She will speak the second day on “A-Maizing Corn.” Anby is the alliance’s secretary and is of French-Canadian indigenous ancestry.

Parsons said that there are a handful of return speakers this year, including Dr. Gabrielle Tayac, associate professor at George Mason University and Piscataway tribal citizen, will speak about “Gourds and Thunders: A Piscataway Return to the Water.”

Dr. Arwin Smallwood, of Tuscarora descent, is Dean of the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at North Carolina Central University, and will present, “War, Enslavement and Migration: The Tuscarora Diaspora and its impact on the Tuscarora Nation 1711 to 1722.”

David Rahahę́·tih Webb, a member of the Tuscarora Indians of Kahtenuaka Territories, will present on “Relational Living: Lifeways Rooted in Responsibility.” The Kahtenuaka Territories include the Roanoke, Neuse, Trent, Tar, Cape Fear and Pee Dee river basins, Lake Mattamuskeet territory, archeological sites and traditionally occupied lands throughout the coastal plains of present-day North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the territories website.

Sara Hallas, education and outreach director for the North Carolina Coastal Federation will give a talk on “Environmental Stewardship: Future Engineers and Innovators.” The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

Her focus has been to bring in public school students who have achieved either recognition or some type of honor within the scope of environmentalism, Parsons explained.

Parsons added that presenter, Sound Rivers Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman, will speak about the effects of agricultural runoff into the water in her presentation, “The Impacts of Modern Agriculture on our Rivers and Communities.”

“Because of our geography, because we’re surrounded by water, water will always be part of the theme or the content, but each year, there will be a theme that sort of expands that,” he said.

Last year, organizers brought in the jazz band, the Benjie Porecki Trio, based in the Washington, D.C., area, and invited the band to return this year. The performance is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head.

Alliance Board Member Erica Lewis said about this year’s programming that she feels everybody can get something out of the concept of seeds and how it connects with their own family history that of the region.

“People should be able to walk away with newfound information about the parallels of a seed like a native plant in the Outer Banks, and then the seeds of their family,” Lewis said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving ahead with plans to strike down the nation’s first-ever health standards for chemical contaminants found in the drinking water sources of millions of North Carolinians.

The proposal, announced Monday, comes just shy of the one-year mark from when EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said he would eliminate and reevaluate enforceable standards for four per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, including the compound branded GenX. The agency also wants to push the deadline in which water utilities must comply with enforceable standards for PFOA and PFOS, chemicals that are no longer manufactured, by two years from 2029 to 2031.

In what it describes as a “comprehensive PFAS strategy,” the agency explains in a five-page release that drinking water systems would be given the option to opt in for the two-year extension, giving them more time to sample source water for contaminants, test new controls, and train their workforce to manage those controls.

The agency states that the proposed rule to rescind current federal standards for HFPO-DA, commonly referred to as GenX, PFNA, PFHxS and PFBS, would follow the letter of the law in establishing regulations for drinking water standards. The Trump administration argues that the Biden administration failed to follow the proper statutory requirements under the Safe Water Drinking Act when it established the drinking water standards for those four chemical compounds.

Under the proposal, the EPA would provide nearly $1 billion in new funding to states to address PFAS in drinking water and another $1 billion through the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities program.

“The Biden administration cut corners and failed to follow the law,” Zeldin said in the release. “We are fixing that error with standards water systems can actually implement and that will hold up to scrutiny, while addressing PFOA and PFOS, two the best-studied PFAS with well-documented health impacts.”

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated in the release that PFAS contamination is “a serious public health challenge that demands rigorous science, clear standards, and practical solutions. Across HHS, we are advancing gold-standard research to better understand PFAS exposure, toxicity, and long-term health impacts on Americans.”

Critics of the proposed rules immediately hit back, calling the announcement a “PR stunt” to try and shade the more than 100 million people across the country whose drinking water sources have been contaminated by PFAS.

“Zeldin and Kennedy are trying to sell potions out of the back of a covered wagon,” Dr. Anna Reade, Natural Resources Defense Council Director of PFAS Advocacy said in a Monday release. “The millions of Americans demanding safe drinking water are not going to fall for their hocus pocus. By repealing and delaying PFAS standards, EPA is abandoning communities in desperate need of drinking water protections, especially those who live near polluting industries.”

News of the proposed rules particularly smacked the Cape Fear region where residents, environmental organizations and public water providers have banded together to fight for regulations that would put the onus on dischargers to keep PFAS out of drinking water sources.

Almost nine years have passed since the Wilmington StarNews broke the news that Chemours, a DuPont spinoff, had for decades been directly discharging PFAS, including GenX, from its Fayetteville Works facility into the Cape Fear River. GenX is specific to Chemours’ Bladen County plant more than 70 miles upstream from Wilmington.

Today, more than 1,000 residents living near the Cape Fear River Basin are participating in a study where researchers measure the levels of GenX and other PFAS in people’s blood.

PFAS are a group of chemicals used for their ability to repel water, stains and grease to produce a host of consumer goods like food containers, waterproof-gear and makeup.

These chemicals are ubiquitous because they do not naturally break down in the environment.

The EPA now categorizes nearly 15,000 PFAS, an overwhelming majority of which have yet to be studied for their potential effects on human health.

Some of the known human health effects of PFAS include weakened immunity, low birth weight in newborns, thyroid disease, and certain types of cancers.

“Our community was ground zero for the discovery of GenX in public tap water, impacting over half a million water users across ten counties in southeastern North Carolina,” Clean Cape Fear Co-Founder Emily Donovan stated in a Monday release. “The United Nations Human Rights Council investigated our contamination crisis and publicly named chemical companies like DuPont and Chemours, along with state and federal regulators, for failing to protect us from business-related human rights abuses. We believe today’s announcement perpetuates those abuses. It does not fix our growing PFAS contamination crisis. It stops monitoring it. You don’t cure a fever by breaking the thermometer.”

Related: Public hearings set on proposed wastewater discharge rules

Earlier this month, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission wrapped a series of six public hearings hosted throughout the state on proposed monitoring and minimization rules for discharges of PFOS, PFOA and GenX, and 1,4-dioxane into the state’s surface waters. The EPA classifies 1,4-dioxane, which is primarily used as a solvent in industrial manufacturing, as a likely human-carcinogen.

An overwhelming majority of people who spoke at those hearings argued that the proposed rules would do little to protect drinking water sources because the rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for PFAS dischargers found to be in violation of those rules.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is accepting written comments on the proposed rules through June 15. Most of the thousands of written comments already submitted to DEQ concur with those made at the public hearings, according to department officials.

Public water utilities that serve residents in the Cape Fear region have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to treat PFAS from their raw water sources.

The Biden-era PFAS drinking water standards established in 2024 are in litigation in a lawsuit brought by chemical companies and water utility associations. A decision on that case, which is in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is not expected before sometime next year.

“By abandoning and delaying enforceable limits on dangerous industrial chemicals like GenX and other PFAS, the agency is putting polluters’ profits over people and sending a clear message that corporate interests matter more than human lives,” Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney and Water Program Leader Kelly Moser stated in a release. “This reversal is a slap in the face to every community that has fought for clean drinking water. EPA’s decision isn’t grounded in science or law – it’s a political choice that endangers families throughout America.”

The EPA will accept written comments on the proposed rules for 60 days after they are published in the Federal Register. The rules will be published at www.regulations.gov under Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OW-2025-1742 and Docket ID EPA-HQ-OW-2025-9654.

The agency has also scheduled a virtual public hearing for July 7. Those who wish to speak must register online.

Questions related to the public hearing may be directed to PFASNPDWR@epa.gov.

If the tide’s ebb and flow have appeared more extreme than usual over the last few days, it’s because of the king tide event that began Friday, the everyday term for exceptionally high and low water levels that happen when the moon is either full or new and orbiting at its closest to the Earth.

The Sunny Day Flooding Project, a group of researchers who studies chronic flooding in Eastern North Carolina, has a particular interest in these natural and predictable tides because they illustrate what average tidal cycles may look like as sea levels change.

While sunny day flooding sounds counterintuitive, it is a chronic issue coastal communities are facing more often, especially during king tides.

“As local sea-level rise, land subsidence, and development continue to increase in coastal areas, so does the frequency of flooding,” the project website explains. “The tidal cycle now takes place on higher average sea levels, resulting in ‘sunny day’ flooding of roadways during high tides. Sea water also infiltrates stormwater drainage systems at normal tidal levels, such that ordinary rainstorms lead to flooding. While these minor floods draw less attention than catastrophic storms, their high frequency imposes a chronic stress on coastal communities and economies by disrupting critical infrastructure services.”

Two of the project’s leaders, scientists Katherine Anarde and Miyuki Hino, told Coastal Review in an email response that sunny day flooding is inundation that happens without any rain or storm taking place.

Anarde is an assistant professor in North Carolina State University’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, and Hino is an associate professor in University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s City and Regional Planning and an adjunct assistant professor in the Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program.

“It can be a perfectly sunny day, but due to tides or wind, water levels in the ocean are high enough to cause flooding,” they explained. “King tides occur during the coincidence of perigee and spring tides – when the moon is closest to Earth in its orbit and in alignment with the Sun, which exerts the largest tide generating force on the world’s oceans.”

The Sunny Day Flooding Project launched in 2021 “to understand and address the incidence and impacts of chronic coastal flooding, which includes sunny day floods but also ‘flash floods’ from routine rain events coinciding with high tides” and is currently funded by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation and NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

“We partner with communities to monitor how often floods are occurring, measure their impacts, and evaluate potential adaptation responses,” Anarde and Hino explained.

The team collects measurements, holds interviews and conduct surveys to better understand the effect of floods on residents, economies and human health. They communicate the flood risks through its flood alert system and king tides program.

While king tides “are not a new phenomenon,” the higher sea levels combined with sinking land, called subsidence, allows tides to rise relatively higher and higher, inundating low-lying infrastructure that was built decades ago, they said.

“The most visible impact is flooding on roads, often due to water backing up through stormwater drainage networks. However, the high water levels can also affect other aspects of infrastructure, such as septic tanks and underground sewage pipes,” the two continued.

A now-retired researcher at UNC Institute of Marine Sciences based in Morehead City started about a decade ago the North Carolina King Tides Project to study the floods that historically occurred during king tides, in association with the international King Tides Project. The global initiative began in Australia in 2009 and asked the public to document and share their photos showing how these higher tides affect shorelines.

North Carolina’s project began releasing a calendar with predicted high tides and encouraged the community to photograph and submit their observations of shoreline water levels.

The Sunny Day Flooding Project absorbed the N.C. King Tides Project after the researcher retired a few years ago and now publishes the calendar of when to expect king tides each year. The project also encourages the public to upload photos and details through the free Coastal Observer app.

The first king tide of this year was April 17-19, the current king tide is supposed to end Thursday, and more are expected June 13-16, July 12-15, Aug. 10-13, Oct. 25-31, Nov. 23-27, and Dec. 24-25, according to the calendar.

The calendar notes king tides as well as amplified tides, which they define as a nonscientific term for when higher and lower water level events are expected that “result when perigee and spring tides almost co-occur, yet are offset by a day or more.”

On the project website, the team offers the caveat that the calendar “does not predict coastal flooding.” Floods are often caused by wind and pressure, seasonal changes in sea level, and land-based factors like high groundwater, rainfall, and existing infrastructure.

“With sea-level rise, flooding during the perigean spring tides has become more and more common, but flooding is also occurring during moderate tidal cycles in some communities,” the website states.

Researchers recommend checking the NOAA Monthly High Tide Outlook for flooding probabilities.

The team also communicates flood risks through its flood alert system available for Beaufort, Carolina Beach, Down East and New Bern, where there are water level sensors. Those interested can sign up to receive an email whenever water levels overtop the roadway at the chosen sensor location.

On the project website, researchers explain that the chronic flooding affects people differently than extreme events like hurricanes because it is not as deep and widespread as storm surges from hurricanes, but it is more frequent. The high rate of constant flooding interrupts travel and could also increase infrastructure maintenance costs for coastal communities.

Anarde and Hino said that there are ways to address the impacts of chronic coastal floods, and the right response is going to differ from place to place.

“Elevating infrastructure can help keep it dry and reduce damage from saltwater. Scheduling trips to avoid the highest tides can help avoid flooded roads and keep travelers safe. Given that this type of flooding is projected to become more frequent in the future, it’s important to consider both immediate, short-term responses and longer-term strategies,” they said.

There’s something almost poetic in how Thomas Marcinowski describes his plans for his final farewell.

Whenever that time comes, the U.S. military veteran wants to be cremated and put to sea.

“That way my ashes touch every continent my boots walked on,” Marcinowski said.

That long-carried thought surfaced when Marcinowski, on a commercial flight returning to Wilmington from an organizational event in 2019, read an article about people taking the ashes of their loved ones to be interred in an artificial reef off the Miami coast.

By that time, several years had passed since he’d retired from service, rounding out a military career spanning more than 20 years that began when he enlisted in the Air Force as a teenager and ended after becoming an officer in the Army National Guard.

Marcinowski, a physician assistant at Wilmington Veterans Administration Health Care Center, wasted no time after reading the article. He began bouncing an idea to friends and colleagues about a nonprofit organization that would build a living legacy beneath the waves where those who’ve honorably served would be memorialized, their stories preserved and their mission of service continued.

“The motto that I like to use is, ‘Those who served continue to serve,’” Marcinowski said. “They’ve passed away, but yet they’re still giving back to the nation and to the world by being out there to create something even greater and protect for future generations.”

Just two years after he first pitched his idea around, Veterans Memorial Reef held its first ceremony honoring veterans whose cremains were interred in eco-positive reef modules that were placed on the seafloor about 5 miles off the coast of Carolina Beach.

The nonprofit hosted its sixth annual three-day event this past weekend at the Fort Johnston Museum and Visitor Center in Southport, interring the ashes of nine people – six veterans and three spouses of veterans – in memorial markers to be lowered into the sea on Monday.

Those memorialized Saturday joined 30 others whose cremated remains are preserved in aquatic urns that are sealed into the square-shaped markers, each of which has a plaque engraved with the name, branch of service, and birth and death dates.

Veterans whose cremations are interred in the reef represent every branch of service – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. Some served decades. Others, like Marine Corps Pfc. Ethan Eldrige, who died at age 21, served only a matter of months.

Several served in combat, veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm.

Then there’s Felix Bigalke, a Coast Guard service K-9, also memorialized at the reef.

This is Marcinowski’s passion project, one that goes beyond recognizing veterans to educate the general public about the military, rehabilitate and protect natural ocean reef ecosystems, and provide researchers opportunities to study how the environment and the organisms that live within it respond to an artificial reef.

“Working at the VA, just hearing the stories and having served in battle, having lost me of my own in battle, brings it home for me because I see the internal scars that they bear. It’s moving to me because I understand those scars,” Marcinowski said. “So, to be able to give them honor and share their stories that they may never have told their families, it is very rewarding.”

And, for the veterans memorialized at the reef who either have no family or are estranged from family, “It becomes really important that they not be forgotten,” he said.

The Veterans Memorial Reef website includes a Fallen Heroes tab where viewers can read veterans’ biographies, along with any medals awarded to them. Users can simply scroll over a ribbon bar or medal and click to learn more about that award.

“Those are things people don’t understand the meaning behind what they do, the risks they take to earn something like that or to be recognized for that,” Marcinowski explained.

Today, fewer than 1% of the country’s population serve as active-duty military.

“It’s dwindling,” said University of North Carolina Wilmington Director of Military Affairs Bill Kawczynski. “As our population grows and less and less folk either consider going in the military or even qualify for the military, it’s getting worse each year. And so, as director of the office of military affairs it gives me great satisfaction when I can connect students and others to things such as VMR or other military and veteran resources.”

On Saturday, Armed Forces Day, the nonprofit hosted in Southport a “Fallen Heroes Ceremony” for those whose remains will be placed in the sea. The honors-packed military tribute typically includes honor guards, the presentation of a 13-fold American flag to one member of each veteran’s family, taps, and a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace.”

In a final sendoff, usually two days after the ceremony, families are invited to board the Vonda Kay, a 72-foot head boat based in Carolina Beach, to watch their loved one’s memorial marker get submerged and placed onto the Veterans Memorial Reef.

To honor and to serve (research)

The North Carolina Division Marine Fisheries determines where the memorial markers will be placed on a large, open sandy bottom anywhere below 30 to 50 feet of water.

Veterans Memorial Reef has partnered with Raleigh-based Natrx that creates artificial reef structures called ExoForms, which are designed to promote habitat growth and ecological benefits and produced using 3-D printers.

The memorial reef is in what Troy Alphin, a senior research associate with the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science, describes as a dynamic environment with strong currents. Alphin was one of the people Marcinowski initially contacted for validation of his memorial reef idea. The two have known each other for several years and Marcinowski knew Alphin had studied the effects of underwater structures on the environment off other coasts.

Alphin thought an offshore monument for veterans a novel, innovative idea, one that not only honors veterans, but also offers a host of research opportunities.

“This is a passion project to meet the needs of veterans that’s providing us with an opportunity to address some questions that are really relevant for local marine science and in our coastal area,” he said. “This provides an interesting palette for researchers to come in and propose different questions. Are fish going to be attracted to it? Are other organisms going to be attracted to it? What’s that development through time? The Center for Marine Science and UNCW are well positioned to address a lot of those questions.”

This year, students in the university’s coastal engineering program launched a capstone research project to try and answer the question of what the wave energy is like around the Veterans Memorial Reef.

Students used the university’s wave flume, 9,500-gallon-capacity glass and steel tank that can be programmed to imitate varying degrees of wave energy, to collect data that will help in future studies of the artificial reef site.

“We’re going to put some sensors on some of these monuments that are being deployed and start gathering data on what that looks like in the real word,” said Alphin, who sits on the Veterans Memorial Reef board of directors. “We want to know what that flow environment around these structures is really going to be.

“We’re really at the very beginning,” he continued. “There’s a lot of potential right now. I’m hoping that we’ll get a lot of students in the future and a lot of researchers that will be able to go out there and do some work around these structures.”

Guest Commentary

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues.

When I was a little kid, my aunt used to point to the foam washing up on the beach and tell me it was whale poop. I wasn’t sure I believed her. I kept a cautious distance from the foam, just in case, but the idea stuck with me.

Sea foam, of course, isn’t whale poop. She knew that. But years later, I learned that my aunt wasn’t entirely off in spirit: Whales really are ecosystem giants, fertilizing the sea and fueling the plankton blooms that support everything from the fish we catch to the oxygen we breathe. Remembering that early sense of wonder now, it’s impossible for me to look at the decline of one species, the North Atlantic right whale, with anything but urgency.

These gentle giants called our North Carolina waters home long before our coastal towns had names. Today, though, these critically endangered whales are facing a crisis they can’t outswim — and a recent move by the federal government threatens to make a dire situation even worse.

Lethal cost of speed

On March 4, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued an advance notice that it is considering deregulating the very rules designed to protect these endangered whales from boat strikes.

North Atlantic right whales are particularly vulnerable to ship strikes. They spend long periods near the surface, and they are hard to spot because they are dark in color and lack a dorsal fin.

The problem is simple but deadly: The faster a vessel is moving, the greater the chance that a collision will injure or kill a whale. Even a strike from a midsize boat can be fatal. And these impacts can be dangerous and devastating to boaters as well, including sinking boats and injuring passengers and crew.

That’s why in 2008, NOAA issued the Vessel Speed Rule. It established two types of management tools to slow large boats and protect North Atlantic right whales from boat strikes. First, the rule required boats 65 feet or longer to slow down to 10 knots in Seasonal Management Areas (SMAs) where North Atlantic right whales are expected to be present. Second, the rule established a voluntary speed limit of 10 knots in Dynamic Management Areas (DMAs), which are triggered by North Atlantic right whale sightings and acoustic detections. Off North Carolina, the SMA near Cape Fear is active from Nov. 1 through April 30 — the months when North Atlantic right whales migrate through our waters on their way to calving grounds farther south. The rule was designed to reduce the risk of collisions. Studies suggest boats traveling under 10 knots are less likely to kill North Atlantic right whales should they collide.

These seasonal protections cover a narrow window of time, but they align with when whales are expected or detected, and they remain one of the few safeguards the species has as it moves through some of the busiest shipping and recreational boating corridors on the East Coast. It’s a proven strategy. It works.

Mirage of technology vs. proven solution

Despite this, NOAA’s recent notice suggests that mandatory speed limits could be replaced with “advanced, technology‑based, strike‑avoidance measures.” While innovation is welcome, there is currently no technology proven to protect these whales at the scale and speed of East Coast boat traffic.

Relying on unproven technology while weakening mandatory speed limits is like removing a school zone speed limit because we hope one day cars will have better sensors. The only practical, proven, and scalable measure to protect right whales, particularly when they are migrating with their new calves, is the Vessel Speed Rule.

There are plenty of ways to strengthen the rule now, including updating the times and areas of speed zones to align with the whales predicted path today – not what it was in 2008, all speed zones mandatory, and including smaller boats in the protections. But to weaken or eliminate it all together will only hasten this species’ extinction. We cannot take away one of their best chance of survival.

More than just a whale: an ecosystem giant

The case for protecting right whales isn’t only about compassion for an endangered species. It’s also about safeguarding the health of the Atlantic. North Atlantic right whales act as ocean engineers, cycling nutrients as they migrate along the East Coast, which fuels the growth of phytoplankton, or plant-like organisms in the ocean.

When I think back to those childhood days on the beach with my aunt, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t trying to teach me anything profound about the ocean. She was probably just teasing me, the way adults do with kids who take everything a little too seriously. But the joke stuck, and so did the feeling that the ocean was full of mysteries bigger than I could understand.

Now, years later, I know that whales really do shape the ocean in ways that are just as surprising as anything she could have made up.  Losing them would mean losing far more than a species. It would mean losing a piece of the ocean that shaped us — the same ocean where I learned wonder, caution, and responsibility long before I had the words for any of it.

We have a choice now. We can let the North Atlantic right whale slip quietly into memory, or we can act with the urgency this moment demands. Defending and strengthening the Vessel Speed Rule is one of the simplest, most effective steps we can take to protect these whales and the ecosystem they support.

My aunt may have been wrong about the foam, but she wasn’t wrong about the ocean. Everything out there is connected — and right now, the North Atlantic right whales are depending on us.

Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or our publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

Dr. Reide Corbett, executive director of the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese, is the featured lecturer this month at the institute’s “Science on the Sound” lecture series.

The public is encouraged to attend Corbett’s lecture, “Holding the Line? Coastal Change and Barrier-Island Dynamics on the Outer Banks.” The program is set for 6 p.m. May 28 at the institute and there’s no charge to attend.

From collapsing oceanfront homes to repeated beach nourishment projects, coastal change is becoming increasingly visible across the Outer Banks. But what do these changes reveal about how barrier islands function — and how different management approaches interact with these naturally dynamic systems?

Corbett will discuss the science behind erosion, storms, overwash, sediment transport, and sea level rise, while exploring how shoreline management strategies influence beaches, infrastructure, and long-term resilience.

“Rather than focusing on simple solutions, the discussion will examine the tradeoffs, time horizons, and challenges associated with managing development on a constantly changing coast,” organizers said in their announcement.

Whether you work in coastal science, policy, planning, or simply care deeply about the Outer Banks, this presentation offers an opportunity to better understand the processes shaping one of the most dynamic shorelines on the East Coast.

The program will also be livestreamed on YouTube.

Corbett is a coastal oceanographer and geochemist whose work focuses on coastal change, sediment dynamics, shoreline processes, and the geomorphic evolution of barrier island systems.

Born and reared on the North Carolina coast, he earned his bachelor’s in chemistry and his master’s and doctorate in chemical oceanography from Florida State University before beginning his academic career at Tulane University in New Orleans. He later returned to North Carolina to join ECU, where he serves as dean of Integrated Coastal Programs, executive director of the Coastal Studies Institute, and professor in the Department of Coastal Studies.

Corbett’s research examines the dynamic interface between land and sea, from estuaries and continental shelves to barrier islands and polar coastlines. His work has taken him from North Carolina and Puerto Rico to New Zealand and Antarctica, with a particular focus on how storms, sea level rise, sediment movement, human activity, and long-term geologic processes shape coastal environments. Through the lens of North Carolina’s coast, he helps communities better understand shoreline change, barrier island evolution, and the choices needed to adapt to a changing coastal future, organizers said.

BUXTON — Large amounts of underground oil contamination left behind decades ago at a former beachfront U.S Naval facility may finally be gone after the recent completion of an intensive seven-month excavation project, but additional sampling will still need to be done in the fall to confirm that petroleum is no longer a threat.

By month’s end, Army Corps of Engineers contractors, after removing tons of tainted soil and untold gallons of polluted water, will have restored dug-up areas off Buxton Beach and removed the heavy equipment.

“We’re hoping to be out of your hair when the tourists get in your hair,” joked Hillary Weber, program manager for contractor Bay West, at the April 30 quarterly update held in Buxton.

In a presentation at what is officially known as the Restoration Advisory Board, or RAB, for the Buxton Naval Facility Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) property, Weber provided details about the latest challenge in the decades-long effort to clean up the former Navy base, with sporadic, reoccurring incidents since September 2023 of petroleum odors, sheen and shoreline tar balls on the eroded beach and nearshore ocean area after storms.

In the wake of a report of sheen by Cape Hatteras National Seashore last August, the Corps’ Savannah District awarded a contract for petroleum containment, limited soil removal, and monitoring, and then another contract in September for removal of petroleum-contaminated soil.

“It takes quite a bit of effort to get to this site,” Weber said. “A lot of man hours were put in in September and October to get us ready for a successful season.”

Inherent project challenges weren’t helped by heavy rain that saturated the site in November, she said. Still, the first load of soil was able to be removed starting in December.

“Our goal was to minimize our footprint before the holidays,” Weber told the RAB members and a small audience at the Cape Hatteras Anglers Club building. By January, “we really hit our stride,” she said, with excavation at the areas of highest impact.

The site demobilization was originally scheduled to be completed by May 7, but the exit was delayed until just before Memorial Day to allow more time to bring in additional sand to restore the site.

Although Weber reported that 17,000 cubic yards of affected soil and 315,000 gallons of water were removed, Sara Keisler, the Corps’ Savannah District FUDS Program manager, said in a later interview that those numbers were merely estimates. But the exact amounts, which have specific contractual maximum volume limits, were still being calculated, she added. 

“So the intent of this action was to remove a majority of that contamination that potentially could be eroded away and washed out to sea,” Keisler told Coastal Review. “And that’s what we accomplished during this this response action.”

All told, Keisler confirmed, the project consumed about 31,500 labor hours, required 10 “pieces of yellow iron” — heavy equipment — and removed an estimated 275 feet of asbestos pipe, 5 million pounds of concrete, and 2,800 pounds of infrastructure debris.

As Keisler explained, the contaminated soil was sent to a regulated hazardous waste landfill in Canada. The Emelle, Alabama, Subtitle-C landfill that the Corps used in 2024 to dispose of earlier excavated soil from Buxton was not currently available, she said.

Much of the Corps’ time and resources have been dedicated to cleaning up the former top-secret submarine-monitoring facility, which operated from 1956 until 1982 through a special-use permit with the National Park Service, the property owner.

Starting in 1989, the Corps, the federal entity designated to clean up FUDS properties, removed above-ground storage tanks. Next, the FUDS office handled removal of below-ground storage tanks. Subsequent years involved testing, sampling, removing, and monitoring contaminated soil and/or water at various areas of the 50-acre site.

There was a lull, except for some monitoring, after September 2009, when the Corps determined that no further action was warranted. But in September 2023, severe shoreline erosion associated with a series of storms exposed chunks of buried infrastructure and evidence of even more petroleum contamination. Since then, the Corps has spent parts of every year investigating and cleaning up the site.

In the fall, another contractor will sample soil and groundwater within the project area to determine if and where any additional petroleum contamination remains.

Much of the petroleum contamination removed in the recent excavation had been at the site of a former heating plant, Keisler said, which lines up to where there was a previous fuel pipeline.

“That was where the bulk was that we were able to find,” she said. But because the extent of the contamination at that location in the polygon used to delineate areas at the site wasn’t initially known, a modification had to be made to the contract.

“The comprehensive sampling contract was awarded prior to this response action that we’re working on right now,” Keisler said. “When we awarded it, we were basing it upon other data. Then we had to award this response action because we were actively seeing releases again.

“And so, because in that whole polygon, the soil was all mixed up,” she elaborated, “because we were digging it and removing and putting new soil in. We went and modified that contract so that it would be a more evenly dispersed amount of borings across the entire polygon so that we would get the data we need, since the site conditions change due to that response action.”

If further remediation is required, the Corps would have to address it in an additional response action, she said.

Meanwhile, once funding is obtained, the Savannah office plans to return to Buxton for yet another project, known as “a Military Munitions Response Program,” which would address lead contamination at the former small arms range. Compared to decades of environmental cleanup of petroleum and other dangers, remnants of some ammunition almost may seem innocuous. 

“It’s located on the southwest side of that pond,” Keisler said. “It’s a very small area. It’s got a whole bunch of growth on it. It’s not accessible.” 

A crew on Monday began removing a storm-battered, dilapidated waterfront boardwalk near Jacksonville’s Northeast Creek Park boat launch area.

The removal marks the first step in a series of park improvements and additions, including a new boardwalk, fishing pier that will be built out into Northeast Creek and parallel to the shore, and an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant kayak launch.

The Northeast Creek Park restoration project also entails construction of a new living shoreline and wetlands restoration.

Work to rebuild and expand the site is expected to begin in later winter into the spring of 2027, according to a city release.

“We are excited to be able to get this project underway,” Jacksonville Stormwater Manager Pat Donovan-Brandenburg stated in the release. “Having a safe boardwalk and pier as well as adding a kayak launch for public is important to improving quality of life here in Jacksonville. Equally important, is addressing the erosion we see along our waterways due to storms and water rise. Expanding on the wetlands and installing a living shoreline will work to preserve this.”

The project has been funded through a multi-year, $16 million National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant the city was awarded in October 2024. Funds from that grant are also being used to expand the city’s Oyster Highway project, Scales Creek flood mitigation and watershed restoration, and shoreline and wetland restoration for Phillips Park and Chaney Creek.

These projects will be headed by the city’s stormwater and engineering divisions.

The May meeting of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission is scheduled for next week in Raleigh.

According to the commission’s Thursday, May 14 draft agenda, members will consider a federal petition to incorporate National Ambient Air Quality Standards into state air quality rules.

When newly enacted Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards take effect, the new rules effectively apply to state standards, which must be revised to align.

The proposal before the EMC would omit the state from having to go through the process of updating its rules every time a federal air quality standard changes.

The commission will also receive an update on the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Flood Resiliency Blueprint.

DEQ released on April 1 improved advisory flood maps for the Cape Fear, Lumber, Neuse, Tar-Pamlico and White Oak river basins. These maps are designed to help local governments, agencies and non-governmental partners develop, evaluate and prioritize resilience actions, and plan and secure funding to implement those actions.

The commission’s committees will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the Archdale Building’s ground floor hearing room, 512 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh.

Those meetings will be livestreamed by Webex, meeting number/access code 2427 265 5562, password NCDEQ (62337).

The full commission will meet at 9 a.m. on Thursday in the Archdale Building. The meeting may also be viewed via livestream, meeting number/access code
2429 624 8234, password NCDEQ (62337).

To listen to the meetings either day by phone dial +1-415-655-0003.

Agendas for the committees and the full commission are available on the EMC’s website.

Ms. Doris Creecy has been a familiar face to locals on Roanoke Island for a long time.

This 90-year-old “Senior Delight,” the official title she is called by one of the several organizations she supports, is known by many. She is a frequent presence at events, especially programs close to her heart and those that include youth.

Standing tall, typically wearing a beautiful hat, a colorful outfit, and with cane in hand, this elegant lady cannot easily be missed. She and her daughter, Coquetta Laverna Conyers Brooks, are frequently seen. They are an often-noted twosome at community, church, and school events,

Ms. Creecy is not letting her age slow her down. She is always ready to encounter new experiences, learn more, and to talk about history, a topic she loves.

Born Aug. 1, 1935, in Wilmington, and a graduate of Clifton University in South Carolina, she was licensed to teach in four states: South Carolina, Virginia, New York, and North Carolina. On Roanoke Island, where she moved after teaching in Wilmington, she taught third and fourth grade students and served as a reading specialist at Manteo Elementary School from 1977 to 1990.

Thousands she taught in her lifetime have become educators, entrepreneurs, first-time homeowners, musicians, pastors, nurses, fishermen and so much more. The pivotal role Black educators played in Wilmington and the surrounding area during challenging historical times influenced her decision to teach.

She is a lifelong and proud member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. (AKSA) the first intercollegiate historical Black sorority. She has been a former board member of several organizations, including presently serving as an honorary board member for our organization, the Pea Island Preservation Society Inc.

Ms. Creecy can most easily be found at church each Sunday morning, sitting faithfully in her favored spot, front-row pew and left side of the sanctuary at Haven Creek Missionary Baptist Church. There she serves as a deaconess and as a Sunday school and vacation Bible school teacher.

This church is connected to the story of the Freedmen’s Colony on Roanoke Island, where thousands sought freedom and a safe haven during the Civil War. Her faith and love of God have always been primary in her life and teachings.

Ms. Creecy is perhaps best known as the founder of the Echoes of Heritage, or the shortened Echoes they are called, an a cappella singing group she formed shortly after moving to Roanoke Island. She is the directress and leader of the group.

Originally 12 singers, the Echoes have had three different sets of singers over time. Over the years they have performed at countless events under her guidance.

Ms. Creecy is the heart and soul of the group known for singing spiritual songs. Once she and a singing partner even had a regular Tuesday spot on a local radio station. Although the Echoes are not as active or big in number as in the past, still today at 90 years old, Ms. Creecy continues to receive requests to perform.

Today she and her daughter Coquetta, typically with two, three or four additional singers, occasionally delight audiences at selected events with spiritual songs. In recent years, they have performed at several events. This includes events held at the College of the Albemarle – Dare campus and other locations for programs sponsored by our organization, Dare County, and the Town of Manteo. Many of the programs she attends result in her warmly greeting adults who were former students.

As a born educator, she especially enjoys sharing her own experiences, including the joys, challenges and difficulties she faced as part of her own personal journey.

In recent years she and her accompanists have performed at three of our five annual Juneteenth “Sounds of Freedom” celebrations held at the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum, where the story of Keeper Richard Etheridge and the surfmen he commanded at the historic Pea Island Life-saving Station is told.

Ms. Creecy is a devoted supporter, always ready to raise awareness of this history. On several occasions theEchoeshave performed at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Day celebration held on Roanoke Island.

These events are two of her favorites. Seeing and watching her so passionately sing songs that serve as living history and which reflect her own personal journey is touching. It is also an important reminder of how the music inspires and unites.

Past members of the Echoeshave included many with roots on Roanoke Island. The late Dellerva Collins, who served as mayor pro tem and as a Manteo town commissioner for years, was part of the original 12. Likewise, the late Virginia Tillett and Naomi Augusta Collins, both pioneering community leaders and educators on Roanoke Island, sang with the Echoes.

Images showing women joyfully singing along with her who were known advocates for voices most often not seen or heard. Several through the years, past and present, are the descendants of those who lived on the Freedmen’s Colony or who are part of Ms. Creecy’s beloved church community.

When asked the most important lesson her mother has taught her, Coquetta quickly says, “to choose kindness always in spite of others.”

Her son Damian, a Manteo High School and Elizabeth City State University graduate, and who currently is pursuing a master’s in the computer engineering field, is someone Ms. Creecy is especially proud of.  She and her grandson are very, very close, Coquetta adds. 

When asked what lesson his grandmother has most taught him, Damian says, “never remain stagnant and to pursue improvement daily,” two lessons that also reflect the guidance Ms. Creecy has passed along to her many students over the years.

All are encouraged to help celebrate Mother’s Day this year by sending Ms. Creecy (or Ms. Pledger as some know her by her late husband’s last name) a special card. She has no idea of this request so please also help us to keep it a surprise! Without a doubt, the avid reader she continues to be, she will greatly enjoy reading these special cards on Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day or any greetings may be sent to: Mrs. Doris Creecy, P.O. Box 1068, Manteo, NC 27954.

NEAR BEAUFORT — Officials wielded ceremonial gold-painted shovels Monday to break ground on an economic development project specifically tailored to the needs of coastal communities, a plan that one advocate likened to successful technology-incubation hubs but instead intended to support shellfish aquaculture jobs.

When construction begins at the recently cleared site this summer, the Shellfish Mariculture Hub will feature a 2,500-square-foot structure on county-owned land next to the boat ramp at Straits Landing, just across from Harkers Island. The building will be outfitted with cold storage, equipment, an outdoor workspace and crucial water access — shared resources for shellfish growers, officials said.

Tom Looney of Wrightsville Beach, a former vice president and general manager of Lenovo North America and a longtime board member with Coastal Review’s publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, said he had been involved a decade ago in developing the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, which works to recruit new business, assist existing businesses, help companies with international trade, promote the state as a tourist destination and counsel small companies and startups.   

“Today, it’s the number one workforce engine in the country for the last three out of four years,” Looney said. “We know how to attract businesses. We know how to create new businesses. What I learned in that role was, some of the most economically challenged regions in our state were our coastal communities. We had to find new ways to create jobs for people to feed their families, grow a business, have opportunity.”

Looney, who was an IBM man for more than 30 years, said that, since 2013, North Carolina’s oyster industry has grown more than 500%. Today, the state boasts one of the fastest-growing oyster industries in the country, generating more than $300 million annually.

“And let me tell you, folks, this hub will set it on fire, as far as North Carolina as a state,” Looney said.

That success will be the result of combined forces, including the shellfish aquaculture program at Carteret Community College, and provide a good return on the investments made by the legislature, the county, the Coastal Federation and others, he said. Looney praised Coastal Federation staff, including Chief Program Officer Ana Zivanovic-Nenadovic for shepherding the project.

“We’re doing it the right way. We’re creating jobs while protecting the culture and our coastal waters,” Looney said.

He said the mariculture hub would apply the same principle as American Underground, a Google tech hub for startups in Durham, but with oysters.

Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis said the hub project was “about putting down roots for an industry that has been proving its worth in eastern North Carolina and across the country for a long time now.”

Shellfish mariculture, Davis said, combines economic opportunity, environmental benefits and a unique cultural heritage in a way that few other industries can.

“It creates jobs, it supports working waterfronts, and it keeps seafood production local, which is fantastic,” Davis said. “And at the same time, our oysters are out there every day, quietly doing their work, cleaning the water, filtering the water, improving clarity and water quality across the coast. So, that all together is a combined return on investment that you rarely find and few industries can match. It’s driving economic growth while actively improving water quality and protecting the coast.”

Also on hand for the event was Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, and who also represents Carteret, Chowan, Halifax, Hyde, Martin, Warren and Washington counties. Sanderson explained how his district has a “very important role to play in our seafood industry,” as producers and consumers. He noted the move to transfer the Division of Marine Fisheries from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to the Department of Agriculture as part of the Republican-led legislature’s regulatory reform efforts. “Because too many times, it hinders the growth that we could use here on the coast to create jobs and to make our economies more stronger and more prosperous.”

Sanderson described his district’s rankings in the state Department of Commerce economically distressed counties tier system. Under this system, the department ranks the 100 counties’ economic well-being and assigns a corresponding tier number, 1-3. Commerce designates the 40 most distressed counties as Tier 1, the next 40 as Tier 2 and the 20 least distressed as Tier 3.

“I have four counties, five counties that are Tier 1s, which is the most economically distressed counties in the state of North Carolina. And so anything that we can do to help those counties is going to be a blessing,” Sanderson said.

He said the Mariculture Hub was one of the few projects to get legislative support from all corners.

“This one is an easy one to sell, because I think people, first of all, they love seafood,” Sanderson said, adding that he hoped that the project becomes a prototype for others.

“We have over 300 farmers now farming oysters for at least a secondary income. We’re hoping that it will eventually become primary income for them,” he said.

Rep. Celeste Cairns, R-Carteret and Craven, also spoke at the event Monday. She said the project was “a real collaboration among state folks, local folks, and great organizations like the Coastal Federation, and I know I speak for Senator Sanderson as well when I say, when everybody is moving and pulling in the same direction, it is a rare and beautiful thing.”

Cairns said she had been told the total number of leases and franchises was about 500.

“Each of those, whatever the number — it’s a lot and growing — and each of those folks represents a small business or family or an individual trying to make a livelihood on the water.”

The Rocky Mount-based Golden LEAF Foundation, created by the North Carolina General Assembly to award proceeds from the 1998 National Cigarette Manufacturer Settlement Agreement, uses that money to create economic opportunities in rural, tobacco-dependent and poorer counties.

Golden LEAF’s early support and $200,000 in backing in August 2022 helped build momentum for the project. Jason Rochelle evaluates funding proposals for the organization, works to implement Golden LEAF priorities, and oversees project monitoring and compliance.

“At the time, the project represented a strong vision, one rooted in supporting local aquaculture, strengthening coastal economies and creating new opportunities for shellfish growers in the region,” Rochelle said. “Today, it’s incredibly rewarding to see that vision move forward. The shellfish hub is a strategic investment in the future of Carteret County and addresses real needs identified by the shellfish farming community by providing shared infrastructure such as dock access, refrigeration, storage, grading and loading equipment and a central point for distribution. This facility will make a meaningful difference in the day-to-day operations of local growers.”

Rochelle said the hub would serve up to 15 operations and generate around $2 million annually.

“By locating the facilities near the fishing waters, growers will be able to spend more time harvesting, less time on logistics,” Rochelle said. “This increased efficiency will translate to higher production, increased income and the creation of high-quality jobs in this community.”

Assistant Carteret County Manager Matt Reynal said the project reflects “who we are as a county, from Harkers Island to Cedar Island and all across Down East, our connection to the water has always been central to how we live and work. Shellfish mariculture builds on that tradition.”

Reynal said that economic development “isn’t just about bringing in something new or shiny” to Carteret County.

“It’s about supporting the industries that are already here and ensuring that we have the infrastructure to grow,” he said. “That’s why the county was proud to provide this land. We see the long-term value and what this project supports working waterfronts local businesses and innovative opportunity that stays rooted in our communities, and that’s especially important for Down East.”

Chris Matteo, president of the North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association, said that when he was first told of the plan, he “immediately agreed to participate.” He said Coastal Federation founder Todd Miller and Looney had seen a similar model in Australia, and that infrastructure helped fuel a thriving shellfish aquaculture industry there.

“And today we are finally breaking ground on our shared vision. I’m very excited for our local shellfish farmers and for our industry. This is a special day, not just because we are breaking ground on a new building, but because we’re laying the foundation for the next stage of growth in our young industry,” said Matteo. “This project took years of persistence, collaboration and a shared belief that working waterfronts and shellfish mariculture are critically important to North Carolina’s coast.”

The fun part lies ahead, Matteo said.

“This shellfish hub will create job local jobs, support family businesses and keep waterfront communities working on the water. It will do so while helping grow one of the world’s most sustainable and healthy animal proteins, and as if that wasn’t enough, it will also improve our estuaries. Every oyster grown in our waters does more than feed someone. It is filtering water, creating habitat, rebuilding public trust stocks of marine species, and proving that economic growth and environmental stewardship can go hand in hand.”

Matteo said he was especially proud that shellfish farms in North Carolina filter more than 600 million gallons of estuarine water every day.

“This hub will help us grow that number further,” he said. “As a shellfish grower here in North Carolina, I can tell you firsthand, this hub isn’t just a nice to have. It solves real-world problems that growers across the state deal with daily. While shellfish farming has enormous potential, the reality is, starting and scaling a farm is not easy. For many growers, one of the biggest barriers has always been access to waterfront infrastructure.”

For small operations, the costs can be terminal.

“Shellfish farmers haven’t been limited by demand or ability,” Matteo said. “They’ve been limited by not having a place to work on the water, the equipment to process and refrigerate their product and an efficient way to get it to market.”

Stewards of North Carolina’s rivers and streams have created a manual designed to assist local governments in establishing land use rules that protect water quality and boost community flood resilience.

The new guide, “Gold Standard Development Practices for Watershed Protection,” was developed in response to river keepers’ documentation of irresponsible land use practices that have resulted in severe and devastating impacts across the state, said Neuse Riverkeeper and Sound Rivers Inc. Director of Advocacy Samantha Krop.

“We realized that how our cities approach land use practices is one of the most important indicators of water quality and flooding mitigation we have,” she said. “So, we’ve taken a very thoughtful pivot to focusing on land use policy because we see it as inextricably linked to our community health and safety in the future.”

The guide, created by Waterkeepers Carolina with support from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, provides an array of options local governments may consider implementing in land use rules, developers can offer as proffers or in conditional rezoning applications, and concerned residents may use as an advocacy tool.

Counties, cities and towns throughout North Carolina establish key land use regulations through a single, consolidated document called a unified development ordinance, or UDO.

A UDO governs land use, zoning, and development standards aimed at guiding growth and protecting natural resources.

Local governments use these ordinances to govern land use in ways tailored to their communities.

Down-zoning ban limits local governments

In 2024, the North Carolina General Assembly banned local governments from being able to initiate a process called down-zoning, which is when property is rezoned to less dense or less intense use.

The ban effectively restricts those governments’ ability to enforce land use rules because the law requires that they must get written permission from all affected property owners before amending zoning text or maps.

The down-zoning ban in Senate Bill 382, a 2024 disaster relief bill, one vetoed by then-Gov. Roy Cooper, has prompted cities like New Bern and Durham to pump the brakes on updating their UDOs because the law lacks clarity, Krop said.

“I think that is presenting a lot of challenges, both in what the letter of the law says and also in what municipalities are sort of perceiving it to say, or sort of worried it’s created this boogeyman that I think is creating a lot of fear in municipal governments around can we do anything at all,” she said. “There are a lot of things that we can still do, both in passing changes to local UDOs and also in asking for more in some of these rezoning cases as proffers to protect waterways and communities from some of the harms that we’ve been documenting associated with development practices.”

Waterkeepers Carolina and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice last week in Durham hosted an event, “Designing Communities that Protect our Waters,” to discuss development and zoning practices aimed at protecting water and building community flood resilience.

Counsel for Environmental Justice James Huey at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice explained that one tool local governments have is something called conditional zoning.

Conditional zoning is a process in which a property owner and local government negotiate conditions in a rezoning request.

Local governments, “can impose conditions that address lots of various potential issues that might come up with any sort of development,” he said. “A lot of times with development, there isn’t really a one-size-fits-all and I think that’s why this document is important to show that there is a path forward, especially for those local governments that are concerned about their authority and also a little bit confused about if they should always be implementing a certain system or what systems to implement.”

Tree retention protects water quality

The guide also highlights how local governments can implement overlay districts that identify and bolster protections specific to sensitive and important areas such as drinking watersheds.

“With water quality, it really boils down to silver bullets, and that starts with leaving more trees in the ground,” Krop said. “The single, best thing that we can do when developing a landscape, a forested landscape, is leaving as many trees in the ground as possible. That looks like tree retention instead of removal and replacement with young saplings.”

Targeting tree retention around waterways, expanding riparian buffers, making sure wetlands are protected and buffered and increasing overall tree connectivity on the landscape are crucial in protecting water quality.

In areas where multiple acres of trees are being removed at one time, it is crucial that exposed soil is stabilized as soon as possible to prevent erosion, sedimentation and pollution in waterways. Local governments can regulate timeframes for which developers must establish ground cover to avert erosion.

Waterkeepers Carolina continues to push for a change in state law that would require developers to monitor all discharges coming from their sediment basins to prove they’re not pumping dirty water into creeks and streams.

“We would argue that this is something that needs to happen, at least in all sensitive watersheds where there’s evidence of construction practices polluting waterways,” Krop said.

She encourages communities to look at those that are implementing forward-thinking rules and protections for waterways.

“I think we can learn from each other and try to create more universal, more consistent protections across the whole state,” she said.

Emerald Isle commissioners are expected to consider at their meeting later this month raising tenfold the town-imposed penalty for violations involving damage to primary dunes.

The proposal, one that would increase the fine from $1,000 to $10,000, was unanimously approved last Tuesday by the town’s planning board and comes on the heels of Emerald Isle’s issuance of a cease-and-desist order for construction on an oceanfront lot.

Remarque Home Builders LLC was slapped with a notice of violation and ordered to stop working at 3405 Ocean Drive until the dune destroyed at the property, as well as a designated natural area on the lot, have been fully restored.

“I’ve been working as a beach town manager for most of my career, nearly three decades, and this is the most egregious violation I have ever seen,” Emerald Isle Town Manager Frank Rush said by telephone late Wednesday.

Carving more than 5,600 square feet of primary dune that buffered the lot from the oceanfront beach is a violation of the Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, minor permit the builder’s obtained May 1, 2024.

The developer also violated a town ordinance that requires 35% of a lot remain as undisturbed natural area.

The owners of the Cedar Point-based limited liability company did not respond to Coastal Review’s request for comment in time for publication, but in a statement to WCTI-TV, the owners said they were “cooperating fully” with the state and the town.

“We are working cooperatively with the regulators to finalize a remediation plan, to restore the dune in accordance with their directives, and to satisfy any lawful fines or penalties that may be assessed. We will continue to do what the Town and CAMA ask for us until this matter is fully resolved. Dune stewardship along the coast is a shared responsibility.”

It is unclear why the dune was leveled.

“The questions being examined at our property, such as how construction, landscaping and dune work interact with CAMA requirements, are not unique to 3405 Ocean Drive,” Remarque Home Builders said in the email. “We understand that similar work has been undertaken by other owners on Ocean Drive without triggering comparable regulatory action.”

“We raise this not to deflect responsibility, but to underscore that these are questions faced by many property owners along the coast, and by the regulators charged with applying the same standards to each of them,” the statement continues. “We welcome a regulatory process that produces clear, consistent guidance and even-handed enforcement across all similarly situated properties, and we are committed to helping that process succeed here.”

Rush said that sand from the dune was redistributed on the 0.43-acre lot and, in some cases, pushed onto adjacent properties.

“Essentially they have to put it back the way it was,” he said.

That entails restoring the dune to its original height of around 25 to 26 feet and planting it with vegetation commonly used for dune stabilization.

Under the terms of the notice of violation, the developer will also have to resubmit a new, separate pool permit so town staff “can judge that application on its own merits after this violation is completely resolved.”

The town’s notice of violation issued April 22 came with a $1,000 fine. The developer also faces an estimated $1,000 state-imposed fine, according to the town. If the limited liability company does not come into compliance within 60 days, the developer will be fined $1,000 a day until work is complete.

“They’ve indicated they intend to rectify it much sooner than that,” Rush said.

The town will not issue a certificate of occupancy for the 7,300-square-foot, 12-bedroom, 13 ½-bath house listed for $6 million until the repairs and restoration have been completed, he said.

Remarque, in its statement, reiterated that the property is privately owned and asked the media and public to stay off the lot where the conspicuously missing dune has drawn the ire of area residents and property owners who’ve taken to social media to express their outrage.

“If this is not escalated appropriately, it opens the door for others to push limits, take shortcuts, and deal with the consequences later. That is not a precedent we can afford to set in Emerald Isle,” Jamie Vogel, a former town commissioner, wrote in a social media post last month.

“The oceanfront dunes provide critical storm protection, aesthetic, and ecological value for Emerald Isle and the Town places the highest priority on a healthy beach strand and dune field,” Rush wrote in the May edition of the town’s newsletter Emerald Tidings. “Collectively, the community has invested tens of millions of dollars in beneficial beach nourishment projects over the past 23 years, and these sane placement efforts have resulted in the significant augmentation of existing dunes and the construction of new dunes to advance the Town’s goals. The Town’s existing dune protection regulation and State CAMA regulations are carefully crafted to balance dune protection, private property rights, and overall storm protection for the entire community and the violations at 3405 Ocean Drive were clear and obvious.”

The Emerald Isle Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing during its May 12 meeting at 7500 Emerald Drive before considering amending an ordinance to increase the penalty for violations that involve primary dunes. That meeting will begin at 6 p.m.

New York Times bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey returns to the fictional, sleepy, seaside town of Cape Carolina in her newest novel “Summer State of Mind.”

Hitting shelves on Tuesday, the reader meets a burned-out neonatal intensive care unit nurse that crosses paths with an injured former baseball star who finds an abandoned newborn in their tight-knit community, Harvey explained.

A contemporary women’s fiction author, Harvey was on her way home from the Piedmont to Beaufort a few weeks ago when she carved out a few minutes of her day for a chat with Coastal Review.

She said that “Summer State of Mind” is a companion to her “Under the Southern Sky,” a 2021 novel about two childhood friends and neighbors, Parker and Amelia, raised in Cape Carolina, and the book in which she introduces secondary characters, aunt Tilley and Parker’s older brother, Mason.

In “Summer State of Mind,” the “very eccentric” Southern aunt and baseball player Mason are the primary characters along with Daisy, the NICU nurse who is new to the coastal setting, Harvey said.

The plot was inspired by a newspaper article written about an ICU nurse who adopted an abandoned baby, “and it just stuck with me for a long time,” Harvey explained. She mentioned the article to a friend who is an ICU nurse, and the friend shared with Harvey that she knew others with similar experiences. Then a book crossed her desk about nurses who had to make really difficult decisions, “and those kinds of gray areas where sometimes we find ourselves, and (then the novel) all came together.”

Harvey is getting ready to head out Friday to Charleston, South Carolina, to begin her “Summer State of Mind” launch tour. She will be back in eastern North Carolina on Sunday for brunch hosted by the Beaufort Historical Association in Atlantic Beach.

The rest of her tour takes her to Greensboro on Monday, and then on Tuesday, when the book is officially released, she has events in Greenville, South Carolina, and Salisbury, before heading May 6 to Chapel Hill and Raleigh.

Outside of the Carolinas, Harvey has events in Tampa, Florida, on May 7, followed by Franklin, Indiana, on May 8, then Webster Groves, Missouri, on May 9. She heads further west May 10 to Gig Harbor and May 11 to Seattle, both in Washington, and then on May 12 San Diego, California, for two events.

She will return to the east coast for events May 16 in Sneads Ferry and Ocean Isle Beach, and wraps up her tour in South Carolina May 17 for Pawleys Island and Columbia and then Camden on May 18. Tickets and more details are available on her website.

With this book being released in May and then “Falling for Peachtree Bluff,” the fifth installment of her “Peachtree Series” expected to come out in September, the second leg of her 2026 tour will be announced is this fall.

The road to Southern fiction

Harvey grew up in Salisbury, where she said she fell in love with writing when she was a senior year in high school. She was an intern at a “great, small-town daily newspaper.”

“I was actually going to medical school and decided to become a journalist instead, because I just absolutely fell in love with writing for newspapers,” she said.

As an intern at the Salisbury Post, “I just fell in love with writing for newspapers and interviewing people, and so I ended up going to journalism school at UNC and just ate it up. Just loved it,” she said. During that time, she worked on the university’s Blue & White magazine and served as its managing editor.

Harvey explained that when she earned her undergraduate degree in 2007, it was an unusual time in journalism because of increasingly adopted internet service, which “hadn’t really hit its stride yet, and the future of journalism was looking a little questionable.”

She decided to pursue her master’s in literature, with the thought that, if writing doesn’t work out, she can teach. But life sent her on a different path. After grad school, she started working in finance but continued to freelance as a writer.

She also began weaving together storylines. And though she took creative writing classes in college, she never really planned to write fiction.

“I think there was something really perfect about the way that it unfolded, because I started getting these ideas and then decided that I was going to write a book just to see if I could, just for myself,” Harvey said.

When she began writing, it wasn’t with the expectation of publishing or becoming an author, which she said was the right approach for her because there was no pressure in it at all. She wanted to see if this was something she could do.

“And I kept writing, and I kept writing,” and by the time she had her third manuscript, she decided to submit her work to literary agents.

She sold her debut novel “Dear Carolina” to a publishing house in 2014, and the book was out in 2015. Set in Kinston, the work follows the path of two women from different circles who bond over the adoption of a baby girl.

Her second book, “Lies and Other Acts of Love,” is set in her hometown of Salisbury, she said. This standalone 2016 novel delves into family secrets.

Harvey initially planned to set her next project, the Peachtree Bluff series, in Beaufort, but “then I realized how incredibly freeing it was to be able to just make up a town” and build the world to suit the story.

She draws inspiration from the beach communities on the East Coast like Beaufort, calling the fictional towns “loose interpretations” of places she knows, all with the goal to give the readers small southern towns.

“That’s what I know, and also because I think it resonates with readers,” she said, giving them a touchpoint that they can return to again and again.

The “Peachtree Series” launched in 2017, the same year she and her husband decided to try Beaufort out full time.

Harvey explained that they bought their house in Beaufort in 2012 and had spent about 18 months remodeling what they had planned to be their beach house. They had been driving to and from Carteret County, “And when our son was in preschool, we decided to move for one year, and now he’s in eighth grade and we still haven’t left,” she said about their move to Carteret County. By then she had published her third book.

The beauty of Carteret County, aka the “Crystal Coast” in marketing materials, and its residents are special to her.

Being from Salisbury, Harvey’s family was much closer to South Carolina beaches, and with her father being from Wilmington, “When we were going to the beach, we were either going to Wrightsville or Litchfield. And so, it was new for me, and I just fell in love with it right away.”

‘Friends & Fiction’ podcast

Harvey co-hosts “Friends & Fiction” with New York Times bestselling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel and Patti Callahan Henry.

The podcast launched in 2020 when Andrews texted a handful of authors who had books scheduled to publish, but all their tours had been canceled because of COVID-19, and, “we were really worried about independent bookstores. There was no foot traffic, there was no events.”

While brainstorming about ways to reach their readers and help the small businesses, they decided to go live on Facebook and talk about their new books and remind people to support their independent bookstores.

“The first night we did it, we didn’t think anyone would show up,” she said, but a thousand people tuned in. The bestselling authors decided to go live every Wednesday night for seven weeks, when the hosts’ books would be out. And now, the show is coming up on its six-year anniversary, with 350,000 members.

“It’s just like a nice corner of the internet world where people can talk about books,” Harvey said. “We’re really good friends and we love what we’re doing, and we love supporting authors, and our mission is still to support independent bookstores, and as long as, as long as viewers keep showing up to watch, we’re going to keep going.”

One benefit of the podcast is that it pushes Harvey to read books outside of her preferred genres before interviewing the authors.  

“I’ve read so many things that I never would have read, but I did because the author was going to be a guest,” and through that process, she said she’s discovered new authors, genres and novels that broadened her view in some way. “I do think reading really widely can really help inform our own writing.”

She added that she loves to hear from the authors and the paths they took.

“It’s so cool to me how people just come to the page in such wildly different ways. And everybody has their own journey. Everybody has their own writing process.”

In addition to the two books released this year, “A Happier Life,” her 2024 work set in a historic Beaufort home, is in development for film by MGM/Amazon.

“The Summer of Songbirds,” the 2023 novel about lifelong friends who met as children at summer camp, is in development for television with Hulu, and a handful of other projects are in various stages of option or development for film and television, according to her provided bio. Her work has been Southern Living, Parade, Traditional Home, USA TODAY and other publications.

With more than a decade of full-time writing behind her, Harvey told Coastal Review that she loves watching the story unfold as she writes it.

“I’m so happy that I did it. I always look back and think, ‘What if I’d never done this?’ I never would have known,” she said.

Harvey remains unsure what life will look like in the next five years, but her plan is to focus on “writing my next best book and what’s the next best step.”

Though parts of North Carolina saw rainfall over the weekend, it didn’t touch the extreme drought conditions the state has been experiencing for at least six months.

State Climate Office of North Carolina Assistant State Climatologist Corey Davis told Coastal Review Monday that, while eastern North Carolina fared better than the rest of the state this weekend with the rainfall totals outperforming the forecasts — with A few spots like Lumberton and Goldsboro had around an inch, and parts of the Crystal Coast had 2 to 3 inches — “I don’t expect that will bring any improvements on the drought map this week.”

He is referring to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s weekly assessment of drought conditions. The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council, or DMAC, looks at data from Tuesday to Tuesday and submits its recommendations to the National Drought Mitigation Center. The center then publishes on that Thursday a map showing where conditions range from abnormally dry, or D1, to exceptional drought, or D4.

Often, Davis continued, the first rain event or two after a prolonged dry spell has little to no impact on things like soil moisture because the ground can hardened and then it becomes tough for water to infiltrate.

“Streamflow levels are also very low still, so it will take more rain to recharge those streams and their tributaries,” he said, calling the recent rain more of a “stop-the-bleeding kind of week.”

The state began moving toward these extreme drought conditions late last summer, the result of little rainfall overall, a quiet tropical storm season that did not contribute to the average precipitation numbers, and followed by a fairly dry fall and winter.

Since mid-March of this year, there has been a summer-like weather pattern with high pressure overhead, meaning unseasonably warm temperatures and little rainfall. That has helped drought intensify, and more than 40% of the state is now in extreme drought, which is considered the second most severe category in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s classification system, according to the climate office. Most of coastal North Carolina is in the severe drought category, the third category.

“The main hope is that this event is the start of a pattern change, and the forecast is promising for at least a couple more rain events through the end of the week,” Davis said Monday. “If we can pick up a few more inches of rain over the next week or two, then that could at least soften the edges of those Severe and Extreme Drought areas on the map and start bringing some gradual improvements.”

Davis made a similar point Thursday during a webinar “About Extreme Drought: What to know this spring and beyond.” He was joined by other members of DMAC, including its chair Klaus Albertin with the Division of Water Resources, N.C. Forest Service Forestry and Fire Environment Staff Forester Jamie Dunbar, and Senior Service Hydrologist Barrett Smith with the National Weather Service’s Raleigh office.

Davis said during the online presentation that the state had been experiencing a substantial drought for a while and will not be getting rid of the drought and its impacts with one event, or even in one month.

“Ideally, we would like to start seeing consistently at least 1 to 2 inches of rain per week,” Davis explained. “This time of the year, we tend to average between three-quarters of an inch to an inch of rain every week. We want at least to get that normal amount — an extra inch on top of that would be even better — and that would let us start chipping away at this drought and some of the ongoing impacts.”

In parts of northeastern North Carolina, “they are only, in quotes, in the moderate drought level, but that still means they are starting to see some crop stress and some low surface water levels,” Davis said.

The severe drought still prevalent across the coastal plain and central Piedmont means that it has been dry long enough that farmers are not going to see the yields that they expect if these conditions continue. And “at this point, that drought has been around long enough that it can start to take a toll on our water supplies.”

The final category, exceptional drought, “is reserved for the very rarest and the very driest events,” or “the most dire situation,” Davis said, which is “when water supplies are critically low, and you’ll see even more water restrictions implemented at even higher levels than what we’re seeing right now in extreme drought.”

Adding to the drought this winter was a La Niña pattern, which is where there tends to be cooler water out across the Pacific that weakens the jet stream, and ultimately shifting storms north, making it so places like the Great Lakes see more rain, while North Carolina usually experiences warmer and drier winter months.

The snowfall in late January and early February did not have much effect on the rain total deficits. “Even though we saw a foot of snow in some spots, that only amounted to about an inch of liquid, which is average per week at that time of the year,” he added.

Since the middle of March, there has been high pressure either just offshore or right over the Carolinas and has put the area in what Davis called a “heat dome” that is expected around June or July, not in April. “That’s why we’ve seen record high temperatures over the last few weeks and it has really blocked any sort of rai- making weather systems from moving through.” 

Impacts that most people are starting to notice as the drought lingers is that the soil moisture is extremely low right now.

“What that tells us is that the soil moisture is not in any shape for planting right now. There is just no moisture there, especially in the upper layers of the soil. And even if we were to get some decent rainfall over the next week, that does not necessarily mean it is time to start planting,” he said, because anything that’s planted will establish a very shallow root system.

“And if this drought continues, or if we get into some hot weather this summer, those shallow roots will dry out very easily, and that can kill the plant,” he said.

Davis mentioned Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, or CoCoRaHs, a community science program that encourages people to make daily rainfall measurements and to submit condition monitoring reports that talk about the sort of dryness or impacts that they’re seeing around their home or in their neighborhood or in their community.

There was “a really interesting report from the northeastern part of the state,” Davis said about a submission from a farmer in Chowan County, which is in a moderate drought.

While farmers were able to get the corn in the fields, “the problem there is that a lot of those farmers will pull water directly from the Albemarle Sound, where it meets the Roanoke River, and use that to irrigate their farms,” Davis said. “Typically, in the upper levels of the sound there, you’re getting enough fresh water that’s being flushed down the river, then it’s not too much of a worry about saltiness.”

Because of the drought, water isn’t moving down the river, and salty water is pushing farther inland, which is too salty to use for irrigation. “That’s a very unique impact that we’ll see in that corner of the state during times of extreme drought like this one.”

Albertin with the Division of Water Resources explained that groundwater gives a good indication of the more extreme droughts.

“Surface water can fluctuate rapidly,” Albertin said. When there’s rainfall, groundwater is much more stable, but when there are low groundwater levels, widespread impacts to water resources across the state should be expected.

Another place drought presents itself is that the reservoirs are under more demand, and as the temperatures rise, evaporation is higher.

“When you have inflows that are below or well below the median,” he said, “it’s not surprising that we’ll start to see levels in the reservoirs drop fairly quickly.”

This has resulted in many areas implementing water restrictions, which may increase if conditions do not improve.

Common conservation guidelines are to limit outdoor watering to a couple of days a week and water by hand instead of using a sprinkler.

“It’s better to water heavier once a week versus lighter twice a week and try and water before 10 a.m. this results in less evaporation and reduces grass diseases,” Albertin said. Adding to avoid washing driveways and sidewalks, but repair leaking faucets and run full loads of dishwashers and washing machines.

Dunbar with the state Forest Service, said that as early as December, there have been abnormal load of wildfires.

The 10-year average for January was around 339 fires, but this year, there were more than 1,000 incidents that month across the state.

The coastal plain has a very pronounced spring fire season and if the drought gets worse, eastern North Carolina could very easily have a late spring and summer fire season, he added, and has an above-normal risk for significant wildfires next month.

When the burn ban was instituted on March 28 by the Commissioner of Agriculture, almost 18,000 online burn permits were canceled, noting that in the southeast, about 45% of wildfires are caused by debris burn escapes.

“Although the ban doesn’t prevent wildfire, it definitely reduces the number of new ignitions,” Smith said, allowing more local resources to be used to control complex fires, and allows firefighters to be able to move around more effectively around the state.

Smith with the National Weather Service said the next 30 days are critical for the state in terms of how much rainfall we get and how it impacts the drought.

The outlook for the coming weeks points to above-normal precipitation, and more rain through the summer months.

“As we head toward June, July and August, we come much more dependent on afternoon showers and thunderstorms,” which may help an individual community, farm, city, reservoir, but not always the entire state.

Forecasters are also keeping an eye on patterns in the pacific that could impact the 2026 tropical storm season.

Smith also plugged CoCoRaHS, which he said they are desperate for rainfall reports, “not just when it is raining, not just when it is flooding, but when we’re in these dry situations. We don’t have enough rainfall reports.” Adding that it does not take up much time. “We really need these reports, especially in these very dry situations.”

WILMINGTON – For more than two hours, residents in an area considered ground zero for PFAS contamination in North Carolina passionately, often angrily, chastised the Environmental Management Commission’s proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules.

Dozens of people who signed up to speak – 60 in all – at the public hearing Thursday in downtown Wilmington took turns at a podium unleashing what turned into a collective no-holds-barred rebuke of the proposed rules and, at times, the commissioners who pushed them forward for public comment.

Several of those who spoke in front of a crowd of about 230 people who filled a room in Wilmington’s Skyline Center shared stories about their own health issues, illnesses their loved ones have suffered, and family and friends they’ve lost to various forms of cancer.

Throughout the hearing, people snapped their fingers, signaling their agreement with those speaking at the podium. At the close of every short speech, the audience erupted in rousing applause and cheers.

The sheer number of people who signed up to speak prompted Environmental Management Commissioner Yvonne Bailey, the hearing officer that evening, to ask that residents limit their comments to two minutes.

“Those of us living here have advocated relentlessly at the local, state and federal level, and even at the U.N. for protection of our air and water,” said New Hanover County resident Priss Endo. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality “has proposed new surface water standards, but in response, the Environmental Management Commission is proposing regulations that will still allow 500 industries across the state to release PFAS chemicals.”

The hearing last week was the third and final the commission scheduled this year on its proposed monitoring and minimization rules for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA; perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS; and a branded compound called GenX developed by DuPont spinoff Chemours. The commission has also been hosting public hearings on similar proposed rules for the monitoring and minimization of 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent and likely human carcinogen that has also been found in downstream drinking water sources.

PFAS are a mixture of chemicals used in a host of consumer products from nonstick cookware and food packaging to stain-resistant carpets, water-repellant attire, and makeup.

These chemicals have been found in numerous drinking water sources in North Carolina and traced back to discharges from industrial manufacturers, landfills, firefighting facilities and publicly owned treatment works that accept industry effluent.

Ongoing research into human health effects of PFAS, of which there are more than 15,000 related compounds, have found that some of the substances, including PFOA and PFOS, have been linked to health issues such as weakened immune response, liver damage, low infant birth weights, and higher risk of certain cancers.

Nearly a decade has passed since residents in the Lower Cape Fear region first learned through a local newspaper article that Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County had for decades knowingly discharged PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River.

Since then, public drinking water utilities that pull raw water from the river have spent millions of dollars upgrading their facilities with filtration systems and methods to keep PFAS out of their final product.

Chemours, under a 2019 consent order, has had to test thousands of privately owned drinking water wells for contamination.

“The 2019 consent order was a start,” resident Jim Nesbit said. “It’s not enough. Your mission is to protect the health of the people of this state. Use the full authority you have to take on the pollution of corporations.”

The PFAS monitoring and minimization rules the commission agreed to put out for public comment have remained under a hail of verbal fire from residents, the public utilities that provide their drinking water, and environmental organizations throughout the Cape Fear region.

As written, the rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for PFAS dischargers found to be in violation of those rules.

“As a 33-year water professional and former EMC member, I am testifying that the voluntary minimization plans, as proposed, are ineffective,” Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Ken Waldroup said Thursday. “They’re essentially empty facades that do not solve the problem. These minimization plans do not remove PFAS from the Cape Fear River because all reductions are voluntary. Voluntary plans are simply ineffective. Upstream dischargers have had decades to disclose and minimize their PFAS discharges. Unfortunately, history has shown that dischargers only do so in response to effective regulation with specific mandatory limits or mitigation.”

Dr. LeShonda Wallace, who serves on the advisory board for the GenX Exposure Study, one that is measuring GenX and other PFAS exposure in area residents, said the proposed rules ignore science.

Instead, the proposed rules prioritize corporate convenience over public health, she said.

“The impacts are also economic as well as generational,” Wallace said. “PFAS contamination reduces property values, and it shifts the cost away from the polluters and on to the rate payers. Environmental protection and justice requires that those who cause the pollution pay to prevent it and that they pay to clean it up, and I urge the commission to reject these ineffective minimization rules and adopt enforceable, evidence-based standards that reduce pollution at the source.”

Lifelong New Hanover County resident Chip Jackson carried a doll baby with him to the podium.

“I came here tonight to tell this panel how ignorant I have been. I’ve been ignorant because nine years ago I trusted you people. I trusted you to do something,” he said. “I’ll give y’all a pro tip. When you see a baby float by in a stream, you look upstream to see who threw it in the stream.”

Resident Rosemary Schmitt said she simply wants to trust that the water coming out of her tap is not harmful.

“Drinking water should be safe, not something that comes with a list of side effects,” she said.

Just two weeks away from graduating with an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Tyler Raines said he was in a conundrum.

“I don’t have much else to say that hasn’t already been said about the economic, environmental, and social impacts of PFAS on the health of all human beings,” he said. “As I think about where I’m planning to root myself post-graduation, I find myself at a loss. Do I stay here in Wilmington and get poisoned by PFAS or do I go back to my home in Fuquay-Varina and get poisoned by 1,4-dioxane?”

The Environmental Management Commission could decide as early as September to approve or reject the proposed rules. If adopted, those rules would go to the Rules Review Commission for final approval by early next year.

Written comments on the proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules are being accepted by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject title “PFAS minimization” or by mail to Karen Preston, DEQ-DWR NPDES Permitting Section, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC  27699-1617.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

Debbie Swick has a way of spotting problems that most people barely notice — and then refusing to let them go.

On the Outer Banks, the Southern Shores resident is best known as the driving force behind the push to ban balloon releases, a grassroots effort that helped shift public awareness around a form of litter that can travel hundreds of miles before landing in waterways and harming wildlife.

This time, her focus is something less visible but just as persistent: discarded monofilament fishing line — the nearly invisible plastic filament that can linger in the environment for centuries, entangling and injuring marine life long after it’s been cast aside.

In partnership with the Outer Banks Anglers Club, Swick has helped launch a new monofilament recovery and recycling program — one that aims to intercept that line before it becomes a long-term hazard in the water by installing and maintaining collection vessels at sites across the Outer Banks.

“It is a strangling mechanism,” Swick said. “It becomes entangled in fish gills, sea turtles, seals, porpoise. It doesn’t break down. It will amputate and maim marine life.”

Discarded fishing gear — including monofilament line — is widely recognized by marine scientists as one of the most dangerous forms of ocean debris. Research has found that roughly 740,000 kilometers (about 460,000 miles) of fishing line enter the ocean each year — enough to circle the Earth more than 18 times.¹

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), at least 260 marine species are known to be harmed by entanglement in marine debris, including sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals.² Monofilament line is particularly dangerous because it is nearly invisible underwater and extremely durable, capable of persisting in the environment for hundreds of years.³

That is something David Masters Jr., vice president of the Outer Banks Anglers Club, sees regularly. “It’s usually tumbled up in seaweed or buried in the sand,” he said. “I pick it up all the time. I’ve seen birds with fishing line caught on the wings or legs and that’s very sad.”

Local conservation groups and park officials have long warned that sea turtles along the Outer Banks can become entangled in discarded fishing line, which can impair their ability to swim or feed — and in some documented cases, lead to death.⁴ Necropsies of stranded turtles in North Carolina have identified monofilament entanglement as a contributing factor, underscoring the long-term danger posed by fishing line that remains in the environment.⁵

Swick is a member of the Outer Banks Anglers Club and last year’s Member of the Year. That, combined with her reputation as an accomplished environmental advocate and volunteer — including recognition with a Governor’s Medallion Award — gave her the standing and credibility to introduce the idea of monofilament recovery to the
anglers. She brought the concept to the club’s board in January, and by February, they were building the collection vessels.

“I told the board, under no circumstances were we going to half-ass this,” she said.

This time, Swick wanted something different: accountability. Each location would be “adopted” by a member of the Outer Banks Anglers Club, responsible for monitoring, emptying, and maintaining the vessel.

“I have the list,” she said. “I know who is supposed to be picking it up, when and where.”

Recreational fishermen are often among the strongest stewards of the waters they fish — a point echoed by fisheries managers and conservation organizations who increasingly emphasize angler participation in sustainability efforts.⁶

The Outer Banks Anglers Club has its own track record, including helping spearhead the creation of artificial reef AR-165 off Oregon Inlet.

The program itself is simple by design. Collection vessels made from PVC pipe have been installed at fishing-heavy locations across the Outer Banks, including piers, marinas, and public access points. Among the initial sites are Kitty Hawk Pier, Avalon Pier, Jennette’s Pier, the Manteo waterfront, Wanchese Marina, and several others.

“We haven’t spoken to one entity that said no,” Masters said, noting support from local governments, property owners, and organizations.

Anglers deposit used monofilament line into the vessels. From there, club members assigned to each site collect the material, clean it, and bring it to monthly meetings. Swick then weighs the line and ships it to a recycling facility operated by Berkley Fishing in Iowa. There, it is processed through the company’s national recycling program, which
has collected millions of miles of monofilament since 1990 and repurposes it into products such as tackle boxes, other plastic goods, and components used in aquatic habitat structures.⁷

The program is still in its early stages, but initial results are encouraging. At one early collection site at Pirates Cove, volunteers gathered 4.5 pounds of monofilament in a single pickup. “That could have all ended up in the water,” said Swick.

As of now, about a dozen sites are in place, with a goal of reaching roughly 20 locations. Organizers are also working to expand the program through local tackle shops and a developing partnership with the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association, whose members could help collect discarded line from beach areas on Hatteras and further south.

Swick has set a clear benchmark for the program’s first year: 100 pounds of collected line. But success, she said, will be measured in other ways too. “When the community starts talking about how much less monofilament they are seeing in the water,” she said, “and when they start asking for us to put more vessels up — that’s a good sign.”

For Masters, the effort reflects something broader about the club itself. “It’s important people realize recreational fishermen really respect the natural resources we have here, because it is our love to fish here,” Masters said. “We want to keep it pristine.”

Sources

1. Global estimates on lost and discarded fishing gear and ghost gear impacts, based on peer-reviewed research (Richardson et al., 2022, Science Advances), including annual losses of fishing line and gear.
2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — Marine Debris Program, documenting entanglement impacts affecting at least 260 marine species.
3. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — monofilament fishing line persistence estimates (up to ~600 years in marine environments), widely cited in coastal management and debris mitigation guidance.
4. Outer Banks Forever — Cape Hatteras National Seashore conservation guidance on sea turtle entanglement risks from discarded fishing line.
5. Outer Banks Voice — regional reporting on North Carolina sea turtle necropsies identifying monofilament entanglement as a contributing cause of mortality.
6. NOAA Fisheries — Recreational Fishing Policy, emphasizing “proactive stewardship” and collaboration with the angling community as essential to sustainable fisheries management.
7. Berkley Fishing — Berkley Conservation Institute, “Dedicated to the Future of Fishing,” documenting the company’s national monofilament recycling program (established 1990) and reuse into products such as tackle boxes and habitat materials.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

PEA ISLAND — Recently I had the pleasure of giving Johnnie Van Willis a tour of the historic Pea Island Cookhouse museum. Johnnie traveled to the museum from his home in Marshallberg, a historic fishing community situated on a peninsula in Carteret County and directly along the shores of the Core Sound.

Marshallberg has been characterized as a sleepy, close-knit village with a rich history of commercial fishing, boatbuilding and family heritage. Johnnie’s great-grandfather was Isaac Van Willis Sr. He’s the surfman sitting in the middle top row in the only known photograph of a “Checkerboard Crew.” This term was used in the U.S. Life-Saving Service, the predecessor to today’s U.S. Coast Guard, to identify racially mixed surfmen crews, crews with both Black and white surfmen, like a checkerboard.

In March 2023, a painting depicting this image was unveiled at the College of the Albemarle – Dare County Campus. Both the photograph and painting are on display at the “Cookhouse,” the shortened name for the museum housed in what once was a building in which surfmen cooked and ate their meals.

As background, Johnnie shares both his middle and last name with his great-grandfather and grandfather, Isaac Van Willis Sr. and Isaac Van Willis Jr. In spring 2018, Johnnie took a road trip with his wife and daughters in search of his great-grandfather’s grave. Through a friend, he had learned it was somewhere near the Marshall and Gussie Collins Trail, a trail named after my grandparents at the Collins homestead. They were part of a small and closely knit community of Black residents of Roanoke Island. It included those connected to the Freedmen’s Colony on Roanoke Island, as well as the rich Native American history here.

Like many Black people in their community, my grandparents were known for their hard work, family, friends, and record of service. They once owned a home and farmland near where the trail is now, including much of the property that surrounds the Dare County Governmental Center and not far from the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge.

I had noticed when Johnnie and two of his daughters were walking on the trail and struck up a conversation with them. They told me they were searching for the gravesite but couldn’t find it, and they were super excited when I revealed that it was a just a few yards away. Leading them there, I sensed our special connection.

Johnnie did not know much about his great-grandfather, other than that he had worked several years in the Life-Saving Service.

I quickly realized the parallels and differences associated with our two families. My great-grandfather also worked in the service. We both had family members and friends who had lived in small, tightly knit communities and had grown up fishing, oystering, catching crabs, building boats, farming, hunting, and going to church together. Yet, we also shared the understanding that history shows the lives and experiences of our two families were very different, simply because of race. 

Born in January 1873, my great-grandfather, Joseph Hall Berry, began his career initially serving as a “substitute” surfman when the legendary Keeper Richard Etheridge commanded the historic Pea Island Life-Saving Station. He enlisted in February 1902, the same month that my father would do the same 37 years later. My great-grandfather Berry is also the only of several family members who served in both the Life-Saving Service and the Coast Guard. He retired in February 1917 after serving for 15 years.

The trail signage at Isaac Van Willis Sr.’s grave shows he served for 30 years. Given that Life-Saving Service stations that once stretched along coast were spaced about seven miles apart and that our great-grandparents worked at neighboring stations, in all likelihood they knew each other. They could have each lived on Roanoke Island, but I am uncertain where Isaac Van Willis Sr. may have lived. They also likely participated in joint rescues. Before motorized equipment was available, these rescues were especially difficult and dangerous, often requiring the manpower of several stations.

Today, Johnnie still chuckles when he recalls how we met. When I realized who he was, the first thing I told him was to wait a few minutes, that his visit was important and I needed to I grab a pen and piece of paper. Yet, as we stood talking, I realized that, other than knowing his great-grandfather spent several years in the service, Johnnie knew little about him. He died when Johnnie was just a small child.

Johnnie knew more about his grandfather, Isaac Van Willis Jr., had who worked in the U.S. Lighthouse Service at the Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

In 2018, I also knew little about Isaac Van Willis Sr., and the story of Checkerboard Crews. Yet, each time I looked at the gravesite, I sensed he was important. His prominent marker, which includes the Life-Saving Service emblem and information about his wife on the opposite side, has always intrigued me. I was delighted a few days ago to receive a call from one of Johnnie’s daughters telling me that she wanted to bring her father back to Roanoke Island and to visit the Cookhouse. The trip was quickly planned. Johnnie and his daughters were thrilled to see a framed copy of the 1910 photograph and the vibrant oil painting of the same, each showing Isaac Van Willis Sr. They had never seen either image before. The discovery even brought tears to one granddaughter’s eyes.

I also made Johnnie aware of a letter that I had discovered about Isaac Van Willis Sr. several years ago. I promised to search for it in the research material I have collected over the years. At the time he was Surfman No. 1 at the Oregon Inlet station, the position typically next in line to become Keeper. Although I haven’t looked at it for several years now, I still recall being surprised to find Keeper Richard Etheridge’s signature on it. He and several others had signed it in support of Isaac Van Willis Sr.’s desire to become Keeper. Before Johnnie left, I promised to search for it and send him a copy.

Likewise, although Johnnie did not have any pictures of his great-grandfather, he had brought along something very special for me to see. He showed me a cherished framed photograph of Isaac Van Willis Jr., a photograph showing him doing work inside the lantern at the Cape Lookout Lighthouse. He promised to send me a copy of the photo when he returned home.

After a day that began with a seafood lunch, then a long visit at the Cookhouse, and ended with a cherished joint return to the Isaac Van Willis Sr. gravesite, I have concluded that our chance encounter eight years ago was destiny, simply something meant to be.

The broader story of Checkerboard Crews is a planned topic for “Cookhouse Chats,” a new initiative for 2026 that started in February. These periodic chats are to provide information on lesser-known stories associated with the history that the Cookhouse represents. Our next planned chat will be announced soon. 

SURF CITY – Kerri Allen acknowledged early on what was also obvious to her audience.

“I do not need to tell anyone in here we have a really high density of leases,” the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s coastal management program director said. “In our public trust waters, when you have that many users, there are going to be conflicts.”

Several people sitting inside the Surf City Municipal Complex’s town council chambers that April 14 afternoon nodded in agreement, eager to share their thoughts on the subject.

With either temporary or permanent shellfish leasing moratoriums in North Carolina waters to its north and south, Topsail Island’s waters have become a hot commodity for oyster growers.

There are now nearly 190 shellfish leases in the waters behind the 26-mile-long barrier island from the New River and its adjacent estuarine waters south to Topsail Sound.

That’s a roughly 46% increase from the collective number of leases in 2018 in Onslow and Pender counties.

The squeeze put on the waters around Topsail Island has prompted ongoing calls for a temporary moratorium on new shellfish leases in the area.

The Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission, or TISPC, which is composed of elected officials from each of the island’s three towns – Topsail Beach, Surf City and North Topsail Beach – initiated a request for a temporary pause on leases more than a year ago. Commissioners in Onslow and Pender counties did the same.

Shellfish lease moratoriums in the state may be enacted only by the North Carolina General Assembly.

On April 10, 2025, Rep. Carson Smith, R-Pender, introduced legislation requiring a statewide study on shellfish leasing and the current lease moratorium.

House Bill 841 made it no further than the Senate’s Rules and Operations Committee.

“If there is a temporary moratorium, we don’t feel that’s unreasonable,” Allen said last week.

A pause would give the Coastal Federation and North Carolina Sea Grant more time to talk with those who live along and use the waters around the island and come up with suggestions to help shape future policy that would protect the industry, make it sustainable long term, and ease user conflicts, she said.

Additional focus groups, including one for shellfish growers, will be scheduled this fall.

Meanwhile, a temporary moratorium that has been repeatedly extended since it was first enacted in New Hanover County in 2019 is set to expire in July.

“It’s very reasonable to say if we were able to open up some of these other areas that could help alleviate the pressure that this area is seeing,” Allen said. “A lot of the oyster growers that we work with in this region live in New Hanover County and they would love not to have to drive up here to take care of their farms. We are actively trying to get New Hanover to not extend their moratorium. I do not have a good feel, one way or another, how that’s going to go yet, but we are having those conversations.”

Surf City Mayor Teresa Batts said officials on the island do not intend to wait for a decision before asking for a temporary moratorium.

“I know you’re going to go through the procedural steps, but the TISPC, we’re not going to sit back and wait,” she said. “If we see that New Hanover County is trying to extend their moratorium, then we’re going to try to slide in there on their session and piggyback on their moratorium.”

The Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and North Carolina Sea Grant teamed up last year to launch a Geographic Information System, or GIS, database pinpointing areas where leases may or may not be suitable in the waterways behind Topsail Island. The GIS database is anticipated to be published next year.

Recommendations shared with the organizations will help shape the North Carolina Strategic Plan for Shellfish Mariculture, a plan commissioned by the General Assembly in 2017.

This document is effectively the state’s roadmap for a sustainable shellfish industry. It’s not meant to be a fixed document, rather one that evolves as the industry evolves and conditions change, Allen explained, adding, “which they very much have changed since 2017.”

In the years since, the state has seen a shift where shellfish farmers are using floating gear to grow oysters in the water column, a method that allows them to maximize the spaces in which they grow their product.

Unlike cages that are placed on the waterbed, those in water column leases poke up from the water’s surface.

And, as more water column leases have been granted, complaints have mounted about their impacts to the viewsheds of waterfront properties, boating and kayaking access, and infringement on popular fishing spots.

Fishing guide Capt. Ray Brittain offered to take Allen and N.C. Sea Grant Extension Director Frank López on his boat, and on his dime, to show them how the leases affect his business.

“There’s so many PVC pipes out there,” Brittain said. “You don’t need a thousand PVC pipes to mark,” a lease area. “We can’t fish in those. I mean, mark your outer edge to show people where it is, but a lot of it is just unnecessary stuff.”

Brittain was among nearly 30 attendees at the April 14 meeting, where participants were asked to break into two groups to discuss concerns and recommendations that will be documented and shared with local elected officials, legislators, and state agency officials.

Those at the meeting in Surf City last week touched on a host of issues, raising concerns related noise associated with shellfish farming activities, nighttime navigation around shellfish leases, the density of leases around Permuda Island Reserve, and linear placement of leases along estuary island shorelines blocking anglers from following fish.

Some asked for shellfish farmers to be required to carry liability insurance, while others suggested the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries create a more robust public notification system announcing lease applications that would include property owners whose land is within and adjacent to the viewshed of a proposed lease.

Other recommendations included an implementation of buffers by moving leases further from shorelines based on specific locations within a waterbody, potentially increasing lease fees, decreasing the length of time a lease is valid, and the possibility of commissioning studies on the impacts of floating cages on the ecosystem.

The Coastal Federation and Sea Grant are accepting comments online through the Stump Sound shellfish mariculture planning – stakeholder input form through Aug. 1.

Despite the utility poles connecting the network of overhead cables along the paved, two-lane road and other obvious signs of the 21^st century, Historic Halifax State Historic Site transported visitors to April 12, 1776, during “Halifax Resolves Days,” a weekend commemoration of North Carolina taking the first step toward freedom.

“Today is a huge day for North Carolina. Two hundred and fifty years ago today, the Fourth Provincial Congress of North Carolina met here in Halifax and adopted the Halifax Resolves, the first official action by any colony to declare independence from the king,” Gov. Josh Stein said Sunday afternoon to the more than 300 gathered for the Halifax Resolves Ceremony.

Held under a sizable party tent near the Colonial Courthouse Site, where the 1760s wooden building once stood, the 250^th anniversary ceremony wrapped up the April 10-12 event. Visitors were able to watch living history reenactments, colonial life demonstrations, musical performances, and a ceremony led by the state-recognized Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe based in Halifax and Warren counties.

North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Pamela Brewington Cashwell introduced Stein before he took the podium.

During her brief comments, she explained that the department is responsible for organizing America 250 NC, the state’s celebration of the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and Halifax Resolves Days is a signature event of that celebration.

“We will also have a major event at the capitol in Raleigh this Fourth of July titled ‘Capitol 250: North Carolina Freedom Fest.’ We hope that if you don’t have something going on in your local community, that you will join us in Raleigh for another massive event,” she said, then directed the audience to visit the A250 website that details 700 events taking place this year as part of the celebration, from dramatic presentations, festivals, murals that have been painted in various communities.

When Stein welcomed the audience, he encouraged them to see the Halifax Resolves document on display in the new visitor center that officially opened that week. The governor and other state officials made a trip to Halifax April 7 for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting and to view the document that will be on loan from the National Archives until October.

Stein explained that leading up to the delegates meeting in Halifax, there was tension in the colonies between those who wanted to reconcile with the crown and those who wanted to rebel.

Even after the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 9, 1775, a large portion of the colonial population wanted to make accommodation with England. When the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in July of that year, they did not declare independence. Instead, they petitioned the king for more favorable terms. From 1775 to 1776, “the tide began to turn in favor of rebellion, but that path was by no means a certainty,” stein continued.

Then, Thomas Paine published “Common Sense” in January 1776, the pamphlet that Stein said made a “powerful argument for an independent, democratic nation founded on equality. Truly a radical notion.”

Then on Feb. 27, 1776, “a militia of patriots skirmished with loyalist troops at the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge,” located just west of Wilmington. “The Patriots soundly defeated the Loyalists, putting an end to English rule in North Carolina, blocking an English invasion of the south and lighting a flame of liberty within North Carolinians,” Stein continued.

As these events were taking place, North Carolina’s provincial delegates met with residents across the colony, and brought all those perspectives to Halifax in April 1776 when the fourth North Carolina provincial Congress gathered.

The delegates in the Halifax Resolves detailed their neighbors’ grievances, “or in their words, the ‘usurpations and violences’ committed by the king. They wrote that the ‘king and Parliament of Great Britain have usurped the power over the persons and property of the people, unlimited and uncontrolled and disregarding their humble petitions for peace, liberty, and safety. They made diverse legislative acts denouncing war, famine and every species of calamity daily employed in destroying the people and committing the most horrid devastations in the country.’”

By adopting these resolves, Stein said that these 83 delegates “did something radical, something revolutionary, something patriotic. They unanimously empowered North Carolina’s representatives at the Second Continental Congress up in Philadelphia to vote to declare our nation’s independence from the crown,” he said. “With these Halifax Resolves, North Carolina became the first colony to take any action declaring our nation’s independence.”

Though the document set the colonies on a path of expanding freedom in this nation, Stein acknowledged that the resolves were “far from perfect,” but still encouraged reading the text, even though parts will make the reader “feel very uncomfortable.”

“It’s easy, when you look back at history, to assume some sort of inevitability, like of course, it happened, but this historic action and the fact that it was unanimous was by no means a foregone conclusion,” Stein said, noting that rebuking the world’s greatest superpower “would have been considered treason, a crime punishable by death.”

The colonists depended on England for military protection and economic security. “Failure objectively was likely, and failure could have been fatal,” Stein said. “With these stakes and these odds, this vote for independence was brave and truly incredible.”

The British Empire could have easily subdued a “ragtag militia or a single colony, but a united force at least stood a chance.” With every single delegate voting in favor of the Halifax Resolves, “it was a precursor of the unity that the revolution would require.”

Less than three months later, at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, “the 13 British colonies, so incredibly diverse and different from one another, declared that we were no longer 13 separate colonies. We are the United States of America,” Stein said.

And while “250 years ago, internal division was one of the greatest threats to our nation’s success. 250 years later, I would venture that that is still true,” Stein said. “There are so many forces seeking to divide us that profit from our distrust for one another. There are so many forces making the American Dream feel out of reach, telling us that our success requires others to fail, and too often, we hear crudeness, not civility and experience division, not decency. It does not have to be this way.”

Americans can chart a different course, lust like our forebears in Halifax, “After all, we are not red. We are not blue. We are red, white and blue,” Stein said.

“We have so much to gain from bridging our differences, not glossing over them, but having the confidence to find common ground and the patriotism to remember that we are all Americans, that we all love this place,” he concluded. “It is a revolutionary idea, and it is the North Carolina way.”

Rep. Don Davis, R-N.C., who represents the 1st District ecompassing 22 northeastern North Carolina counties, was among the handful of officials who spoke in addition to the governor.

Davis said that the day “shines a light on a true treasure from our great state and nation.”

“Right here in eastern North Carolina, 250 years ago, brave souls took courageous steps towards independence. Their actions remind us of our resilience and grit, illustrating what we can achieve together when we unite for common cause. The Halifax Resolves aren’t just a chapter in our history. They are evidence of hope for our future.”

FAYETTEVILLE — Proposed monitoring and minimization rules for industrial dischargers of 1,4-dioxane and the public sewage plants that accept those facilities’ waste fail to protect North Carolinians’ drinking water, speakers at a public hearing said Tuesday.

All but one of the 13 people who spoke at the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s hearing at Fayetteville Technical Community College criticized the proposed rules, arguing those rules fall short in reducing the amounts of 1,4-dioxane discharged into people’s drinking water sources and lack enforcement.

Those comments mirror ones articulated at the commission’s April 9 hearing on the proposed rules in Hickory. A third hearing is scheduled for May 12 in Jamestown.

“The so-called monitoring and minimization rule establishes certain monitoring requirements, but the term minimization is misleading,” Fayetteville resident Madison Williams said. “The way the rule is promulgated is in a way that does not require polluters to reduce PFAS or 1,4-dioxane emissions into North Carolina drinking water supplies, and it imposes no consequences, even if those discharges increase. This in effect is a polluter written rule.”

Related: Public hearings set on proposed wastewater discharge rules

The commission is hosting separate public hearings, the first of which was held in Asheville last week, on a similar rule for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS; perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA; perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS; and GenX, a chemical specific to a manufacturing plant that sits near Cape Fear River in Bladen County.

Under the proposed rules, publicly owned treatment works that receive industrial wastewater, and their manufacturer customers, would be required to monitor for discharges of 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent, into rivers, creeks and streams.

Facilities would be required to conduct baseline monitoring every three months for one year. Based on those sampling results, dischargers may be required to conduct additional monitoring.

“If determined to need ongoing sampling the industrial direct discharger will be required to develop a minimization plan,” explained Bridget Shelton with the Division of Water Resources’ planning section. “A minimization plan is a strategy to reduce or eliminate pollutants at the source before they are discharged into the environment.”

Facilities that “meet certain criteria” may request exceptions from ongoing monitoring and minimization plan requirements, she said.

The proposed rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for violations.

That fact has drawn sharp criticism from residents, environmental groups and public drinking water providers who have been calling on the state to establish drinking water standards for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane and regulate direct dischargers of those chemicals.

“Over 1 million North Carolina residents consume water from the Cape Fear River, water that is contaminated with 1,4-dixoane, PFAS and other forever chemicals that will continue to proliferate without sufficient regulations at the federal and state levels,” said Jonelle Kimbrough, executive director of Fayetteville-based environmental nonprofit Sustainable Sandhills. “The proposed 1,4-dioxane minimization rules seem to be an attempt at regulation but, as written, they essentially do nothing to protect the natural resources or public health of our state and we need protection.”

Rob Clark, Cape Fear River Watch’s water quality programs manager, said the organization and its more than 1,000 members collectively opposed the proposed rules.

“These rules are completely inadequate when it comes to dealing with PFAS and 1,4-dioxane pollution in the Cape Fear River Basin,” he said. “The proposed minimization rules do not set enforceable limits on how much these toxic compounds can be discharged into our waterways. Instead, they rely on polluters to monitor their pollution and submit plans describing how they might reduce that over time. Do we really think that polluters are going to cut into their profits in order to do the right thing and stop discharging these chemicals into our waterways?”

Representatives of downstream public water suppliers said the proposed rules lack a clear objective to significantly decrease 1,4-dioxane levels in state surface waters.

Fayetteville Public Works Commission’s Environmental Programs Manager Rhonda Locklear pointed out that statewide monitoring has identified 1,4-dioxane primarily in the Cape Fear River Basin.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, “has sampled surface waters in 15 of North Carolina’s 17 river basins, confirming that most industrial 1,4-dioxane sources are in the Cape Fear River Basin, where 35% of these samples since 2017 were above non-detect thresholds, almost 10 times the rate in the Neuse River Basin, and nearly 200 times that of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin,” she said. “The problem areas are well-defined, documented, and PWC expects DEQ to set meaningful regulations and reductions in the Cape Fear River Basin.”

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Deputy Executive Director Kevin Morris said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which classifies 1,4-dioxane as a likely human carcinogen, warns that at even at concentrations of 0.35 parts per billion, long-term exposure to the chemical increases cancer risks to humans and may cause significant kidney and liver impacts.

“Downstream water systems continue to experience periodic spikes in 1,4-dioxane despite having no role in producing or discharging this chemical, which demonstrates the limitations of our current regulatory framework,” Morris said.

He highlighted how effluent from Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant has periodically tested for elevated levels of 1,4-dioxane, concentrations of which far exceeded levels associated with long-term health risks.

“These discharges flow into waterways like the Haw and Cape Fear rivers,” Morris said. “They’re relied upon by downstream drinking water systems, and they require additional monitoring, treatment, adjustments and customer communication. The downstream public ultimately bears the risk from and the cost of managing contamination that they had no part in creating. Voluntary reduction measures are insufficient to ensure consistent outcomes or to protect downstream communities. Utilities can manage only what arrives at their intake.”

As of Wednesday, DEQ had received more than 2,000 public comments and counting on the commission’s proposed rules for 1,4-dixoane and PFAS, according to Josh Kastrinksy, DEQ’s deputy communications director.

“The comments we’ve received in writing have by and large reflected the comments we’ve received in person,” he said.

Andrew Mlot, chair of the North Carolina Pretreatment Consortium Inc., a nonprofit that represents more than 180 pretreatment professionals in 64 state-approved pretreatment programs across North Carolina, was the only person Tuesday to speak in support of the proposed rules.

But that organization has “several specific concerns” with the rules as they are currently written, he said.

“The costs to treat 1,4-dioxane at the POTW (publicly owned treatment works) level is staggering. Capital costs alone range from $10 million to $1.3 billion, making source control the only practical path forward,” he said.

The proposed rules would require public treatment works in Greensboro, Burlington, Asheboro, High Point and Reidsville, which have been conducting monitoring and minimization activities going back to 2015, to start over, Mlot said.

“We ask for an explicit offramp for POTWs that have already completed successful programs. Replace any detection with a workable screening threshold. As currently written, any detection of 1,4-dioxane triggers ongoing monitoring requirements and a full minimization plan. NCPC members do not believe this is workable. We support an alternative screening threshold based on meaningful concentrations or loading levels,” he said.

DEQ is accepting written comments through June 15. Comments may be submitted by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject heading “1,4-dioxane minimization, or by mail to Bridget Shelton, DEQ-DWR Planning Section, 1611 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1611.

Reprinted from the Ocracoke Observer

Waterfowl memories are woven throughout Ocracoke native Eddie O’Neal’s life.

He recalls redheads, pintails, teal and great flocks of geese on the Pamlico Sound and winter days in sink boxes with old-timers like Thurston Gaskill.

Because of that history and his skill of turning a block of wood into a work of art, he was named featured carver for this year’s Ocracoke Island Waterfowl Festival from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in the Ocracoke School gym.

O’Neal chose the Canada goose as his signature piece, honoring both the bird and the generations of island hunters and carvers who came before him.

“A Canada goose was a real trophy back then,” he said. “Something you showed off with pride and often shared with older neighbors who couldn’t get out to hunt themselves.”

O’Neal graduated from Ocracoke School in 1978 alongside classmates Vince O’Neal and the late John Simpson, two of the founders of the Ocracoke Decoy Carver’s Guild in 2018.

As a boy, O’Neal was constantly on the water.

Like many island youth, by age 12 he was already hunting and fishing around Springer’s Point and on his father’s nearby property.

He fished commercially with his father, Carson, who served in the Coast Guard, and brothers Andy and Albert, working pound nets and gigging flounder.

During his 23 years working for the state of North Carolina, he held a variety of positions: on a dredge crew, building spillways and working heavy equipment from Southport to Knotts Island.

Included in his working career, he also built golf courses, was a truck driver and worked on road paving crews for an asphalt company out of Norfolk, Virginia.

He and his wife Pam also ran the Island Galley restaurant on Ocracoke until damage from Hurricane Isabel (2003) forced them to close.

Although he appreciated decoys, he didn’t start carving as a hobby until around 2008 while living in Virginia Beach. Over time, that hobby “morphed into a full-time job.”

Among his fond memories are watching Wilbur and Clinton Gaskill, older Ocracoke carvers, who turned out small geese flyers and decoys at an astonishing pace. Wilbur could make 15 to 20 decoys a day and sell every one of them on a summer day when the island was far quieter than it is now.

His second cousin, Dave O’Neal, a retired Coast Guard man and renowned carver, has been an important influence offering tips on the techniques and tools of the craft.

Preferring to focus on his own carvings, O’Neal doesn’t collect or trade in other people’s decoys.

When he and Pam retired several years ago, they moved back to Ocracoke, and his carving became a daily practice.

Today, O’Neal does most of his carvings for the Island Ragpicker shop, run by his siblings Stephanie and Albert.

Not just decoys — he crafts shore birds, small flyers, fish, and a variety of decorative pieces that keep the shelves full and his hands busy.

Carving is his “therapy room” — something that keeps him grounded in retirement and balances time with his grandchildren Carter, Kyler, Amaya, Johnny and Angel.

He rarely sells pieces directly, except at some island events.

He prefers to stock the shop or donate carvings to local fundraisers like the Ocracoke Firemen’s Ball auction where his works have helped raise significant financial support over the years.

For materials, O’Neal favors northern white cedar, which he hauls back from a sawmill near Egg Harbor, New Jersey.

He also uses tupelo, sourced from a Mennonite mill near Pink Hill, and some pine.

Large decoys are almost always cedar, while smaller items, like flyers, often come from scrap wood he picks up from around the island, such as from the school that was torn down.

He appreciates cedar’s similarity to local juniper and its fine, aromatic grain. O’Neal shapes his birds with an angle grinder for the rough form, then refines them with a Dremel and extensive sanding, especially on the delicate heads and bills of shore birds.

He draws most of his own patterns by hand and also enjoys building furniture, having made tables and household pieces for family members from barn oak and other reclaimed woods.

This story is provided courtesy of the Ocracoke Observer, a newspaper covering Ocracoke Island. Coastal Review partners with the Ocracoke Observer to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast.

Microplastics and pharmaceuticals have made the Environmental Protection Agency’s newly published draft list of substances in public drinking water that warrant scientific scrutiny.

This marks a first for the EPA, which, along with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced last week that microplastics and pharmaceuticals are two of four contaminant groups and dozens of chemicals included on the draft Sixth Contaminant Candidate List.

The April 2 announcement kick-started a 60-day public comment period.

The Trump administration hailed the additions to the list, also referred to as CCL 6, as “a landmark set of actions to safeguard the nation’s drinking water.”

“For too long, Americans have vocalized concerns about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. That ends today,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated in a release. “By placing microplastics and pharmaceuticals on the Contaminant Candidate List for the first time ever, EPA is sending a clear message: we will follow the science, we will pursue answers, and we will hold ourselves to the highest standards to protect the health of every American family.”

The announcement comes as the Trump administration is actively pursuing rolling back drinking water standards for several per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, established under the previous administration.

PFAS, along with disinfection byproducts, once again made it onto a CCL, which singles out contaminants that are known or anticipated to be in public drinking water systems, but are not regulated under the Safe Water Drinking Act and may be considered for future regulatory action.

Also making it back on the list is 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent that, along with PFAS, is known to be in the drinking water sources for tens of thousands of North Carolinians, perhaps most notably in the Cape Fear Region.

Last year, the EPA announced that it would retain current National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for PFOA and PFOS but rescind regulations and reconsider regulatory determinations for other PFAS, including GenX.

GenX is specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility that is situated near the banks of the Cape Fear River and more than 70 miles upstream of Wilmington. The Cape Fear River is the raw drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians.

The federal agency also said it was extending deadlines for public water treatment plants to come into compliance with the federally established limits for those PFAS.

Since the late 1990s, the EPA has been required by law to publish every five years a list of contaminants that are either unregulated or not proposed for regulation.

CCLs are considered the initial step in a process to better understand, through scientific research, potential human health risks of contaminants in drinking water.

And, while clean drinking water advocates say this is a good first step, they urge the public to call for regulations to limit the levels of or altogether halt the discharge of contaminants into public drinking water sources.

“I think it’s important to recognize what chemicals are in our drinking water and to study the risks associated with that,” Hannah Nelson, a staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office said. “But simply adding chemicals to this list isn’t going to protect our communities. They’re on the list because we know they’re in drinking water, so now we need to take the next step to control the source of that pollution at the source and get it out of our drinking water. I North Carolina, because we know these pollutants are already there, I think we really should be focusing on how do we keep them out in the first place, because that’s how we truly protect our communities.”

Residents in the Cape Fear region, the local governments that represent them, the public water utilities that serve them, and environmental organizations are embroiled in an ongoing fight pushing for state regulations to put the onus on dischargers of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane to reduce the amounts of chemicals they release into drinking water sources.

On Tuesday, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission will host its first in a series of public hearings on proposed PFAS and 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rules.

Three hearings will focus on proposed rules for discharges of PFOS, PFOA and GenX into North Carolina’s surface waters and three on proposed rules for monitoring and minimizing 1,4-dioxane in wastewater discharges from certain facilities into surface waters.

The proposed rules packages do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for discharge violations, which has become a sticking point for those who argue that the rules would do little in actually minimizing the amount of those contaminants in drinking water sources.

“We know our environmental rulemaking body is currently trying to pass rules on PFAS and 1,4-dioxane that don’t control chemicals at the source,” Nelson said. “Having drinking water standards would be a helpful too, but our real focus should be, how can we keep these out in the first place and how can we encourage our state and our federal leaders to protect the people from the pollution before it even reaches the point of coming out of our sink and pouring into our cups.”

Beyond Plastics, a Bennington College, Vermont-based organization dedicated to ending single-use plastic pollution, called for similar regulation for microplastics.

“The U.S. Environmental Agency has taken an important first step to regulate microplastics in drinking water,” Beyond Plastics President and former EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck stated in a release. “I applaud this decision by the EPA and urge the agency to move rapidly to not only regulate microplastics in drinking water but to also prevent microplastics from entering our water supplies.”

Cape Fear River Watch’s Water Quality Programs Manager Rob Clark agreed, saying that microplastics are ubiquitous – they’re in our environment and in our bodies.

“It’s a situation where it seems like we already have a lot of information on this,” he said. “What we need is ubiquitous monitoring across the country and we need regulation. The quicker that we get to setting a maximum contaminant level for microplastics, the quicker it’s not in our drinking water.”

In its April 2 release, the EPA noted that while human health benchmarks for pharmaceuticals are not regulations and not enforceable, “they are a vital resource, empowering local decision-makers to evaluate risks and protect their communities when pharmaceutical contamination is detected at concerning levels.”

The public comment period on draft CCL 6 will close June 5.

The EPA is expected to sign a final list by Nov. 17.

“I think public comment periods on action like this are really important because it’s a good time for folks to express concerns about the chemicals that are known to be present in their drinking water,” Nelson said. “Adding chemicals to the list is truly just an acknowledgement that they’re in the water. I don’t think we should read this list as a commitment to going above and beyond and advocating for folks. What we need to see is strong action to keep those chemicals out, whether it be from the federal administration or our state agencies.”