THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 20, 1994 TAG: 9410200389
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PLYMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Lawrence Saunders, a scientist who retired last month after 38 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will go to work this morning to supply Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. with $24,860 worth of new arguments that may get two mile-long jetties built at Oregon Inlet.
Hunt last month sent word to the Northeastern North Carolina Economic Development Commission that he would ``go to Washington and see President Clinton'' if the commission would make a convincing pro-jetty case for him to take to the White House.
Environmentalists at the U.S. Interior Department for more than 20 years have scuttled efforts by the Army Engineers and North Carolina to construct the $93 million breakwaters designed to make Oregon Inlet an all-weather passage through the Outer Banks.
On Wednesday, Economic Commission members at a meeting in Plymouth made a major move to break the long deadlock.
In a unanimous action, they approved and signed a $24,860 contract with Saunders that directs the highly respected former Army Engineer hydrographer to complete a crash survey of North Carolina's arguments in favor of the jetty proposal by Dec. 22.
``I hope to use a room at the Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park as an office and I'll go to work Thursday morning,'' Saunders said. ``The first thing I'll do is hire Eve Trow as a research specialist.''
Trow, who lives in Colington, has for years identified with efforts by Dare County and commercial fishing interests to get the breakwaters built.
Saunders said he hopes to present ``the North Carolina case for the jetties.''
In the long and tortuous legal battles that have prevented construction of the breakwaters, the Interior Department has based its opposition on national environmental policy.
Interior owns the sandy land on each side of Oregon Inlet where the Engineers want to anchor their jetties. To prevent the construction, U.S. lawyers have simply refused to allow the Engineers to put any jetty structure on Interior Department property.
One of Hunt's advisers told the Economic Commission last month that the governor felt that no study of the regional North Carolina benefits of the jetties had ever been presented to a president.
The arguments from the Federal Government have basically reflected national viewpoints, said Thomas B. Richter, a N.C. Department of Commerce planner who relayed Hunt's message to the commission.
``Larry Saunders knows more about Oregon Inlet and the economic ramifications of jetties than anyone else that you're likely to find,'' Richter said. ``This is what the governor is looking for.''
After signing the $24,860 contract Wednesday, Saunders said he would have a preliminary draft prepared by Dec. 10, with the complete study finished by Dec. 22.
``We'll be able to report on the dangers of the present inlet and how much the jetties would help commercial fishermen,'' said Saunders. ``And there are many other benefits to the tourist industry and the entire coastal economy.''
When it appeared that the Engineers would get speedy permission to build the jetties when the project first was approved by Congress two decades ago, Hunt, then in his first two terms in the State Capitol, enthusiastically went ahead with the Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park. The $9 million project was designed to make Wanchese a major East Coast fishing port that would be filled with trawlers using the safe and jetty-stabilized inlet.
The stormproof harbor with a variety of facilities remains largely empty because trawler captains are afraid to risk the sand-clogged inlet. Over the last 50 years many lives and fishing boats have been lost in the dangerous passage.
In other business, the Economic Development Commission voted to spend $25,000 to share in the costs of a visitors guide and vacation planner that will be prepared by Bertie, Hyde, Washington, Tyrrell, Hertford and Halifax counties.
``The project will cost $100,000 and the state will put up $45,000,'' said Bunny Sanders, director of the tourist office of the N.E. Development Commission. ``Sales of advertising in the brochure will cover the balance of the costs.''
The commission also figured out how to give $5,000 to each of the 16 counties represented by the N.E. pump-priming body.
The money was voted several weeks ago to help local governments with community projects but James Lancaster, executive director of the commission, reported that the group had no legal authority to make outright grants.
``We worked out a way for the counties to propose local projects and then send their requests to us through the County Commissioners,'' said Lancaster. ``The lawyers tell us we can do that.'' by CNB