THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200118
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 68 lines
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. met Wednesday with members of the Oregon Inlet Waterways Commission and Sen. Marc Basnight to formulate a plan to get emergency action to forestall what many consider a crisis situation.
Hunt instructed his staff to gather all studies and other information from the state agencies involved with the inlet in order to develop cohesive justification for building a $25-million groin to stabilize the rapidly shoaling channel.
Since state and local officials' cries of alarm have not opened federal coffers for a proposed $100 million jetty project that they believe is needed to keep the inlet open, the waterways commission switched gears recently. They asked the governor to declare an emergency situation to get a temporary groin constructed on the north side of the inlet.
Oregon Inlet is the only commercial passage through the Outer Banks from Cape Hatteras to the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.
Basnight, Dare Democrat who leads the state Senate, said the governor was receptive to the concerns the commission members expressed at the meeting.
``It went very well,'' Basnight said from his Raleigh office. ``We have a two-month time period to gather the support documents that are well established in the different bureaucracies of why we should construct the groin.''
Norma Ware, Basnight's legal counsel, said the group will meet again with the governor on April 16. Hunt instructed his staff to contact the state Commerce Department, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources to gather all studies and information each has assembled on the Oregon Inlet, Ware said. He also requested input from the North Carolina Attorney General's office, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Department of Interior and state representatives in Washington.
``Most of this work has already been done,'' Ware said. ``It's simply a matter of gathering all the information for all the various justifications for the groin.''
Ware said Hunt has supported stabilation of the inlet all along, but his desire to help has been frustrated by the federal government, which has refused to fund the jetties or allow the state control of land lining the inlet. The governor believes, she said, that by presenting a cohesive picture of the situation and the serious ramifications if the inlet closed, the federal government will likely be more responsive - as it was in 1991 when the south groin was constructed.
That groin was considered essential to prevent undermining of the Bonner Bridge. Although the immediate problem was remedied, southward movement of the sand has continued, resulting in the near-meeting of the south and north ends of the inlet. Meanwhile, the channel is getting narrower and deeper, creating increasing hazards to recreational boaters and fishermen and commercial fishermen. There are also new concerns that the south groin may begin to be undermined, Ware said. The groins are considered temporary measures until the jetties can be built, she said.
More than 5,000 year-round residents call Hatteras Island home. Countless more visit the remote island every year. Commercial fishermen rely on the inlet for passage to the ocean. Residents have told officials that their very lives and livelihoods are at stake if the inlet closes.
``The governor has said he is willing to do everything necessary within his power to save the inlet,'' Ware said. Including, she said, declaring an emergency to be able to seize the federal land - although he may not have to go that far. ``The governor certainly recognizes the seriousness of the situation.''
And so does the senator, an Outer Banks native who lives in Manteo.
``Senator Basnight said we've got to do it - there's no question about it,'' Ware said.