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Below is an article that appeared in the Star News website. This is important!
All water sports enthusiasts, especially anglers, should contact your representatives in congress to insure that our Intracoastal Waterway stays open. This is vital for our coastal communities who depend on the waterway for the tourist industry and as anglers and boaters, you know how important this issue is. We have to fight for this every year, and the time is NOW! Thank you for your support.
CLICK HERE for the StarNewsOnline.com website:
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By Gareth McGrath
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 7:15 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 7:16 p.m.
For the second time in three years, North Carolina and some coastal communities will have to dig into their own pockets to help dredge shoaled-up sections of the Intracoastal Waterway.
But unlike the first time around, this year’s estimated $5 million price tag comes amid the biggest economic meltdown in a generation.
Yet even with tax revenues shrinking and governments contemplating budget cutbacks, state and local officials might find it too costly not to pay for the dredging work.
“If the waterway isn’t passable, every beach community is affected and the whole state is affected,” said Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith, whose town might have to find up to $315,000 to keep the Shallotte Inlet and Shallotte River crossings of the waterway navigable. “And we need all parts of the waterway to be passable, or else it doesn’t really work. We can’t have a disjointed waterway.”
Still, the idea that Washington is again walking away from what historically has been a federal responsibility isn’t sitting well with local officials who suddenly find themselves squeezed between adding yet another funding request or potentially letting an economic and recreational asset sink.
Rick Catlin, head of the New Hanover Port, Waterway and Beach Commission, said the lack of adequate federal funding for the state’s beach and waterway infrastructure projects isn’t something new and probably portends a growing wave of the future.
He said it also highlights the need for North Carolina, both at the state and local levels, to get serious about creating a reliable and renewable revenue source for such dredging projects.
“We have to take a new, hard look at cost-sharing,” said Catlin, who also is chairman of the N.C. Beach, Inlet and Waterway Association. “We have to. We have to be realistic.”
The Army Corps of Engineers, faced with its own lean fiscal times, has said it doesn’t expect to receive enough federal funding this year to do more than simply maintain the Intracoastal, limiting its work largely to surveying the waterway and carrying out mosquito-control work.
That means the agency likely won’t have enough money to dredge several shallow-draft inlet crossings of the waterway, and possibly even Snows Cut, this winter.
Those areas are shoaling “hot spots” where sand quickly accumulates due to strong currents and tidal energy.
So the N.C. Division of Water Resources, in an agreement with the corps, is proposing to split the costs between Raleigh and the communities that would benefit from the dredged sand being placed on their beaches.
“If we don’t come up with the money, they’re not going to do the dredging,” said John Sutherland, chief of the agency’s Water Projects Section. “It’s really that simple.”
Brunswick County, which would pay half the cost of pumping sand onto Oak Island, Holden Beach and Ocean Isle Beach, is being asked to contribute more than $550,000.
County Manager Marty Lawing said coming up with the money won’t be easy, especially considering Brunswick hadn’t earmarked any funds to support dredging in its 2008-09 budget.
“With the economic slowdown impacting revenue fairly significantly and it already being a tight budget year, we might have to get creative,” he said. “But when we have a project leveraged with state and local funds, we really have to take a hard look at taking advantage of it.”
Ocean Isle’s Smith said her town also would likely help pay for the dredging.
“That should be a federal responsibility, or they should be paying for a large percentage of it,” she said. “But there’s just no money in the budget for it. So I guess we’ll have to do what we have to do.”
The dredging work this winter also could include the western part of Snows Cut, the Southport boat basin and Bogue Inlet in Carteret County.
But corps project manager Mitch Hall said disposal and permit issues still need to be worked out for those projects to be included in this round of dredging work.
If the Snows Cut work goes ahead, Raleigh would likely pick up the cost of dredging the estimated 122,000 cubic yards of material.
“We’re not expecting any local cost-share for a project that doesn’t have direct benefits for the local governments,” Sutherland said.
Gareth McGrath: 343-2384
gareth.mcgrath@starnewsonline.com
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Till next time....
Tight lines!
Johnny and Donna
