THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, with help from coastal towns and counties, is working to fill the budget gap left by the loss of federal dredging funds required to keep shallow-draft inlets along the coast navigable. “Everybody in the county, whether they were near Carolina Beach Inlet or not, understood the importance of the inlet to our economy,” said Rick Catlin of the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners. After hearing requests from coastal communities near Bogue, New Topsail, Carolina Beach, and Lockwoods Folly Inlets, the state pledged to match half of the estimated cost of $450,000 for each inlet to have the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) perform two dredging cycles. Local town and county governments have pulled together funds to meet their half of the agreement and the USACE is looking at North Carolina as an example of how to manage non-federal funds in other states in the future. Howard Braxton, mayor of Topsail Beach, said that with all the local money pledged, now they’re waiting for the next step. “We’ve lost one major [fishing] charter company that went out of here because they can’t get out of the inlet. And that’s a lot for us … a little town.” Beyond financial considerations, safety is a concern. Roger Bullock, chief of navigation at the USACE, Wilmington District, commented on the Emerald Isle Coast Guard station’s reliance on Bogue Inlet. “If they cannot respond, then they would have to have the next Coast Guard station at Atlantic Beach respond and go out Beaufort Inlet. What that means to the folks in distress is an extra 25-mile run that the responding unit would have to make.” The Coast Guard has already removed the aids to navigation in Lockwoods Folly Inlet and will soon remove those in New Topsail Inlet until “dredging operations have been completed or depths have improved to support a safe transit.” A Memorandum of Understanding is pending between the state and the USACE that would keep out-of-use dredges from being “mothballed” and prevent trained dredge operation crews from being laid off to make it possible to redeploy them quickly, once funds are available. The goal is to complete this dredging in time for the 2012 spring and summer fishing seasons. “North Carolina realizes the importance of our shallow-draft inlets to our economy, to our recreation, and to the value of some of the things that make North Carolina special,” said Catlin, “and we’re not going to let it go away.” — Michelle Lotker
Some of North Carolina’s dangerously shallow ocean inlets are being dredged in 2012, thanks
to state and local governments that are picking up Congress’ slack in funding.
structure improvements such as public
launch ramp improvements, according
to OSPR spokesman Steve Hampton.
“There are still some legal steps, but
the Cosco Busan settlement should be
funded in February 2012,” Hampton
said. Disbursements for recreational
improvements will likely come through
grants administered by agencies that
oversee various shoreline areas, including
the National Park Service, and the cities
of San Francisco and Richmond. “We’re
counting on boaters to bring ideas to us,”
Hampton added. Visit www.dfg.ca.gov/
ospr; enter “Cosco Busan spill” into the
search engine. — Jack Innis
1 INCH
OF EXTRA DEPTH
UNDER A CARGO
SHIP’S KEEL IN A
DREDGED CHANNEL,
according to the National
Ocean Service, means a
ship can load an extra
9,600 laptop com-
puters, 358,000
pounds of wheat,
or 36 honking-big
farm tractors.
www.oceanservice.
noaa.gov/news/
features/sep11/inch-
water.html
