Coastal Policy

Exploring Renewable Energy Sources

The federation sponsored a conference on renewable energy at the Riverfront Convention Center in New Bern on June, 24, 2011. Almost 150 people attended "Coastal Power: Riding the Wave of Green Energy." They listened to experts talk about harnessing the wind and sun to generate electricity and turning plants into fuel. The also got copies of our State of the Coast Report, which focuses this year on renewable energy sources and their possible effects on the N.C. coast... read more

Better Ways to Protect Our Beaches

North Carolina is blessed with beautiful beaches that are relatively undeveloped compared to beaches in other states. We can thank the beneficence of government, which protected large swaths of beaches in federal and state parks, and forward-looking state policies that attempted to control the types of dense development that marred beaches in other states.

The bedrock of those policies is now threatened after the N.C. General Assembly, bowing to pressure from wealthy special interest, passed a bill in 2011 that would allow small jetties to be built at inlets in an attempt to control erosion. For more than 25 years, North Carolina had banned seawalls, jetties and other types of hard structures along our beaches. The reasons were fairly simple. The ocean doesn’t behave in predictable ways. Throwing walls of rock and sheet metal in its path usually has unforeseen consequences and can actually accelerate erosion elsewhere along the beach. Given those circumstances, state policymakers wisely decided not to allow walls and jetties as options to control erosion.

• What are jetties and groins

The Push Is On

But the sea is rising at a rate not seen in thousands of years, and some beach towns are scrambling for easy fixes to protect very expensive oceanfront property. For the third consecutive year, a number of local governments along the ocean tried to push a bill through the legislature that would allow small jetties that proponents call “terminal groins” to be built at inlets. The effort had failed in the past, but legislators in 2009 directed the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission to study the feasibility of allowing such structures.

The report, which cost $300,000, offers no real guidance on whether these small groins should be allowed at inlets to control erosion, but neither it could find any evidence that these small jetties wouldn't harm the beach, as proponents claim. Based on that, the commission could find no compelling reason to recommend to the legislature that the ban be weakened.

• Coastal Resources Commission Report
• What N.C. Coastal Scientists Think About “Terminal Groins”

Legislators Weaken Ban

Despite the CRC's findings and the known destructive qualities of groins and jetties, several beach communities, led by Figure Eight Island, lobbied legislators to weaken the state's ban and allow terminal groins,which are small jetties built at inlets to control erosion and protect private property. After an intense lobbying battle, the legislature, now controlled by Republicans, yielded in 2011 and passed Senate Bill 110.

Federation Position

The federation opposed weakening the state's current ban on jetties, groins and seawalls on our beaches for environmental and economic reasons.

• Why groins are bad for the environment
• Why groins are bad for our pocketbooks
• Why lawyers love groins
• Federation letter to legislators

A Better Way

The federation also brought together the top experts in the various fields of managing growth along the state’s beaches. We put them all in one room for a couple of days to brainstorm. And, in the end, they came up with a plan to address rapid coastal development and accelerated sea-level rise while protecting our public beaches.

We asked the 41 diverse participants to discuss emerging threats to the public beach and to evaluate existing oceanfront policies, programs and regulations. We challenged them to suggest actions to ensure North Carolina is prepared to address development, coastal storms and sea-level rise along our oceanfront. The goal of the meeting was to identify a coherent set of policy recommendations that are supported by science and will further the basic policy of North Carolina to protect its oceanfront recreational beaches. 

They came up with a set of recommendations that are comprehensive and detailed. Our goal is to try and fashion them into proposal that the legislature could consider.

• The Beach Plan in Our State of the Coast Report

Titan America

The federation has joined with environmental groups, dozens of doctors and thousands of citizens in opposing Titan America’s plan to build a huge cement kiln and massive strip mine along the Northeast Cape Fear River north of Wilmington. The project would destroy more than 1,000 acres of wetlands and pollute the water and air with toxic substances like mercury. See our Titan page to learn more.

Stormwater

Poisoned runoff is now the major source of water pollution along the coast. Reducing the amount of polluted stormwater that enters our coastal

Much of that work is focused on the White Oak River along our central coast. Stormwater has polluted the river with high levels of harmful bacteria. The federation and Cedar Point, a small community in Carteret County that borders the river, and several other partners received a federal grant to study the where the stormwater was coming from and to offer recommendations on reducing its flow. We completed the study in 2009. We will now work with Cedar Point to implement some of those recommendations.

The federation has also partnered with Brunswick County and residents along the Lockwoods Folly River on a similar study there.

Our staff in our Northeast, Central and Southeast regions undertakes a variety of projects with schools, businesses, local governments and residents to build rain gardens and other low-cost steps to control stormwater. See our low-impact development page for things you can do.

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