3609 Hwy 24 (Ocean) | Newport, North Carolina 28570

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 October 3, 2003

Ted Wilgis, Cape Fear Coastkeeper
910-790-3275
coastkeeper-cf@nccoast.org

NCCF Calls for Re-Examination
of Coastal Development Laws

     WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH – The NC Coastal Federation will call on North Carolina's political leaders today to appoint a special commission or a legislative committee to decide if the state needs to overhaul its 30-year-old programs meant to protect its coastal environment.
    In its ninth annual State of the Coast Report that will be released 10 am today at a press conference at Wrightsville Beach Picnic Shelter and Overlook Deck off Old Causeway Drive, the Federation uses aerial photographs and charts to graphically illustrate the massive explosion of development that has engulfed our coast since 1984. It argues that landmark laws, such as the Coastal Area Management Act passed by the NC General Assembly in 1974, have failed to fulfill their promise of promoting "orderly and balanced growth" while protecting the coast's natural heritage. Water-quality rules are often vaguely written or contradict other rules. Responsibilities for managing coastal resources are fragmented into 27 different government agencies.
    All of it needs to be re-examined, said Ted Wilgis, the Federation's Cape Fear Coastkeeper. "It's time to assess how we go about trying to protect and restore the natural wonders of our coast," he said. "We may learn that it's time to chart a new course, that there are better ways to do it."
    In an attempt to highlight some of those ways and the type of coalition that will be required to revamp coastal laws, the Federation will recognize at the press conference the winners of its inaugural Pelican Awards. Twenty-two people, organizations, state agencies and local governments will receive the awards, which are meant to highlight outstanding efforts in 2003 to protect the coast's natural resources.
    Those receiving Pelican Awards include politicians from both parties, local governments, state agencies, activists, and environmental groups. "This diverse group of award winners demonstrates that people of all walks of life care deeply about the future of coast," Wilgis said. "The challenge is to seize this common ground and not continue to let environmental quality erode away while we bicker about relatively inconsequential issues that only serve to polarize everyone and thwart real progress."
    Some of regional award winners are scheduled to attend today's press conference:

• Rep. Carolyn Justice, R-Hampstead, will accept the award for her efforts in helping Pender County regain its authority to set subdivision rules and manage its growth.
• Sue Weddle will accept an award for stopping developers from dredging Tubbs Inlet in Brunswick County.
• Jim Swartzenberg, president of the NC Shellfish Growers Association, will accept the group's award winning a legal challenge against developers who illegally filled 200 acres of wetlands in Onslow County.

    Other Pelican Award winners will be recognized today at press conferences in Jacksonville and Nags Head.
    The positive actions of the winners, which are described in the State of the Coast Report, counterbalance the report's other message: Well-intentioned laws and rules have been so compromised that they may no longer do as intended and adequately protect coastal resources, which are under growing pressure from a ballooning population. The report uses aerial photographs taken almost 20 years apart of six growth hotspots along the coast to illustrate how growth has severely altered the landscape.
    The photographs, for instance, show how subdivisions and golf courses changed the character of Howe Creek in New Hanover County. Once considered so pristine that it was given the state's highest water classification and strictest protections, Howe is now so polluted that it's unsafe to eat its oysters. The pictures also show how rampant development changed Corolla in Currituck County from a remote fishing village to a chic destination in less than 20 years and how the state and local governments thwarted sound federal policy and encouraged the development of the northern end of Topsail Island in Onslow County. The area is considered one of the most dangerous places to build on the NC coast.
    NCCF, Wilgis said, will call on Gov. Mike Easley and legislative leaders to appoint a carefully selected blue-ribbon panel or a legislative study commission to assess the current laws and rules that regulate development on the coast.
    "Hurricane Isabel has shown that even a relatively minor storm can wreck property and endanger people," he said. "We have a lot of good thinkers in North Carolina. It may be time to sit them down and give them the job of deciding whether our laws and system of protecting our coastal environment actually work."
    The panel could then make recommendations to the governor or the legislature if it decides changes are needed, Wilgis said said.

Reporters note:
A boat tour of Howe Creek will be available after the press conference. Contact Ted Wilgis at 910-790-3275 if you're interested in taking the tour


Link for aerial photographs that appear in the
2003 State of the Coast Report.