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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 March 18, 2003

Cape Lookout Coastkeeper, Frank Tursi
252-393-8185 or 252-241-3505
lookoutkeeper@nccoast.org

 NCCF Asks Corps to Halt
Emerald Isle Beach Project

     Ocean – The NC Coastal Federation asked the US Army Corps of Engineers today to stop the beach re-nourishment project at Emerald Isle because "sand" pumped onto our beaches there consistently violates the Corps' permit.
     More than half of the monitoring samples of the new "sand" taken by the project's contractor exceed the amount of shell fragments allowed by the permit. Recent samples show that sections of the new "beach" are as much as 87 percent shell, or more than four times the amount of shell found on the natural beach that is being covered.
     The Federation has asked the Corps to stop the project until the town and its contractor can find a source of sand that at least meets the permit standards. Those allow the new "sand" to be either 35 or 42 percent shell depending on the type of dredge being used.
     "We argued that those limits weren't strict enough to protect our beaches," said Frank Tursi, the Federation's Cape Lookout Coastkeeper. "The monitoring results clearly show that the contractor can't even meet those liberal standards."
     Too much shell in the sand hardens the beach, making it uncomfortable to walk on barefooted. Shells also could prevent threatened loggerhead sea turtles from successfully digging nests or mole crabs and coquina clams from burrowing at the water's edge. The crabs and clams form the basis of the marine food chain and attract fish and foraging birds. Scientists also fear that a shelly beach could get even harder over time as the waves and wind winnow out the finer sand, leaving behind the heavier shell particles.
     "We could be drastically changing the ecology of the Bogue Banks beaches," Tursi said. "It's time for the Corps to fulfill its obligation to the people of North Carolina, the rightful owners or our beaches, and stop this assault."
     Tursi has been monitoring the Emerald Isle project since it began in mid-January. The Federation, he said, complained to state and federal officials about the dark color of the new "sand" and its seemingly high shell content. It finally asked the Corps to stop the project after rocks, some the size of basketballs, started appearing on the beach last week and after Tursi reviewed the contractor's monitoring samples that were provided by Emerald Isle today.
     Those records show that the project began violating its permit since the day it started in January. A cutterhead dredge began spewing "sand" on the beach that was 56 percent shell, according to the monitoring samples. The Corps permit limits shell fragments in "sand" from that type of dredge to 42 percent. Fourteen of the next 37 samples included in the information provided by the town also exceeded the permit limit, with the heaviest concentrations being pumped onto the beach in the last two weeks. Samples from March 9, 10, 12 and 13 had shell concentrations of 65, 87, 71 and 62 percent.
     The hopper dredges, which started pumping Feb. 6, have done worse. Fifteen of the 19 samples exceed the 35 percent shell limit.
     "It's clear from the contractor's own records that this permit has been consistently violated since the day the project began," Tursi said. "The regulators at the Corps have had these numbers from the very beginning. It's finally time they do something about it while there's still a bit of beach to save."