20061048 Ver 1_Emails_20060817

[Fwd: sand]
Subject: [Fwd: sand]
From: Tom Reeder <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:53:31 -0400
To: Alan Klimek <[e-mail]>, Coleen Sullins <[e-mail]>, Paul Rawls
<[e-mail]>, Cyndi Karoly <[e-mail]>
fyi
Subject: sand
From: Mike Street <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:42:37 -0400
To: Anne Deaton <[e-mail]>, Bennett Wynne <[e-mail]>, Dean
Carpenter <[e-mail]>, Gloria Putnam <[e-mail]>, Jeanne Hardy
<[e-mail]>, Jimmy Johnson <[e-mail]>, Katy West
<[e-mail]>, Maria Tripp <[e-mail]>, Mike Lopazanski
<[e-mail]>, Patti Fowler <[e-mail]>, "Sandra M. Williams"
<[e-mail]>, Scott Chappell <[e-mail]>, Steve Underwood
<[e-mail]>, Tom Reeder <[e-mail]>, Sara Winslow
<S ara. W [e-mail]>
CC: Jeanne Hardy <[e-mail]>
FYI.
Street
Guest editorial: Sand mining detriment to Outer Banks
The NC Department of Transportation wants to mine a quarter million cubic yards of sand from a coastal
marsh near Avon and use it to repair NC 12 after the next big storm.
Mining sand from a barrier island is bad enough. But taking it from one part of an island -- and from a
marsh no less -- for storm response on another part is egregiously irresponsible and a glaring example of
the state's shortsighted approach towards managing our ever-changing barrier islands.
The low and narrow Outer Banks barrier islands are very active sand bodies that need all the sand they
can get to respond to storms, build dunes and marshes and widen and narrow, according to the whims of
the sea. In a long-term sense, every grain of sand is essential as these islands respond and adapt to
changes in nature.
When there is less sand and less land area to absorb wave energy and storm surges, the response of the
island to large storms will become more "severe" especially as far as development is concerned.
After every big storm, sand washes over NC 12, and the elevation of the seaward most portions of the
islands increase. This rise in elevation results from sand that the islands are storing for future use. If
elevation gains from past storms were allowed to stay in place, and if the state were to use an alternative
to asphalt -such as gravel or airport runway matting -the road could be quickly and affordably raised
along with the island, eliminating the need for artificial dunes and sand mining
1 of 2 8/17/2006 2:02 PM

[Fwd: sand]
By taking the sand from a marsh, the DOT is exploiting a regulatory loophole that threatens acres of
valuable marshes and productive wetlands. The value of coastal wetlands is widely acknowledged by
scientists, well understood by a large segment of the public and duly recognized in state and federal
environmental protection rules. For the DOT to take advantage of a loophole that allows wetlands to be
impacted reflects a great deal of environmental insensitivity.
The proposed mining operation doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the NC Division of Coastal
Management because the marsh to be excavated isn't "salty" enough. The marsh does fall under the
jurisdiction of the US Army Corps of Engineers but, astonishingly, the Corps regulates only the filling of
marshes, and not the excavation of them. The NC Environmental Management Commission, the state
environmental rule-making body, had an opportunity to stop this atrocity but, instead, granted it a
variance from state wetlands standards.
The DOT is actually purchasing this sand from a private firm, Avon/Kinnakeet Mine, LLC that will do
the excavating. If the DOT was to excavate the sand itself, a comprehensive environmental impact
analysis might be required that could stop the project dead in its tracks. One has to wonder if the DOT,
by going through a private firm, is engaged in some sort of sand laundering scheme.
Aside from all the political, jurisdictional and regulatory shortcomings, the bottom line is that the mined
sand will eventually be lost to sea, necessitating the need for additional mining every time the Outer
Banks is struck by a storm. This will eventually lead to a significant reduction in island sand volume.
All this is happening because the DOT is either unable or unwilling to develop an effective, long-term
plan for NC 12 along the Outer Banks, and because it is more interested in cheap sand than the
long-term sustainability of the barrier islands.
If sand is needed, it should be obtained from off-island sources and transported to the island by truck,
barge or pipeline. There is a lot of sand in the lower coastal plain stored in old barrier islands, left behind
when the sea level was higher during the ice age. Mining this sand makes sense. Mining an active barrier
island does not.
The continued maintenance of NC 12 has proven to be ever more costly and ever more environmentally
damaging to the nation's first and most treasured seashore, and the future of the road, which this
newly-mined sand is supposed to protect, needs to be re-evaluated.
Orrin Pilkey, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences
Andrew S. Coburn, Associate Director, Duke University Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines
Michael W. Street <Mike.Street(cr~ncmail.net>
Chief, Habitat Protection Section
NC Dept. of Environment & Natural Resaources
Division of Marine Fisheries
Content-Type: message/rfc822
sand
Content-Encoding: 7bit
2 of 2 8/17/2006 2:02 PM