Emerald Isle shows its coastal mapping worries

EMERALD ISLE — The Town of Emerald Isle is the latest local government in the area to express concerns over a coastal mapping project with potential implications on projects such as beach nourishment and waterfront improvements.

The Board of Commissioners agreed at its July 14 meeting to send a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding its Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS) Digital Mapping Pilot Project.

The intent of the pilot project is to document the benefits of updating CBRS maps in selected areas before re-mapping the entire system.

Initial maps were created after the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) of 1982 was enacted to remove federal subsidies for new development in designated areas of undeveloped and unstable barrier shorelines.

Town officials don’t have a problem with efforts to modernize current paper maps with digital technology, but they do have concerns with proposed changes being made to CBRS areas during the mapping process.

“This significant reclassification and expansion goes beyond the intent of the federal enabling legislation to improve the mapping of CBRS boundaries, and has serious implications that are far greater than are communicated by the rather benign ‘Digital Mapping Pilot Project’ title of the report,” states the letter signed by Mayor Art Schools.

Of specific concern is the creation of a CBRA unit identified as NC-06, which includes more than 8,000 acres of fastland and aquatic habitat extending from Bogue Inlet to the B. Cameron Langston high-rise bridge leading to Emerald Isle.

Because CBRA restricts federal funding assistance for any new projects or improvements, Carteret County Shore Protection Manager Greg “Rudi” Rudolph sees implications on beach nourishment efforts, waterfront access and rebuilding waterfront infrastructure.

“If you’re in CBRA, it’s like having a scarlet C,” Rudolph said.

He noted NC-06 abuts the high-rise bridge, which could be impact any future plans to expand the bridge or even rebuild if it were damaged in a storm.

About 5,000 of the NC-06 acres would be from the reclassification of the current Otherwise Protected Area around Hammocks Beach State Park to the stricter CBRA. The rest of the CBRA would be all new area.

Emerald Isle worries about the impact on its long-term plans for dredging to maintain the main channel at Bogue Inlet as well as the use of sand from dredging in Bogue Inlet or the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway for beach nourishment.

While dredging would still be allowed in the CBRA, there could be restrictions. And because the beaches of Emerald Isle fall outside the CBRA, it’s uncertain whether sand dredged inside the zone could be used.

But Emerald Isle isn’t alone in its concerns.

Carteret County, Cedar Point, Swansboro, and the other communities abutting the zone, have also sent letters of concern to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Swansboro is concerned about the proposed extension of a CBRS boundary beyond any marsh or tidal vegetation line to points which encompass waterfront structures in an urbanized area, Town Manager Pat Thomas wrote.

“The pilot study proposes to include dozens of existing docks, piers, marinas and other structures along the long-established Swansboro community harbor,” he said. “We believe that this is an unnecessary, unwarranted and unjustified proposal which could have serious consequences for the conservation and viability of the Swansboro historic district and which has no foundation in habitat protection.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service taking comment on the Digital Mapping Pilot Project until Aug. 5.

Visit www.fws.gov/habitatconservation/coastal_barrier.html to see the report and draft maps.

Comments can be sent to: Katie Niemi; Coastal Barriers Coordinator; Division of Habitat and Resource Conservation; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Room 860A; Arlington, Va., 22203.