Posted on December 13, 2021
EMERALD ISLE — The Carteret County Beach Commission agreed by consensus Wednesday to ask the county to help it get sand from a planned dredging project in the waters near the U.S. Coast Guard station in Emerald Isle.
The beach panel’s action came during a special meeting in the Emerald Isle Board of Commissioners’ meeting room and virtually via Zoom.
Doug Huggett, interim County Shore Protection Office manager, told the panel that while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has long done maintenance dredging of the channel that leads from the guard station to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, there’s a plan afoot to dredge an additional channel for search and rescue vessels to use.
It appears it might be as long as 3 to 4 miles, so there could be a lot of dredged material to place on western Emerald Isle beaches if the project isn’t done by a sidecast dredge, which simply tosses the material into the water beside the dredged area, Mr. Huggett added.
However, he said it’s not yet clear what kind of dredge vessel will be used, and the ACE would have options – possibly cheaper – to dispose of any dredged material on upland sites instead of on the beach.
Beach commission Chairman Jim Normile of Emerald Isle agreed it would be wise to put in a request for sand from the possible project.
“Free sand is good,” he said.
Mr. Normile also noted the county has made good use of sand the ACE regularly dredges to maintain the channel at the N.C. Port of Morehead City. That sand is deposited by pipeline on the beach at Fort Macon State Park and eastern Atlantic Beach at no cost to the town or state.
Even if the sand from the Coast Guard station isn’t free, Mr. Normile said there might be a cost-share option to use it on nearby Emerald Isle beaches.
The goal, according to Mr. Huggett, would be to convince the ACE depositing the material on upland sites or simply casting it into the water would be wasting a valuable resource.
“We have to show that beneficial use of this material is appropriate and needed,” he said.
Beach commissioners wondered if the sand from the proposed new channel to and from the station would be “beach quality.” Mr. Huggett, an engineer with the county’s beach engineering firm, Moffatt & Nichol, has a lot of experience with such projects in the area. He said if it’s not beach quality sand, it couldn’t be used.
“I’d be surprised if it isn’t,” he noted.
In the end, no beach commission member disagreed it would be wise to pursue what could be free sand.
“It doesn’t hurt to ask,” Mr. Normile said.
The commission agreed to ask the county to review the idea before a letter is sent to the ACE.
