Posted on November 27, 2017
By Tim Buckland, StarNews Online
The excavator is still and a mound of mud sits untouched on the shore of Carolina Beach lake. A section of walkway remains closed more than a month after the town had to stop what has become a seemingly never-ending project to dredge the lake.
The town’s contractor has packed up and left, leaving the project idle — much to the frustration of residents and town officials alike.
“The project has definitely been challenging,” Town Manager Michael Cramer said.
The idea behind the project is to dredge the lake to a depth of up to 8 feet — most of it was about 18 inches deep — to provide more room for stormwater during heavy rains, reducing flooding of the town’s streets. The town also hoped the greater depths would prevent algae blooms, which have been a recurring problem at the lake. Cramer noted that the portions of the lake that have been dredged are algae-free.
About half of the work was completed when Army officials with the Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, or MOTSU, told the town last month to stop placing material removed from the lake bottom on undeveloped land owned by the terminal. Although located across the Cape Fear River, Sunny Point owns a large swathe of land along the western edge of Pleasure Island to act as a buffer of undeveloped land in case of an accident at the Brunswick County military port.
The public response has been less than positive.
“This looks like a seat of the pants engineering mess,” resident Paul Lewis said in an email to the StarNews.
Erin Nortonen, who owns a condo on Atlanta Avenue, said in an email to the StarNews that “this project has negatively impacted all of Carolina Beach.”
“After several seasons of seeing the lake filled with green slime and mitigation work done at a snail’s pace, I strongly believe the lake should be dredged, for environmental and aesthetic reasons. And I believe that the property owners directly affected by the work-area should receive written communication (letters) updates regarding major changes in the project. There aren’t that many of us and it can’t be that difficult,” she wrote.
Cramer didn’t mince words when asked about the calls and emails he’s receiving. While saying a few were happy with the results of what had been done so far, the majority have been critical.
“They’re tired of the construction and I don’t blame them,” he said. “Most of the rest of the public is concerned about the missteps we’ve had and that it’s not complete.”
Cramer said the town believed it had an agreement with MOTSU, but didn’t obtain it in writing.
“We don’t have a written documentation trail that is extensive with them and that’s a problem,” Cramer said. “I trusted, but didn’t verify, the information given to me.”
He said the town has had productive meetings with the Army about possible other sites to dispose of the material, but said that, this time, “I am waiting for a written letter” from MOTSU outlining options. An offer from New Hanover County to accept the material for free at its landfill was considered, but costs and time to transport the material 23 miles to the landfill (and back) were prohibitive, Cramer said.
The town council will meet at 9 a.m. Nov. 28 to discuss its options, which Cramer summed up as either stopping the project altogether or continuing to wait to see if the project can be completed.
Source: StarNews
