Posted on April 5, 2023
The Carteret County Beach Commission voted unanimously Monday to authorize county shore protection officer Ryan Davenport to set up a sedimentation analysis to ensure that sand dredged from a channel in Bogue Sound will be suitable for use as beach nourishment material at an erosion hot spot near the county beach access facility in Indian Beach.
The commission, which advises Mr. Davenport’s office, met in the Emerald Isle Board of Commissioners’ meeting room beside the town police department.
The Indian Beach erosion “hot spot” is one of only a few on Bogue Banks, according to a report in February after a survey of the whole island by the county’s beach engineering firm’s contractor, Newport-based Geodynamics.
The plan is to dredge about 1,000 cubic yards of material from the channel and place it on the strand.
While the need for nourishment isn’t particularly urgent – sand that erodes from beaches along Bogue Banks during fall and winter storms usually returns to some degree in spring and summer – beach commissioners said they were particularly concerned about erosion impacts near the heavily used access, the main one between Emerald Isle and Pine Knoll Shores.
During the beach commission’s February meeting, chair Danny Navey, an Atlantic Beach councilman, called the proposed project a “win-win” in that would improve navigation in the soundside channel and protect the county beach access on the ocean side.
Davenport said he believes state funds will pay about three-fourths of the cost of the project, which could start as early as Nov. 1, after the period in which federal law prohibits dredging in order to protect threatened and endangered sea birds and turtles.
He said the project would likely involve movement of about 100 dump truck loads of sand.
However, Navey in February expressed some concern about whether the material from the channel would be “beach quality,” setting up the request Monday for the sediment analysis.
Also during the meeting Monday, the beach commission discussed but took no action on plans for two other dredging and nourishment projects. One, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, would be at the Port of Morehead City and would remove material from the turning basin and other areas and pipe some of it for beach nourishment in Atlantic Beach.
The other, also an ACE effort, is a maintenance dredging project in Bogue Inlet, which runs between Carteret and Onslow counties and is the crucial passageway to the ocean for boaters in western Carteret County and eastern Onslow County.
The material is to be placed on the beach in Emerald Isle. Davenport told the board Monday the Corps of Engineers has offered the county the chance to buy additional sand to use for beach nourishment – while the Bogue Inlet dredging is underway – at a very reduced cost.
Davenport said Thursday that “everything looks good” for all three projects, likely setting up a busy fall and winter for the county’s waterways and beaches.
