Posted on February 9, 2026
BALD HEAD ISLAND — One of the now seven municipalities that adopted resolutions urging for more protections from the Wilmington Harbor Dredging Project has tripled its budget for legal fees to address concerns regarding potential outcomes.
On Feb. 4, the Bald Head Island Village Council unanimously approved a budget amendment allotting $265,000 to pay for past counsel and prepare for any upcoming costs.
Bald Head Island consulted its staff’s legal team and in 2025 also utilized the services of Brooks Pierce lawyer and climate resilience strategist Bill Cary to draft the village’s resolution requesting further review of the dredging project. The $1.35-billion Wilmington Harbor Dredging Project is supposed to deepen the channel from 42 to 47 feet, extending 38 miles from the Atlantic to the Port of Wilmington.
Last year the town budgeted to spend $60,000 on legal fees associated with its response to the harbor dredging impact, but it more than doubled to $140,000.
“So what did we buy for $140,000 that we’re overspent already?” councilor Scott Thomas asked
According to finance director Zachary Hewett, the legal fees went to extensive work required by the village’s legal team, such as Freedom of Information Act requests and document analysis of the United State’s Army Corps of Engineers’ Draft Environmental Impact Statement, published in the fall 2025.
The DEIS includes details for the harbor dredging, the impact on river and fish habitats, and the economic benefits, among other matters. The project is intended to bring in larger vessels in order to increase imports and speed up economic growth. However, many have spoken out that the economic benefit does not outweigh the harm it will do to the municipalities and islands along the harbor channel.
The village consulted coastal engineers and economic experts when it came to crafting a resolution they passed in December expressing concerns of the potential harbor dredge; this added to the legal fees.
Upon agreeing to the $265,000 transfer of funds, council plans to invite the village’s legal team to its March retreat and discuss what actions are left for the year and understand what the funds would go to.
The money approved will be transferred to the general fund from the beach renourishment, recreation, and tourism fund. The town’s total general fund revenue for 2025-2026 is over $19 million — nearly $13 million of that total comes from property taxes.
Due to the eroding shoreline of Bald Head Island’s beaches, the village, along with other municipalities like Southport and Kure Beach, joined together to request further review of the harbor deepening plans. After experiencing lost shorelines from previous dredging projects — and due to the village’s need to continuously fill in sand and make up for yearly beach erosion — BHI council and village staff want to mitigate future problems.
The deepening was first introduced in 2019 by the ports, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has to take stock of the environmental impact versus the economic benefit first to assess its feasibility. Bald Head Island’s resolution requests the USACE consider more mitigation efforts and greater funding to address it.
A joint regional statement from local governments noted environmental conservation efforts were estimated to cost roughly $60 million; this was compared to the $900 million harbor deepening in Savannah, Georgia, in 2022, whose mitigation costs were estimated to be $500 million. The Savannah project also deepened its harbor from 42 feet to 47 feet.
Environmental concerns include sea levels rising, the disturbance of bird nesting sites along the channel, dredging exacerbating PFAS chemicals, and more erosion. According to the village’s website, between 2000 and 2020, the municipality lost more than 20 feet of shoreline a year in South Beach. From April 2024 to October 2024, the combined West Beach, “the Point”, and South Beach shorelines in the village lost 246,400 cubic yards of sand.
Bald Head Island was also the first North Carolina coastal town to build a terminal groin, or a low wall made of rock, concrete, or steel perpendicular to the shoreline, after state lawmakers lifted a 30-year ban in 2015. The village alleviates erosion by replacing the sand and publishes on its website yearly reports on beach preservation efforts.
“We have a lot of public scrutiny on us for legal expenses for things that have recently transpired,” Thomas told council Wednesday. “We’ve got to get better at budgeting this. We can’t budget 60 grand and then be like: ‘Oh, we missed it by 5x.’”
A different legal battle in Bald Head Island came to a close in September 2025 over the sale of the only ferry transportation system to a private entity, SharpVue Capital, LLC, a Raleigh-based investment company. The litigation fees and expert consults cost the village roughly $3.8 million over the course of five years.
Village Manager Chris McCall responded: “Maybe I didn’t do a good enough job of anticipating those costs to the extent of the work that was required of our legal team and working through this process … We do our best to forecast and put what we think, at the time, will be needed.”
Council approved footing the $140,000 bill, but raised concerns about staff’s additional $125,000 ask, without having a real understanding of what that money would go toward. Council members worried approving the amendment without consulting the legal team about expectations next year would be bad governance.
“Our legal experts do have some responsibility to tell us what we’re going to get and how much it’s gonna cost up front,” council member Slaughter Fitz-Hugh, who was elected in November 2025, said.
However, the approval for the full transfer was explained by Mayor Peter Quinn.
“We’re basically saying, we want you to put the cash in this pocket, we’re not asking you to spend it,” he said.
The harbor deepening is not the first issue the village has had with USACE dredging. In 2010, Bald Head Island filed a lawsuit against the federal agency for its dredging and maintenance of the Wilmington Harbor Channel, due to issues of environmental impact that led to severe erosion along its shoreline. Called the “Modified Wilmington 96 Project,” it dates back to 2000, with litigation lasting years. The village sued the USACE for not adhering to a sand replacement schedule to offset the erosion. A judge dismissed the suit in 2013 saying the schedule wasn’t legally binding and not up for judicial review; the lawsuit cost the village roughly $1.7 million.
The Wilmington Harbor 403 project is subject for review from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management. Before the project can receive approval, the DCM needs to ensure the project adheres to the coastal management program laws under the Coastal Zone Management Act in its federal consistency review.
However, on Jan. 16, the USACE requested the review be paused to address feedback it has received from municipalities and the community. Comments were received through the USACE’s website and through NCDEQ.
Bald Head Island will host its council retreat March 3 and 4 and re-discuss legal budgetary concerns regarding the harbor deepening.
