Posted on December 9, 2015
By Mark Hibbs, Coastal Review Online
State ports officials may now proceed with a $16 million dredging project to enlarge the existing ships’ turning basin to accommodate larger container vessels.
The N.C. Ports Authority received a variance Tuesday from the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission to dredge a primary nursery area in the Cape Fear River. The variance was granted by way of four separate unanimous votes during a teleconference meeting that also included authority officials and legal representatives from the state attorney general’s office.
The 6.4-acre project site is already developed as an industrial facility servicing oceangoing vessels but the proposed dredging is in an area the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission has designated as a primary nursery area, or PNA, for shellfish. PNAs in this part of the Cape Fear River are defined as all areas between the banks except for the federally maintained shipping channel.
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