Plan for Jetties at Oregon Inlet Nixed
Critics said jetties could have led to erosion at Cape Hattaras
OUTER BANKS, N.C.-A decades-old, controversial plan to build concrete jetties in Oregon Inlet on North Carolina's Outer Banks has been scrapped.
The proposal was pitched in 1970 as a way to make fragile Oregon Inlet more navigable for deep-draft fishing vessels and recreational boats. It would have involved dredging a 20-by-400 foot channel and building large jetties to divert sand from the channel, at a cost of more than $114 million. The plan eventually collapsed under the weight of its own cost and faulty science.
"It is a boondoggle and always has been," said Don Barger, NPCA's Southeast regional director, adding that NPCA has for 20 years opposed the plan as destructive and unnecessary.
"What happened is that the scientific evidence against this plan just became overwhelming," he said.
Critics have long said that jetties would cause erosion at Cape Hatteras and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge by blocking natural sand movement that replenishes the Outer Banks' shorelines; the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shared that concern. Others believed that jetties would reduce the number of fish that breed in the inlet fishery, which provides habitat to more than 75 species, such as sharks, flounder, bluefish, and white shrimp.
Instead of building jetties, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will work to improve the inlet's 14-foot navigation channel and provide to fishers more precise data on the area's sand conditions.
"This was a difficult decision to reach, but ultimately it was the right decision," said Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton. "We have a mandate to protect and conserve our nation's parks and refuges for the benefit of the American people."
Then-senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) strongly backed the jetties in 1970, at the urging of fishermen who had complained of treacherous seas. Controversy ensued, stalling the project. The debate has centered on how to protect the inlet, Cape Hatteras, and Pea Island, while also providing a safer haven for fishers. Oregon Inlet is the only barrier island breach in the northern part of the Outer Banks that provides boat access.
Scientists have long said that barrier islands are dynamic systems that humans should not try to control. They move, regardless of jetties designed to contain them. Opponents to the plan also point to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, which had to be moved sooner than scheduled because of erosion to the shoreline caused by four jetties.
"Regular dredging, on the other hand, allows the island to move naturally," said Barger. "Jetties do not. They are inconsistent with the basic dynamic nature of the island. They are doomed to fail."
