Final Environmental Impact Statement for Nags Head Beach Nourishment

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army
Corps of Engineers

The Release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Town of Nags Head Proposed Beach Nourishment Project in Dare County, NC

AGENCY
Department of the Army, U.S.:

ACTION
Notice.:

SUMMARY

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE), Wilmington District, Regulatory Division, has been reviewing a request for Department of the Army authorization, pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, from the Town of Nags Head to dredge up to 4.6 million cubic yards of beachquality sediment from an offshore borrow source, and deposit the material along approximately 10 miles of ocean shoreline in the Town of Nags Head.

The applicant proposes to utilize a self-contained hopper dredge during a proposed construction window from April through September to undertake the dredging operations and discharge the sand on the beach via submerged pipeline. The applicant’s proposed borrow areas include sites identified as having beach quality material in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District’s EIS, entitled Final Feasibility Report and Environmental: dated September 2000 (USACE 2000).

DATES
Written comments on the Final:

ADDRESSES
Copies of comments and questions regarding the Final EIS may be addressed to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District, Washington Regulatory Field Office.
ATTN: File Number 200640282, 2407
W. Fifth Street, Washington, NC 27889.

Copies of the Draft EIS can be reviewed on the Wilmington District Regulatory homepage at, http://www.saw.usace.army.mil/wetlands/
EIS will be received until July 26, 2010.
Impact Statement on Hurricane Protection and Beach Erosion Control,
Army Corps of Engineers, DoD.

Open Government Forum

Open Government Forum on the Government Channel schedule to begin on Tuesday, March 30. The program is scheduled to broadcast at 12:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. through Tuesday, April 6.

The Numbers on Nourishment

The following is a fairly simple financial analysis of the revenue stream protected by beach nourishment. It takes into account the direct revenues from homes east of the beach road in Nags Head in the ten mile project area. We consider the property tax paid to Nags Head and Dare County, and the occcupancy tax and sales tax generated by these homes. It looks at these sources of revenue over a five year period.

There is one assumption - that 85% of the total occupancy and sales tax is generated east of the Beach Road.

There are no multipliers added for the money that these guests spend on vacation. Any additional value to our local economy just makes the benefit greater.

The Nags Head Finance officer supplied the data from public records on property, sales and occupancy tax collections.

Ad valorem taxes
Oceanside properties: (includes south nags head west of 1243)
Town	0.1475	1,316,479,007	1,941,806.54
County	0.26	1,316,479,007	3,422,845.42
			5)
			5,364,651.95	combined annually
			26,823,259.77	over five years to county and town
Property rentals
Town wide annually based on FY08/09
85,043,247.00	0.05	occupancy	4,252,162.35
	0.0775	sales tax	6,590,851.64
			10,843,013.99	combined annually
			54,215,069.96	over five years to state, county, and towns
			46,082,809.47	estimated oceanside percentage - 85%

$72,906,069 Five year total for property taxes, occupancy taxes generated, and sales tax generated

Does not include dollars spent on restaurants, retail, gas, entertainment while here or sales taxes generated on same.


Click here for a pdf version

Beach Nourishment in Kure Beach

Interesting article on beach nourishment:

KURE BEACH, NC (WECT) - A report on Wednesday night's NBC
Nightly News featured the nourishment project at Kure Beach.

Experts the
network talked to, say adding sand to the beach is a waste of time and money.

As you can imagine, some people who rely on the beach to make a living
have a different opinion.

Kure Beach Mayor Dean Lambeth didn't know the
town was being featured and he's not happy with how the beach nourishment
project was portrayed.....

read the rest of the story here

Open Government Forum at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 18

The Town of Nags Head and the Outer Banks Sentinel will present the Sunshine Week Open Government Forum at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 18, at the Dare County Board of Commissioners meeting room at the county administration building.

Free and open to the public, the format for this year's celebratory event will include a panel discussion of the topic by experts who will share their experiences from their own unique perspectives.

Panel participants include:

Bob Orr, former NC Supreme Court justice, is the founder of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law. NCICL was formed in 2003 and has actively litigated since that time in both the North Carolina and federal courts.

Les Merritt, former State Auditor, is the co-founder of the Foundation for Ethics in Public Service, Inc., an organization seeking to achieve transparency, accountability, and integrity to all levels of government receiving and independently investigating allegations of corruption in government, providing reports of corruption to investigative journalists, and pro-actively educating government leaders and the general public on the true nature of ethics in government as well as the causes and remedies of public corruption.

Bob Hall is the executive director and research director of Democracy NC, which uses research, organizing, and advocacy to increase voter participation, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and achieve a government that is truly of the people, for the people, and by the people.

The three nonprofit, nonpartisan representatives will be joined by attorney David Elliot, director of Victims and Citizens Services at NC Department of Justice and head of the Open Government Unit established by Attorney General Roy Cooper. A graduate of Duke University School of Law, before joining the AG's office in 1997, he was in private practice and served two years as a judicial law clerk at US District Court. He helped draft the current Open Government bill currently in the General Assembly.

The panel portion of the program will be followed by a question and answer period.

Why It won't work to just Buy the homes that are on the beach

There have been a couple of times lately when I have responded to a comment on Eye on Dare, and my comment never shows up. That's a little frustrating, but it's not my space, so I can't really complain.

But some recent posts have suggested that we buy the homes that are currently on the beach, and when my response wasn't printed - well, I guess you always win an argument if you only show one side. There's also the anonymous person who says I'm a swindler, and they won't shop in Nags Head anymore, or buy anything from a business owner that supports beach nourishment. Too bad they don't have the courage to put their name out there.

So I've restarted this blog, after a long rest. These are my opinions and thoughts, not the Town of Nags Head or any of my partners. I hope to use this blog as a tool to work on two current committees, the Beach Road committee and the Beach Plan committee, and I'll be posting notes from recent meetings to stir discussion here.

Anyway, here's my response to buying and moving the homes currently on the beach:

It's not about the houses that are on the beach right now. There's no doubt we could buy the homes that are on the public beach right now.

But follow this method of dealing with erosion for the next 50 years, and where do you end up? At the beach road, just like in Kitty Hawk, with no oceanfront homes to generate the tax dollars that feed

Nags Head is just first in line to address the biggest short and long term problem for the whole county, erosion. As a community, we've wallowed at a crossroads for the past 20 years. I hope we can make a choice now on a consistent and effective way to minimize the damage from erosion.

As far as being a swindle, well, in a swindle, you don't know what's happening. In the erosion issue, there's so much information it's overwhelming.Start with the EIS on the Town website, www.townofnagshead.net. This has been an open discussion all the way through. Shucks, Ray posted my draft plan on Eye on Dare before I gave it to my Board. Just because there is disagreement doesn't have to mean there can't be a polite and public discussion. I don't think anonymity encourages politeness, so if you would like your comment posted, please offer your name. Yes, I'll post all of them, even the ones that disagree. I think you frequently learn the most from the folks that honestly disagree, and you learn their assumptions, and question your own premises. It's healthy.

Bob O