For Immediate Release
Council on Environmental Quality
May 1, 2003
Federal Agencies Reach Consensus Ending Development of the Oregon Inlet Jetty Proposal
WASHINGTON - The White House Council on Environmental Quality, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Interior and Commerce
Departments today announced that they have reached mutual agreement not
to proceed with a proposed navigation project at Oregon Inlet on North
Carolina's Outer Banks. This agreement resolves a 30-year process
seeking to reconcile complex economic and engineering issues with the
goal of improving navigation safety and protecting the fishery, the
Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and the Pea Island National Wildlife
Refuge.
Instead of that project, the Corps will improve the current 14-foot
navigation channel while working with the Department of Commerce's
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to enhance
boating safety by providing the public with more accurate and
up-to-date navigational data on changing sand conditions in the
channel.
The decision to cease work on the Oregon Inlet jetty project
included extensive inter-agency coordination and communications,
including a public hearing in Manteo, N.C., at which local citizens
expressed earnest and differing views on the project.
"This decision resolves a long-standing debate among federal
agencies with different Congressional mandates. Working with the Army
and the other agencies, we looked closely at the economic and
environmental data and jointly determined that the uncertainties in
projecting both the estimated economic and environmental effects, and
the risk to important resources, weigh against proceeding with the
project," said CEQ Chairman James L. Connaughton. "Although we are not
moving forward with this project, we are committed to working with the
local community to improve navigation of the channel. We will continue
to work with their elected leaders on other actions that can be taken
toward those goals."
"Today's agreement demonstrates that the federal agencies must work
together to resolve difficult issues in the public interest," said Army
Under Secretary Les Brownlee.
In 1970, Congress authorized the project, in which the Corps was to
dredge a 20-foot by 400-foot navigation channel to accommodate deep
draft fishing vessels and construct two large jetties designed to
divert sands from the channel.
Oregon Inlet is the only barrier island break in the northern part
of the Outer Banks, providing access for boats between the Atlantic
Ocean and the Albermarle-Pamlico Sound. The project was designed to
ensure navigation for deep-draft fishing vessels as well as
recreational boats. It would have had an initial cost of $108 million
in addition to annual dredging costs of $6.1 million.
Over the past three decades, the Corps of Engineers has conducted
numerous economic studies and substantial environmental analyses under
the National Environmental Policy Act. A final decision was delayed
repeatedly because of concerns expressed by other federal agencies.
NOAA opposed the project during formal consultations with the Corps
because of a potentially significant impact on the area's already
diminished fisheries. Species that depend on the inlet for habitat
include flounder, blue crab, white shrimp, bluefish, various sharks and
at least 70 other species of fish and shellfish.
In addition, two Interior agencies -- the National Park Service and
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- expressed concern over potential
erosion of national park and national wildlife refuge lands. The Park
Service manages Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the north side of
the inlet while Fish and Wildlife manages Pea Island National Wildlife
Refuge on the south side.
"This was a difficult decision to reach, but ultimately it was the
right decision," said Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton. "From the
Interior Department's perspective, we have a mandate to protect and
conserve our nation's parks and refuges for the benefit of the American
people."
In reaching the consensus agreement not to proceed with the
project, the agencies found that the available economic data contained
uncertainties that raised questions as to whether the project would
generate even modest net benefits to the local economy. With local
fish stocks in decline, NOAA and the Corps concluded that the project
probably would not lead to additional fish landings. At the same time,
tourism has become a mainstay of the local economy. While use of the
inlet by commercial fishing has declined, the number of recreational
boaters has climbed along with visitation to both the national seashore
and the national wildlife refuge.
"The agreement between CEQ, the Army Corps of Engineers, and NOAA
demonstrates that good environmental policy, good economics, and
cooperative decision making can result in a workable solution," said
the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA
Administrator, retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D.
"This joint decision helps larval fish, their habitat, and the barrier
beaches of the Outer Banks, and improves navigation safety for the
boating public. For our part, we will provide for state-of-the-art
navigational aids to ensure that Oregon Inlet remains a safe passageway
for commercial and recreational vessels."
A further description of the aids to navigation follows this
release.
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