THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407310104
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW BERN LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
Coastal property owners in North Carolina have gotten another reprieve from the implementation of new erosion rates.
The state will continue to use its 1986 erosion rates to determine how far back from the ocean's surf buildings along the beachfront must be, while members of the Coastal Resources Commission and the Division of Coastal Management study the matter.
The division has received aerial photographs taken in 1940 of the state's coast and will use those to evaluate its method of determining erosion rates, said Richard J. Hargitt of Kinston, chairman of a committee studying erosion rates.
``Once we have those photos examined, we'll have a better idea of how to proceed with this program,'' he said.
The state updates the erosion rates every five years.
Statewide, the average annual erosion rate remained at about four feet over the past five years, the same rate as the previous five years, according to a survey by the state in 1992.
But some of the most dramatic erosion on North Carolina's coastline has occurred along the Outer Banks. In the Hatteras Island village of Rodanthe, the annual rate of erosion is 16 feet, an increase of two feet per year since 1988.
The commission in January delayed action on proposed erosion rates for the North Carolina coast while a three-member subcommittee reviewed information presented by the Division of Coastal Management to the panel last fall.
Some Currituck County property owners had disagreed with new rates - scheduled to go into effect this year - contending they were inaccurate.
In the 1992 update, the erosion rate in some sections of Currituck County was estimated to be about 14 feet per year, according to the state Division of Coastal Management.
At public hearings last November in Currituck County, several speakers disputed division findings that show the beach eroding at Whalehead.
Proposed shoreline changes also were questioned for part of the beach at Bald Head Island along the southern coast of North Carolina. by CNB