THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030439
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAPE CHARLES LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
After more than a year of sparring with Virginia's environmental watchdogs, Houston-based Brown & Root Inc. has presented town officials with a significantly scaled-down plan for construction around Cape Charles.
The new plan was explained Monday night at a public hearing of the town's Wetlands Board. The board's decision on the permit is expected next Monday.
Brown & Root wants a permit to disturb 1.5 acres of vegetated wetlands in the process of expanding the existing Kings Creek marina from 68 to 494 slips. The upgraded marina would be a key attraction of the 2,000-home resort-retirement development Brown & Root wants to build in Cape Charles.
Leo Weinberg, manager of the Houston company's Eastern Shore operation, told board members: ``The ball is in your court. Tonight is when the town has their input into the regulatory process.''
At Monday's public hearing, Weinberg said more than 15 state and federal agencies have looked at the marina, beach, stormwater and channel dredging plans.
Their influences are apparent in Brown & Root's current, smaller-scale permit request. Last year, the Houston firm wanted permission to build long groins and stone breakwaters along the bayfront. Sand from the bottom of Kings Creek and Old Plantation Creek would have been pumped there to create new, 120-foot-wide beaches.
Brown & Root planned to drain stormwater into existing ravines and build three roads across wetlands.
The new plan eliminates all breakwaters and groins. Stormwater would be funneled into newly built uplands ponds. And two of the three roads across wetlands have been eliminated.
``We will only be impacting one-tenth of 1 percent of the 2,000-acre tract,'' said Steve Walls, with engineering firm Espey, Houston & Associates of Williamsburg, a consultant of Brown & Root. ``That's a testimony to the effort of making this environmentally sensitive.''
Brown & Root hopes to dig a large basin in the farmland that borders Kings Creek. It plans to line the edges of the basin with stone called rip rap - rather than traditional bulkheading - while the construction site is still dry. Only when the marina basin was near completion would the final ``plug'' of land separating the new basin from the waters of Kings Creek be removed.
Many people, mostly residents of Cape Charles, spoke at the public hearing in favor of granting the Houston firm its request for a wetlands permit. Some watermen and boaters said that the Kings Creek channel has become so shallow that the current marina can't accommodate big boats. They supported the channel dredging project.
Others, like Town Council member Chris Bannon, support the marina because Brown & Root's development is expected to generate $300 million in retail sales, 5,893 jobs and $186 million in taxes for Cape Charles and Northampton County over the next 20 years.
``Brown & Root has jumped through every hoop there is to mitigate the impacts of this project,'' Bannon said. ``What they offer is money for the first time in a dying county's history.''
Several people asked the Wetlands Board to deny the permit. Most of them are clam growers associated with Cherrystone Aquafarms. They fear that the boat traffic - and its associated pollution - would destroy the hatchery at the mouth of Kings Creek.
The hatchery supports 100 direct employees and co-op growers in Northampton County. It is one of the most successful clam hatcheries in the country.
``What a shame it is that the first major business to come to the Shore that actually compliments the environment, rather than degrade it, is threatened,'' said Roger Buyrn, a farmer and clam grower on nearby Cherrystone Creek.
Weinberg insists that the marina would not harm Cherrystone Aquafarms. But in a recent report from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, scientists say that the marina could contaminate Kings Creek with heavy metals, hydrocarbons and other toxic compounds.
VIMS recommended that Brown & Root build a dry boat storage facility or locate the marina in Cape Charles harbor.
Railroad officials objected to that option at Monday's hearing. Eastern Shore Railroad President J.T. Holland said the large barges entering and leaving the harbor would be a hazard to pleasure craft. by CNB