THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 3, 1994 TAG: 9409030509
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The Navy may have gone overboard in cleaning up an 8-mile stretch of North Carolina beach.
Park rangers said 90 percent of the refuse the sailors collected was probably dumped by someone else.
Thirty-two sailors returned to Norfolk Friday from Cape Lookout National Seashore where they collected between 60 and 70 bags of debris after park rangers there said they found trash that had washed ashore from three Navy ships.
Apparently some of the debris could be identified as coming from the Norfolk-based amphibious ships Inchon, Trenton and Gunston Hall.
The Navy ordered a bus load of sailors from the suspect ships to the island on Wednesday, along with a landing craft from the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Norfolk.
Park Ranger Chuck Harris acknowledged Friday that the Navy was responsible for just a small share of the refuse.
``I suspect probably, based on my experience, that 10 percent was military garbage,'' Harris said. ``But they just agreed to pick up everything.''
Recovered were automobile antifreeze bottles, plastic motor oil containers, fish-bait holders, fast-food restaurant cups, plastic ice bags, plastic one-liter soda bottles and numerous beer and soda cans.
There were a few items that the Navy admitted were its own. They included: a cardboard box bearing the Inchon's name; an empty spray-paint can; cardboard milk containers of the type the Navy uses; coffee mugs bearing the name of the Inchon and Trenton; plus an empty pill bottle from the Gunston Hall.
``There were some plastic MRE (Meals Ready-to-Eat) wrappers, bottles and stuff with military (markings) on them,'' Harris added.
The cleanup crew found a large number of empty ketchup bottles, and they recovered long fluorescent light bulbs and empty lubricating oil cans.
Those were obviously from a ship with a large crew, Harris said.
One of his rangers also reported seeing full cans of beer and soft drink bobbing in the surf.
``That's what's weird about it,'' said Harris, who added that he can't imagine anybody throwing those overboard.
``I am convinced the dumping of the stuff came from renegades in violation of orders. I'm certain it was not a command-ordered dump at all.''
The Navy declined to comment until it completes its investigation into the incident.
The landing craft carrying the debris will return to Norfolk this weekend. The Navy plans to inspect the trash.
Navy ships are allowed to dump certain items at sea, beyond the three-mile limit. That includes food and nonplastic containers that have been broken up. Medical waste and plastic are prohibited from being dumped, unless they represent a hazard to the crew.
The uninhabited national seashore northeast of Morehead City seems to draw a lot of debris from commercial ships and charter boats, Harris said.
He praised the Navy for coming to the beach as soon as officials were called.
``It was quite a good response,'' he said. ``There certainly was no antagonism between us and the military. They have been very helpful to us in the past.''
KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY LITTERING by CNB