THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Friday, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505260511 SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER DATELINE: WASHINGTON, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
The proposed reductions in federal programs all along the North Carolina coast could have a devastating effect on the area's economy, state and federal officials said Thursday.
The damage to the coastal economy from about $2 billion in cuts proposed over the next five years for dredging, beach nourishment and wetlands protection programs ``far outweighs the savings,'' said Eugene Tomlinson, chairman of the state Coastal Resources Commission.
``I am afraid in our headlong rush to reduce the deficit we're going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.''
Plans for cutting the federal budget proposed by the Clinton administration and the effects of those cuts on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging and erosion-control projects were outlined at a Coastal Resources Commission meeting at Beaufort County Community College.
Earlier this year, President Clinton proposed an estimated $837 million in budget cuts over the next five years that would phase out smaller navigation projects not deemed to be of ``national significance'' and all beach nourishment projects not already under way.
But two weeks ago, the Corps of Engineers received word that deeper cuts have been proposed.
The federal Office of Management and Budget proposed $1.2 billion in new corps budget cuts.
``It was really a big shock for us,'' said John Morris, director of the state Division of Water Resources. ``It was a very radical message for the Corps of Engineers and for North Carolina.''
Clinton's cuts would mean the loss of more than $25 million each year for beach replenishment and waterway dredging projects in North Carolina, including the demise of a plan to pump sand on some Dare County beaches and maintenance dredging of about 25 Albemarle-area waterways, state and federal officials say.
``The projects at Dare and Brunswick counties would be at a dead end,'' Morris said. ``And this would have a huge effect on our economy.''
Said Webb Fuller, Nags Head town manager: ``It would be devastating.''
States, counties and local governments would have to find money in their budgets or the projects would be left undone.
If the cuts are approved by Congress, they would take effect with the 1996-97 fiscal year, Morris said.
The federal budget cuts could have a crippling effect on key state coastal and fisheries management policies, officials said.
The proposed cuts would make it more difficult for larger fishing boats to reach offshore fishing grounds but would also mean a setback for some major fisheries management efforts.
As the state reduced commercial and sports fishing practices in its sounds and estuaries in recent years, fishermen have opted for larger boats that rely on coastal inlets to reach fishing grounds in the Atlantic Ocean, says Fentress H. ``Red'' Munden, fisheries management section chief with state Division of Marine Fisheries and a member of the Coastal Resources Advisory Commission.
If maintenance of these inlets is discontinued, it could mean more long-term fishing pressure on the sounds and estuaries because fishermen no longer would have easy access to the ocean, Munden said.
The state and its representatives of both parties in the U.S. House are gearing up to fight the proposals.
U.S. Reps. Charlie Rose, a Democrat, and Walter B. Jones Jr., a Republican, whose districts encompass all of North Carolina's coastal region, have vowed to fight them.
The waterways are ``like highways for the commercial fishermen and the recreational fishermen,'' Jones recently told the Charlotte Observer. ``We all know we have to down-size government. But I think (President Clinton) really missed the boat on this one.'' by CNB