THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020296
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 75 lines
If state legislators don't approve a budget this month, boaters and fishermen who depend on at least seven Albemarle-area waterways could be sunk.
The North Carolina General Assembly was scheduled to appropriate almost $2 million to maintain channels along the Outer Banks and surrounding waterways through the 1996-97 fiscal year. A budget impasse threatens to eliminate not only the state funds but also federal funding for state waterway maintenance, which has been allocated but is tied to the approval of state funding.
If a compromise is not reached, more than $3.3 million in federal matching funds slated for northeastern North Carolina will be lost. As the funding dries up, so will the channels, many of which will revert to shoals once routine dredging stops. Hundreds of recreational boaters and commercial fishermen will be left high and dry.
Overall, the state stands to lose $20.4 million in federal funds already earmarked for projects like harbor dredging, channel maintenance and beach nourishment.
Local projects, such as the Wanchese Channel maintenance dredging, Walter Slouth Channel maintenance near Oregon Inlet and the Dare County beach nourishment feasibility study, would be affected if the funds were eliminated.
``The crisis of the moment is that this money is already in the president's federal budget. If we don't get the state funds, we can't get the federal money needed to do thiswork,'' North Carolina Water Resources Division Director John Morris said Monday from his Raleigh office.
``We're faced with not being able to do much maintenance dredging if we lose all those funds. That will affect everyone in the recreational and commercial boating communities who depend on those channels,'' said Morris. ``The citizens of North Carolina need to know what's at stake here, and need to let their elected officials throughout the state know how important these projects are, and how important it is to get this budget passed.''
North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. has asked the General Assembly to come back into session next week to work on the budget. Morris said he is optimistic that some state compromise will be worked out. But he remains worried about the future of federal funding.
``Our commercial fishermen haven't had a lot of good news lately. And here's more bad news,'' North Carolina Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources Secretary Jonathan Howes said. ``Because we can't provide $100,000 in state funds, we're going to lose $900,000 in federal funds for maintenance dredging of the Wanchese Channel. Wanchese is our primary port for commercial fishing on our north coast.
``We desperately need to complete these projects,'' Howes said. ``It is a shame that we stand to lose so much federal money because we can't come through with the state money. I don't know how we'll explain that to folks in eastern North Carolina and other parts of the state who depend on these ports for their livelihood.''
For the past several months, local and state officials have worried about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers eliminating federal funding for maintaining channels throughout the Albemarle area beginning in the fall of 1997. Morris said those waterway advocates are ``making some headway with getting the Corps to fund those projects.'' But the question about maintaining the waterways - and funding beach nourishment studies - for this upcoming fall is more imminent.
``We've still got a year to work on securing those federal funds,'' said Morris. ``The federal money we've already gotten for 1996-97 - that's what we need to make sure we don't lose now.'' ILLUSTRATION: FUNDS IN DANGER
If state money is not approved for the following Albemarle area
waterways projects, federal funds for that work - which already has
been approved - will be lost:
Wanchese Channel dredging: State, $100,000; federal, $900,000
Manteo Channel dredging: State, $400,000; federal, 0
Dare County beach nourishment study: State, $200,000; federal,
$400,000
Rollinson Channel maintenance: State, $400,000; federal, $1,000,000
Far Creek Channel, Hyde County: State, $280,000; federal, $1,000,000
Currituck Sound flow study: State, $100,000; federal, 0
Walter Slough Channel maintenance: State, $500,000; federal, 0 by CNB