THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 13, 1996 TAG: 9607130189
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 74 lines
A bipartisan effort to authorize and build a $100 million pair of mile-long jetties at Oregon Inlet will be made in Washington, D.C., Thursday at a congressional hearing requested by Sen. Jesse Helms.
For years, squabbles between jetty proponents and opponents in and out of government have delayed construction of the breakwaters, which the Army Corps of Engineers says will provide an all-weather passage through the Outer Banks.
The Corps has argued that the jetties will generate enough money from increased commercial fishing to amortize construction costs over a reasonable period of time. Opponents disagree, saying the jetties would do more harm to the environment than the fishing revenue would justify.
Helms, a North Carolina Republican, issued a list of witnesses Friday who will discuss the breakwaters before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Top North Carolina Democrats who will testify with Helms include Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., Marc Basnight, president pro tem of the state Senate, and H. Martin Lancaster, a former 3rd District congressman from Goldsboro, now assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works in Washington and a principal policymaker for coastal efforts by the Corps.
``There is still disagreement between the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Army engineers over Oregon Inlet, and I hope this can be resolved,'' Lancaster said in Washington on Friday.
The disagreement, Lancaster said, centers on the Corps' opinion that the jetties would largely pay for themselves through increased commercial fishing revenue. Interior Department figures do not support that claim.
Lancaster did not reveal the position the Army will take at the hearings next week.
The dispute goes back to the Reagan-Bush administrations, when the Corps was prevented from starting work on the jetties by an unexpected GOP maneuver that transferred to the Interior Department the land on each side of Oregon Inlet. Without Army-owned land to anchor their jetties, the Corps has been stymied.
A spokesperson for Helms said the hearing next week will review previous congressional moves that prevent construction of the jetties.
Other witnesses scheduled to testify at Thursday's hearing include: 3rd District U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-N.C.; Assistant Interior Secretary George T. Frampton Jr.; and Dare County Commission Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr.
Also testifying will be Robert G. Williams, chairman of the Dare County Oregon Inlet Commission; Harry B. Schiffman, a Manteo marina operator; Col. Dan McDonald, a retired Army Corps officer; and Capt. Willie Etheridge of Wanchese, president of the Oregon Inlet Users Association.
George A. Embrey, chairman of the Dare County Republican Party, praised Helms and the Democrats who will appear at the hearing.
``If it is done right, the entire jetties-Oregon Inlet bridge project would provide an elevated causeway at the south end of the . . . bridge that would not by threatened in every bad storm,'' Embrey said.
``This is really not a partisan issue,'' he added. MEMO: The Senate subcommittee hearing will be held in room SD-366,
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Thursday at 9:30 a.m., at the Capitol in
Washington. ILLUSTRATION: Helms
PARTICIPANTS
Among those to testify at Thursday's Senate hearing:
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.
Marc Basnight, president pro tem of the N.C. Senate.
Former congressman H. Martin Lancaster, now assistant secretary
of the Army for Civil Works.
U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-N.C.
George T. Frampton Jr., assistant interior secretary. by CNB