DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230539

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: MANTEO                            LENGTH:  101 lines

INVENTOR SAYS NEW DREDGE IS ALL OREGON INLET NEEDS

Oregon Inlet's persistent and worsening navigation problems could be remedied efficiently by an innovative new dredge, the machine's inventor says.

In a presentation tonight to the Oregon Inlet and Waterways Commission, Dennison K. Breese will elaborate on how his Seadozer propwash is capable of making the channel safer at far less cost than the hopper and sidecaster dredges that now maintain the inlet.

So safe, he claims, that the controversial jetties that the commission has been promoting as a solution to increased shoaling will not be needed.

``I'm going to propose that the existing channel be widened and made more shallow to reduce the velocity of the currents . . . That they consider a different way of operating in Oregon Inlet,'' Breese said. ``When you get a new tool, you've got to think differently.''

Breese, a commercial diver and former submarine crewman, said the inlet - one of the most perilous in the nation - could be a suitable testing ground for the machine. The Beaufort inventor holds the American and European patent on the machine, marketed through his company, Cape Fear International.

The proposed construction of $100 million twin jetties that proponents say would anchor the channel and prevent obstructing sand travel has been blocked for nearly 30 years by federal agencies that own the land lining the inlet. Despite the insistence of state and local officials that the rock barriers are critical to continued passage for commercial and recreational vessels, the U.S. Department of the Interior has backed environmentalists' opinions that jetties would harm the fisheries and cause shoreline erosion.

But Breese says that jetties, which can protect channels by promoting currents that scour them out, already exist at Oregon Inlet. The sand that lines the cut of the channel acts just like jetties, he claims.

``We have our own jetties right there right now,'' he says. ``They work and they're working wonderfully.''

The Seadozer uses a four-propeller propwash system that sweeps rather than pumps or scoops, using the water flow from the turning propellers to move the sand. Two-propeller machines, in use on the West Coast, are limited because they have to be anchored to keep them in one place - impossible in heavy currents like Oregon Inlet. But Breese said the Seadozer does best in rough water because the strong wave action dislodges sand for easier sweeping.

Other bonuses are that the vessel requires only two operators, is very mobile, eliminates a need for sand disposal and has minimal effects environmentally, he said.

The machine would also make it possible to straighten out the shoreline, which would lessen erosion and wave energy. But the bestbenefit would be increased safety for watermen and more protection for the Bonner Bridge that spans the waterway, Breese said.

``The problem with Oregon Inlet is the velocity of the water, the tidal flow, because the outgoing tide makes the incoming waves chaotic. It makes them break. It makes them change angles, so that you cannot predict . . . So it breaks on your boat. They become almost vertical - you can't steer. It's the violent motion.''

Breese said he will make a formal proposal to the Army Corps of Engineers by late November. He said his dredge, which can be built for about $3 million and would lease for $1.5 million to $2 million a year, would cost less than 15 cents per cubic yard if it was run 24 hours a day. For 10 hours a day, costs would rise to about $1 a cubic yard. Most dredges now cost about $3 a cubic yard to operate, Breese said.

The corps spends about $5 million a year to dredge Oregon Inlet with a hopper and sidecaster, said Jim Bradley, chief of the technical support division at the corps' Wilmington district. Any proposal by Breese would have to convince the corps that it was worth diverting some of those funds for his dredge. The federal government is not in the mood to give the district any additional funds for maintaining small navigation channels, he said.

``We haven't seen his equipment constructed or tested for us to be assured that it would satisfy our requirements at Oregon Inlet,'' Bradley said. ``We have not looked into it enough to give a sound technical answer.''

But Bradley said corps district commander Col. Terry Youngbluth, along with its dredging expert Jim Butler, were intrigued by the Seadozer at a meeting he attended with Breese.

``From a project standpoint, we're receptive to anything that moves sand,'' he said. But Bradley said the corps would not seriously entertain using the machine until there was a large-scale demonstration.

``If you ever test in Oregon Inlet, and it works, it'll probably work anywhere,'' Bradley said. ``If you could ever make it a reality, that'd be a good place to do it at.''

Waterways commission coordinator Bob Peele admitted to some skepticism, in part because miracles have been promised before at Oregon Inlet, and they fizzled in the face of the inlet's nasty habits.

``Way before I was even here, different equipment was out there and the folks were saying how great it was,'' Peele said. ``Gosh, I wish there was a piece of equipment out there that would solve all of our problems. But it's way too early to say.''

The Oregon Inlet commission might be a hard sell for Breese, Peele conceded. ``I think everybody's going to be skeptical. But I think we certainly have a right to be.''

With the shoaling getting worse by the day, the commission needs a solution faster than any offered by the state and federal government.

Peele said the shoal island in the middle of the inlet is growing and working its way north. The submerged part is now less than 200 feet from the channel. Another new problem is that as the Bodie Island point continues to move southward, the 90-degree turn that boats traveling from Wanchese need to make into the channel is getting narrower.

``It's really tightening up out there,'' Peele said. ILLUSTRATION: MEETING

The Oregon Inlet and Waterways Commission will meet at 6 p.m. today

at the Administrative Annex in Manteo.

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