Yesterday morning saw representatives of Kure Beach and Carolina Beach meet with New Hanover County Commissioners, with whom they tabled various issues of local importance, one of them being dredging of the Carolina Beach Inlet.
“ The three beach communities and the county all need to be on the same page ,” Ted Davis New Hanover County Commission Chair , who called the meeting stated, WWAY-TV reports.
The Army Corps of Engineers completed the latest dredging project in the Carolina Beach Inlet over a month ago, however it is expected that more projects will be needed in this area soon.
In order for them to take place it is necessary to ensure funding, since last year’s federal earmark ban eliminated the funding stream envisaged for the corps’ routine maintenance dredging of shallow-draft inlets in the state.
The Carolina Beach Inlet needs to be at least 8 feet deep, so as for the Carolina Beach waterways to be safe for commercial, tourism and recreation purposes.
In the aftermath of the Hurricane Irene many North Carolina shallow draft inlets had become nearly impassable, which called for investing of strenuous efforts to return them back to normal.
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Dredging Today Staff, July 26, 2012; Image: usace