HATTERAS ISLAND — The U.S. Navy investigated and found that an estimated 1,250 pounds of trash that washed up on Outer Banks beaches in spring 2023 came from one of its ships.
“The Navy conducted an investigation into the events from last spring,” according to Ted Brown, co-director of media operations/installations and environmental public affairs officer. “The waste that washed ashore was confirmed to have been from USS George H.W. Bush. Appropriate action was taken as a result of the investigation and Sailors [sic] from the ship participated in cleanup efforts.”
Previously, in May 2017, “processed plastic disks” from USS Whidbey Island washed ashore on the Outer Banks, Brown said in an email. The sailors found responsible following that investigation similarly “were held accountable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
The 2017 event totaled approximately 860 pounds of garbage. About 43 disks were recovered, each with an average weight of 20 pounds, according to Brown.
“The Navy has very strict procedures for [the] processing of trash and waste while at sea,” Brown said.
“Plastic waste is not permitted to be released into the ocean,” he continued. “All plastic waste is separated onboard, then processed into disks which are stored onboard until they can be properly disposed of ashore. No fuel or oil waste is permitted to be released into the ocean. Other trash (i.e. metal, paper, food waste) must be processed, and there are requirements for how far offshore the vessel must be to dispose of these trash substances. These requirements have been in place for decades.”
Aside from the Navy’s two confirmed incidents of ocean dumping impacting the Outer Banks, “I think that we have a very strong reputation and history of being extremely environmentally friendly,” Capt. Dave Hecht said in a phone call.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore reported last year that beginning on April 27, its staff and the Town of Nags Head observed “plastic, metal, paper and textile fabric debris washing up in low densities along approximately 25 miles of beaches, from Nags Head to the villages of Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo,” according to an April 30, 2023, National Park Service press release.
The park service reported the incident to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Sector North Carolina. Staff from Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, the Coast Guard, the Navy and the Town of Nags Head had been removing debris for three days at the time of the release and would continue to do so over the coming days, it said.
David Hallac, superintendent of the National Parks of Eastern North Carolina, said in a phone interview this month that staff called him at the time to report beach debris that was “all very similar—lots of flip-flops and Crocs, empty toiletry bottles like shampoo [and] food supplements like protein powder.”
Paper with “identifying marks,” Navy clothing and a Navy-issued boot clued them into the debris’ likely origin, Hallac said. The Navy “sent dozens of sailors down” to help clean up the beach once the park service got in touch with officials.
“Certainly truckloads of debris” were removed from the beach, Hallac said. His understanding was that the loose debris that washed up originated from bagged trash dumped off the ship.
“Two hundred fifty to 300 bags or sacks of trash may have been dumped over the edge of the vessel,” he said. “Presumably a lot of that sunk. A significant amount of debris did leave that ship…including things that are not normally dumped in the ocean, like plastics.”
On the north end of Hatteras Island, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge experienced similar debris on its 12 miles of shoreline.
Staff on the beach doing nesting shorebird work last spring reported an “abundance” of plastic and trash, “almost that would be like your household waste-type plastic,” according to Dawn Washington, refuge manager for Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.
The refuge had an interim manager at the time, but records indicated items like water bottles, containers for protein shakes and powder, shampoo and other toiletry bottles, laundry detergent and cleaning product bottles washed up, she said.
Meanwhile, Roberta Thuman, town of Nags Head spokesperson, said “very little” debris washed up in Nags Head last spring from the Navy ship, and she didn’t recall any washing up from the 2017 incident.
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A larger issue with debris
Some trash can always be found on area beaches, from a variety of sources, according to both Hallac and Washington.
“You’re going to see stuff out there, either washing ashore anytime of the year or [from] people leaving it because people are allowed to be on the beach and not everybody does the right thing—pack their stuff out,” Washington said.
“We do have debris washing up every day from offshore,” Hallac said, “from a variety of land-based and marine-based sources.”
Ocean dumping for land-generated waste was common worldwide until its “harmful impacts” became more widely known in the 1970s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website.
The Outer Banks Surfrider Foundation partnered with several northern towns in Dare County years ago to coordinate regular beach cleanups through the Adopt-A-Beach program.
This year, for the first time, the National Park Service launched its own Adopt-a-Beach program for its 75 miles of coastline.
Washington, who became refuge manager in December, started organizing monthly beach cleanups this year. The next one is slated for Aug. 1 at 10 a.m. Interested volunteers can meet participating staff at the Pea Island refuge’s visitor center, located at 14500 N.C. 12 in Rodanthe.
Hallac encourages visitors and residents to do their part to keep beaches clean, but to call the park service if any trash isn’t immediately identifiable as safe to clean up.
“Sometimes we find things that are actually hazardous,” Hallac said. During his tenure, fuel containers, flares, “training bombs” and torpedoes have been found on the beach.
