MANTEO — Formally taking a position for the first time since the hazardous situation at Buxton Beach Access escalated about half a year ago, the Dare County Board of Commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution at its Monday meeting “requesting immediate action” for site cleanup.
The board is sending the resolution to 27 government officials Tuesday afternoon, according to Katelin Kight, Dare County’s assistant public information director.
The resolution will go to U.S. Coast Guard commanders in Cleveland; Norfolk; Portsmouth; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington, North Carolina, according to the mailing list. It will also be sent to officials with the Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, the area’s U.S. legislators and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s secretary.
The board’s three-page resolution is titled, “Resolution requesting immediate action to rectify the discharge of oil into the Atlantic Ocean and adjoining shoreline, remove derelict infrastructure and restore the Buxton Beach Access site to its pre-military condition to protect the environment and public health and safety.”
The stretch of beach by the former U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard facilities in Buxton — just north of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse’s original site — has been officially closed since September, when coastal erosion from storms including Tropical Storm Idalia and Hurricane Franklin exposed old military infrastructure and petroleum-contaminated sand.
A series of winter storms in early February again escalated the hazardous situation, exposing more concrete, steel, metal cables and plastic infrastructure attributed to the former military facilities.
Many people, including National Park Service staff, have in recent weeks reported a pervasive fuel smell on the beach and a petroleum-caused sheen on the ocean water.
Commissioner Danny Couch, who represents Hatteras Island, gave an overview of the situation during commissioner comments at the end of Monday morning’s meeting.
“I’ve got something very concerning … not just from an environmental standpoint but from a public safety standpoint as well,” Couch said.
Over a 26-year period, from 1956-82 ,“the U.S. Navy operated a submarine tracking station right there under the shadow of the lighthouse,” Couch said.
The lease agreement was to restore the site “to its original National Park condition” afterward, but the Navy turned over the base to the U.S. Coast Guard, Couch said. “Somewhere in that transition it did not get cleaned up fully.”
The Coast Guard used the site from 1982 to 2013, according to Coast Guard information.
Couch showed photographs on a screen as he spoke. These included old photos of the former Navy base, a current map of the area and recent photos of the hazards on the beach.
One photo showed a metal pipe that he said is leaking oil onto the beach, several showed uncovered concrete and metal rebar and one showed petroleum-contaminated peat soil on the beach.
Chairman Bob Woodard said during Monday’s meeting that when he, County Manager Bobby Outten and Vice Chairman Wally Overman visit Washington, D.C., “this will be one of our top subject matters when we meet with our legislators.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the site in 1998 as a Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) and began responding to the petroleum contamination at the site, “making the federal government the responsible party under numerous federal and environmental laws,” according to the resolution.
Over 4,000 tons of petroleum-contaminated soils were excavated and removed from the site in 2004, the resolution noted.
But from 2004 through present-day, “extensive groundwater monitoring by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has consistently detected petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants that exceed the department’s standards in addition to the discovery of previously unknown petroleum contamination discovered after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ FUDS project,” according to the resolution.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s Spill Response staff’s early September sediment samples tested positive for petroleum hydrocarbons with characteristics of light fuel oil and lubricating oil, and “petroleum-contaminated soils have intermittently been observed on the beach since September,” the resolution noted.
The National Park Service, which operates Cape Hatteras National Seashore, opened the Buxton Beach Access site in 2019 with a 50-car parking lot, portable restrooms and an accessible pathway to the beach.
“The site has since consistently been ranked as one of the best beaches of the United States,” the resolution stated.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore beaches are a significant contributor to Dare County’s $1.2 billion tourism economy, according to the resolution.
The U.S. Coast Guard is the “designated federal on-scene coordinator” for the coastal zone in North Carolina, per Title 40 of the U.S. Code. The Coast Guard “has a duty to evaluate the magnitude, severity and threat” to the public and to the environment, as well as the duty “to take action to prevent, minimize and mitigate threats when a responsible party fails to do so,” according to the resolution.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a Feb. 13 email to The Virginian-Pilot said its FUDS Program could not take action at the site because of not finding a Navy-associated source of the petroleum.
A U.S. Coast Guard investigation into whether contamination resulted from Coast Guard site operations is scheduled to conclude this summer, District 5 Public Affairs Officer Lt. Luke Pinneo said in an email last week.
“The Coast Guard initiated a site investigation in accordance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act in August 2023 to identify any contamination resulting from legacy operations at the site,” Pinneo said.
“Pending the outcome of the investigation, the Coast Guard will work with the National Park Service and the Army Corps of Engineers Formerly Used Defense Site program to determine any further action,” he said.
