Sunday, June 4, 2023
By Outer Banks Voice on May 20, 2022
On Friday, May 20, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District issued this release about shoaling at the Oregon Inlet.
On May 18, 2022, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District (USACE) performed a condition survey of the Federal Navigation Project at Oregon Inlet, North Carolina, in response to the weather system that the entire North Carolina coast was subjected to the week of May 8, 2022.
The Oregon Inlet condition survey indicates that the portion of the marked federal channel along the Marc Basnight Bridge between Buoys 17 and 21 is completely shoaled in (indicating depths of 2-3 feet at MLLW) and unnavigable for most vessels. The shallow depths of the current channel will not permit use of the USACE Shallow Draft Fleet dredges to clear the channel.
USACE has been advised by the U.S. Coast Guard Sector North Carolina (USCG) that a Local Notice to Mariners will be published concerning the current channel conditions and advising that the current channel markers will be removed in the coming days. USACE and the USCG are currently coordinating and actively investigating other potential areas where a marked channel can be established to provide access to and from Oregon Inlet.
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Steven
Just another side effect of groins and jettys.
Captain Smirk
It’s funny when you sit back and wonder why anyone thought areas like this made sense to inhabit… almost as foolish as New Orleans etc.
tax payer
Where is Miss Kate ?
Mark Jurkowitz | Outer Banks Voice
The Miss Katie is expected to be here in early summer.
Travis
Just curious if boats can still get out either further north or south. Cost of gas being what it is, it is probably a prohibitive option.
KCG
KEEP On Building you’re only ruining the stability, or whats left. Look what happened to those 2 kids digging a hole in the sand it it collapsed. I don’t care how deep your stationary beams are, water doesn’t care and its rising!
Robin Wallbaum
This is a real problem…..hope they can fix it.
CLS
I was at Oregon Inlet today…the charter boats (and a lot of personal ones) are still going out fishing. A captain told me they go in and out daily, so they know how the sand has shifted. The main issue is insurance will not cover them if they ground going through there, especially once they pull the channel markers.
Alvah H. Ward, Jr.
Oregon Inlet stabilization is the ONLY solution to the sixty year old problem of safety navigating Oregon Inlet. Following the congressional mandate of dredging only as a Corps of Engineer solution is both foolish and impossible, as time has shown.
It is past time for the National Park Service and Fish & Wildlife /Interior to realize Oregon Inlet is too valuable to be a pawn in the environmental playbook.
Steven
Stabilize the inlet/outlet? That would be a very bad idea for a barrier island.
Bernie Blystone
Good luck trying to stabilize a shifting sand-bar. I own a boat a love to go off-shore but there are forces in play the man cannot harness and control. Maybe we should stop sending our tax dollars on foreign endeavors, like wars, and spend it on the taxpayers. Hopefully the dredges will get started again.
OBX at Heart
So if the Inlet is constantly being shoaled in with sand, and towns are constantly doing beach nourishment, why are they not just pumping the sand in the inlet and barging it up to the beaches that need it on the regular? 2 birds, one stone? Eliminated the shoaling, add more to the beaches that the sand probably came from – right? Certainly would be cheaper than current methods. JMO