Go Figure
Submitted by gregflynn on Thu, 03/06/2008 - 9:46pm
Figure Eight Island wants to have your cake and eat it too. While pursuing a terminal groin injury on the North Carolina coast, full steam ahead, the Islanders have been slow paddling a beach renourishment project that might scuttle the groin proposal if implemented too fast according to coastal observers.
Last year a Figure Eight Island/ Rich Inlet project was described in the Federal Register 07-848, 2/26/2007and listed on the Army Corps of Engineers website under Expired Public Notices dated 3/30/2007 as Corps Action ID# 2006-41158-065
Intent To Prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Development of an Inlet Management Plan That Includes the Repositioning and Realignment of the Main Ebb Channel of Rich Inlet and To Use the Material To Nourish Figure Eight Island, North of Wilmington, New Hanover County, NC
A public hearing was held March 1st 2007 in Wilmington and written comments were received until March 29th, 2007. According to the Army Corps of Engineers not much has occurred since:
The consultants are in the fact finding mode for the project based on direction from the Project Delivery Team. The preliminary draft of the EIS document will probably not be released until ’09.
The sense of urgency that propelled an end run by the NC Senate around coastal regulations prohibiting groins would evaporate if legislators knew that Figure Eight Island was actively engaged in beach renourishment. Therein lies the rub. Coastal regulations allow sandbag protection of threatened structures for up to five years as long as there is an active beach renourishment project but, there is no definition of “active.”
Sandbagging is a temporary measure, protecting several Figure Eight houses, that actually increases beach erosion in front of the sandbags, hence the need for active beach renourishment to complement it. In fact marine charts show a steep drop in the sea floor immediately in front of the area being sandbagged. Indeed one irony of the terminal groin at Fort Macon being used as an example is that beach renourishment is still required and that without it the groin would be a failure. Click to see the shifting sands of Rich Inlet at Figure Eight Island over time.
New construction of houses requires setbacks of 30 times the erosion rate or a minimum of 60 feet. All new structures over 5,000 square feet in area require setbacks of 60 times the erosion rate or a minimum of 120 feet. A current rules change proposal would actually toughen this requirement. There are over 50 houses on Figure Eight Island that exceed 5,000 in area. One of those houses was the scene of the recent controversial private party attended by members of the 21st Century Transportation Committee, a possible violation of open meetings laws.
One spirited defense of Committee members I heard since was that the party was attended by 150 movers and shakers, moving and shaking to flamenco music, and that the chance of 3 members being in the same place at the same time discussing state business was remote. Comments made the next day at the official meeting in Wilmington exposed that fallacy. One thing is sure: Figure Eight Island is pulling out all the stops to privately facilitate public protection of private property while the public and neighboring property owners are left in Rich Inlet without a paddle.
So here's the issue. When the NC short session starts later this year, watch for Senate Bill 599 Inlet Stabilization Program to show up in the House, take a look at this policy brief on the groin proposal from Duke and make sure S599 gets beached in a committee somewhere until 2009 at the earliest.
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If this comes out of committee
it is only because the rich of figure eight are using their money to buy some people. the people who are being bought are the politicians who will back this proposal.
No way should this proposal or bill even be in the state senate much less taken out of any committee. It is abuse of the rich on nature. It is harming the harmony of nature for the selfish of a few.
Stop the madness. Stop the foolishness. Stop allowing dumb ideas to even making it to the state senate floor.
The previous thread about this bill had some great points on why this should not be allowed to happen. No one in the state who is educated in these groins has said figure eight should be allowed this exception to state law.
If our politicians want an experiment, how about politicians doing an experiment on doing what is right for the habitat and State of North Carolina! Trash this disgrace of a bill.
Thanks for crossposting, Greg.
I like having a nice clear target.
These poor people are suffering. Help them!
Top ten reasons the government should help our poor friends out there on Figure Eight Island:
10. What is the purpose of being born rich if you cannot take advantage of the “lower classes of people?”
9. The poor people think a groin is an ingrown toenail. They will never understand.
8. Poor people should not even be allowed to go to the beach. They see how “we” live and then feel bad about their wretchedness.
7. What is all the fuss about? Isn’t Figure Eight Island not suffering more than the victims of Katrina? You people should be sending us relief. (But please, none of those gaudy little trailers!)
6. Of course the government will cave in to us. What is the government for if not to give favors to the “upper class?”
5. Jesus said that we will always have the poor among us. But I don’t think He ever went to Figure Eight Island!
4. The best cure for a terminal groin is either Viagra or a trip to Vegas.
3. The motto of Figure Eight Island: “I wonder what the poor people are doing today?”
2. Greg wrote: “One spirited defense of Committee members I heard since was that the party was attended by 150 movers and shakers, moving and shaking to flamenco music, and that the chance of 3 members being in the same place at the same time discussing state business was remote.” I personally believe Greg is wrong about this. I believe the Bible also states something like, “Whenever 3 or more movers and shakers gather on Figure Eight Island, that is where the seat of government shall be.” I’m not real sure of the exact passage but I believe it may be in “Relations.” And if us common folk keep talking about all this we all will be turned into a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife when they were leaving Sodom and Gonorrhea.
And number one:
1. If you drag a hundred dollar bill through Figure Eight Island…… no one would even stoop to pick it up. Chump change!
Go figure?
Excellent, reasonably honest
Great screen name too.
A modest suggestion.
Would one of you research whiz kids like to check the ownership records for beachfront property on Figure 8, cross check regarding the candidates to whom they're contributing in the state campaigns this year, and post the results?
Dan Besse
Democrat for Lieutenant Governor
www.danbesse2008.org
Trou8le Maker :D
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
Who, me, troublemaker?
Or I could say what a friend of mine likes to say:
That's my job, and I'm good at it. ;-)
Dan Besse
Democrat for Lieutenant Governor
www.danbesse2008.org
I've got the tax records...
But I'm no good at the donor databases. Looks like about 330 owners or so -- I'll be happy to pass off the list to someone who knows how to check the donors.
SBOE
http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/webapps/cf_trans_search/
"Keep the Faith"
Automating that could be hard...
Could be done, but more than a quick hit thing. I'd have to write an engine to submit the queries and then parse and store the results. That's a couple days of work.
Inconvenient Truths
There is no obvious pattern other than big contributions to Mike Easley and Marc Basnight. Here's some background from a November Charlotte Observer story.
One contributor stands out: V. Parker Overton of Overtons water sports retail fame. He and his wife are big contributors to Easley and Basnight. Their house appears to be the most endangered being closest to the ocean with sandbags protecting it just 25 feet away. The house is also over 5,000 square feet in area and if built new would require a 120 foot setback.
When Hurrican Dennis came through in 1999 Al gore cut short his family beach vacation on Figure Eight Island. According to the NY Times:
So when Al Gore comes to the beach he stays in the house on Figure Eight Island voted most likely to fall into the ocean.
Thomas F Taft is a member of the board of trustees of the Southern Environmental Law Center. His wife is an Associate Professor of environmental science at ECU.
Don't these people ever talk to each other?
One of the contributions made by the "Island Preservation Society" PAC was $500 to Thomas Wright 10/10/06, a sum which was never reported by Wright.
Heh......stays in the house voted most likely
to fall into the ocean. hehehehehehe.....you crack me up.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.