Dan Besse, Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, today endorsed a call issued this week by 43 coastal scientists to reject new exceptions to North Carolina's ban on coastal seawalls and groins.
"We must protect our beaches and coastal islands by maintaining our ban on new seawalls and 'groins'," said Besse, a former chair of the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission and current Winston-Salem City Council Member.
The statements by Besse and the coastal scientists refer to legislation now pending in the N.C. General Assembly. The legislation, SB 599, "Inlet Stabilization Pilot Program," would authorize new "terminal groins" for "ocean inlet stabilization."
Among Besse's opponents for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor is State Sen. Walter Dalton, who last May voted for the legislation which would permit new "terminal groins" on the coast.
Besse reviewed the proposed legislation last summer at the request of coastal advocates, and submitted a scathing analysis. Besse told the N.C. Coastal Federation, "This is a very bad proposal for North Carolina coastal policy. It is directly counter to all our state's efforts to maintain our beaches and barrier islands by barring additional hard structures (seawalls, groins, riprap, etc.) on the oceanfront.
"The reference to 'inlet stabilization' is a veneer, and not even a new one. When I chaired the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission (1985-1990), similar requests were made and denied time and again. The intent is plainly nothing more than the protection of private oceanfront structures [at the expense both of the public beaches and neighboring property owners]."
"Our barrier islands are full of shifting inlets near ill-sited private beach mansions," said Besse. "This misnamed 'pilot program' would 'study' the well-documented impacts of a device which we knew and rejected for such purposes in our state years ago."
Besse concluded, "Approval of this bill would create a gaping loophole in our state's sound oceanfront protection policy, big enough to drive a supertanker through."