Jan. 13, 2024 Island Free Press
By Catherine Kozak
Faced with increasingly dangerous conditions in Sloop Channel, the North Carolina Ferry Division has sought an emergency declaration to address safety for ferry traffic in Hatteras Inlet. Now it appears likely the Army Corps of Engineers will soon be able to provide the necessary work.
“We heard you loud and clear,” Bob Keistler, Army Corps of Engineers Chief of Civil Works Programs and Project Management at the Wilmington district, told the Dare County Waterways Commission at its Jan. 8, meeting in Manteo.
Although he said that he expects that the Corps will have authorization to widen the pinched area by Barney Slough before month’s end, there are still questions about what other work the permit will require, such as a submerged aquatic vegetation survey or soil samples.
But Keistler, who was speaking remotely, said an emergency declaration would allow the Corps to dredge an alternate channel while additional permit requirements were being completed, similar to what was granted last year for Oregon Inlet.
“I would argue it’s kind of the same thing,” he said.
An emergency declaration in August 2022 authorized the Corps to dredge a new channel under the Basnight Bridge in Oregon Inlet while it completed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.
Shoaling in Barney Slough, aggravated by recent storms, has shifted Sloop Channel to the southwest and significantly narrowed the navigation route, Dare County Manager Bobby Outten wrote in a recent letter to Col. Brad Morgan, the Corps’ Wilmington District commander.
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