NEws Article in Monday's Star News
Waterway funds run aground
New boat routes could sink economies
By Gareth McGrath
Staff Writer
gareth.mcgrath@starnewsonline.com
OAK ISLAND - The Intracoastal Waterway is clearly visible from the Blue Water Point Marina, tucked along the backside of this Brunswick County barrier island. But the flow of boats with exotic names that ply the waterway and sometimes stop in to stock up on fuel, beer, ice or a berth is in danger of drying up – and with it a lot of Capt. Richard Flick's business. "We're getting calls from people two days out wondering if they're going to be able to get through," said the marina's operations manager. The problem is the sand that's building up in both the nearby waterway and adjacent Lockwood Folly Inlet.
Both are known trouble spots for shoaling.
And like all shallow navigation channels in the state, both also would lose dredging funds under President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2005, which starts Oct. 1. Already the constant flow of silt into the channel has reduced the waterway at Lockwood Folly to about 5 feet at low tide, dropping to 3 feet in places.
What's happening in this corner of Brunswick County isn't unique for North Carolina or other states crossed by the Intracoastal and its sister waterways, which form a 3,000-mile-long protective ribbon of channels from New England around Florida to Texas.
"It's hard to say who has the worst problem along the coast," said Rosemary Lynch, executive director of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association. "But I'd say right now you do with Lockwood Folly because it's largely impassable to so many people right now."
Shallow waters
It's the marine version of Interstate 95, a waterway running from Virginia to Florida that provides a means of transport for thousands of boaters a year and an economic lifeline for communities that lie along it.
But for the first time since the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway opened in the 1930s, there's no money in the president's proposed budget to keep the constant flow of sand from choking it off.
Without renewed federal funding or an injection of local or state money, it's only a matter of time until the waterway becomes a patchwork of open and closed channels.
A waterway that's only accessible to the smallest boats could force more truck traffic onto increasingly congested roads as barges find the waterway impassable, officials fear.
Coast Guard officials also are concerned about how prepared some boaters might be to handle travel in the open ocean.
For example, if inland areas of the Intracoastal in Eastern North Carolina shoal up, it could force boaters to exit the waterway at Beaufort and rejoin it at Hampton Roads, Va. – after a long trip around the tricky waters off the Outer Banks.
A sand-choked waterway also could decimate the increasingly lucrative businesses serving "snowbirds" – boaters who head to warmer ports of call for the winter and return north a few months later.
"If the waterway ceases to remain a navigational channel, then it's going to lead to a fundamental shift in the economy of coastal North Carolina," said Claiborne Young, author of the Cruising Guide to Coastal North Carolina.
Already, the Intracoastal Waterway is effectively closed to large vessels at anything but high tide at Lockwood Folly and Sunset Beach in Brunswick County. At Sunset Beach, the pontoon bridge connecting the island to the mainland can't open at low tide.
Officials and folks whose livelihood depends on the waterway say Snow's Cut and the Carolina Beach and New River inlet crossings aren't far behind.
And the state's reputation is getting around.
"When people are talking about the water depths of Brunswick County, North Carolina, in the Florida Keys – that's not a good thing," said Bobby Dameron, dock master at the Southport Marina.
Boating for dollars
It's not that the Intracoastal isn't busy with boat traffic; it's just the wrong type in the government's eyes.
Barges that still ply the waterway are the exception on the Intracoastal, not the rule like they are on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in the nation's heartland. That means the Intracoastal Waterway falls well short of the administration's commercial traffic threshold to warrant federal funding.
But counting just barges carrying coal, fuel or wood chips is missing the point, said Penny Leary Smith, director of the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center near Elizabeth City in the state's economically depressed northeast corner.
Noting that the average boater takes seven to nine days to travel the waterway's 308 miles through the state, Ms. Smith said the transiting vessels are vital to many Eastern North Carolina towns that don't have a whole lot else going on economically.
"You're talking about small rural communities that rely on these boaters," she said, noting that the generally well-heeled maritime travelers often do more than just buy fuel when they tie up.
Mike Bradley, director of N.C. Marine Trade Services at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, pegs boat-related spending in the state at about $500 million a year and employment at the 200 marinas along the coast at around 10,000.
But he said the indirect economic impact of the waterway dwarfs that amount.
"These communities are selling a waterfront experience," Mr. Bradley said, ticking off ancillary benefits that include higher property values and sales tax proceeds from visitors taking in the nautical scene. "You can't just count the fuel and the money they bring in to the marinas. Having these boats here, especially the large ones, is an experience people are willing to pay for."
At low tide on a busy day, it's not unusual to see several dozen sailboats and motorized yachts waiting for deeper water to cross Lockwood Folly, said Cel Marqus, who was working on his boat at the Blue Water marina.
"Go through there with a boat that draws even a few feet and you're going to get stuck," he said.
Mr. Marqus, who also runs a personal watercraft rental business, knows firsthand the dangers for those who push their luck. Last July he pulled a man from the inlet after his boat struck an obstruction and capsized. Another passenger in the boat was killed.
Dwindling funds, depths
The waterway has been starved for funds for years as Democratic and Republican administrations alike sought to cut the federal government's responsibility for keeping the channel dredged.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers long ago abandoned the stated goal of keeping the waterway to its authorized navigable depth of 12 feet, instead aiming for a steady 8-foot depth.
Without fresh funds for dredging, more sections of the waterway will sink below even that threshold.
The Waterway Association estimates that it would cost about $107 million to restore the entire waterway between Virginia and Florida and another $20 million to maintain it.
North Carolina needs about $7 million to maintain an average 8-foot depth.
Howard Varnam, chief of navigation for the Corps of Engineers' Wilmington district, said his hands are largely tied as to what relief his office can offer boaters.
"We are funded for our survey work, and we'll continue to survey and update our navigational information as needed," he said.
And dredging?
Aside from some limited dredging this summer in Carolina Beach and Lockwood Folly inlets, that's it outside of the Cape Fear, Beaufort and Oregon Inlet shipping channels.
"There is no additional maintenance dredging scheduled right now," Mr. Varnam said.
Deepening support
But as the waterway gets shallower, the effort to protect it is deepening.
Several boat and cruising groups have begun petitions to raise awareness about the waterway's importance as a commercial and economic marine artery.
North Carolina also is raising the issue with its congressional delegation.
"This has always been a federal responsibility, authorized by Congress, and we think that it's unfair for the government to seek to end that responsibility," said John Morris, director of the N.C. Division of Water Resources.
Some members of Congress are getting involved, with U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., this spring helping form the Congressional Waterway Caucus.
The administration also has hinted that it might be willing to review how it calculates vessel traffic on waterways, taking into account recreational traffic.
But that wouldn't take effect until fiscal year 2006, which starts October 2005 – meaning a whole year with no dredging.
That's led some to propose other states adopting Florida's model, which has established special tax districts to help with the maintenance of its inland waterways.
Most North Carolina officials aren't ready to embrace that idea.
But Ms. Lynch said states and coastal communities might have to start looking to other sources to supplement any federal funding that comes down the pipeline.
"If we're going to leave it just up to the federal government, then we're going to lose the waterway," she said.
Gareth McGrath: 343-2384
gareth.mcgrath@starnewsonline.com 
CB Inlet 
