Coastal commentary 



Is North Carolina Ready for Ocean Outfalls? 



The beauty of North Carolina's 

 coastline has won it admirers from 

 near and far. The permanent popula- 

 tion of the 20 coastal counties grew 

 by 19 percent in the 1980s, and the 

 burgeoning tourism industry has kept 

 pace. 



But the price of this growth and 

 popularity has not been cheap. People 

 generate wastewater, and many of the 

 coastal disposal methods are reaching 

 their limits. Planners are looking for 

 new wastewater disposal options. 



One possibility, an ocean outfall, 

 would collect waste from a large 

 region, treat it and dispose of it 

 offshore. This disposal method is 

 already in place in many U.S. coastal 

 regions, including Virginia Beach. 



But proximity alone won't assure 

 that a North Carolina proposal would 

 get the same degree of support as 

 Virginia's ocean outfall. 



The Tar Heel coastline is among 

 the best known and least developed in 

 the eastern United States. Largely on 

 the strength of the prominent Outer 

 Banks, our relatively undisturbed 

 beaches have been ranked among the 

 best in the nation by Stephen 

 Leafherman. a noted coastal re- 

 searcher at the University of Mary- 

 land. 



Virginia Beach, on the other 

 hand, has been developed for more 

 than two generations as part of the 

 Hampton Roads metropolitan area, 

 which also includes the densely 

 populated cities of Norfolk and 

 Portsmouth. 



Its development is driven by 

 tourism and growth of several naval 

 bases in Hampton Roads. Conse- 

 quently, a large portion of the popula- 

 tion is not native to the area and 

 knows little about its heritage. These 

 people would not recall the maritime 



forest, grassy dunes and untainted 

 sounds and marshes. To them, 

 Virginia Beach has always been a 

 vista of high-rise motels, fast-food 

 stores, boulevards, neon signs and 

 gas stations. 



So public resistance was not 

 strong enough to stop an ocean 

 outfall when it was proposed there in 

 1974. By 1983, the system was 

 operational and today discharges 28 

 million gallons of wastewater daily. 



North Carolina's coastal 

 changes, on the other hand, are less 

 extensive and more recent. Residents 

 are aware of their coastal heritage and 

 the changes wrought by develop- 

 ment. They remember the natural 

 areas destroyed, and they treasure 

 those that remain. Generations have 

 hunted duck, fished or crabbed in the 

 marshes and sounds and walked for 

 miles on the beaches without a single 

 high-rise blocking the afternoon sun. 



This strong link to their past 

 could be an obstacle to building an 

 ocean outfall in North Carolina. 

 Many new residents also advocate 

 protecting the coastal environments 

 that drew them to the area in the first 

 place. Waste disposal is a consider- 

 able constraint on development for 

 most of coastal North Carolina. Some 

 fear an ocean outfall would remove 

 that constraint and accelerate change. 



In the short-term, the water 

 quality of our inland waters may 

 benefit by the removal of treatment 

 plant and septic tank wastewater 

 discharges. But in the long run, the 

 water quality impacts caused by 

 increased development as a result of 

 an ocean outfall may be more severe. 



Public attitude, however, is only 

 one of a number of potential obsta- 

 cles to building an ocean outfall in 

 North Carolina. Another may be 



geography of the area. 



Our tripartite coast is separated 

 by the east- and west-oriented 

 Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. It is 

 estimated that discharge of at least 35 

 to 40 million gallons of treated 

 wastewater per day is necessary to 

 economically justify construction of 

 an ocean outfall. At current coastal 

 population densities, this would 

 require sewage collection from a 

 minimum of two counties, and in 

 most locations more. 



But the lateral separation of 

 North Carolina's tripartite coast 

 would limit the construction of 

 northbound and southbound collec- 

 tion pipes. It would not be feasible to 

 cross the Albemarle or Pamlico 

 sounds with pipes. Therefore, to 

 collect an adequate volume of 

 wastewater, the network would have 

 to extend far inland. This would raise 

 the cost for pipe, which typically 

 accounts for 60 to 80 percent of the 

 total expense of providing public 

 sewer service. 



Historically, ocean outfalls have 

 met with varying degrees of success, 

 depending on their locations and 

 local oceanographic conditions. 

 Variables such as longshore drift, 

 upwellings, downwellings, the Gulf 

 Stream and currents in the nearshore 

 ocean would have a bearing on the 

 success of an outfall. 



An effective waste disposal 

 policy in coastal North Carolina 

 should take into account all of these 

 considerations — oceanography, 

 geography and heritage. The first 

 opportunity will be at an ocean 

 outfall conference at the Atlantic 

 Beach Sheraton April 19-20. For 

 information, call 919/638-3185. 



Barbara Doll, Sea Grant Coastal 

 Water Quality Specialist 



24 MARCH/APRIL 1993 



