QASTKEF 



tool in the box for extreme cases." 



After two years on the job, Tursi says there 

 are few surprises. After all, he has been witness 

 to a changing coast since his student days at East 

 Carolina University and during his lengthy tenure 

 as an environmental reporter. 



"We are dealing with the effects of develop- 

 ment on the landscape and its consequences on 

 coastal waters," he explains. 



The extent is driven by the amount of land 

 disturbance and percent of hardened surfaces. 

 "When you remove the land's ability to filter water, 

 stormwater rushes directly into streams, rivers and 

 estuaries, along with all the stuff it picks up in its 

 path," he says. 



The "stuff," to some degree, depends on sedi- 

 ment and erosion controls in place. 



"I could spend every day helping enforce sedi- 

 ment-control rules," Tursi observes. "If there was just 

 one site, it would be bad enough. But with 

 dozens and even hundreds of sites, there is 

 an enormous cumulative effect" 



Unfortunately, he adds, government 

 agencies are overburdened and can't keep 

 pace with growth. "While agencies face 

 personnel and budget cuts, the number 

 of development permits are increasing," 

 he says. The result is any given agency's 

 diminished capacity to enforce rules. 



FAULTY SYSTEMS 



And, there are weak spots in the 

 state's environmental safeguards. Faulty 

 or failing sewer systems are chronic 

 sources of pollution in coastal waterways. 



A recent investigation of state 

 records by Tursi and Wilgis revealed that 

 60 sewer plants in the central and southern coastal 

 counties had violated their discharge limits and 

 were fined — some as many as dozens of times 

 — by the N.C. Division of Water Quality. 



Tursi and Wilgis have constructed a federation 

 Web site where they post the most chronic violators 

 who are cited, pay fines and are back to business- 

 as-usual. 



But if the state is going to be successful in 

 bringing back the oyster to historic population 

 levels, it can't be business-as-usual for any polluter, 

 says Tursi. 



"Oysters are a benchmark species, a symbol 

 of water quality. We must promote smart growth, 

 enforce sewer, stormwater runoff and sediment 

 rules," Tursi adds. "If we are successful in bringing 

 back oysters, then other creatures will be healthier, 

 including humans." 



NATURE'S NOTEBOOK 



Many coastal problems stem from trying to 

 change nature to conform to human purposes, such 

 as filling in wetlands to create "buildable" real es- 

 tate, says Cape Hatteras Coastkeeper Jan DeBlieu. 



On the job one year, the newest Coastkeeper 

 is a long-time resident of the region who has spent 

 most of her professional life writing about the natural 

 world. She moved to the Outer Banks in 1985 to 

 write Hatteras Journal, an exploration of the ecology 

 and people. It also was when she cut her grassroots 

 activism teeth. She helped found LegaSea, a citizens 

 group that successfully fought a proposal to drill for 

 oil and natural gas off the Outer Banks. 



As Coastkeeper, she parlays her knowledge of 

 natural science with her understanding of policies 

 to help monitor potentially destructive development 

 projects along the northern coast and to work with 

 regulatory agencies to solve problems. She is build- 

 ing a Coastkeeper Corps of volunteers to help patrol 

 her vast territory by boat airplane, canoe and truck. 



DeBlieu is working with the federation's 

 senior scientist Tracy Skrabal, to establish "living 

 shoreline" demonstration projects to protect estuarine 

 shorelines from erosion. Skrabal has designed more 

 than a dozen projects along the coast including 

 one at Festival Park in Manteo and at a residence in 

 Columbia 



There is no dearth of regional issues. Some 

 of them surfaced dramatically when Hurricane 

 Isabel blew ashore last September. Isabel left broad 

 sections of N.C. 1 2 under tons of sand — renewing 

 discussion about a long-term solution to the recurring 

 problem. 



"Like most barrier islands along the coast the 

 Outer Banks are migrating westward; the erosion of 

 their seaward shores is a natural process," DeBlieu 

 writes on her Coastkeeper Web page. "The continual 

 maintenance of N.C. 1 2 is like drawing a line in the 

 sand and telling the ocean that it can't pass. It's a 

 contest of wills that humans are bound to lose." 



She describes beach renourishment as another 

 "burning" issue. 'The towns of Kitty Hawk, Kill 

 Devil Hills and Nags Head are very anxious to begin 

 beach renourishment especially after the severe ero- 

 sion caused by Hurricane Isabel." 



While funding is not a sure thing, the U.S. 

 Anny Corps of Engineers schedule calls for sand to 

 be pumped onto the beaches in early 2005. 



"Renourishment projects can be very effective. 

 They also can turn into disasters, especially if the 

 wrong kind of sediment is placed on the beaches. If 

 we're going to have renourishment here, one of my 

 primary goals is to make sure it's done carefully and 

 wisely," DeBlieu says. n 



To learn more about the North Carolina 

 Coastal Federation and the Coastkeeper program, 

 go on line to www.nccoast.org, and click on Coast- 

 keeper. Or, call 252/393-8185. 



COASTWATCH 1 5 



