Permanent solution for Oregon Inlet's problems sought | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Fishing has always been one of North Carolina's most important industries. And much of that industry is based on the Oregon Inlet. That inlet is the gateway to the ocean from the Pamlico/Albemarle sounds. It is the inlet closest to the Gulf Stream off North Carolina. It is absolutely critical to Eastern North Carolina. It is as critical to Northeastern North Carolina as Interstate 40 is to the piedmont. Imagine if I 40 were shut down or restricted to one lane of traffic every few weeks and that gives you a perspective of what is happening to the Oregon Inlet.

    The approach the Powers That Be have used to keeping this vital link open is to dredge it out whenever shoaling makes it too shallow. But of course it just fills back in and the rig-a-more-row starts all over. Except in recent years budget cuts have meant that dredging has been too expensive to keep the inlet open. A permanent solution is needed.

    WRAL TV posted a story yesterday (1-4-12) on the inlet. It focuses on the devastating effect the shoaling is having on the local fishing industry. Click here to read that story.

    The problem of Oregon Inlet is likely to become a hot political issue in this election. Current Congressman Walter B. Jones has represented the Third Congressional District which includes the Oregon Inlet for 18 years. Of course Sen Richard Burr and Kay Hagan also represent that area.

    Politicians have paid lip service for years to the need to find a permanent solution for the inlet. But they have thus far always yielded to the environmentalists who fight a permanent solution and favor continuous dredging if indeed they agree for anything being done to protect the industry.
Looking northwest from Pea Island toward Herbert C. Bonner Bridge that spans Oregon Inlet: Above. Shrimp trawler just off Pea Island at Oregon Inlet: Below. photos by Stan Deatherage
    Jones is being challenged in the May 8 Republican Primary this year by former New Bern police chief Frank Palombo. Palombo recently released a statement on the Oregon Inlet. He said:

    Today Frank Palombo, candidate for the Third Congressional District, demanded the federal government take immediate action to create and fully fund repairs to Oregon Inlet to ensure permanent use of the waterway by commercial and recreational fishing vessels. In 1970 Congress approved the construction of a jetty to reduce shoaling in Oregon Inlet, but that project was killed by the White House Council on Environmental Quality in 2003.

    "It is unacceptable that no permanent solution to end shoaling in Oregon Inlet has been undertaken during the last 18-years that Jones has been in Congress," said Palombo. "Oregon Inlet accessibility impacts all eastern North Carolinians, and overregulation has resulted in the fishing business being down 80 percent in our state while we are importing almost all of the fish we eat in America."

    "Jones' failure to secure permanent access to the Atlantic Ocean, and to our many fisheries, for the watermen in the northern Outer Banks is another example of his ineffective representation of eastern North Carolinians in Congress," Palombo continued. "I will fight the overregulation of our waterways, and I'm certain voters will recognize that my experience building public coalitions will produce a real solution for Oregon Inlet."