Bonner Bridge issue shows the need for reform in environmental laws | Eastern North Carolina Now

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

    The Observer's nationally recognized (we have readers now in 47 of the 50 states) Research Department (which meets as what is known as The Old Codgers' Coffee Club reveals that most people in Beaufort County don't really understand what is going on with the Bonner Bridge mess on the Outer Banks. So let us tell you.

    What this story is all about is not a bridge. The bridge is only a gimmick being used by wacko environmentalists to drum up contributions to allow them to harass good hard working people in our state. They have already succeeded in driving most local fishermen out of business and left us with seafood imported from Asia and Latin America. But that's another story.

    In this instance the environmentalists have been successful in using arcane Democrat-passed laws that put the concerns for birds ahead of concern for the well-being of thousands of humans. They have filed lawsuits that have been successful for over a decade in blocking the Bonner Bridge being replaced. They argue for a 17-mile long bridge that would cost more than five times the chosen replacement bridge cost.

    The best summary we have read about this issue is one done by Kerry Dougherty, writing with the PilotOnline.com She says:

    Relentless environmentalists, more concerned with bivalves than bipeds, may scare some government officials.

    But not North Carolina Secretary of Transportation Anthony Tata.

    In fact, the appointment earlier this year of a West Pointer and former deputy commanding general of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to head the state's DOT may turn out to be a stroke of genius.

    Not only is the Bronze Star holder accustomed to dealing with single- minded opponents, but he's also not afraid to speak frankly when confronted with the sort of blind zealotry that has helped block construction of a new bridge to Hatteras Island.

    "These ivory-tower elitists file these lawsuits from their air-conditioned offices," Tata was quoted as saying in a story in Thursday's Pilot. "The contempt for the people of the Outer Banks is unconscionable."

    That contempt is embodied in battle over the Bonner Bridge, which links Hatteras Island with the mainland. It was shut down by Tata on Tuesday after engineers pronounced it unsafe. Emergency repair work is under way. The bridge should have been replaced decades ago, but opponents have managed to thwart efforts by state and federal highway officials to build a new one.

    These nature lovers have demonstrated a callous indifference to the hearty people who call the remote island home and who rely on visitors for their livelihoods.

    "A very small, very radical group of lawyers has tied this project up for decades," said Tata, a Virginia Beach native and son of retiring member of the House of Delegates, Bob Tata. "Bottom line is, there are no consequences for them for their continued obstructionism, but there's a huge penalty to North Carolina taxpayers and the residents of the Outer Banks."

    As a result of these delays, millions of dollars in legal bills, maintenance costs and spiraling construction prices are being borne by North Carolinians, Tata said.

    Fact is, about 5,000 people call Hatteras home, and in the summer, the population swells as tourists, bird-watchers and surfers flock to its vast sandy beaches. The storm-battered island has been inhabited for hundreds of years and will continue to exist as a series of sleepy wintertime villages and booming summer destinations - as long as a bridge can carry folks to and from the island.

    While repairs are being made, ferries are the only way on and off the island - not a long-term solution.

    "I can run ferries all day long and they can't carry near the volume a bridge can," Tata sighed.

    Environmental groups have tried to block a short, $215.8 million replacement bridge over the Oregon Inlet. They argue that it would be better to build a jaw-dropping 17-mile span - at a reported cost of more than $1 billion - through the Pamlico Sound....

    Click here to go to the original source to read the rest of the story.

    Commentary

    The time has come for the Legislature to put a stop to this nonsense of obstructionist environmental lawsuits. That is the only way these extremists are ever going to be prevented from imposing their idiotic will on the rest of us. We suspect the threat of restrictive legislation will be sufficient to get this bridge built but that will not solve the problem long term. Only reasonable laws to provide some common sense in environmental regulations will return a balance of sanity to the issue.

    We've got a mini-version of the same thing happening in Beaufort County right now. The Pamlico-Tar River Foundation is leading a group suing the state over permits that have been issued, according to current laws, for a rock quarry in southern Beaufort County. They claim water from the quarry will damage Blounts Creek. But when you read the scientific research reports you find that there is no evidence that there will be such damage. In fact, one report says that it may indeed improve the quality of the breeding habitant in the creek. We find it interesting that you cannot find any solid science on the PTRF website that supports their position. But as one expert told us: "the impact of the quarry water on Blounts Creek would be analogous to saying that someone is going to use a garden hose to change the chemistry of Tar River at the US 17 bridge by pumping sea water into the river there. This mine water is not nearly as significant as variations in the annual rainfall in the creeks' watershed."

    And what needs to be understood in the quarry issue is that the stone that comes from the quarry will be available for use in construction projects in Beaufort County, from fixing driveways to building roads, at a much lower cost than would be true if the stone has to be hauled many more miles from outside the county. Most reasonable people know that the biggest part of the cost of stone is hauling it. Thus, the quarry will benefit Beaufort County for years to come....much more so than the money we have wasted on "economic development."

    Now we doubt that the wacko environmentalists will be successful in blocking the quarry or even delaying it, but they will be successful in costing the taxpayers thousands of dollars. Thus, one change the legislature should make is to provide that the losers of these lawsuits should have to pay all of the legal bills coming from them, including the state's expense in defending their permits as well as the cost of the research now borne by the applicants for the permits. And if the state loses then the taxpayers should have to pay the plaintiff's costs.

    Moreover, we think the law should be changed to allow citizens who have harmed by such lawsuits to recover their damages, including as a part of a class action, from these cavalier obstructionists.

    In the meantime, the state should simply go to work building the bridge over the Oregon Inlet and let the legal chips fall where they may.

    Click here to read more. Click here to read about the situation as a theological issue.