Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
Newsgroups: americast.wpost
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: Interior Gives Approval To North Carolina Jetties; More Political Than
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 92 04:28:31 EST
Message-ID: <11.1992Oct30.042831@AmeriCast.com>

Interior Gives Approval To North Carolina Jetties; More Political
Than Practical Impact Is Seen<By Tom Kenworthy=Washington Post
Staff Writer= Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr., in a move
likely to have more political than practical impact, yesterday
gave Interior's official blessing to a controversial, 22-year-old
proposal to construct jetties extending into the Atlantic Ocean
from environmentally sensitive federal land on North Carolina's
Outer Banks.

Lujan announced that he has issued "conditional" permits that
would allow the Army Corps of Engineers to use land under his
department's control - on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and
Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge - to anchor the jetties. The
twin structures, up to a mile and a half long, would be built on
either side of Oregon Inlet to stabilize the treacherous, shift-
ing passageway between the Atlantic and Pamlico Sound, the only
opening to the sea along a 120-mile stretch of the barrier is-
lands.  Construction of the jetties cannot begin, however, until
after a supplemental environmental impact statement is completed,
as well as studies to determine whether the project would ad-
versely impact any endangered or threatened species.

The issuance of "conditional" permits is unlikely to speed up
construction of the jetties, one Interior official said. But the
announcement could give a boost to the political fortunes of
President Bush in the battleground state of North Carolina.

The jetties project has been a long-standing goal of many North
Carolina politicians, who see it as an economic boon to the coa-
stal seafood processing industry, parts of which depend on reli-
able passage to the Atlantic. But it has also been vigorously op-
posed by environmentalists and their allies in the parks and
wildlife services in Interior who charge it could cause enormous
harm to the state's Outer Banks beaches by eroding sand from the
narrow ribbon of land that lies offshore.

Lujan's spokesman, Steven Goldstein, said yesterday's action
would "eliminate one step in the process" of getting construction
underway. He added that "hopefully, this will be seen as the Bush
administration hearing the concerns of the people of the Outer
Banks and acting responsibly."

Lujan's action puzzled environmentalists opposed to the project
who are poised to file suit against the jetties plan once con-
crete action is taken to implement it.  "We are all sitting
around trying to figure out what it is he's done," said Bob
Dreher, a staff attorney with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.
"It looks like one of those Christmas presents the president has
been passing out, because it doesn't look like it means any-
thing."<02:11 10-30C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)