Federal Action Clears Path For Wrightsville Beach To Get Sand This Fall

Among the issues we have continued to discuss with state and federal lawmakers is the dire situation with sand at Wrightsville Beach. On the same Wednesday we were in Washington, DC with the REALTORS®, Congressman Rouzer delivered remarks on his bill (HR524) during the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries legislative hearing.

Critically important to our region and North Carolina, H.R. 524, would reverse the Biden Administration’s decision prohibiting Wrightsville Beach from using their traditional borrow site for beach renourishment, thus allowing them to return to a regular, ecologically friendly, renourishment schedule.  Doing so is imperative to the community’s physical resiliency against future storms, a healthy ecosystem, and economic safety. Congressman Rouzer also welcomed Wrightsville Beach Mayor Darryl Mills who provided testimony in support of H.R. 524.  Click here to watch Mayor Mills’ testimony.

Following these meetings, in late May, we received GREAT news regarding sand at Wrightsville Beach. The US Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District determined that they would “exercise an emergency exception” to utilize the Masonboro Inlet/Banks Channel borrow source instead of an offshore borrow source for this fall’s emergency repair (renourishment). This is HUGE NEWS and much credit goes to a wide range of partners, elected officials and Wrightsville Beach homeowners who reached out to contacts in Raleigh and Washington, DC to make this happen.

While this will help in the immediate cycle, we still need to push federal legislation from Congressman Rouzer and Senators Tillis & Budd to fix the issue in the long term.