
Two years ago, the North Carolina coast experienced hurricanes Florence and Michael and suffered large amounts of erosion and other damages from the hovering storms. These pipelines were transporting dredged materials, sediment extracted from the channel, onto the shore as part of a beach restoration strategy: beneficial reuse. This past February, during the off-season, beach goers saw large pipelines lining the beaches of Fort Macon and dredge hoppers just offshore. I imagine that’s true for most people, but that may be changing. I have lived in North Carolina and been near the coast my entire life, but I’ve never given much thought to dredging. Chelsea is an honors graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill’s Environment, Ecology and Energy Program. Areas within the CBRS may be developed, provided that private developers or other non-federal parties bear the full cost and risk.Chelsea Brown is a Marine Lab Technician with the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City. Additionally, it does not prevent federal agencies from issuing permits or conducting environmental studies. There are also 282 “Otherwise Protected Areas,” a category of coastal barriers that are mostly held for conservation and/or recreation purposes that include an additional 2.1 million acres of land and associated aquatic habitat.Ī 2019 study published in the Journal of Coastal Research analyzed the economic benefits from CBRA and found that CBRA reduced federal coastal disaster expenditures by $9.5 billion between 19, and forecasts that additional savings will range between $11 and $108 billion by 2068.ĬBRA does not prohibit the expenditure of private, state, or local funds within the CBRS. The CBRS includes 588 System Units, which comprise nearly 1.4 million acres of land and associated aquatic habitat. CBRA seeks to minimize these effects by restricting federal funding and financial assistance affecting the CBRS.

Learn more about coastal barriers, resulting in the loss of natural resources, threats to human life, health, and property, and the expenditure of millions of tax dollars each year. Learn more about coastal barrier landforms. With the passage of CBRA in 1982, Congress recognized that certain actions and programs of the Federal Government have historically subsidized and encouraged development on coastal barriers coastal barriers
