The current ocean water temperature in Wilmington is 75 °F, and it feels great! I should know- I took a dip yesterday after jogging the loop at Wrightsville. The ocean water was warm and relaxing. This is what living on the coast is all about! After all, the beach and our port are the main reasons why Wilmington is here and why people keep coming. What would we be without our waterways?

No seriously. What would we be without our waterways??

Many residents don’t realize that our beaches, inlets and harbors are in a state of crisis. As the ocean moves sand down the coast, it wiggles into inlets and clogs the waterways. Previously, the Corp of Engineers has kept an eye on this. But recently, the budget and maintenance for it were cut. And not just for Wilmington… funding was abandoned all over the US with no advanced notice.

So what do we do from here?

Unfortunately, Wilmington is restricted when it comes to inlet maintenance because of cost sharing challenges and permitting restrictions. The best solution is to repair our partnership with the Federal Government. The feds need to understand that maintaining our ports is an investment, not a handout. A $5 million contribution from the government (which is what Wilmington needs to keep the waterways open and become self-sufficient) would result in millions of dollars of revenue from the boating, fishing and tourism industry.

From here, the Port Authority plans to continue negotiations for cost sharing and look into new solutions to save our waterways. If you’d like to learn how to get involved or help, please post a comment and we’ll make sure it gets in the proper hands!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 5:15 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.