Offshore Drilling Studies | Eastern North Carolina Now

    As I write this the BOEM (Bureau of Energy Management) is advocating for our offshore oil in the depths of the Graveyard of the Atlantic and adjacent to both the Outer Banks and Gulf Stream.

    This recent article shows activity in Brunswick County on the southern end of the area:

    It appears that their County Commissioners are not listening to the people of the area who are concerned as am I. According to the report:

    "BOLIVIA -- Even though Brunswick County's commissioners have twice voted to support seismic testing off the North Carolina coast, opponents are still making clear that they are concerned about what impact the process could have on the area.

    During Monday's regular meeting of the commissioners, 11 people spoke out against the county's support of seismic testing.

    "These are decisions we're making for our children and grandchildren," said Randy Sturgill, a campaign organizer for Oceana, an environmental group. "The evidence is here, the people are speaking, and you're hearing the people. I'm only asking you to listen to the people, as their cries will become louder."

    After Monday's public comment period - during which he heard scientific and emotional pleas - Scott Phillips, the board of commissioners' chairman, told the audience the commissioners heard their complaints but that no new action is imminent."

    I took time to go to Manteo for the meeting with BOEM a few months ago. They had a large room at the hotel for a P.R. campaign favoring Offshore Oil Drilling. I had a chance to talk with the main man who should have knowledge of the dangers. I asked him how the Deep Water Horizon drill came to blow out in the Gulf of Mexico. According to him, the concrete collar was off center to the cut off valve. He had no answer as to why there was no containment dome installed as a backup for safe operation! Any deep drilling is in Remote Vehicle depths, BUT the pictures show an unsafe situation with a potential for disaster.

    IT WAS NOT SAFE FROM DAY 1, but the power of oil money prevailed in the Gulf of Mexico.

    The long term result is oil still on the bottom and in the shallows of the Gulf. Anomalies are being seen with aquatic life and anyone fishing in the shallows has the prop stir up foul smelling sulfuric crude oil residues. I asked the man about the chemicals used to disburse the mess and he immediately claimed "that is a Coast Guard issue and you must check with them to any answers." It is hard for me to have trust in a government agency which is passing the buck after the disaster. I am told tar balls are coming ashore on our Outer Banks as the same oil has made its way around the tip of Florida and the Gulf Stream transports it here!

    NC has approved FRACKING inland --- AND immediately made it a felony to disclose the chemicals used in the process. Where it is being done in the mid-west, oil barons do not want Fracking done adjacent to their personal land. WHY?

    The wise citizen of Eastern NC should be able to see the danger for the Pamlico Sound and River if pollution from Fracking comes down the Tar River and then we Offshore Drill and have an inevitable blow out in hurricane alley. On the ocean side of the drill area is the critical Gulf Stream which affects weather and temperatures in the ocean between America and Europe. When the spill occurs, we have a crude oil mess invading our pristine waters so usable for those who live off fishing and shrimping along with the oyster and crab populations.

    My friends who are Watermen tell me the Chesapeake Bay and rivers feeding it are so polluted that most people enjoying seafood in Maryland and Virginia are consuming NC products!

    Do we want to give away the bounty of the Pamlico to the Greed of Koch Brothers Big Oil?

    I don't think it is wise to sit back and let greed deprive us of our good environment which is already marginal from neglect on sewage from inland towns and cities. We had a bacterial alert this summer as the Pamlico/Tar River exited the Washington waterway.

    Oceana is the advocate group which won this battle some 15 years ago, BUT GREED never stops, it seems. I vote for vigilance and safe energy from renewable sources over polluting OIL.