Environment
CAROLINA BEACH — The Cape Fear region welcomed the season’s first big storm last night after Hurricane Isaias made landfall at Ocean Isle at 11:10 p.m., dousing the area with heavy rains and sustained winds of 85 mph.
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The state notified the nonprofit Ocean Cure that it must remove its wheelchair beach access mat because it threatened sea turtles and shorebirds. (Port City Daily photo/Courtesy Kevin Murphy)
CAROLINA BEACH — For the past three summers, a nonprofit called Ocean Cure has laid down a 3,000-square-foot plastic mat right above the high tide line near the Carolina Beach Boardwalk to provide what few coastal towns in the region can provide: easy beach access for those in wheelchairs.
Read MoreWILMINGTON — “That was something not many people get a chance to see.” Mark Winneberger was one of the first people to dive down to North Carolina’s newest artificial reef — a retired Coast Guard cutter, rechristened The Brian Davis, sunk 21 miles off the coast of Wrightsville Beach on Friday.
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Neighbors of the Castle Bay subdivision joined other Hampstead residents to protest the proposed Jamestown sand mine at the Pender County Library in Hampstead last February. (Port City Daily photo/Courtesy Chris Oh)
HAMPSTEAD — After months of growing opposition from nearby residents and parents of Topsail School students, national developer Jamestown Properties was granted its request to the Pender County Planning Board to table a proposed sand mine project in Hampstead indefinitely.
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Erosion beneath the Surf City Ocean Pier after a Northeaster hit Topsail Island in November, causing escarpments along the dunes and wiping out recently built emergency berms. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
SURF CITY — Oceanfront property owners in Surf City who didn’t originally receive sand to reconstruct damaged berms after Hurricane Florence may soon breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Christmas Eve temperatures in Wilmington reached 69 degrees, 12 degrees higher than the normal, capping the warmest decade ever recorded. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — The first 16 days of January have seen an average of 12.4 degrees above normal, the fifth-warmest start to a year in Wilmington’s history, as the second half of the month is expected to see below-normal temperatures.
Salty Turtle is the first brewery in North Carolina to use biodegradable, edible ‘eco rings’ made by Mexican company E6PR, designed to replace traditional plastic that causes increasing harm to marine wildlife. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
SURF CITY — Nearly two years after becoming Pender County’s original brewery, Salty Turtle Beer Company is now tackling another first — as the first brewery in North Carolina to use biodegradable, compostable can ring holders.
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Boundaries of the Juniper Swamp tract, one of two sites that Surf City uses for wastewater collection. (Port City Daily/Courtesy Onslow County GIS)
SURF CITY — A council candidate has brought to public attention a sewer system that has reached capacity and recent findings that most of the town’s 2,220-acre Juniper Swamp property cannot be used for its intended purpose as wastewater spray fields.
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The DEQ found that North Carolina oysters, pictured here, were not consumed by the Cary man who died from the bacteria. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
After a man died after eating raw oysters and clams in a Wilmington restaurant, state agencies could not determine the exact source of the contamination due to a market that has diversified over the past two decades.
There is “substantial public interest” in protecting 110 acres of undeveloped land on the southern point of Topsail Island, pictured here facing north from New Topsail Inlet. The Serenity Point townhome community is seen in the distance. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
Topsail Island’s last chunk of undeveloped land was listed for $7.9 million. Although the town of Topsail Beach and the N.C. Coastal Federation hope to preserve it, the state said it has no funds to purchase property that is “not nationally significant.”
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Impermeable surfaces at low sea levels cause flooding and stormwater problems all around the Cape Fear Region. (Port City Daily photo/Michael Praats)
The second in a two-part series examines a disconnect between developers and “green infrastructure” approaches that reduce stormwater runoff while bringing economic benefits to the table.
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An oyster lease near Permuda Island in Stump Sound. With no nearby inlets to flush out stormwater runoff, Stump Sound is less resilient to the impacts of rainfall than Topsail Sound to the south, causing an increase in state shellfish closures. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
The first in a two-part series examines the impact stormwater runoff has on the waterways near Hampstead and Holly Ridge as development pushes north from Wilmington.
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More than 100 acres of open land on Topsail Island, which has slowly built up sand coming from the north end over the years, has been listed for sale at $7.9 million. This aerial image was taken by photographer Betsy Knapp in 2016. (Port City Daily photo/Courtesy Betsy C. Knapp)
After the land on Topsail Island's southern tip was listed for sale last week, conservation groups say there are no current efforts to protect it.
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BURGAW — More than 10 months after Hurricane Florence caused widespread flooding to large portions of Pender County, officials released an internal report documenting lessons learned after the county’s response during and after the storm.
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Beachfront just north of the Surf City Pier that sits in a non-smoking zone encompassing a stretch of beach between Kinston and Greensboro Avenues. Mayor Doug Medlin is considering options to include more non-smoking zones to the town’s beaches. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
SURF CITY — Although a beach smoking ban has not yet come to a vote before Town Council (nor is one currently scheduled), Mayor Doug Medlin said he is considering the town’s options after receiving significant feedback from residents who have complained of cigarette butts littering the island’s beaches and nearby streets.
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Surf City Councilman Jeremy Shugarts talks with resident Todd Overture following a special meeting last week that saw approval of the Surf City Crossing apartment complex. To his left are Councilman Buddy Fowler, Mayor Doug Medlin, and Councilwoman Teresa Batts. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
SURF CITY — Mayor Doug Medlin responded to recent remarks made by Councilman Jeremy Shugarts that the town’s planning board had “rubber-stamped” the initial approval of the Surf City Crossing apartment complex, a move Shugarts said represented a “broken system” of development planning.
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Lifetime Pender County resident Burton Chadwick, 72, took to the podium first Monday night. “You county commissioners have two choices: either you can get the trash removed or you can resign for not doing your job,” Chadwick said. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
BURGAW — Months of public pressure came to a head last night as the Pender County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to spend $600,000 on the removal of hurricane debris along private unpaved roads in the county.
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One of the large piles of house debris beside the unpaved Cape Fear Drive where it meets N.C. 53, just northeast of Burgaw near the Northeast Cape Fear River. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
BURGAW — Weeks of ambiguity concerning whether Pender County will remove debris from private, unpaved roads was resolved Monday night when a motion to fund debris collection failed at the County Commissioners meeting.
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Mike Hicks, left, helps lift a grill onto his back porch in a flooded neighborhood on Alexis Hales Road near the Black River in Currie, North Carolina on Wednesday evening, September 19, 2018. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
PENDER COUNTY — As the sun began to set Wednesday in the rural river town of Currie, North Carolina, a Charlotte Fire Department crew was staked out at the flood line on Borough Spur Road, near the Moores Creek confluence with the Black River.
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A Coast Guard cargo plane flies over Carolina Beach on Monday, September 17, 2018. Pictured is a flooded section of Atlanta Avenue and 4th Street just north of the Carolina Beach Lake. (Port City Daily photo | Mark Darrough)
CAROLINA BEACH — Carolina Beach residents lined up hundreds of cars deep before passing through a police barricade on the north end of Snow’s Cut bridge to return to their homes earlier this week.
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