Va Pilot on Cleaning Outfalls

Thought I had posted this earlier

Nice piece in the Va. Pilot this morning detailing plans for installing a filtering system on the Conch St. ocean outfall.

"The system, called the AbTech Smart Sponge, could be installed beneath the parking lot of the Conch Street beach access in Nags Head later this year, said Johnny Martin, a coastal and hydraulic engineer with the Raleigh-based firm Moffatt & Nichol.

The system would be paid for out of a $15 million state fund, but who would pay the annual maintenance cost is unclear."

The state and the Town will negotiate some distribution of the responsibility. There was a rather humorous disconnect at the meeting. The slides in the Powerpoint presentation all were headed "State Maintained Drainage Outfall". Even though the state seems to want the town to assume maintenance.
The town will probably accept some small share so that it has some leverage to require the state to do the maintenance. DOT has ignored the system for years. It is expensive to maintain. When it fails that Town has big flooding problems. The town needs to be able to get the maintenance done.
Also at the meeting some town officials took pains to point out the misrepresentations by the Coastal Federation.
The installation of this system is a big step. The drainage system is very important to the Town. There are pollutants in the discharge. Reducing pollution in the ocean is a good thing. Lets hope a maintenance solution is found and the system works well.
Ciao