The Army Corps of Engineers is proposing changes to dredging rules in and around Beaufort Inlet on the Outer Banks.
Right now, sand dredged to keep the inlet open is dumped on the shoreline of the town of Atlantic Beach and at Fort Macon State Park.
Trace Cooper is the mayor of Atlantic Beach. He says his town needs the sand to protect six-billion-dollars worth of investment.
“On the other side of the inlet that they dredge is Shackleford Banks, which is part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore,” Cooper said. “And for the first time in history the National Park Service has asked that some of the sand that used to go on Bogue Banks, our island, would go on Shackleford Banks.”
Officials with the National Park Service say they simply want the option to use some of the sand over the next twenty years.
Public input on the proposal closes at the end of the day today.
