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West Craven Highlights
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VOLUME 12 NO. 27
JULY 13, 1989
VANCEDOROjJJOKmCAROLIN^
PHONE 244-0780 OR 946-2144 (UPSP 412-110)
25 CENTS
SIX PAGES
EPA Teams
Will Inspect
County Sites
Scientists Seek Possible
Hazardous Waste Data
Scientists with the Environment
tal ftotection Agency will be in Cm*
ven County in the near future to test
several industrial and business
sites for toxic substances.
Them are 12 sites in Craven
County the EPA plans to investi*
gate. They are: AMP llatteras
Yachts, Barbour Boat Works, Ever
hart Lumber Co., Scott*a Creek bat-
teiy site, Swiss Bear, Inc., Tlie Text,
all in New Bern; Rowe’s Corner
drum dump, Rowe’s Corner dump,
‘'bSkh at Rowe’s Corner; Encee Chem
ical Sales in Bridgeton; Salt Wood
Products in Cove City; the Marine
Corps Air Station at Cherry Point
and Slocum Creek on the air station.
Tlie EPA said being on the list
does not meon there are any hazard
ous materials at the site.
The teats are being made because
there *may be a release or threat ofa
release hazardous substances
from the site into the surrounding
environment,” the agency said.
They will determine the nature
and extent of any contamination at
the site and to be used to decide
what,ifany,further response action
would be appropriate, the EPA said
in a letter to the county from its At
lanta office.
The sites in Craven County are on
a list of about 800 potentially ha
zardous waste sites in the state, ac
cording to state geologist Grover
Nicholson.
The sites were identified ns part
of the Comprehensive Environmen
tal Response Compensation Art of
1980, which requires the EPA to as
sess all potential, uncontrolled ha
zardous waste sites, Nicholson said.
The list was gathered from a vari
ety of sources and because a site is
on the list does not mean it contains
hazardous waste, he said.
EPAhasasked orisin the process
of requesting permission to begin
taking samples from the sites.
Tests should be completed in ab
out three days, according to Robert
Morris, EPA environmental engi
neer, who signed the letter.
EPA scientists with the agency’s
Field Investigation Team will col
lect surface and subsurface soil
samples, groundwater and subsur
face water samples, sediment sam
ples and air samples at and near the
site.
Texasgulf fine
might return
to eastern N.C.
An eastern North Carolina
county may get the $l-mi]lion fine
paid by Texasgulf last month for air
quality violations.
A provision giving the county the
$1,001,907 from the stale’s settle
ment with Texasgulf for oir quality
violations has passed the N.C.
Senate.
But it faces strong opposition
from Paul Wilms, director of the
state Division of Environmental
Management, as it moves to the
House, sources said.
Wilms has sent personal memos
. Jtoi^ome members and staff of the
General Assembly calling for defeat
of the proposal, those sources said.
Wilms could not be reached for
comment.
The measure has the support of
state senators Marc Basnight and
Tom Taft, Rep. Howard Chapin and
local government officials.
*I feel that it’s appropriate that
the county receive this money be
cause the penalty was incurred in
Beaufort County,” Ledrue Buck,
chairman of the Beaufort County
Board of Commissioners, said.
There are a multitudfe of ways that
we could use the money.”
See PINE, Page 5
Keeping an eye on the heart of control room at VOA site
Rle Carter photo
Voice Heard Round The World
Vanceboro Man Helps Keep Site B On The Air
By Keith llempMead
Special to the
We&t Craven Highlights
It is the free world’s most pow
erful radio station and it’s sitting
here in North Carolina. If a
transmission is sent east over the
Atlantic, it can be heard coming
over the Appalachians from the
west. And yet, hardly anyone in
America listens to it.
It is the Voice of America, a
global radio network of the Un
ited States Information Agency,
which seeks to promote under
standing abroad for the United
States, its people, culture and
policies. It has 15 stations with
its headquarters in Washington
D.C. and its largest sitting oh the
border of Pitt and Beaufort
counties.
And helping keep Site B at
Blackjack operational is Clyde
Hodges of Vanceboro, a general
maintenance mechanic. Hodges
said he has seen the transmitting
equipment evolve from tubes to
solid-state circuitiy in the 25
years he has been working for
VOA.
Hodges is in charge of support
systems — healing, air condi
tioning, water and sewer — at
the Blackjack site. “I’m the only
one working on that,” he said.
Hodges said from time to time
he thinks about the mission of
VOA and is aware of what is be
ing broadcast from the VOA facil
ities. ”I was in a (military) re
serve unit and was familiar with
it then,” said Hodges. “I am very
much aware of it (the VOA pur
pose),” said Hodges.
He has worked at the other two
sites, but the Blackjack site is
closest to home.
Hodges said sometimes he has
to “work around schedules*ifcer-
tain problems arise with trans
mitting equipment. Part of his
job is keepiing fans, air condi
tioners and water pumps work
ing to help reduce stress on
equipment caused by heat from
components of the broadcasting
equipment.
VOA has been in the state
since 1961 operating 24 hours n
day in 31 languages and yet few
in the area venture to the sta
tions to find out what goes on.
Butadmit it,you’ve seen them.
The VOA signs located through
out Pitt and Beaufort counties.
Maybe you have even passed by
the station, actually a series of
three stations near Washington,
Blackjack and Greenville. Acres
upon acres of open field with
what seems like hundreds of tall
spindly towers erupting from the
ground. This is called an antenna
farm.
It is from here that VOA trans
mits its programming to all parts
of the globe to anyone who has a
shortwave radio.
I spoke with John P. Moss, sta
tion manager for VOA, at site C
in Greenville.
This is not a typical station,”
Moss said.
They can listen although it is
See VOA. Page 5
Flying High
The dust was flying high in the western part of Craven
County ^tiirday night at the New Bern Moto-Crosa race
way near N.C. 65 and N.C. 43 aa some 60 motorcycliata hrom
throughout eastern North Carolina and Virginia churned
through a quarter-mile of berms and turns in competing in Hole-in-OHe?
a total of five races at the track. Plymouth’s Charlie Dwyer
(above), riding a Kawasaki 260cc trail bike, flies to a thb-d-
piace finish in the second heat of the BTR (Bike-Trail Rid
ers) class using a nifty in-the-air move to pass Keith Henry
of Greenville. The race track opens for competition twice a
month on Saturday nights. The next race will be held July
22, with hots laps slated to start at 6:30.
Search, Rescue Is Only
One Coast Guard Duty
'Die Coast Guard is well known
for its help to boats and ships in dis
tress. In fact. Coast Guard crews
save 16 lives, help 361 people and
salvage about $2.5 million in prop
erty on an average day.
But search and rescue is just one
Coast Guard mission.
Ihe men and women of the Ckiast
Guard do many jobs. They ap
prehend drug smugglers, replace
buoys, clean up oil spills and inspect
vessels for safety violations.
Ihe Coast Guard is the primary
federal agency entrusted with mari
time law enforcement. But what
started as a simple directive has
grown over the years as
During the 1970s and 1980s, Con
gress and the president expanded
the Coast Guard’s authority to in-
Iclude enforcementofenironmental,
fishery conservbation, pollution,
maritime defense and safety laws.
And last year. Congress in
creased the Coast Guard’s duties
again when it passed the Commer
cial Pishing Industry Vessel Safety
Act of 1988. lyhe act was passed to
better safety equipment and proce
dures aboard commercial fishing
boats.
In 1991 when the act’s regula
tions will be completed, they should
save lives, standardize safety proce
dures, decrease insurance pre
miums and reduce liability suits.
Today’s Coast Guardsmen are
trained in everything from first aid
to fishery regulation to federal drug
laws, according to
Ihis is dramatically different
from 1871 when Ckmgress officially
established the U.S. Lifesaving Ser
vice as a branch of the Treasury
Department.
^om 1873 to 1874 only one ship
wrecked sailor died in the area with
lifesaving sations already estab
lished. Ihat record of success led
Ckmgress to grant money for sta
tions down through North Carolina.
In the state, as many as 29 sta
tions operated at one time. Most of
those were clustered between the
Virginia line and the tip of Cape
Hatteras. They were generally
spaced seven or eight miles apart.
In 1916, the U.S. Treasury De
partment formed the Coas Guard
See COAST, Page 6
Cities, Counties Fight
Offshore Drilling Plans
iM SetmMltzsr Jr. photo
Donovan Lee watches ball fly toward cup as Andrew
Schweitzer waits to putt. Summer means school is out and
playinga round of miniature golf helps pass the time. A new
coiuve at Yogi Bear’s Campground Just north of Bridgeton
on U.S. 17 offers a challenge to the duffer armed with Just a
putter. See story, page 4.
Visitors to North Carolina’s
beaches this summer will be drawn
into the effort to protect the state’s
coast from environmental disasters
like recent oil spill in Alaska’s
Prince William Sound.
They will be asked to sign peti-
tons, attend public meetings and
watch video tapes about offshore oil
and gas exploration in a series of
events to be held along the state’s
beaches from Atlantic Beach to
Nags Head.
Meanwhile, county and munici-
pol governments will work this
summer to amend land use plans
and local ordinances to prohibit oil
and gas exploration and production-
related activities in their
jurisdictions.
LegaSeas, an volunteer group
founded this year in Dare County,
has been the driving force behind
much of this activity. For six
months, the group has worked to
educate people alxnit offshore oil
and gas expWntion and drilling.
During this time, the group has
grown to 300 members with a chap
ter on Ocracoke.
LegaSeas was organized in Janu
ary afier Mobil Corp. announced its
intentions to explore for natural gas
about 50 miles northeast of Hat
teras in an area leased from the fed
eral government.
LegaSeas is also working for an
environmental impact statement by
Mobil before exploration begins, ac
cording to Nancy Gray of Wanchese,
secretary-treasurer for the group.
*We are people wi th jobs and fam
ilies,” she said in an interview yes
terday. *Many ofour jobs depend di
rectly on the state’s fishingindustry
and the ocean.”
LegaSeas president Linda Mitell
said oil and gas exploration is just
one part of a long-term energy prob
lem. Ultimately, LegaSeas would
like a national energy policy that en
courages conservation and less de
pendence on fossil fuels.
I..ast week, the U.S. House of Rep
resentatives approved the Cordell
Bank Marine ^nctuary Designa-
See DRILLING, Page 5