The Pilot Covers
Brunswick County
THE STATE PORT PILOT
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A Southport longshoreman gives orders to hoist
a nerve gas coffin from a railroad car during the
ship-loading operation Wednesday. The controversial
shipment is being transferred to an obsolete freighter
to be scuttled at sea. (photo by Ed B>rper) ,
County Gets
Road Projects
Brunswick County has been
allocated more than $109,000
for five secondary . road
construction projects.
Approval of the projects was
voted at the regular August
meeting of the State Highway
Commission in Raleigh.
Following is the list of the
projects for this county:
Resurfacing of road 1163 from
road 1165 to the South Carolina
line, a distance of 1.1 miles at a
cost of $12,000.
Road 1515 to be graded,
drained and stabilized from road
1517 to the dead end, a distance
of 1.5 miles and a cost of
$7,000.
The paving of .2 miles of road
1439 from road 1437 to the
dead end at a cost of $2,000.
Base and pavement for the
following sections of road: 1.2
miles of road 1126 from road
1130 to road 1119; road 1506
(1.5 miles) from road 1500 to
(Continued On Page FV>ur)
Says Corps Of Engineers
Lockwood’s Folly Erosion
Is Part Of Beach Problem
■- &
Congress already has taken
action that precludes permanent
stabilization of Lockwood’s
Folly Inlet as part of a
navigation project, according to
representatives of the U.S. Corps
of Engineers.
Recently the Brunswick
County commissioners adopted
a resolution calling for
emergency relief from erosion at
the east end of Holden Beach,
which is adjacent to the inlet. In
two letters received last week,
the Corps representatives
commented on the
commissioners’ resolution,
stating that the solution to the
problem could be best achieved
by completion of an overall
erosion control plan.
The letters, from district
engineer Col. Paul Denison and
Maj. Joel Callahan, the deputy
district engineer, were addressed
to U.S. Rep. Alton Lennon and
Senator Sam Ervin.
According to Coi. Denison and
Maj. Callahan, “although the
problem of inlet stabilization
and the erosion of adjacent
shores are closely related, the
Public Law governing the
authorization of navigation
projects and the Public Law
governing the authorization of
beach erosion and shore
protection projects are quite
different.”
The report further stated that
despite full explanations of the
status of each project, “local
interests and County
Commissioners do not appear to
understand fully the relationship
between the two types of
projects.”
The feasibility of navigation
projects at both Lockwood’s
Folly Inlet and Shallotte River
Inlet have been investigated in
response to resolutions adopted
Tearing Down School
Southport High School, gutted by fire in January, 1968, is being razed this
week. It was not determined how much of the building will be leveled, but there
is a possibility that the auditorium area and two classrooms that still are in use
will be spared, (photo by Spencer)
by the U.S. Senate Public Works
Committee and the U.S. House
of Representatives Public Works
Committee. A report was
submitted on these projects
which found that improvement
of Lockwood’s Folly Inlet
beyond its authorized depth of
six feet, mean low water, could
not be justified at this time. The
report further found that
improvement of Shallotte River
Inlet to provide an unstabilized
channel eight feet deep, 100 feet
wide, from the Atlantic Ocean
to the Intracoastal Waterway
was justified.
Action on the report was
suspended, however, until such
time as the effectiveness of the
dredge Merritt in maintaining
shallow inlets could be
established.
The benefits and costs of both
navigation projects will be
brought up-to-date and the
report will be resubmitted this
summer for further
consideration. “We do not,
however, anticipate any
significant change in the findings
(Continued On Page Flour)
Nerve Gas Arrives Here;
Stevedores Begin Loading
By ED HARPER
Trains carrying deadly nerve
gas rolled into Sunny Point early
Wednesday morning and are
being unloaded by area
longshoremen, to whom
dangerous cargos are
commonplace.
The longshoremen, responsible
for transferring the gas to an
obsolete freighter for disposal at
sea, consider the shipment no
more dangerous that some
cargos included in the 1.3
million tons of munitions that
are sent through the terminal
each year.
The attitude among local
residents that there is little to
fear is in contrast to the
attention that has focused on
the shipments since word leaked
out that the gas would be
dumped in the ocean. Other
seadumps have been admitted,
but Army officials said
Wednesday morning this would
be the last time.
Col. Jack Osick, deputy
director of the Chemical and
Nuclear Operations Directorate
at the Pentagon, said the Army
has no more gas sealed in
concrete and steel containers
and he does not anticipate
further dumping in the ocean.
The emergency that makes the
seadump necessary is
deteriorating gas containers.
They are sealed in six-ton vaults
that make it impossible to
detoxify the gas so the disposal
at sea was chosen as the most
feasible way of getting rid of the
dangerous substance.
Officials acknowledge that gas
will leak from the casks but
insist that hydrolysis will render
the substance harmless. The
cargo now being loaded at
Sunny Point includes 66 tons of
GB-type nerve gas and 10
pounds of VX gas, which is
“designed to be more
persistent.”
Col. Osick said the Army
would like for the coffins to
break open after they are
scuttled with the ship. “We
would prefer to have the vaults
open so the gas would dissolve,”
he said. “Then it would all be
over with; the gas would be gone
once and for all.”
\
Array officials stated that
there has been no previous
shipment of gas “of any kind,”
from the local terminal, but this
is contrary to a report by a
former commanding officer at
Sunny Point. Retired Lt. Col.
Dredge Work
A U.S. Corps of Engineers
dredge has started maintenance
dredging of Lockwood’s Folly
Inlet and the channels should be
restored to project depths within
six weeks.
Col. Paul S. Denison, district
engineer of the Corps, stated
that during periods when sea and
tide conditions preclude
dredging of the bar channels, the
Merritt is scheduled for
emergency dredging of a shoal
that has developed in the
Intracoastal Waterway opposite
the inlet.
Time And Tide
In our issue for August 7,1935, announcement was made that the
appointment of L.T. Yaskell as Southport postmaster had been
made permanent. He had served as acting postmaster since March of
that year. There was word that the USE Dredge Comstock would be
based at Southport for some time while engaged in projects in this
area. The Border Belt Tobacco market was scheduled to open the
following day.
The editor had taken his pen in hand to advise tobacco farmers to
pay their bills before they turned frivilous with their tobacco
money; new booths were being installed at Watson’s Pharmacy; and
Guy and Vernon Garrett, twin sons of Sgt. and Mrs. J.J. Garrett,' had
met here for a part of their vacation before Guy returned to Aruba
Netherland West Indies. ’
The 150th anniversary of the founding of the Coast Guard had
been observed Sunday at nearby Oak Island Station. W.H. Barnett
was in charge of the station, and among the crew were A.E. Huntley
A.L. Willetts, Garfield Clemmons, Ralph Sellers, Connie Lupton
Roy McKeithan, B.B. Oden and Dave Garrish. This was in our issue
of August 7,1940.
An 11-day of 90-degree weather had been broken by a cool spell
during the previous weekend; work had started in laying out the
boundaries of the Southport yacht basin; an informal survey
revealed that more than 50 Brunswick County young men had
joined the Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Coast Guard since the first
of the year.
(Continued On Pare Vtour)
William S. Norman of Southport
said that in 1959 an estimated
200 tons of “mustard gas” was
shipped from the terminal and
dumped in the Atlantic in the
seadump area where the nerve
gas will be sunk.
The disposal area is 282 miles
east of Cape Kennedy where the
water is 16,000 feet deep.
The 1959 gas cargo, which
apparently is common
knowledge in this area, was
carried by a garbage scow
borrowed from New York Citv.
According to Col. Norman, who
retired from the Army as Sunny
Point commander in 1960, the
,;5:''u-v
mustard gas was in tank
containers.
The trains that hauled the
nerve gas left depots at
Anniston, Ala., and Richmond,
Ky., Monday for the day and
one-half trek to the Sunny Point
terminal. The train from the
Kentucky depot arrived at the
terminal gate shortly before
midnight Tuesday and the
Alabama shipment arrived at
3:34 a.m. Wednesday. The
gondola cars containing the gas
immediately were moved to the
south wharf where loading
operations began about nine
o’clock.
The entire operation, labeled
CHASE for “cut holes and sink
’em,” was shaded by a veil of
secrecy, but the public has been
aware of the gas shipments and
the heavily-armed trains with the
pilot-train vanguards were easy
to follow as they made their way
to the terminal on the Cape Fear
River at Southport.
An injunction to halt the
seadump has been threatened by
Florida Gov. Claude Kirk, but
Col. Osick said plans are to ship
the gas from Sunny Point on
Saturday, weather permitting.
There must be a 96-hour
(Continued On Par* Four)
W M
Nerve Gas At Sunny Point
t .. Cranes lift six-ton nerve gas containers from railroad ears into the hold of the
xaberty ship that will carry the cargo to sea for disposal. The operation at Sunny
iroint will be the center of national attention until the scheduled departure Satur
day. (photo by Ed Harper)
CP&L Nuclear
Plant Is Fueled
In one of the final major steps
before startup, Carolina Power
and Light Company completed
fueling last Thursday of its
nuclear electric generating unit
near Hartsville, S.C., according
to Guy Beatty, plant
superintendent.
A similar plant is under
construction at Southport but
won’t be ready until the
mid-1970’s.
The 700,000 kilowatt nuclear
unit, scheduled for commercial
generation in late November, is
the first nuclear plant of
commercial size in the southeast.
CP&L along with Westinghouse
and Ebasco, which built the
CP&L unit on a turn-key basis,
participated in the fueling.
$24 million worth of
processed uranium was put
inside the unit’s nuclear reactor
vessel. During a 72-hour period,
157 fuel assemblies, weighing
1,400 pounds each, were moved
from a storage area through a
tube in the unit’s containment
building into the reactor vessel.
The fuel will be the heat
source for the unit. Heat
resulting from a nuclear reaction
will change water to steam to
run the turbine and generator to
produce electricity. In
conventional steam power units,
the heat source is coal or other
fossil fuels.
i nere win oe several weeks of
preparation before the first
nuclear reaction. Radiation
control procedures have been
implemented inside the domed
194-foot high concrete
containment building. The
building is 3‘/2 feet thick on the
sides and 2Vi feet thick on the
dome.
Following the initiation of the
first nuclear reaction, final
preoperation testing will begin.
During the tests, CP&L nuclear
operators licensed by the AEC
will be actively participating in
the test program. Many of the
men have studied and worked
more than 3,200 hours in
preparation for operation of the
unit.
Closing Shrimp
Areas Possible
The Fisheries Committee of
the State Department of
Conservation and Development
urged last week to consider
closing certain inland shrimping
areas in order to improve the
yields of the species.
Ernest Parker of Southport,
committee chairman, presided
over the public hearing, the only
one slated on proposed changes
in coastal fishing regulations for
1971.
Charles Kimbrell of New Bem
suggested that the fisheries
group consider regulating
shrimping areas in inland waters
(other than sounds).
“Shrimping has gotten
completely out of hand as nearly
everyone who has a boat now
has a shrimp trawl and shrimp
cannot escape a trawl,” Kimbrell
said.
He said this might also be
associated with the decline of
the fish populations in some
areas.
Kimbrell suggested that only
Areas Closed
For Shrimping
Roy G. Sowers, head of the
North Carolina Department of
Conservation and Development
and the division of commercial
and sports fisheries, has
announced shrimping
restrictions that began Monday.
All creeks, bays and rivers
north and west of the
Intracoastal Waterway from the
mouth of New River to the
South Carolina line will be
closed to the taking of shrimp
by any method, except that
portion of the Cape Fear River
below a line from Orton Point to
mouth of Snows Cut, which will
remain open.
All tributaries of the Cape
Fear River entering from the
west side will remain closed until
further notice.
those persons who earn a certain
part of their livelihood be
allowed to drag trawls.
Chairman Parker remarked he
was sure the commercial
shrimping interests would agree
to this but “would it be right to
the weekenders?
Fisheries commissioner Dr.
Thomas Linton said certain
inland areas which are now
known to serve as nurseries for
small shrimp are being
considered for closing.
Carl Stokesberry of Hyde
County told the committee,
“Crab pots are taking over many
areas where people fish.” He
asked that restrictions be placed
on crab pots in certain areas.
The committee instructed area
fisheries inspectors to investigate
the matter.
r
Tide Table
Following is the tide table
for Southport during the
week. These hours were
furnished to The State Port
Pilot by the Cape Fear Pilots
Association.
High Low
Thursday, August 13,
4:39 A.M. 11:10 A.M.
5:39 P.M. 12:16 P.M.
Friday, August 14,
5:45 A.M. 12:16 A.M.
6:39 P.rn.
Saturday, August 15,
6:51A.M. 1:00 A.M.
7:33 P.M. 1:16 P.M.
Sunday, August 16,
7:45 A.M. 2:04 A.M.
8:27 P.M. 2:10 P.M.
Monday, August 17,
8:39 A.M. 2:52 A.M.
9:15 P.M. 3:04 P.M.
Tuesday, August 18,
9:33 A.M. 3:40 A.M.
10:03 P.M. 3:58 P.M.
Wednesday, August 19,
10:27 A.M. 4:28 A.M.
10:51 P.M. 4:46 P.M.