Two employees of the N. C. Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court in Elizabeth City to knowingly excavating an area of the Currituck Sound without authorization, a violation of federal environmental laws.
The employees, Douglas Alan Bateman and Herbert F. O’Neal, were part of a crew that in May 2004 used Ferry Division workboats to cut, or “kick,” a channel in the shallow Currituck Sound near Corolla. The activity is associated with efforts to establish a passenger ferry service between the Currituck Community and Corolla, a route of approximately 10 miles.
Judge Terrence Boyle accepted the plea agreement between the defendants and U.S. Attorney Frank D. Whitney. Sentencing will be at a later date, but could include up to one year in prison for each man. Stephen G. Smith, another employee charged with participating in the dredging activity, did not appear in court.
Their plea agreements require Bateman and O’Neal to fully cooperate with the investigation and to testify in court if asked. This may put them at odds with more senior officials in the Ferry Division who have said the damage was accidental.
Bill Moore, the supervisor on the scene during the incident, claimed responsibility for the dredging after it became public. Moore retired from the Ferry Division last year. Both he and Ferry Division Director Jerry Gaskill have claimed that the boats got stuck while marking the channel and accidentally dredged the area. Their claims contradict Bateman’s and O’Neal’s admissions that the dredging was intentional, but neither Moore nor Gaskill has been formally charged with any crimes.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office told Carolina Journal he could not comment on the case. DOT officials also were not prepared to comment on the guilty pleas. “We have not received official notification so it would not be appropriate for us to comment at this time,” said DOT spokesman Bill Jones.
Proponents of the ferry service said the route was necessary to transport approximately 40 school children from the Currituck Outer Banks area to the Currituck mainland. The students had previously attended school in Dare County but were forced out because of crowding concerns. They face a lengthy bus ride without the ferry, say ferry supporters.
With Sen. Marc Basnight of Dare County as the driving force, the N. C. General Assembly appropriated $834,000 in June 2003 to get the ferry service started. DOT ordered a 50-foot, 49-passenger, enclosed-cabin pontoon boat from a Florida boat builder. The boat could operate in shallow water, but Gaskill had already determined that dredging at the Corolla site would be required, nonetheless.
“Although a pontoon vessel configuration operates in very shallow water, the approach channel into Corolla would still require some dredging,” Gaskill wrote in a letter to DOT Secretary Lyndo Tippett in January 2003. “The Ferry Division recommends establishing a channel that is 40’ wide by 6’ deep. It is important to note that the appropriate CAMA permits be acquired prior to the commencement of the dredging phase of this project. This could be a very lengthy and costly process if Environmental Impact Statements and other documents are required.”
Documents show that DOT was expecting Currituck County to apply for the dredging permit. At the time of the illegal dredging, the project was behind schedule, and neither DOT nor Currituck County had applied for a permit.
A feasibility study submitted to the General Assembly by Gaskill failed to mention that the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers had previously denied Currituck County permits to dredge in the same area.
The circumstances used to justify the project have changed considerably. Dare has since built new schools, so crowding may no longer be an issue. The number of students involved in the long bus ride has dwindled to just one elementary school student. Parents have either moved or made other arrangements for school or school transportation.
Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal.