Fears grow as locals debate whether economic opportunities are worth the risk
SURF CITY -- On a misty January Monday, this Pender County beach town on Topsail Island feels deserted.
Most of the businesses have closed for the winter, and the ones that have remained open during the off season have one or two cars in the parking lot -- enough to maintain a skeleton crew.
The hub of activity in this town, even on a day when temperatures dip down into the 40s, is Surf City Pier, and more specifically the Atlantic Ocean around it. Here, about two dozen surfers bob in the ocean, black gloves and often hoods trying to keep the chill of the water from reaching them as they await the perfect wave.
Even on this day, when fog shrouds nearly all of the view, this town of nearly 2,300 residents turns to the Atlantic. This vitality is what Surf City and so many other towns up and down the North Carolina coast just like it are afraid of losing if offshore drilling becomes a reality.
North Carolina was included in the Trump administration's draft five-year offshore drilling plan along with every other shoreline in the continental United States, with lease sales beginning in 2019. North Carolina residents who pushed the Obama administration to pull North Carolina from its 2017-2022 plan are making the same arguments as before -- namely that seismic testing is likely harmful to mammals in the ocean and that a spill of any kind would be catastrophic.
'One good spill'
Among the people surfing around Surf City Pier on Monday was Andy Chambers, who owns Island Crush Italian Ice and The Peak Tap Room. As he sat on a wooden railing and took a breather, Chambers said his attitude toward offshore exploration would be "no thank you."
"I own two businesses here that rely on tourism," he said, "and one good spill and that's five years of tourism."
Chambers' businesses are the kind where he has a chance to get to know the people on the other side of the counter as they have a drink or eat some ice.
"I haven't heard anybody that wants to see an oil rig out here," he said.
Supporters of offshore drilling argue that every state should be included in the first edition of a draft plan, with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) taking public responses into account and responding to them in later editions of plans. They also argue that it is worth conducting updated seismic tests to better determine the amount of resource -- be it oil or natural gas -- that is off the North Carolina coast.
More than 30 governments have passed resolutions stating opposition to offshore drilling, seismic testing or both, with New Hanover County becoming one of the latest to pass such a resolution in January. Only one government -- Carteret County -- has a current resolution supporting offshore exploration, with Brunswick walking its own support back in early January during a public meeting attended by more than 200 residents.
Earlier in the day, Kayla Edwards walked along the beach strand with the twin girls she watches.
As the girls knelt to look at some seashells, Edwards kept a watchful eye and discussed how the topic of offshore drilling causes the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster -- where a drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and caused extensive environmental and economic damage -- to loom in her mind.
"It seems like every time they do drilling anywhere something goes wrong -- a pipe bursts or something spills," Edwards said.
'Support themselves, support their families'
On Roland Avenue, just before the bridge back to the mainland, Mike Thompson waits to have a late lunch. For the last three years, Thompson has worked at the Surf City Crab Seafood Market.
Thompson, like many in Surf City, finds himself leaning on the ocean to stay afloat, the prospect of a spill enough to sink offshore drilling in his mind.
"A lot of the people around here rely on the Atlantic to support themselves, support their families," he said.
In the summer, when tourists flood the town, this is the kind of place someone visiting from Charlotte or Kinston comes in search of fresh seafood. In the winter, it's the kind of place where Thompson and his coworker -- Dan Lucas, who is filling bushels of clams -- can be the only people a visitor sees.
A Pew Research poll released Tuesday found that more Americans oppose offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters than support it, with 51 percent of respondents saying nay and 42 saying yay. The poll also found that the strongest geographic determination for whether someone supports the practice is if they live within a coastline, with 56 percent of those respondents opposing offshore drilling and 34 percent supporting it.
Findings like that do not surprise Thompson, who says most of the people who know share the same concerns about offshore drilling.
"In the fishing community, yes," he said, "maybe not more inland where it doesn't affect their livelihoods."
'The majority of people'
Under Gov. Roy Cooper's administration, North Carolina has vocally opposed offshore drilling, with the governor pointing specifically to the potential impacts on the state's tourism dollars and fishing economy. During a recent visit to Wrightsville Beach, Cooper said he is prepared to sue the federal government if North Carolina is not removed from the draft plan.
Among the elected officials standing near Cooper as he spoke was Doug Medlin, Surf City's mayor who also owns East Coast Sports, a tackle shop on Roland Avenue. The Medlin family has owned a tackle shop on the spot since 1952 and even had a pier coming off of it until, he said, Hurricane Fran damaged it.
"I can't see anybody on the coast that's in favor of it or anybody that ever comes to the coast," the mayor said, "so that's the majority of the people in North Carolina."
Medlin is a self-described blue dog Democrat who says his views align more with former N.C. Congressman Mike McIntyre than with anyone else's. He also admits that he is cheap, the kind of person who has a 25 percent off CVS coupon fall out of his shirt pocket when he reaches for a pen.
Like many of the other business owners and residents in this Pender County beach town, Medlin weighs the risks of drilling and seismic exploration against the potential rewards -- energy independence, building up fuel reserves, the allure of low gas prices -- and finds that he likes things the way they are.
"Why should we take the risk of damaging the coast when we don't need it? ... If we were standing in line for fuel, I could maybe see it," he said.
Echoing Cooper's Wrightsville Beach statements, Medlin said he believes the same logic Ryan Zinke, secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, used in announcing his intention to pull Florida from the draft plan apply to North Carolina.
Citing Florida's beaches and their importance to tourism, as well as local opposition, Zinke announced there would be no drilling off its coast -- a proclamation that has since drawn skepticism since it came in a tweet and has not been backed by any official action.
Standing inside East Coast Sports, Medlin said the seeming Florida decision gives him optimism that North Carolina will eventually be excluded, too, even if it takes some work.
"If they would ask the local people what they want," he said, "and they would look at the value of tourism here, then they wouldn't do it here, either."
Reporter Adam Wagner can be reached at 910-343-2389 or Adam.Wagner@GateHouseMedia.com.
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