After an erosion event in September 2024 exposed petroleum-contaminated soil on the beach at the Buxton Naval Facility, a Formerly Used Defense Sites property located within Cape Hatteras National Seashore of North Carolina, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, initiated a phased response action to identify and remove petroleum-impacted soil. Some remnant infrastructure, previously buried under sand, had to be removed to access and excavate the underlying soil. In this photo, remnant foundation from Building 19 is being removed. (Photo by Terry Brooks, USACE)
By Corinne Saunders
BUXTON — Nature. People. Politics.
Perspectives differ as to what prompted major response action over a year after offshore storms caused erosion that first exposed petroleum-contaminated soils and remnant infrastructure at the former military facility near present-day Buxton Beach Access.
But citizens and various agency representatives attending a community meeting at the Fessenden Center in Buxton Monday evening expressed appreciation that mitigation work at the Buxton Naval Facility Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) is now underway.
Local professional surfer Brett Barley said after the meeting that his livelihood revolves around that beach, where he grew up, and he was glad to see the cleanup effort by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
“Obviously their hand was forced—it wasn’t like they willingly did it—but I think between September 4 or 5 and October 2, it went from zero to a hundred,” Barley said. “You can’t really ask for more than that; it’s getting done.”