Board of Commissioners ban balloon releases in unincorporated Dare County

At a Public Hearing that coincided with the Dare County Board of Commissioners’ monthly meeting on Tuesday, July 16, the Board unanimously approved a ban on balloon releases in unincorporated areas of the county, which includes Hatteras Island, Roanoke Island outside the Town of Manteo, Colington, Martin’s Point, and the Dare County mainland.

The details of the ban are outlined in the now-adopted Releasing Balloons within Unincorporated Dare County Ordinance, which reads as follows:

“It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, nonprofit organization, or corporation to knowingly and intentionally release, participate in the release of, intentionally cause to be released, to litter by abandoning and not properly disposing of all waste material, any type of balloon inflated with a liquid, air, or gas within the limits of Unincorporated Dare County, any waters within the zoning jurisdiction of Unincorporated Dare County, or the beach and/or dune areas within Unincorporated Dare County. The following are not violations of the Section:
(A) Balloons released by a person on behalf of a governmental agency or pursuant to a governmental contract for scientific or meteorological purposes.
(B) Hot air balloons that are recovered after launching.
(C)Balloons released inside a building or structure that do not make their way into the open air.”

The penalty for violating the ban is a $250 fine. This most recent Dare County ban follows the adoption of ballon release bans in five of the county’s incorporated towns, which include Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, Duck, Nags Head, and Southern Shores.

The effort to launch an Outer Banks-wide balloon release ban was spearheaded by Southern Shores resident Debbie Swick, who has also aligned with a number of regional organizations on the issue including N.E.S.T., Outer Banks Women’s Club, Dunes of Dare, and locally on Hatteras Island, the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association.

During Tuesday’s public hearing, Swick noted that Cape Hatteras National Seashore personnel who patrol the Bodie Island, Hatteras Island, and Ocracoke Island beaches collected a total of 1,786 balloons along the shoreline in 2023, which was a noticeable increase from 2022’s tally of 733 balloons.

Swick made her remarks alongside a trash bag full of balloons that she brought to the podium. “This bag was collected by five of us over just six months,” she said. “It is a very important thing to have a significant fine along with this ordinance. The $250 considered is wonderful. I’m hoping that it would be a deterrent from the very beginning – that people would see that [$250 fine amount] of a balloon release, and choose not to do it.”

Swick was one of two speakers at the Public Hearing. The other speaker, Rodanthe resident Rick Shaftan, was opposed to the ban, stating that the measure was “an example of a solution in search of a problem.”

“It’s already illegal to litter,” said Shaftan. “If you have a problem with littering, put signs up saying, ‘Don’t Litter.’… That’s going to do as much as any video, any law, or anything else. We’re passing too many laws [and] we’re not enforcing the ones we have.”

After minimal discussion, a motion to pass the new balloon ordinance was made by Commissioner House, seconded by Commissioner Bateman, and was approved unanimously by the six commissioners in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting.