Petroleum contamination escalates over the weekend at Buxton Beach; Corps contractor plans to start excavation work Wednesday

Petroleum contamination at Buxton Beach intensified over the weekend, with several observers reporting that the fuel smells and sheens were the “worst they had seen” since the shoreline was closed in September 2023.

A small section of Buxton Beach at the end of Old Lighthouse Beach has been closed to the public for over a year after two offshore hurricanes eroded the shoreline and revealed leftover infrastructure from a 1956-2010 military base, as well as sporadic but strong petroleum smells.

Because the Buxton Beach site is part of the Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is responsible for addressing the petroleum contaminants related to Navy activity from 1956-1982, while the U.S. Coast Guard is responsible for other potential contaminants from their use of the site from 1985-2010.

Debate remains on what agency will address leftover Navy infrastructure, such as the concrete foundation and other remnants of the Navy’s former Terminal Building, also known as Building 19.

The Corps stated in September 2024 that they were launching an imminent response to address the petroleum, which included hiring a contractor to remove contaminated soils in order to mitigate the petroleum release.

A Corps team arrived in Buxton on September 11 to start the preliminary investigative work, and identify any clear sources of the petroleum problem.

“Upon arriving, the Savannah District team conducted a visual inspection of the beach front, including along and around the exposed infrastructure for signs of an active or potential petroleum release [such as] odors, stained soils, and/or sheens,” stated Benjamin L. Garrett, Corporate Communications Office Chief of the Corps’ Savannah District, in an October 2 email to the Island Free Press. “The team did not identify any ongoing petroleum releases due to sand accumulation along the beach; therefore, no mitigative actions were needed at the time.”

During this mid-September timeframe, Garrett stated that the Corps team excavated 62 test pits along the beach and behind the dune area to better define the extent of petroleum in the subsurface, and to inform the follow-up response action on where excavations should occur.

“Our contractor arrived onsite Sept. 20, 2024. To ensure continuity of operations and continuous monitoring of the beach, the Savannah District team demobilized from the site once the contractor was fully mobilized,” stated Garrett.

While the Corps reported that no odors or sheens were noticed while their team was in the area in mid-September, that all changed on Friday, September 27, and these new issues became progressively worse through Monday.

“There is a lot of sheen that has been observed at the site around Building 19 over the last couple of days, and there has been a very strong odor,” said National Parks of Eastern North Carolina Superintendent David Hallac in an interview with the Island Free Press on Tuesday, Oct. 1. “The Corps contractors are there but have not begun [excavation] work yet so they were not able to perform any work to stop petroleum from washing into the ocean.”

National Park Service (NPS) personnel sent reports on Sunday about the increasing issues to the National Response Center (NRC), which is the central communications hub between the different agencies for reporting environmental emergencies.

“We filed an NRC report and our staff sent an email notifying the Corps on Sunday,” said Hallac.

However, the Corps stated that they were unaware of the resurfaced issues until Monday.

“No releases were reported to the Savannah District or our onsite contractor over the weekend,” stated Garrett. “However, on Monday morning, our contractor observed sheen emanating from the beach during low tide. As a mitigative measure, the contractor deployed an absorbent boom on the beach to prevent migration to the ocean. No other sheens have been observed since.”

Photos from Sunday, September 29, show the rainbow-colored shimmer of petroleum on the shoreline, and the heightened issues over the weekend are especially concerning as they were not connected to extreme weather conditions, like an offshore hurricane or coastal storm.

“It’s not really different from the pattern that we’ve observed over the past year, but according to the staff, the odors and sheen were observed at fairly significant levels,” said Hallac. “There has been a lot of erosion over the last few days [at Buxton Beach] even though the ocean conditions have been fairly calm.”

There are several possible answers as to why the petroleum resurfaced so dramatically this past weekend, starting with the natural progression of gradual erosion.

“There’s an assumption that erosion is only happening during rough ocean conditions, but we see time and time again that moderate seas and smaller waves can cause erosion, and chronic low-level erosion can build up over time,” said Hallac.

Another possible reason is that the shape of the shoreline shifted over the past week, which is a continual phenomenon.

“If you just look at any type of natural beach, you’ll notice a scalloping pattern, where you have a point and a concave,” said Hallac, “and that pattern just repeats, and moves over time.”

In this theory, it’s highly probable that the scalloping pattern shifted, and a concave in the shoreline was formed near the Navy’s former Terminal Building, which was where submarine detection activities took place during the Cold War. It has also been a repeatedly-observed site of petroleum smells and visible sheens over the past year.

The exact source of the petroleum leakage remains unknown, and there could be more than one source. However, after several weeks of staging and preparation work, in-depth petroleum remediation efforts are expected to begin imminently.

“Excavations are anticipated to start on October 2 and should take about 60 days to complete,” stated Garrett. “After we complete the response action to remove any potential petroleum-impacted soils in areas that exhibited a sheen along the beach and dunes, we plan to perform a robust comprehensive sampling of the entire project area to determine the nature and extent of contamination in the subsurface.

“Identification and delineation of any potential sources in the subsurface is essential to determine an appropriate remedial action. We plan to award the comprehensive sampling by mid-November.”

The popular Lighthouse Beach Access remains closed as work speeds up.

In the past several weeks, a temporary roadway was created between the contaminated shoreline and the Old Lighthouse Beach parking lot to minimize any construction-related activity to the adjacent neighborhoods. With this new setup, trucks removing contaminated material can go in and out of the area without causing much disturbance to local houses.

Additional onsite work since the contractor team’s arrival on Sept. 20 has included, (but is not limited to), coordinating with Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative, bringing heavy equipment to Buxton, and creating soil stockpile staging locations in coordination with the NPS.

“The contractor has been making a significant effort to mobilize,” said Hallac. “We’re looking forward to their action as soon as possible.”

By Tuesday and Wednesday, the smells and sheens had diminished since their weekend peaks, but the cyclical issues could certainly occur again, as they have for the past 13 months.

“Site conditions remain extremely dynamic, due to tidal fluctuations and changes in wave action, and frequent erosion and deposition,” stated Garrett, “But the contractor has the capability to adapt and deploy mitigation as needed.”