At Town Council’s June 21, 2018 regular monthly meeting, several speakers addressed the issue of potential drilling operations off the coast of Virginia. According to the information provided by these speakers, including Tera Pascarosa of Oceana, there are numerous risks, which outweigh any real or potential rewards. The consensus of the speakers was for the Town Council to adopt a resolution opposing offshore drilling operations, and any corresponding seismic explorations for oil and natural gas deposits.
Since the request for this Council resolution was not on the agenda as an action item, that meeting was the last of the then-sitting Mayor and Council, and due to the fact that a voting majority of those expected to vote on such a resolution were not yet seated or absent and so not able to ask questions, staff brought the matter back as a formal presentation to Council at the July 12, 2018 regular meeting. A number of resolutions adopted by other localities were also reviewed and Council was in agreement to adopt a similar resolution in opposition to offshore drilling and exploration, including seismic testing:
RESOLUTION 20180816
OPPOSING OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS DRILLING AND EXPLORATION,
INCLUDING SEISMIC TESTING
WHEREAS, on January 4, 2018 the Secretary of the Interior announced a draft proposal to lease
areas off the Atlantic coast, from the Delaware Bay to Cape Canaveral, for seismic testing, oil and gas
exploratory testing and drilling; and
WHEREAS, in 2010 a similar proposal was scheduled to proceed but was cancelled after the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico starkly demonstrated the serious risks of offshore
drilling; and
WHEREAS, Governor Ralph S. Northam has announced Virginia’s opposition to the offshore
drilling proposal, and has requested that areas off the cost of Virginia be exempted; and
WHEREAS, federal, state and local governments and other community groups have spent billions
of dollars in funding and other resources in an effort to improve and maintain the condition of regional
waterways, including the Chesapeake Bay; and
WHEREAS, the tourism and commercial fishing and aquaculture industries are vital to the
economies of the Town of Cape Charles, Northampton County and the Hampton Roads Region, and could
be devastated by an offshore energy exploration catastrophe; and
WHEREAS, a healthy tourism industry and economy are necessary to protect the public health,
safety and welfare of our citizens; and
WHEREAS, the speculative benefit of oil and gas drilling is not worth the risk of a Deepwater
Horizon-type incident that could cripple the regional environment and economy for decades;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the Town of Cape Charles, Virginia
1. That the Council opposes offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling, including seismic
testing.
2. That this resolution shall be in effect from and after its adoption.
***************************
Adopted by the Town Council of Cape Charles on August 16, 2018.
A map prepared by the Department of Defense shows that offshore drilling would likely have an impact on military operations in the mid-Atlantic region. (Courtesy of John Uhrin)
Discover more from CAPE CHARLES MIRROR
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
big mistake to cancel offshore drilling, we lose a tremendous amount of high paying jobs to our depressed citizens in Northampton County to give them a better standard of living more so then the farmers can give them. It’s estimated oil can bring over four hundred million dollars into our depleted treasurer and build our county the best in the Nation.
Don’t let Wayne Creed sell you a bill of goods that drilling and finding oil in our backyard is bad he knows nothing about oil, growth and granting a higher standard of living.
Northampton County is the poorest County in Virginia an one of ten poorest in the Nation.
The Whites here simply do not want the Blacks to rise up to the level of the standard of living the rest of the country is enjoying, our Black families here receive the lowest income in the nation, $12,000 compared to $75,000 the rest of the country is enjoying.
The farmers here continue to use Black farm workers as slaves by telling them to take what I give you or I don’t call you to work my farm, I will get Immigrants to replace you.
This vote to kill oil drilling is a political stunt at the expense of the Black families if there ever was racism connected to this vote, your whistling Dixie.
Rise up young Blacks and take over the leadership of the town of Cape Charles and Board of Supervisors in Northampton.
This the last chance you Blacks to join the middle class of America that you read, hear and see for yourselves that will make you rich and not depend on those that keep you down as second class citizens.
Tony you make a lot of sense. Please print Tony’s full text so we can hear his opinion uncensored. Thank you.
Note: His entire comment was printed.
I see Wayne you censor me again, whatever happened to free speech, I wrote a lengthy rebuttal to offshore drilling and you shoveled it under the ground. Your not a journalist but a dictator to ideas not excepted to you, this is why our country is so divided, people like you who believe you are smarter than your readers.
Note: Tony, we never censor you…Wayne was asleep!
Bravo! The town and private citizens should do everything within their power to oppose offshore drilling and seismic testing along the Virginia shoreline. Off the whole Atlantic coast, actually. This resolution is brilliant! Hopefully, it will have some influence.
Jane, I agree! Just imagine the hit to our economy, and US Navy, if we had an oil spill. Watermen devastated, tourism disappears. Navy moves out.
Home values drop. Sure it’d bring jobs…cleaning up our dead waterfowl, scooping up dead fish and sea turtles, removing contaminated sand, cleaning oil off rocks, ripping out blackened sea grass. Etc. Think BP, think Exxon.
Oh dear Lord……….the Navy would move out………sigh……..if it wasn’t for overblown rhetoric where would the left be?
It’s a horrible thought, losing the Navy here. Twice I heard a Navy Commander speak in Virginia Beach (Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Sierra Club) warning us about what would happen and he said they’d have to relocate to Florida if we went forward with a plan to have offshore oil rigs here off our Virginia Coast.
I’m getting the name of the Navy Commander just for you, Mike. You can then contact him and have a discussion about pro’s and con’s of the impact of offshore oil drilling. Of particular note would be their relocation plan to Florida. (Trump exempted Florida from any offshore oil drilling.)
It is the WORLDS LARGEST NAVAL BASE, to move it would be cost prohibitive.
Any comments made by a commander are pure hyperbole for political purposes.
But, Barnum was correct about some of the people all of the time…….
Hope, not to intentionally pop any of your carefully constructed bubbles in here, but you should do yourself a favor and google “navy contaminates sites.”
You will find that pollution is hardly going to drive away the Navy, since the Navy is already a major polluter in its own right.
For example, The Military Times – “DoD: At least 126 bases report water contaminants linked to cancer, birth defects” by Tara Copp, April 26, 2018, to wit:
In all, 25 Army bases; 50 Air Force bases, 49 Navy or Marine Corps bases and two Defense Logistics Agency sites have tested at higher than acceptable levels for the compounds in either their drinking water or groundwater sources.
Additionally, DoD tested 2,668 groundwater wells both on and in the surrounding off-base community and found that 61 percent of them tested above the EPA’s recommended levels.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/04/26/dod-126-bases-report-water-contaminants-harmful-to-infant-development-tied-to-cancers/
That article is specifically about water at or around at least 126 military installations containing potentially harmful levels of perfluorinated compounds, which have been linked to cancers and developmental delays for fetuses and infants, the Pentagon has found.
Under Superfund sites, you find this:
Site Name: US NAVY GREAT LAKES NAVAL BASE
Street: PUBLIC WORKS CENTER BLDG 1A
City / State / ZIP: GREAT LAKES, IL 60088-5600
end quotes
And this:
Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola is an active U.S. Navy (Navy) installation in Pensacola, Florida.
The installation provides facilities, service and support for the operation and maintenance of the Navy’s naval weapons and aircraft.
In the past, operations at NAS Pensacola generated wastes that contaminated soil, sediments, ground and surface water.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed the installation on the National Priorities List (NPL) of contaminated sites in 1989.
end quotes
And this:
The 824-acre Navy Ships Parts Control Center site is located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
The Navy Ships Parts Control Center, formerly known as the Naval Inventory Control Point (NAVICP), provided global management of repair parts for Navy ships during the 1940s.
In the early 1950s, NAVICP became a repository for a variety of metal ores received as war payment and reprimand.
Historical operations and past waste disposal activities contaminated soil, sediment and groundwater with hazardous chemicals.
end quotes
And this:
BRUNSWICK NAVAL AIR STATION
BRUNSWICK, ME
EPA placed the site on the Superfund program’s National Priorities List (NPL) in 1987.
The former Brunswick Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine, closed in May 2011 under the federal Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005.
Wastes generated by the U.S. Navy when the base was an active military installation have contaminated soil and ground water across portions of the former air station.
An October 1990 agreement established the responsibilities of the Navy, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and EPA in studying contamination at the site and cleaning the former base’s roughly 3,100 acres, and the Navy continues to conduct site contaminant investigations and cleanup activities.
end quotes
So rest your fears, Hope, a little more pollution is not going to drive the Navy away, and in fact, might be an incentive foe them to stay and expand, since the place is already polluted, and hence, they cannot be held to blame for it.
What your reference to indicate Northampton County is the poorest County in Virginia and one of ten poorest in the nation? Just curious, I never heard that before.
Thank you!
While I too have concerns and have a different opinion then others, I try to look at all sides and do a little research. Northampton County is not the poorest county in the state. Here is a quick link as to that fact. https://www.roadsnacks.net/poorest-places-in-virginia/
Looking at both the pro’s and con’s, I believe that the off shore oil and wind farms have a place on the Virginia cost. Certainly all would agree as to the placement and not interfering with military operations, nor the activities at Wallops.
We can not put all our eggs in one basket. Without tourism (seasonal), we have no steady market for jobs and no tax base for county improvements. The oil industry would provide jobs and a tax base. The workers would spend their income, buy vehicles, homes, etc, thus pay taxes. Spend money in local restaurants, stores, etc, thus paying taxes. Locally, the county allowed the real estate speculators to run the state prison out some years ago. Then, the county had to build a jail as the old one was literately falling apart. Now, due to the cost of a new school, the county does not have the funds available for such a project. With no tax base, it’s foreseen it would take a rise in taxes of up to 25%!
Wake up people, if you want the local government to improve things, the money has to come from somewhere. No tax base, your taxes go up! Sooner of later, less locals can afford to live here and you become nothing but a completely seasonal area.
Every business opportunity that has been made to the county, their told no. I would say let the ones who don’t want any new business here foot the extra tax burden to make up the difference!
Just for clarity, the link you posted was a survey of VA cities with a population of at least 5000 residents. There are no such communities in Northampton county, so we wouldn’t show up on that list anyway.
Here’s a link from Wikipedia that ranks all VA cities and counties by per capita income:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Virginia_locations_by_per_capita_income
We aren’t at the very bottom, but our per capita income is less than half the #1 county. Even though we’re about halfway up the list, our per capita income is much closer in dollars to the lowest county than it is to the highest ranking county.
Who cares whether or not we are the poorest county? The fact is we have a lot of people on federal and state assistance. We also have a lot of people who won’t work even if there were jobs available. Some cities and counties are buying bus tickets for their poor and sending them to Seattle, WA. They have some of the best welfare no- work benefits in the country. We would do well to move out non-taxpayers to Seattle and lower the burden on those that remain.
Thank you.
Norfolk is the largest Naval Base in the world. It isn’t going anywhere. Virginia needs to have good conservative military voters to offset the liberal loonies in Northern Virginia.
As I had told you, Mike, I will get you the name of the Navy Commander that I heard speak twice about the necessity of moving Navy out of our area in Virginia to Florida where Trump exempted the State from any offshore oil drilling.
His name is Joe Bouchard.
Here’s some other neato info about oh so smert and patriotic Joe:
Joseph F. Bouchard (born July 17, 1954 in Pensacola, Florida) is an American politician of the Democratic Party. From 2008 to 2010 he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. He represented the 83rd district in Virginia Beach.
Ergo, he is a lying crapweasel who spewed out smoke and mirrors so that ‘fellow travelers’ and ‘useful idiots’ would parrot his pablum.
IT IS THE LARGEST NAVAL BASE IN THE WORLD AND AS SUCH MOVING IT IS COST PROHIBITIVE.
Regardless of what some Godless, feckless, gormless, anti-American mope vomits up.
What a way with words you have, Mike Kuzma!
Sheer poetry it is!