VDOT officials will be at the Cape Charles Civic Center, 500 Tazewell Avenue on July 24th from 4 to 6 pm to show plans for the intersection of Route 13 and 184 (Stone Road). Given the dangerous nature of this stretch of road which includes the crossover at the Food Lion parking lot, this is a valuable opportunity for citizens to see just what is planned, and to voice concerns to VDOT. The concern for many is that the proposed plans offer mild improvements, but they do not address the real safety problems that exist at this intersection.

“Right now, you know this, the town is moving in the right direction, and it’s happening right before our eyes. So, I’m not a big fan of the ships.” – Councilman Andy Buchholz, in a conversation with the Mirror.

The U.S. Coast Guard has proposed a pentagonal parcel of water deep enough for the cargo ships that wait to pick up their coal in port. It’s farther offshore than ships have been anchoring in the past few years – 3 nautical miles from where the town of Cape Charles runs into the beachfront, and 5 nautical miles from beaches at Kiptopeke and Butlers Bluff. The anchorage could hold as many as 30 ships.

In the last few years, the Cape Charles economy has become more and more dependent on tourism. Buchholz’s concern is that these large vessels could jeopardize the town’s livelihood. We are uniquely located on the Eastern Shore and are blessed with one of the very best sunsets in the world. In fact, our sunsets are what we are becoming known for. Now, as you gaze west, the horizon is dotted with collier vessels, either quarantined or waiting to enter port to gather coal. Not something you would put on a postcard.

Proposed anchorages off Cape Charles. Click to view larger image (USCG image)

Understandably, complaining about your view is a first world problem, however, the contamination of our waters is a real concern. Our local economy is highly dependent on having a clean, healthy beach. This season, we have had several closing due to waterborne disease. We understand that the closing is more related to heavy rains and runoff, yet anecdotal evidence and opinions are that the water does not seem as clean. Testing for disease is a way to be sure no one gets sick from swimming in the water, but what about the general quality–is it clear, is it free of debris and unknown flotsam and jetsam?

While these vessels are anchored offshore, how can we be sure they are not releasing contaminants into the water?

Ballast water discharges by large ships can have a negative impact on the marine environment.

Bulk cargo carriers use a huge amount of ballast water, which is often taken on in the coastal waters in one region after ships discharge wastewater or unload cargo, and discharged at the next port of call, wherever more cargo is loaded. Ballast water discharge typically contains a variety of biological materials, including plants, animals, viruses, and bacteria. These materials often include non-native, nuisance, invasive, exotic species that can cause extensive ecological and economic damage to aquatic ecosystems along with serious human health problems.

Pollution from large ships is also generated by diesel engines that burn high sulfur content fuel oil, also known as bunker oil, producing sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate, in addition to carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons. Diesel exhaust has been classified by EPA as a likely human carcinogen. EPA recognizes that these emissions from marine diesel engines contribute to ozone and carbon monoxide nonattainment (i.e., failure to meet air quality standards), as well as adverse health effects associated with ambient concentrations of particulate matter and visibility, haze, acid deposition, and eutrophication and nitrification of water. EPA estimates that large marine diesel engines accounted for about 1.6 percent of mobile source nitrogen oxide emissions and 2.8 percent of mobile source particulate emissions in the United States in 2000 (source Wikipedia).

In 2016 the IMO has made new sulfur regulations which must be implemented by larger ships by 2020.

Many of these vessels are being quarantined until they are cleared to enter a US Port.

In recent years, the quarantine and isolation regulations have made it easier for the CDC to require a ship clearing or departing a foreign port bound for the United States to obtain a bill of health from the US consular officer for that port setting forth the sanitary history of the vessel.  The CDC can also suspend, in whole or in part, entries and imports from designated foreign countries or places.  This would be done when the CDC Director determines that the risk of introduction of a disease into the United States is increased by the introduction of persons or property from such foreign countries or places.  Operators of ships on international voyages are required to report deaths or illnesses prior to arrival.  Operators are required to report not just persons on board with a designated communicable disease, but persons defined as ill, meaning a person who: (1) has a temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or greater accompanied by one or more of the following: rash, swelling of lymph nodes or glands, headache with neck stiffness or changes in level of consciousness or cognitive function; (2) has a temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or greater that has persisted for at least 48 hours; (3) has more than common diarrhea; (4) has severe bleeding, jaundice or severe persistent cough accompanied by bloody sputum, respiratory distress or a temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or greater; or (5) displays other symptoms or factors that are suggestive of communicable disease.

Ships arriving in a US port with a serious disease on board are required to provide advance notification.  The ship may be required to undertake certain sanitary measures and to exercise various controls over all persons on board to prevent them from serving as disease vectors potentially infecting the local populace.  The closest we have come recently to a general quarantine affecting the maritime industry was during the 2002 SARS epidemic, which heavily impacted southeast Asia.  A future pandemic, whether the result of avian flu or otherwise, may see widespread implementation of quarantine measures and fly of the quarantine flag.

In the past few years, the number of whales stranded in or around the mouth of the bay due to impact with large vessels has been on the rise. Marine mammals, such as whales risk being struck by ships, causing injury and death. For example, if a ship is traveling at a speed of only 15 knots, there is a 79 percent chance of a collision being lethal to a whale.

One notable example of the impact of ship collisions is the endangered North Atlantic right whale, of which 400 or less remain. The greatest danger to the North Atlantic right whale is an injury sustained from ship strikes. Between 1970 and 1999, 35.5 percent of recorded deaths were attributed to collisions. During 1999 to 2003, incidents of mortality and serious injury attributed to ship strikes averaged one per year. In 2004 to 2006, that number increased to 2.6. Deaths from collisions have become an extinction threat. The United States’ National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) introduced vessel speed restrictions to reduce ship collisions with North Atlantic right whales in 2008.

Large vessels dot the horizon of Cape Charles beach (Mirror Photo)

The anchorage proposed by Coast Guard, even as they move it further away, still poses a threat to our health and well-being.

On Tuesday, July 10 the Coast Guard will hold two public meetings on the status of proposed anchorages off the coast of Cape Charles. The first session runs from 1:00 to 3:00 pm, with the second session beginning at 6:00 pm. Both sessions will be in the Cape Charles Civic Center, located at 500 Tazewell Avenue. In the spring of 2016 a similar proposal was presented for public review and comment. The Coast Guard hosted a public meeting at the Civic Center that August. Numerous comments were received during that process. From those comments, the Coast Guard reviewed and revised the original proposal and developed a new one, which is now under public review and comment. There are many important matters to consider as part of this anchorage proposal review. The Coast Guard has prepared a summary document webpage and includes a link to leave a public comment. Public comments and any related material must be submitted by July 17. Please become familiar with the issues and participate in the public review and comment process.

If you cannot make the meetings, please Comment Here Now. Public comments and any related material must be submitted by July 17. It is important that the USCG receives public input on this matter. 

On July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress receives and votes on the draft Declaration of Independence, produced over the last 17 days by the “Committee of Five” who were tasked to explain clearly and completely the rationale for the thirteen English colonies’ formal and irrevocable break with the mother country. The committee consisted of John Adams (MA), Benjamin Franklin (PA), Thomas Jefferson (VA), Robert Livingston (NY), and Roger Sherman(CT). Jefferson, as we all know, provided the bulk of the draft, including the stirring preamble and the intellectual underpinnings describing a free people creating a self-governing society. The vote on this day was 12 in favor and one abstention (NY- the government of which was nominally opposed to independence, but allowed for its delegation to abstain pending lack of instructions from Albany). The political maneuvering and deal-making had been going on since early June when Virginian Richard Henry “Light Horse” Lee submitted the first- very terse– resolution of independence, from which the Committee of Five based much of their work. The Congress spent the next two days modifying the text of the Declaration, including removing a significant section on the British imposition of slavery, which bothered Jefferson greatly. The final version was approved and sent to the printers on the 4th. John Adams believed that July 2nd would be a day celebrated throughout history as our national birthday; he was mistaken. Below is the text of the great document:

In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Coming on the heals of the surprise resignation of Town Manager Brent Manuel, and the announcement that Mayor George Proto would not be seeking reelection, Councilwoman Dora Sullivan has tendered her immediate resignation from the Cape Charles Town Council citing personal reasons for her decision. The Town’s search for a new town manager has exposed an incompetent and rudderless Town Council that seems lacking in any real expertise, especially when it comes to the search and hiring of what is arguably the most important position in town government. The sudden Sullivan departure has added to the chaos.

A source close to Plum Street told the Mirror, “You can feel the stress. The back biting…well, you know Cape Charles. Keep an eye on this, and watch out what happens in May.”

Town Manager Brent Manuel’s shocking departure is still shrouded in intrigue. While the players are still holding cards close to the vest, there is speculation that his leaving is not all that voluntary.

In William Faulkner’s story, Requiem for a Nun, he wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

Dora Sullivan initially joined the Cape Charles Town Council in October 2002 when she was appointed to Council to complete David Flora’s term. She was elected in 2004 and served as councilwoman from July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2006. Sullivan has served as mayor of Cape Charles from July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2014 when she and her late husband Mike Sullivan decided to retire.

After taking a couple of years off, she again ran for Council in 2016 and was elected for a term which began on July 1, 2016.

The Code of Virginia outlines the process of filling a vacancy in elected offices. Section 24.2-226(A) requires the town to petition the circuit court to schedule a special election within 15 days of the vacancy.

The Town Council will be holding a special meeting on March 8, 2018 to adopt a resolution authorizing the petition.

Section 24.2-228(A) allows the Town Council to appoint a qualified voter of the election district as an interim council member within 45 days of the vacancy. The Town Council will be discussing the process and potential candidates for consideration at their meeting next week for appointment at the March 15, 2018 regular meeting.

The Mirror will continue to follow this story as it develops.

Join the town at Kelly’s for Voting Party to help Cape Charles win the Coastal Living Happiest Seaside Town contest. The party is on Monday February 5th from 6 to 8.