With more than 75 people gathered to hear public comment at the Currituck County Cooperative Extension building in Barco, the North Carolina Division of Water Resources held a hearing on the NCDOT and NC Turnpike Authority’s 401 water quality certification application for the Mid-Currituck Bridge (MCB).
Although the 401 permit is limited to water quality, a dozen speakers came to the podium to vent their frustration over a project that they felt was unneeded, prohibitively expensive and damaging to the environment.
First proposed in a planning exercise for Currituck County in 1978, the Mid-Currituck Bridge first became a part of NDOT’s planning documents in the 1990s. After years of false starts and successful court challenges, the $1 billion two-lane toll road is now slated to begin construction in 2026.
The scope of the meeting was explained by Garcy Ward, Environmental Specialist of the Transportation Permitting Branch, NCDEQ Division of Water Resources. The meeting was part of a public comment period on issuing a state permit examining the effects of the MCB on water quality based on state law.
“Projects that require a federal permit or license that may result in discharge to waters of the US must also receive a 401 water quality certification to be valid,” he said, adding that the 401 permits are issued after the federal permits are satisfied.
“A 401 Water Quality Certification can be issued after the division determines that the proposed activity has avoided and minimized impacts to surface waters and wetlands [and] would not cause or contribute to a violation of water quality standards…” Ward explained.
One of the most active groups opposing the MCB is No Mid-Currituck Bridge, a grassroots organization that, according to founder Jennifer Symonds, “advocate(s) for keeping Currituck a beautiful place to live, and for preserving the Currituck Sound and its wildlife and fisheries for generations to follow…”
She did point to potential impact to her drinking water, noting that the bridge on the mainland side will cross Maple Swamp.
“I get my drinking water from a private well on my property. My water is filtered through Maple Swamp, she said. “If the swamp is damaged or polluted by fill activities or fuel spills, the quality of my drinking water and the wildlife habitat could be threatened.”
Yet, like most speakers, her testimony focused on other issues. Of particular concern to her were comments from her group that she said were not included in either the Draft Environmental Impact Statement or the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).
“That omission would be fixed in the FEIS. The omission gave the illusion that there is no group opposed to the bridge,” she said.
Barb Marzetti, a business owner living in Corolla, indicated she was also a member of No Mid-Currituck Bridge and described the bridge as unnecessary.
“The bridge is to help 14 weekends a year for the visitors,” she said. “Yes, we are a tourism economy. We want them to come, but they’re coming because we are special. We don’t have the infrastructure on either the mainland or the beach side to support the additional folks who will come.”
Representatives of environmental groups were also on hand.
Kym Meyer, Litigation Director for the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), told the hearing panel she was representing No Mid-Currituck Bridge, the Sierra Club and North Carolina Wetlands Association. She pointed out what she felt were the financial realities of the project, saying, “There is not a billion dollars to build this bridge. There is not sufficient toll revenue that will ever pay for the cost of this bridge.”
The “big picture” she admitted, was not the point of the hearing, but “you do have to be minimizing and avoiding all of the impacts to water quality that you can…”
There were, “small scale solutions,” she suggested, pointing to “overpasses on 12 so the pedestrians can cross the road, adding two-way left turn lanes on 12, improving the intersection between NC 12 and 158, adding in roundabouts. There’s a whole range of solutions that could be implemented a piece at a time that the state actually has money to put in place.”
Speakers did, though, address specific concerns about water quality. Currituck resident Meghan Agresto recalled a 2023 septic spill in Currituck Sound.
“In summer of 2023 we had a crazy fish kill in historic village, the smell of sulfur you couldn’t hardly breathe,” she said.
Not everyone, however, was opposed to the bridge. Southern Shores Town Manager Cliff Ogburn and Councilwoman Paula Sherlock were on hand to defend the project. Both spoke and described clogged residential streets in the summer season and residents trapped in their homes because of the traffic.
Ogburn drew attention to the number of unsuccessful court challenges, commenting, “The project has already repeatedly stood up against challenges related to legalities of the process and the bridge and the bridges impacts on the environment.”
The impact of public comment opposing the bridge, but not specifically focusing on water quality is not clear.
Asked by the Voice if opinion on the suitability of the project will influence the permit decision, Division of Water Resources Public Information Officer Laura Oleniacz wrote in an email that, “The comments, written and verbal, will be summarized in a hearing officer’s report that will also include a recommendation to the DWR [Department of Water Resources] director regarding a decision on the 401 water quality certification…The division does address whether comments in the hearing officers’ report are within DWR’s scope and purview related to the project. The division can acknowledge if an issue is outside of the scope of the certification and is in another agency or organization’s purview.”
The deadline for written comments is March 31, 2025. Comments may be emailed to PublicComments@deq.nc.gov. Included Mid-Currituck in the subject line. Comments may also be mailed to:
NC Dept. of Environmental Quality
Attn: Garcy Ward
943 Washington Square Mall
Washington, NC 27889
Credit to Kipp Tabb with The Outer Banks Voice www.outerbanksvoice.com