WAVY.com

Closure at Buxton Beach Access due to petroleum smell, sheen in water

MANTEO, N.C. (WAVY) — Cape Hatteras National Seashore expanded the area of a beach closure at Buxton Beach Access and issued a new precautionary public health advisory Monday due to a petroleum odor and sheen in the ocean.

The Dare County Department of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health and Cape Hatteras National Seashore, issued the public health advisory for the Buxton Beach Access due to impacts from petroleum contaminated soils likely exposed by beach erosion near the former site of Naval Facility Cape Hatteras and Coast Guard Group Cape Hatteras in Buxton, from about 46285 Old Lighthouse Road, to and including the first jetty.”


Officials say Seashore staff noticed the odor and sheen near an old military site previously used by the Navy and Coast Guard.

Around two-tenths of a mile of beach near the former military site has been closed since Sept. 1, 2023. Sunday’s expansion of the closure now makes the closed area approximately three-tenths of a mile long.

Seashore will be meeting with both the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers about the observations.

Multiple soil samples have been taken by the Corps, Coast Guard and Seashore since Sept. 1, 2023, and the testing indicated that “the soil contained weathered light fuel oil, a small amount of lubricating oil, petroleum hydrocarbons, and non-petroleum contamination.”

The beach in this area has stayed closed since then, and no onsite mitigation work has begun.

Until the petroleum contaminated soils are mitigated, environmental and public health officials recommend: