My coursework through the OBXFS has been greatly supplemented through my internship placement with the Principal Planner in the Town of Nags Head. Holly White, long time Nags Head resident and Principal Planner for the municipality, has so graciously been exposing me to the inner workings of the town and providing learning experiences on how local government works. Acting as somewhat of an all-purpose helper, I’ve helped Holly with town preparations for CRS inspections as well as furthered my own environmental education messaging projects. My projects have surrounded effective messaging on environmental issues and information via social media. I have been creating Instagram posts, Facebook write-ups, tweets and a social media posting plan for future interns.
When corresponding with Corey about internship placement preferences, I told him that the most useful experience for me personally, would give me more context for understanding what career paths will make me feel the most fulfilled. After exploring the list together and reading internship blog posts from previous years, I came to believe that interning with a municipality would be a perfect fit for completing that goal. From my first call connecting with Holly, I knew that COVID-19 circumstances wouldn’t hinder our ability to work together. Interested in both my academic and emotional transition to the Outer Banks, Holly always took time to understand my perspectives and make our work together as impactful, relevant and engaging as possible. Coming into my internship, it was already predetermined that my work would be environmentally focused; the format of my work however, was something Holly and I developed together. After discussing a need for more outreach, specifically in the realm of social media, Holly and I decided that I would explore the Town’s social media presence and find ways to increase its effectiveness. The social media campaigns we’ve developed have been for both short-term and long-term use. Spot-light, information-dense campaigns would run for roughly three weeks, with weekly or biweekly posts. On the other hand, long-term campaigns – sparser and more simplistic in information – would run for six months or longer.
My experience with the Town of Nags Head was enhanced by Holly’s willingness to introduce me to her coworkers and connect me better with the rest of the department and town staff. From arranging calls with herself, Kate Jones, (engineering technician and the Town’s point-person on stormwater management) and Kylie Shephard , (another environmental planner in the Planning Department) to better inform me on the Town’s management strategies, to letting me sit in on staff meetings and see how decisions get made, Holly made sure that my internship taught me more than just what we discussed as experience deliverables.
Here is the title slide of a “Word of the Week” post, meant to draw in the audience with its simplicity
My favorite campaign we developed is a long-term campaign titled “Word of the Week” which aims to simplify scientific terms related to septic system health, climate change and other environmental concerns of the town. “Word of the Week” tries to ‘make science simple’ so that residents are better able to understand and contextualize Town recommendations and plans, hopefully empowering them to become more involved in communal problem-solving. “Word of the Week” is a campaign that could continue into the foreseeable future. There will always be work to be done closing the knowledge gaps that exist between researchers and residents.
Here are two of the informational slides. I believed that this campaign would be the most effective if there was as little jargon as possible.Fun Fact: Holly is actually the one who suggested the utilization of memes (which as a young adult I was extremely fond of), stating that the residents were extremely receptive to ‘Dad Jokes’
All in all, my internship experience has provided me with useful real-world experience and connections to the Outer Banks that I will take beyond my time at the fieldsite. Thank you to the OBXFS professors and coordinators for arranging this experience and thank you to Holly White for your time and patience. I may not want to work in local government but I have definitely gained a greater appreciation of the inner workings of government and the nuances of public service. Go out and vote; remain civically engaged and make the work of your public officials more efficient and effective. Governance has always been a communal endeavor and needs to remain so! Apathy will be the death of our democracy.
Hi! My name is Natalie Ollis and I am part of the OBXFS Class of Fall 2020. This semester was unconventional to say the least. Unfortunately, due to COVID concerns, my internship was completely remote. Because of this, I was unable to take my own photos, but below I have included some photos from the organization websites that show what I have been working on.
Even though I was unable to work in person, I enjoyed every minute working for the North Carolina Coastal Federation under the mentorship of Leslie Vegas, coastal specialist. I worked on many projects independently while under her guidance. At the beginning of the internship, I learned all about oyster reefs, an example of a living shoreline and some of the Federation’s main projects. In connection to classwork, we learned about living shorelines in professor Dubbs’ ENEC 489 course and how they can help protect coastal areas from erosion and promote further oyster habitation which also increases water quality. The oysters used on the reefs created by the Coastal Federation are collected through recycling efforts.
My main job when working with the Coastal Federation was helping to expand the oyster shell recycling program that the Federation is sponsoring to replace the program that the state was unable to continue funding. In the early stages of this project, I researched other oyster shell recycling programs in the country, so we could take inspiration from what other organizations are doing. I also researched all the restaurants in the Outer Banks to determine who would possibly be able to participate in the recycling program and made a survey for interested restaurants to fill out. For the last stage of this project, I found and contacted all of the seafood distributors in the Outer Banks to ask if they sold oysters and if they would be willing to promote the program and become recycling sites. I also participated in discussions with other Coastal Federation members concerning signage and I was also able to write up “memorandum of understanding” documents for when organizations wanted to partner and become recycling sites.
NCCF Oyster Shell Recycling Site in Wanchese (www.nccoast.org)
Another major project I was able to participate in was helping Ocean Friendly Establishments, a joint program between Plastic Ocean Project and the NC Coastal Federation, create a business nomination checklist as well as a volunteer audit checklist. Ocean Friendly Establishments is a program created to promote the sustainability of local businesses as well as encourage other businesses to be more sustainable. Businesses must meet certain requirements to join the program, and there is a ranking system within the program based on different sustainability goals. I was able to create the checklists mentioned above for volunteers in the community to nominate new businesses and make sure current participants are keeping up with their goals. I enjoyed being able to create these lists independently, and they received very good feedback which made me very proud! My very last assignment for my internship is to make a form to give businesses who are a part of the program that no longer qualify in order to help them identify where they can improve if they would like to keep their status.
A list of Ocean Friendly Establishments (as of Fall 2020) to visit when you are here in the Outer Banks! (www.facebook.com/outerbanksofe)
I have enjoyed my internship so much! I learned a lot about how a non-profit organization operates, how a community organization can work to promote positive change, and how beneficial these programs and organizations can be to the local environment and economy. Without the work of the Coastal Federation, the local oyster and tourism industries would not be the same. Oyster reefs help provide suitable habitat for new oysters that help improve water quality which is very important to vacationers who also enjoy eating oysters at local restaurants. I was so happy to be a part of this organization, even if just for a semester, and I was able to improve my personal work skills, such as organization, time management, and professional communication, as well.
Before I started working, I was very worried that I would not enjoy it due to the position being remote, but Leslie, my mentor, was able to give me so many unique projects that I enjoyed! Originally, my main project was the oyster shell recycling program, but when she asked what all I was interested in and I told her that I want to go into sustainability consulting as a career, she also put me on the Ocean Friendly Establishments project. This was a perfect match and I loved brainstorming all the ways that a restaurant could be more eco-friendly for the volunteer checklists. Even though my internship is over, I hope to still be able to continue volunteering with them from time to time. I am also thankful for Corey Adams at CSI who set me up with my internship. I talked with him about my concerns with a remote internship and despite that being mostly unavoidable, he still matched me with an awesome internship that matched my interests. I will remember this experience forever and I have gained new valuable skills that I will be able to use later on in my career at UNC and beyond.
This week, Lindsay made a comment that filled me with more emotions than any one phrase has in quite some time; “We are more than halfway through the semester.” I sat there, at the metal picnic table I’ve sat at all semester, and stared at her. Thankfully, my mask hid my astonished expression.
The first rush of emotion was fear. There were many terrifying thoughts swirling through my mind. How were we, a group of ten students, going to finish collecting all our data for our capstone, analyze it, write a whole report on it, and finish our classes in less than two months. At that moment, it seemed close to impossible.
Following the fear was sadness. I scanned the outdoor space we call our classroom, taking in all the faces around me, faces that, despite our masks, have become familiar. Each of the nine other people I have shared this experience with has made their own unique mark on my life. We will be leaving to walk down our own individual paths, yet again, in such a short amount of time. Although I know we all have exciting and bright futures waiting for us, as I heard Lindsay’s words, I realized I was not ready to let go of the present experience.
One of the best parts of living here is the countless opportunities to walk along the beach.
The last emotion I felt was a huge rush of excitement. The thought of all the crazy and cool stuff we will have the opportunity to do in the next few weeks brought a smile to my face. I feel as if there is an astronomical chance we will not find any significant scientific conclusions through the work we have done, but we get to try. That in itself is enough for me, we get to finally start putting together something to show everyone how hard we have worked this semester. And we have worked hard, every single one of the people here has put in extra time and effort they didn’t necessarily need to at some point or another.
All of this brought me to one singular goal for the remainder of my time here. Since August, I have had awesome experiences and have gotten a lot out of being here. However, for these last two months I want to make a conscious effort to make the best of my time here. The days following Lindsay’s terrifying, but true, statement brought many opportunities to do just that.
Heidi and I spent a day near Cedar Island, as part of our internships, assisting a PhD. student with some field work.
This past Wednesday was an internship day. I have been interning with the Public Engagement and Outreach Department at CSI as a science journalism intern, all semester. I’ve enjoyed my time in this role immensely, however I was exhausted when I woke up and not exactly excited to go into work. (This is a dangerous thing to say because my mentor may very well read this) However, as I begrudgingly climbed into my car to make the eight minute trek from the guest house to CSI, I remembered what internship days met; I was spending the day with Heidi and Meagan.
We are all efficient and focused workers, but we find time to have fun too. My favorite conversations have been over our lunch as we discuss the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life, conspiracy theories, comical YouTube videos, and so much more. I walked into CSI that day knowing I would have more of those conversations and I was going to create even more great memories connected to CSI and OBXFS.
On Thursday, I was still very tired. (I am not exactly sure why I had absolutely no energy this week, but it is a common theme that has thankfully come to an end this weekend.) Class started that day at 9:30 AM. I woke up at 9:25 AM to Bri, whom I drive to CSI everyday, pounding on my door yelling for me to wake up. In quite the panic I got ready in seven minutes and drove us to class as fast as I safely could.
During that drive, I have never been happier that Bri is the chaotic sweetheart that she is. All the way to class she bombarded me with jokes about our current situation. During class, I took in the beautiful sound side views that have been the backdrop of our academic work. I let myself reflect on how lucky our little group is to be here at this exact moment. We, unlike many people in school right now, get to study in person, interact with our classmates and professors, and do real work. No number of days that start off rocky could ever overshadow the gift we have been given by getting to be here.
Collecting water samples, for our capstone, in the rain is actually kind of fun.
On the way home I found myself feeling even luckier to have the people I have to share this time with. There are people who may have reacted with anger towards my inability to be on time that morning. Bri found a way to make the best of the situation. She filled the morning with humor and was entirely relaxed the whole time. Like every other student here, she was selfless and I was reminded that I wouldn’t want to be here with any other group of people.
Friday brought with it another field trip day filled with excitement and interesting lessons about the Outer Banks. We learned about the economic and community shaping dynamics of bridges and other infrastructure, the ecology of the northern side of the Outer Banks, and how coastal management decisions affect the future. We stopped at the Hatteras Lighthouse and discussed the decision to move it, along with the implications of that undertaking. At the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station we learned about the history of the area and how it has informed the current lifestyles now present.
This field trip gave me the opportunity to observe on how important our instructors are to the experience of this place. Lindsay, Linda, and Andy have demonstrated a desire for every student to learn and enjoy the semester that is more obvious than any other professor I have interacted with in the past. During lunch on Friday, Andy sat with Natalie, Heidi, and I and talked about our lives, experiences at UNC, and peppered in academic and life advice wherever he could. It was clear through the entire conversation that he really cared. I noticed, throughout the day, that Lindsay was always ready with water, snacks, and general questions aimed at making sure everyone was ready to move forward and having a good time. I’m sure part of this is her mothering instincts, but I know we all feel cared for and comfortable when she is around. Linda spent the day providing humor at just the right times, she always ensures the group’s spirits remain high.
Andy gave a short talk about the economic impacts of infrastructure, like bridges, in front of the Herbert C. Bonner bridge. This bridge sits over Oregon Inlet and is the only way to get into Hatteras by car.
I spent the weekend working on assignments and tasks for the upcoming week all while finding time to enjoy the people around me. I found myself on a six hour Netflix binge with Todd and Janis on Saturday night. We shared countless jokes, great conversations, and created new memories that will definitely remain some of my favorites when I look back on this time.
Our tour guide at the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station told us many amazing stories about the beginnings of life-saving on the Outer Banks.
In short, all of us who have experienced OBXFS this semester could not be more fortunate to be here. We don’t have much time left, but we have so many more opportunities to make the best of this place. We all have each other’s backs, maybe more than any other field site in the past due to the circumstances we find ourselves currently in. Everyone works hard, and even though we have a lot more to accomplish, I know we can do it and do it well.
I was not sure where I wanted to take this post when I sat down to write it, but now that I’ve reached the end, I’ve realized I simply wanted to convey that OBXFS is a great place to be. This past week has allowed me to come to that realization more conclusively. I wanted to give a glimpse into life here to encourage anyone who may find themselves on this page and consider coming to this program to do so. My semester here happened to fall during a pandemic and as a result it would be a lie to say we got the full experience of this place, still, I have never found myself in an academic or social environment quite like this one.
In conclusion, thank you to my amazing classmates who have now become my amazing friends, and thank you to our incredible instructors for not only teaching us new things and caring about us as they do, but for dealing with our antics in general. I can’t wait to finish this experience with all of you.
While we have kayaked in many places now, the Buffalo City paddle in Alligator River was one of the most unique areas.
My name is Caroline Pharr, I am a Senior at UNC Chapel Hill majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Public Policy. During my Fall 2020 semester, I am studying at the OBX Field Site, at the Coastal Studies Institute in Skyco, North Carolina. Part of my study program is an internship that began on August 24th.
Outside of the Dare County Justice Center
I am interning at the Dare County Justice Center, in the Assistant District Attorney’s Office in Manteo, North Carolina. My internship mentor is Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Karpowicz Bland, a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and UNC law school.
During my time interning with Assistant District Attorney Bland I have been able to experience working in criminal justice while getting an insight for the demands of the position. Assistant District Attorney Bland is dedicated to her role as a prosecutor and to serving in the Dare County Court system. While working and learning from the office, I have a greater understanding of how criminal justice law is practiced, and a profound appreciation for the work that the people in this office perform everyday for the Dare County community.
This Fall Semester has been like no other, being that we are taking classes and working on internships during a global pandemic. At the Dare County Justice Center, court is in session and social distancing measures are in place. When I go to my internship, I walk through the front doors with my mask on, and before I can walk through the metal detector, I have to stop and get my temperature checked. These safety measures are to help protect the public from the spread of COVID-19 .
Additional safety measures include reduced seating in the courtroom, mandatory masks while inside the courtroom, and the District Attorney Office is closed to the public.
While working in the District Attorney Office everyday is different, in the morning I could be analyzing a new case file, then that afternoon I would be doing research on legal statutes and precedents. Many of the cases that I have been working on are related to drug crimes. While at my internship, I have been learning about the issues that are problematic in the Dare County community. Drug related crimes are some of the most prevalent issues on the docket at the Justice Center. These are issues that are not just happening in Dare County, but State and Nation wide as well.
As part of my internship, my mentor assigned me as a research project on a new North Carolina law called HB 474/SB 375 Death by Distribution. This new law has been in effect as of December 2019, which would make it a felony to sell certain controlled substances to someone who dies by ingesting them. My task for this research project is to write a report about how this law is being used in North Carolina, what qualifies a person to be tried by the new law, and how it will affect the Dare County community.
Dare County is my home. Having the opportunity to be able to work at the Assistant District Attorney’s Office with my mentor has not just helped me understand how I want to work in law, but has also shown me about the issues that are hurting my community that I had not understood the full extent of before.
In environmental studies, we study the relationship between people and the planet, how the needs of people need to be met and balanced with the resources of our planet. We study how good public policy that protects the health and safety of people is also good for the environment.
“Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man.”
—Stewart Udall
Protection of our beaches and waters are an integral part to a healthy community, as is protecting the health of the community is an integral part of protecting our coastal ecosystems. As someone who is passionate about the environment and protecting it, having the experience working in legal and policy enforcement at the Justice Center has given me an insight that I would not have been able to experience if not for this program. Environment health and public health are not separate. They can only be as strong as their weakest link.
My internship this semester has been with the Planning Department in Nags Head. My mentor, Holly White, has made the experience so hands-on, and I have felt like an actual employee every time I go in. Here is where I go to work every Monday and every other Wednesday: the beautiful Nags Head Town Hall!
Nags Head Town Hall
I have attended a few Board of Commissioner Meetings in this building:
The Town of Nags Head Board Room – Home of Board of Commissioners Meetings
I have gotten to see first-hand the struggles that town planners go through during these meetings, as well as how the government-process works in a local scale. One of the meetings got particularly heated, with many town citizens coming to speak against ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units). These are smaller, independent residential dwelling units located on the same lot as a standalone, detached single-family home. They are designed to allow for expanded/alternative housing options; not to build larger spaces. However, citizens vehemently argued against ADUs, saying that what these add-ons really do is add extra rental space, and more population density. The ordinance did not pass.
My main job at the planning department this semester has been to make a “progress report” or “Toolbox” for the Septic Health Initiative, the Town’s long-term strategy for protecting water quality while allowing the continued use of on-site wastewater systems. The Septic Health Initiative has 4 major program areas; septic tank pumping and inspection, low-interest loans, education, and water quality monitoring. The Town offers free inspections for non-innovative systems, and a $30 credit to property owner’s water bills if they have their systems pumped. Additionally, the town offers lower-interest loans for repair and replacement of septic systems.
This is an info-graphic that the Town of Nags Head has on their Septic Health Initiative website. An example of the education aspect of the program!
I identified knowledge gaps between the Planning Department and the citizens of Nags Head about septic maintenance and operation knowledge using the 2018 Capstone Report. After identifying 3 major knowledge gaps, I did an intensive literature review on how other municipalities around the world are educating their citizens on septic maintenance, and how they are enforcing and incentivizing septic maintenance. The 3 major knowledge gaps that were identified were:
Most property owners are not aware of how septic systems work.
Many participants did not know where to find reliable information about septic systems and health.
Many participants were not aware of the government aid that is available to them.
After the literature review, I determined that the most common methods to educate community members is through workshops and seminars. An annual/semiannual workshop about septic maintenance for homeowners, as well as education on repairs and pumping, could be extremely beneficial to the town. Additionally, a few towns in my literature review conducted surveys/interviews to gauge the current septic health knowledge of their residents. I think this would be a good way to understand the baseline knowledge of the town’s citizens. Other methods for educating the public include media releases, handout materials, fundraisers, creating databases, and encouraging public participation. I believe that the Town could benefit from utilizing a combination of the methods from the literature review to improve the overall septic health of the town.
The library in the Nags Head Town Hall – I did a lot of work here!
Additionally, I looked at the Town of Nags Head Comprehensive Plan (2017), the Vulnerability, Consequences, Adaptation, and Planning Scenarios (VCAPS 2017), and Decentralized Wastewater Management Plan (2005), to centralize the future goals of the town regarding wastewater and ground/surface water management. The centralized location of these goals can save the town time when trying to write new goals and assess their current goals. I also recommended future goals of the water quality monitoring program after meeting with George Wood.
I also did a small side project throughout my time at the Planning Department with the Low Impact Development Manual. My job was to photograph some of the low impact/protective designs that have been utilized in the Outer Banks. See below for some of my photos!
Rain garden at the aquarium in Manteo
Pervious concrete at the Coastal Federation
Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Nags Head Planning Department. They have really welcomed me and made me feel like one of their employees. I was even invited to attend their employee appreciation luncheon next week! I have enjoyed my internship so much, that it played a big role in my decision to get my Masters in Public Administration this coming year.
For my internship through the OBX Field Site I’ve been working alongside the OBX voice as a photographer. The OBX Voice is a local news outlet that works to inform the people of the NC coast of everything going on in the Outer Banks, from local elections to impending storms.
Under the guidance of my mentor, Mark Jurkowitz, I’ve traveled all throughout the Outer Banks photographing for various stories. I’ve been able to attend town meetings, court proceedings, and even had the chance to travel to Hatteras following Hurricane Dorian to take pictues of relief efforts.
Through my work with the Voice, I’ve had the opportunity to improve my photography skills as well as my information gathering skills. This has been important to me as I feel that these skills are vital toward pursuing a future as an environmental photographer and journalist.
In addition to the skills that I’ve been developing, I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting various people and gaining insight to the different ways of life here on the coast. I’ve seen areas that I otherwise would have never visited and helped deliver a vital resource (information) to the people of the OBX.
Overall, this experience has been extremely worthwhile. I’ve enjoyed my time working with Mark and am appreciative of the opportunities I’ve been given. I look forward to my remaining internship days and can’t wait to apply what I’ve learned to future experiences.
Hi! I’m Avery and this semester I interned with Dare County’s Soil and Water Conservation District. The District does a lot of important work for Dare County, including providing community assistance programs for low-impact development and agriculture, determining best practices about stormwater management and conservation, and providing educational outreach about conservation for the community. With the help of my excellent mentor Ann, I worked on several outreach projects this semester during my internship!
The first outreach project we did was at the Secotan farmer’s market. I created a game about ecosystem services (the wheel in the pictures), and Ann and I told customers at the market about the importance of stormwater management, as well as distributed outreach materials. Ann’s son Lewis came with us as well, and I think he had a blast drawing pictures and playing with the other kids at the market!
For my second outreach project, I partnered with Dare County’s 4H program and the Coastal Federation to create a series of three after school programs called Wonderful Wetlands. In the first two sessions, we played games and learned about the water cycle and the ecological importance of wetland ecosystems! So far, there is still one session left (coming up this Wednesday, 11/13!), and we’ll be learning about low-impact development. A big thanks to Paige Fuselier at 4H and Sara Hallas at the Coastal Fed for making these programs possible!
The final project I’ll be working on is creating a few posters for the Soil & Water District, to be used at outreach events in the future. I want to focus on what the District does and the many available community assistance programs, as well as how to apply for them!
Altogether, this internship was a great experience and it presented many opportunities to give back to the community through education! I’m very thankful to Ann for making the experience so valuable and for teaching me so much!
Hi! I’m Anna-Gray, a junior at UNC, and I had my internship this semester with Island Farm. Island Farm is a site under the Outer Banks Conservationists, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating people of the Outer Banks’ rich history while also working to conserve and preserve historical sites and land in OBX. (Check them out: https://obcinc.org/)!! My wonderful mentor is Ladd Bayliss, Island Farm’s director. Island Farm and Ladd were the perfect matches for my future interests and goals. Speaking of goals, my goals for the semester at Island Farm were to make an organizational plan of what gets planted at the farm, and to create different activities for NC Schools for when students visit!
My first project was to create agricultural and organizational plans for the farm. I did this by making different charts that had crop information and logging information that included what, when and where crops were grown on the farm. This project was fun for me because everything had to be historically accurate for the site time period (1847), and I got to explore my interest in sustainable agriculture. This project was like dipping my toe in the pool of agriculture and now I am ready to jump in!
The second project I worked on was to help create lesson plans for when students come to visit the site! I am still currently working on this project as I put the final touches on lessons for different grade levels, all while making sure what we teach them matches up with the NC Public School Systems curriculum. I enjoyed this project because I got to tap into my creative side to make fun, engaging, and interesting activities to help students learn about life in Manteo in 1847.
I have had so much fun at Island Farm! My favorite part of the internship was my “farm-time”. Farm-time happened every morning on internship days and was the time I spent on the farm planting crops and helping out where needed. I would be surrounded by over a dozen squawking chickens while I got to get my hands dirty planting different crops and completing other farm chores. I also enjoyed feeding Roxy the cow. Roxy’s favorite snack to munch on was sweet potatoes grown from the farm. (Also, I once had to clean out Roxy’s bed and bathroom area!)
Overall, my days were filled with farm-fresh eggs, Alphie the farm cat, and lots of fresh and interesting history. Island Farm is a place where I got to explore some of my main interests and a place where I got to disconnect from the world and reconnect with the Earth. Thank you to all the teachers, Corey, and Ladd for making this such a positive experience!
This semester I’ve been interning with the northeast office of the North Carolina Coastal Federation! The nonprofit works to accomplish its five goals of improving coastal resiliency through grant-based projects. I have been working with Michael Flynn, NCCF’s coastal advocate on my project studying beneficial use of dredge material.
Beautiful view from the office.
Every Monday morning, we have a group staff meeting where everyone updates each other on what they have been working on and what they plan to work on in the coming week. There, I get to learn a little more about the work that each of the other staff members are focusing on.
My project was looking at an overview of beneficial use of dredge material to create a paper and presentation. I began by looking at the policies of dredging and disposal of the waste product and from there moved to databasing all the available disposal sites in North Carolina. I then did a literature review and annotated bibliography of all the relevant studies looking at beneficial use. I also spoke with some people involved with pilot projects to learn more about the types of beneficial use projects currently being implemented.
Right before beginning to write the paper, Michael and I spoke to some industry professionals about the possibility of an area on Hatteras Island that could use dredge material beneficially. I was able to include this in my paper in hopes that Dare County can use my information to make a case for the implementation of the project.
I learned a lot about this up-and-coming topic in the environmental world! There is so much that can come out of dredge material and as a coastal state with a lot of dredging activity, dredge material is a wonderful resource.
My name is Connor Badgett, and I’m a senior at UNC Chapel Hill majoring in Environmental Science. My internship this semester was with Quible & Associates, P.C., an environmental consulting firm in Powells Point, NC. President of Quible, Warren Eadus, was my mentor this semester and he had me dabble in many of their projects to get an understanding of the variety of work they do.
The firm does environmental assessments, as well as engineering work, to determine if an area can be developed for any number of purposes. One such project I worked on multiple times was to assess an area of the Neuse River Estuary to see if it is suitable for a marina.
To do this, we monitored water quality parameters like turbidity, chlorophyll-a content, and dissolved oxygen. A certain dissolved oxygen content needs to be maintained for the health of the environment, so monitoring helps to establish a baseline. The marina needs to be dredged so larger boats can enter, so we also collected cores of the sediment to determine how dredging would be done and what could be done with the resulting dredge spoils.
On the left, you can see how we collected the cores. We used a long aluminum rod and vibrated it into the ground using a machine called a vibracore. The resultant core is pictured on the right. We split the cores and determined soil types using a Munsell soil color chart and estimates of texture by feel. On the right, you can see different layers of soil. The black area represents a fire. Further down, you can see remnants of an ancient seabed called marl. Collecting this material allowed us to determine that the dredge spoils will not usable for other purposes. For this project, we also collected long-term weather data using a weather station, some of which I logged into a spreadsheet for future use. The marina is still in the permitting process, but our work will help decide if this location is viable.
Warren also wanted me to do Hazwoper training, a shortening for Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response. The training covers a multitude of topics about how to handle many types of hazardous waste, and how to avoid work-related injuries and other potentially dangerous work conditions. This will be beneficial to have for my own personal safety and is something I can add to my resume.
I really enjoyed working with Quible and their excellent staff. The internship allowed me to see many different types of projects, acquire field experience, and see how an environmental consulting firm office operates. There was a good mix of field and office experience. In the field, I did things like take notes, assist with set up and collection of samples and information, and perform tasks like bailing wells and driving vibracores into the ground. In the office, I assisted with data entry and analysis, and did my Hazwoper training.
I would recommend this internship to any student interested in doing environmental consulting work who likes doing both data analysis in the office and collection in the field. Just to warn you, it is a 45-minute drive but it’s well worth it!
Caroline Pharr leaving to go to her internship 
Officer Jack Palmer in the lobby of the Dare County Justice Center
