The Buxton Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) will have its first meeting on Thursday, April 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the Cape Hatteras Anglers Club at 47231 Light Plant Road in Buxton.
The meeting is formal, but open to the public, and the RAB was recently formed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to create an enhanced communications channel for the ongoing remediation efforts at Buxton Beach.
A selection panel was formed to choose the 11 members of the new Buxton Board, and the RAB members are as follows:
- Mary Ellon Balance
- Brett Barley
- Sheila Davies
- Alyson Flynn
- Michael Gould
- Betsy Gwin
- Brian Harris
- Meaghan Johnson
- Stewart Nelson
- Carla Reynolds
- Lat Williams
Although they are not a decision-making group, members of a RAB can influence cleanup decisions through discussions of ideas, concerns, questions, and by providing direct feedback to the USACE and regulatory agencies.
The RAB formation began in early November, when the USACE launched an online survey designed to gauge the Outer Banks community’s interest in establishing a RAB for the Buxton Naval Facility, a Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) at the end of Old Lighthouse Road.
A stretch of shoreline in this area has been closed to the public since September 2023, when hurricane-driven erosion revealed leftover infrastructure from the 1956-2010 military base, as well as sporadic but strong petroleum smells.
A section of the beach – the famed Old Lighthouse Beach – reopened at the end of 2024 after an intensive response action by the USACE, but more work remains to fully remediate the shoreline.
Following the 60-day response action by the USACE, the next step for the Buxton FUDS property is a comprehensive soil and groundwater sampling project, which will take 60-90 days to complete once it begins.
- For more information from the USACE, visit their Buxton Naval Facility FUDS website.
- For more information from the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, visit their Buxton Beach Access website.
- Developing info from the Buxton Civic Association (BCA) can also be accessed via the organization’s website at BuxtonCivic.com or through the BCA’s official Facebook page.
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