Navy Ordinance Removed from Corolla Beaches

A team of munitions removal experts from Zapata, Inc of Charlotte, NC has been quietly working along the unpaved portion of the Corolla (Currituck County) beaches for the past several weeks looking for unexploded bombs and other ordinance. The focus of their search is the debris left by the U.S. Navy when it was conducting aircraft  bombing and strafing practices in that remote area during the 1940's to the 1960's.

Zapata's work was authorized, pursuant to a $1 million+ contract, issued by the Army Corps of Engineers, and covers property now owned by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, beginning approximately one-half mile beyond the paved road in the Village of Corolla. Authorities closed this same section, covering about a mile and a half of the beach last year to public parking, with the hopes of improving public safety and traffic flow due to the heavy summertime use of the beach.

A spokesman for the Corps told EyeonDare that work is expected to end this week, with the contractor having removed about six or seven 800 pound barrels of practice debris.  He did not say how much of the material contained unexploded ordinance. The contractor was primarily looking for 20mm cannon ordinance and was not too concerned with spent 50mm machine gun projectiles which commonly appear along the beach in the same area. In addition, the vast majority of the debris was recovered came from west of the dune line where the Navy had set up about three practice targets.
The federal government had previously posted 'no trespassing' signs along that area of the beach, but vacationers often tramp over the dune line for personal reasons and to look at the wild horses that appear from time to time. The Corps spokesman said that, following an analysis of the project results, an attempt to educate the public about the area and/or fencing along the dune line could become a possibility.

It is important to point out that there have been no reported bad incidents of public contact with any ordinance along that area of the beach.  Another search, similar to this one, had been conducted several years ago.