BUXTON, N.C. — Petroleum-stained sand and sheen, infrastructure all over the place. That used to be a reality at the Buxton Formerly Used Defense Site two years ago. But over the last 20 months, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has reshaped the site entirely.
"What we've been able to accomplish in the past two years is a pretty big feat," said Brian Harris, a member of the Buxton Civic Association.
By the end of the month, the Army Corps will have completed the next phase in Buxton — site restoration.
"We are currently working with local sand suppliers to bring enough sand to bring the beach back to grade with the drainage being directed towards the ocean. And then we'll also complete replanting of the native vegetation," said Gayle Garland, a project manager with the Army Corps.
Much of the recent focus started on the west end of the site and moved east. Along with having an excavator that could dig even deeper, it brought with it some important discoveries.
"We located a former heating oil plant where much of the impacted soil that we removed came from, and that was likely a secondary source feeding the groundwater and causing some of the petroleum odors and sheens that were observed," said Garland.
News 3 has been covering this project since the fall of 2024. Garland explained just how far they've come since then.
"We removed approximately 25,000 tons of petroleum impacted soil, over 325,000 gallons of impacted water and I think the number is around 8-million pounds of infrastructure, the concrete and piping," said Garland.
Crews will work until the end of the month and then return in the fall for comprehensive sampling work that will give them a better understanding of the remaining petroleum contamination.
"Our focus now is to locate what's still there and develop a plan to remediate in the future," said Garland.
Once that sampling is complete, it will help the Army Corps start to develop a remediation plan. But with everything Buxton has been through on this project and the collapsed homes, neighbors like Harris feel there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.
"We definitely have turned a page, we're on the other side of this. We're kind of watching the fruits of our labors over the last two years," said Harris.
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