News
May 19 2008
Buckroe Beach will open to metal detectors again
Before you hit the sand to scan, you'll have to watch a precautionary video on unexploded ordnance.
HAMPTON -- On a good day at Buckroe Beach, you might find a diamond ring or an expensive watch. There's also the occasional pair of brass knuckles or handcuffs.
"But you might be out there for three hours and only find 35 cents in loose change," said Barry Merrill, president of the Hampton Roads Recovery Society.
Using a metal detector to look for anything on the 14-acre beach, which draws an estimated 100,000 visitors a year, has been illegal since 2003 because of unexploded World War I- and II-era ordnance that occasionally turns up.
That's about to change.
Hampton and the Army Corps of Engineers are opening the beach to metal detecting again this week — with a catch.
Anyone who wants to hit the beach with a metal detector has to watch a six-minute video explaining how to recognize artillery shells if they find one.
Once the video is finished, the city will give the treasure hunter a badge that must be worn while they scan the beach.
"It's just to show, if you find something suspicious, don't take it home and use it as a doorstop," said Ed Novi, media marketing manager for Hampton's Neighborhood Office.
Specifically, the video tells people about the three R's of finding ordnance: recognize it, retreat from the area and report it to park officials.
A public showing of the video is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday on the first floor of the Rupert Sargent Building, 1 Franklin St. Once you've seen the video, you can hit the beach.
The precaution dates to the first half of the 20th century, when the Army and Navy conducted training exercises, shooting anti-aircraft rounds across the Chesapeake Bay.
The shells might have slept at the bottom of the bay but were churned up during beach nourishment projects in 1990 and 2004.
Sand was sucked up from the bottom and pumped onto the beach to build it up after erosion caused by big storms. Mixed in with the sand was the ordnance, mostly 76 mm shells that look like hollow, corroded bullets about a foot long.
Nor'easters and other storms, such as Hurricane Isabel in 2003, washed away sand and revealed the ordnance.
Nineteen shells were found at Buckroe Beach between the spring of 2003 and the summer of 2004. One was found in waist-deep water by a swimmer who nudged it with his toe.
Metal detecting and digging on the beach has been banned since 2003.
The second beach nourishment project in 2004 was conducted with several precautions, said George Follett, an ordnance and explosives safety specialist who was Buckroe Beach project manager for the corps.
The corps hired a contractor to use a cutter-suction dredge, which has a device that looks like a giant auger, to loosen up the bay floor.
Then the equivalent of 28,000 dump-truckloads of sand was slurped up, pumped through a mile-long pipe and spread along 3,800 feet of beach. Additionally, about a third of that much sand was added to the Salt Ponds beach north of Buckroe.
As part of the $3.7 million federal project, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. screened the sand coming into and out of the dredge, according to Follett and Army documents. The corps also surveyed the beach — and the sand offshore up to about 3 or 4 feet of water — with military-grade detecting equipment, Follett said. The city also rakes the top 6 to 8 inches of sand on a regular basis.
The corps spent $1.2 million to remove ordnance from Buckroe — but it'll never find all, which is why everyone who uses a metal detector at Buckroe must watch the video, Hampton Parks Director Jim Wilson said.
Anyone interested in viewing the video can also contact a park ranger at the beach.
Wilson said rangers and lifeguards would continue to watch out to see whether anyone is digging too deep into the sand or scanning for metal without a city-issued badge. They'll also sweep after heavy storms.
For people who use metal detectors, the news from Hampton has long been in the works, said Merrill, president of the regional recovery society.
The 40-member group has a June meeting themed "Buckroe Beach finds." And it could get interesting after the next big storm.
"You get a hurricane or a nor'easter come through, you never know what you're going to find," Merrill said.
"But you might be out there for three hours and only find 35 cents in loose change," said Barry Merrill, president of the Hampton Roads Recovery Society.
Using a metal detector to look for anything on the 14-acre beach, which draws an estimated 100,000 visitors a year, has been illegal since 2003 because of unexploded World War I- and II-era ordnance that occasionally turns up.
That's about to change.
Hampton and the Army Corps of Engineers are opening the beach to metal detecting again this week — with a catch.
Anyone who wants to hit the beach with a metal detector has to watch a six-minute video explaining how to recognize artillery shells if they find one.
Once the video is finished, the city will give the treasure hunter a badge that must be worn while they scan the beach.
"It's just to show, if you find something suspicious, don't take it home and use it as a doorstop," said Ed Novi, media marketing manager for Hampton's Neighborhood Office.
Specifically, the video tells people about the three R's of finding ordnance: recognize it, retreat from the area and report it to park officials.
A public showing of the video is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday on the first floor of the Rupert Sargent Building, 1 Franklin St. Once you've seen the video, you can hit the beach.
The precaution dates to the first half of the 20th century, when the Army and Navy conducted training exercises, shooting anti-aircraft rounds across the Chesapeake Bay.
The shells might have slept at the bottom of the bay but were churned up during beach nourishment projects in 1990 and 2004.
Sand was sucked up from the bottom and pumped onto the beach to build it up after erosion caused by big storms. Mixed in with the sand was the ordnance, mostly 76 mm shells that look like hollow, corroded bullets about a foot long.
Nor'easters and other storms, such as Hurricane Isabel in 2003, washed away sand and revealed the ordnance.
Nineteen shells were found at Buckroe Beach between the spring of 2003 and the summer of 2004. One was found in waist-deep water by a swimmer who nudged it with his toe.
Metal detecting and digging on the beach has been banned since 2003.
The second beach nourishment project in 2004 was conducted with several precautions, said George Follett, an ordnance and explosives safety specialist who was Buckroe Beach project manager for the corps.
The corps hired a contractor to use a cutter-suction dredge, which has a device that looks like a giant auger, to loosen up the bay floor.
Then the equivalent of 28,000 dump-truckloads of sand was slurped up, pumped through a mile-long pipe and spread along 3,800 feet of beach. Additionally, about a third of that much sand was added to the Salt Ponds beach north of Buckroe.
As part of the $3.7 million federal project, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. screened the sand coming into and out of the dredge, according to Follett and Army documents. The corps also surveyed the beach — and the sand offshore up to about 3 or 4 feet of water — with military-grade detecting equipment, Follett said. The city also rakes the top 6 to 8 inches of sand on a regular basis.
The corps spent $1.2 million to remove ordnance from Buckroe — but it'll never find all, which is why everyone who uses a metal detector at Buckroe must watch the video, Hampton Parks Director Jim Wilson said.
Anyone interested in viewing the video can also contact a park ranger at the beach.
Wilson said rangers and lifeguards would continue to watch out to see whether anyone is digging too deep into the sand or scanning for metal without a city-issued badge. They'll also sweep after heavy storms.
For people who use metal detectors, the news from Hampton has long been in the works, said Merrill, president of the regional recovery society.
The 40-member group has a June meeting themed "Buckroe Beach finds." And it could get interesting after the next big storm.
"You get a hurricane or a nor'easter come through, you never know what you're going to find," Merrill said.
