APRIL 27 - MAY 3, 2017
WWW.YOURISLANDNEWS.COM
COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY
Plastic bags might be on their way out in Beaufort County By Lisa Allen
The MCAS Beaufort Air Show is sure to be filled with excitement as pilots perform exciting maneuvers. Photos by Bob Sofaly.
Staff reports
Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort will host nearly 100,000 of its closest friends and neighbors at the Beaufort Air Show on Saturday, April 29, and Sunday, April 30. The event will showcase naval aviation at its best. The highlight will be the United States Naval Flight Demonstration Team, the Blue Angels. The mission of the Air Show is three-fold: to promote the Marine Corps and Navy recruiting efforts, to demonstrate the full force and capabilities of the military and to say “thank you” to the members of the surrounding communities who support the men and women who serve the nation and are stationed at the Air Station and in the Tri-Command area, according to www.beaufortairshow.com. Here’s some information about the show: When and Where The MCAS Beaufort Air Show will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the air station in Beaufort off U.S. 21/ Trask Parkway. Tickets General admission is free, but for special box seat tickets, visit www.beaufortairshow.com. Parking Parking will be in the adjacent parking lot at MCAS Beaufort. Upon entering MCAS Beaufort, security personnel will direct you to the general parking areas. Parking will be available on a first come, first served basis. Displays There will be a wide variety of aircraft, military vehicles and clas-
The audience watches as flyers perform feats of derring-do at the 2015 MCAS Beaufort Air Show.
sic cars on display at the show. The Performers The performances at the air show will include: • U.S. Navy Blue Angels: The Blue Angels exhibit choreographed refinements of skills possessed by all naval aviators. The Blue Angels’ C-130, affectionately known as Fat Albert, will demonstrate aerobatic maneuvers. Visit www.blueangels.navy.mil. • F-16 Viper Demonstration Team: The Air Combat Command F-16 Viper Demonstration Team at Shaw AFB performs precision aerial maneuvers to demonstrate the unique capabilities by one of the Air Force's premier multi-role fighters, the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Visit www.acc.af.mil. • F-35B: Designed with the entire battle space in mind, the F-35 is the most flexible, technologically sophisticated multirole fighter ever built.
ISLAND GIRLS NIGHT OUT The ladies had a fabulous time at Island Girls Night Out hosted by Celadon and Hand & Tanner. PAGE B1
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• Jim Tobul: This is the man behind the stick in "Korean War Hero," a Chance-Vought F4U-4 Corsair. An avid pilot for over 40 years, Tobul performs dramatic aerial displays in his legendary aircraft. He will be performing The Class of '45 dual routine with Scott Yoak in his P-51D Mustang “Quick Silver.” Visit www.koreanwarhero.com. • MARSOC Parachute Jump: An elite team of Marines will demonstrate one the versatile capabilities of the Special Operation Command. • Mike Goulian: Millions of air show spectators around the globe have witnessed the ferocity of a Mike Goulian air show performance. Every roll, pull, and tumble of his flight is a deliberate execution of precision. Visit www.mikegoulian.com. See AIR SHOW, page A9
EVERYONE WINS The Special Olympics partnered with the Beaufort County School District to hold a recent event. PAGE B4
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Interest is growing is finding a way to keep plastic bags out of Beaufort County waterways. Isle of Palms was the first South Carolina community to ban single-use plastic bags in 2015, followed a year later by Folly Beach, also in Charleston County. That’s what stirred things up. Novolex, a $2-billion plastics and recycling company based in Harstville, S.C., urged state legislators to ban plastic bag bans. Yes, a ban on bans. Last year, Rep. Weston Newton, R-Bluffton, killed the bill in his Legislative Oversight committee. This year, the plastics industry tried again, this time getting it assigned to the Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee. The bill made it out of committee and was debated twice on the House floor. Many legislators objected to the legislation, primarily over the principal of home rule, or the ability of local governments to do what they think is best in their community. Using that argument, three Republican Beaufort County lawmakers — Reps. Shannon Erickson, Bill Herbkersman and Weston Newton — spoke against the “ban of bans” bill. Newton said he objected to the ban because local coastal communities can see the need to keep plastics from harming their ecosystems. The House voted to keep the bill from being considered again, until at least next January. “But it will come up again,” said Rikki Parker, project manager for the South Coast office of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League (SCCCL). In the meantime, SCCCL, the Friends of Hunting Island and Beaufort Indivisible are trying to get a local ban of plastic bags on the books. Circulating petitions have garnered several hundred signatures. The topic drew a lot of attention at the Earth Day celebration at the Port Royal Farmers Market on April 22. A plastics summit at the South Carolina Aquarium last month highlighted how plastics are wreaking havoc on all species, including humans. Endangered sea turtles love to dine on jellyfish. Their mouth and esophagus are lined with sharp, pointy, backward-facing papillae to prevent slippery jellyfish from escaping by floating back out of their mouth. But when they mistake a floating plastic bag for
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food, they can’t spit it out. The bag can block their airway or, if completely consumed, their intestines. Either way, the bag can kill them. Plastics imperil creatures further down — and then up — the food chain too. Plastics don’t disappear, but crumble into smaller and smaller pieces, fooling smaller and smaller creatures into thinking the particles are food, down to shrimp and oysters. When we eat shrimp and oysters, we ingest the plastic, too. EcoWatch said that over the last 10 years, we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century. Half of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw away. A study estimated that 8 million metric tons of plastic went into the oceans in 2010, the equivalent of five grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world, said study author Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineer from the University of Georgia. By 2025, the annual output of plastic into the world's oceans is estimated to be around 155 million metric tons. Plastics corporation Novolex compiled a list of reasons plastic bags are more environmentally friendly than either paper or cloth bags. They argue that making plastic bags requires less energy and water than making paper or cloth bags, they consume less energy to transport and take up less room in landfills. They also point out how much plastic is recycled. Novolex didn’t mention in its pro-plastics briefing all of the plastic that is neither sent to landfills nor recycled, but instead winds up in the oceans, local waterways, woods and roadsides. Beaufort County Councilman Rick Caporale, R-Hilton Head Island, thinks a ban is a good idea. He forwarded information about the damage plastic does to marine life, particularly sea turtles, to senior county leadership and his fellow council members. Brian Flewelling, chair of the Natural Resources Committee, agreed to take up the issue this summer, but isn’t certain what solution will emerge. It could be a revenue stream that can fund picking up bags near waterways, Flewelling said. “We’ll figure out what makes the most sense,” he said. Caporale said, “Being a coastal county, I can see the potential for the good that could accrue from See PLASTIC, page A9