Newsletter #1 Welcome to our new organization

Welcome to our new organization.

Sustainable Shorelines was officially incorporated on February 13, 2002.  While the official notification letter is yet to be received, I have received a number of advertisements for business equipment in its name.

The news reports continue to support the need for our endeavor.  In the future I hope to give a weekly (or biweekly) summation of the major articles gleaned from the news.  Along with these articles, we are gathering names of those --government officials, property owners, environmentalists, reporters, etc.-- who need to know what impact the loss of our coastal resources truly will be on our nation.  We also need to inform them of more sustainable alternatives for protecting our coastlines.

With this in mind, here are a few of this past week's highlights:

In North Carolina, the negative effects on coastal fresh water supplies and wetlands of dredging ever deeper channels is being documented by researchers.  Tidal action on the Cape Fear River is moving deeper inland and brackish water is now found far upriver from the coast.  Kitty Hawk is demolishing six houses as it exercises its rights of eminent domain to take property for a new high dune system to protect Highway 12.  Students from Duke's Program for the Study for Developed Shorelines, Dr. Pilkey's baby, recently visited Figure 8 to see the erosion problem and were admonished by PSDS's assistant director Andy Coburn that retreat is the only option.  The nourishment project on Emerald Isle continues to pump overly shell-laden sand onto the beach.

In Southwest Florida, Stump Pass is to be dredged to ease recreational navigation and get sand for the adjoining beaches.  This will cause further erosion to these beaches.  The cost is to be $12 million over 8 years.  Sarasota County officials are considering the same firm that designed the Mason Inlet relocation for Midnight Pass.  There is some concern that in the Mason Inlet project caused immediate shoaling in the ICW.  Howard Marlowe, dredging lobbyist and ACC director, hopes for further funds from the feds for nourishment projects in St. Lucie County.  The state has cut its funds for nourishment by a third.  Palm Beach got a very low bid for its upcoming renourishment of only $4.4 million for 2.5 miles.  Still, the total cost for its 10-year, 8 mile project is expected to run $42.5 million.

In the Gulf, Padre Island, TX is to be cut through by the $31 million Packery Channel project intended to help turn the island into a major resort.  The silt dredged up is be put in front of the seawall as a "beach".  The Corps is soliciting for dredge spoils to create a saltwater barrier sill 65 miles upriver on the Mississippi; this again illustrates the concerns of deep channels forcing salt water deeper inland.  This also further erodes the Louisiana coastline as acknowledged by the Corps for its Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet.  This shipping channel is eroding valuable wetlands and provides a shortcut for hurricane storm surge into Chalmette and eastern New Orleans.  Even so, the Corps says it is not going to begin to study this until next year and it will be at least 2013 before beginning to close the channel, if then.  That means addition hundreds of square miles of coastal lands, at current rates, could be lost before the Corps acts.

Out West, the validity of the California Coastal Commission continues to be assessed by the courts.  At Solana Beach, new seawalls have been approved to protect rapidly eroding bluffs; a sand mitigation fee paid by the property owners compensates for a decrease in beach width.  The Corps is being asked to place sand dredged from the San Diego Harbor on adjacent beaches.  The Corps has some reservations about doing this as in 1998 the Navy paid $9.7 million to compensate for the sand it dumped offshore because of fears the sand contained unexploded munitions found in the harbor.

In the Northeast, beach access is becoming an issue in Nantucket as beaches erode.  The use of eminent domain to secure public access is being discussed.  At Cape Cod, its community dredge ship, the Cod Fish, works 10 hours a day, six days a week pumping sand from clogged boat channels, rivers and estuaries (and offshore) to replenish the Cape and islands' "naturally" (my quotes) eroded beaches.

In the Mid Atlantic, the Presidents' Day storm created massive erosion along New Jersey's shoreline with vertical sand loses of 2-8 feet.  Many of these areas are recently renourished and other are up for multimillion renourishment funding this year.  Much of this area will not find sand for these projects:  2 years ago an article reported that 7 years of artificial beach-building had almost emptied offshore sand deposits off the Monmouth County coast.