David Stuttz: The Corps of Engineers has had a beach nourishment project at Grand Isle 

 where we have found sufficient offshore sand supplies one-half mile offshore. The 

 dunes created will also be vegetated. 



Jake Valentine: When I was a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuge manager at 

 Chincoteague, Virginia, we built a 15-mile dune line with sand fence and vegetation 

 over a period of 5 to 6 years. One January in the early I960's, a northeaster blew for 

 5 days and washed the dune line away. I watched the Chandeleur Islands for the last 

 20 years, including the effects of Hurricane Camille, its subsequent build-up and 

 partial destruction by Hurricane Frederick. Beach erosion control has made more 

 mistakes than virtually any other occupation, primarily because of failure to take 

 into account natural geological processes. Everyone says we must do something and 

 normally, as in the case of the Timbaliers, we do it wrong. 



Robert Morton: I have been asked to address the Senate Natural Resources committee in 

 Texas to testify about the mineral accretion process. I would like to ask 

 Representative Hebert to comment about the plans to employ this process in 

 Louisiana. 



Murray Hebert: The process works by passing a weak current through a wire and placing 

 an anode in the vicinity, and, like an oyster secretes a shell, the mineral builds up on 

 the negative. This may cut the cost of conventional methods of 70% to 80% in 

 place. 



Our intention would be to put out three test projects under different conditions 

 and with different goals. The mineral can accrete as fast as 3h inches in 12 days, but 

 at this rate the material is soft and weak. Normally material of a strength of 4,200 

 psi, one-third stronger than concrete, can be grown at a rate of one inch on a single 

 strand over a 2'k- to 3-month period. In addition to trapping sand, this process has 

 great potential for protection of metal from corrosion in marine and oil field 

 applications. 



Dag Nummedal: It is my understanding that the two field sites where this marine 

 accretion process has been tried are the boot basin of the University of Texas 

 laboratory at Port Aransas and a quiet lagoon in St. Croix. Can this material be 

 accreted fast enough to survive on a relatively high energy beach? 



Murray Hebert: I really do not know. We may want to apply this inside islands. But this 

 is why I have suggested a test project, rather than a full-scale application. We 

 definitely need to develop some new technologies for shoreline protection. 



H. Dickson Hoese: After the 1973 flood a Corps of Engineers report noted the large 

 biological cost of maintaining levees and suggested that it be included in cost- 

 benefit analyses. Now we realize there is a significant geological cost of the levee 

 system. Is there a study of these long-term costs in existence, and if not, why not? 



Larry DeMent: I do not necessarily believe that the leveeing of the river is the 

 fundamental problem. Most accretion takes place near the river when it overtops its 

 banks and relatively little accretion results in a basin at some distance from the 

 source. In fact, we can look at the area between Venice and the Head of the Passes 

 in which there are no levees. There has been tremendous land loss from 1952 to 

 1971 and significant losses between 1971 and 1978. These losses cannot be 



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