shore is developed at a number of summer resort communities, the 

 principal ones being Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach, The permanent 

 population of the coastal region of the study area is approximately 

 14,000, A large summer increase in population is dravm principally 

 from the remaining area of the State, adjacent counties in Maryland 

 and the cities of Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D, C, In 

 addition to the Fort Miles military reservation. Federally owned shore 

 frontage comprises an undeveloped section 480 feet long at Broadkill 

 Inlet and the two frontages at Lewes and Indian River Inlet occupied 

 by Coast Guard Stations, Of the remaining shore frontage, about 38 

 percent is publicly owned and 62 percent privately owned. 



The tides in the study area are semi-diurnal and have a mean 

 rar^e of 4,1 feet. The maximum tide is estimated to be about 9 feet 

 above mean low water. The ocean shore is exposed to the unlimited 

 fetch of the Atlantic Ocean, About three-quarters of the offshore 

 waves approach from the direction northeast through east. The 

 Delaware Bay shore generally between Broadkill and Slaughter Beaches 

 is exposed to ocean waves entering the bay mouth. The bay shores 

 farther north and south are exposed principally to waves generated 

 in the bay, those to the north being protected by the southern New 

 Jersey peninsula and those of the south being protected by the break- 

 waters of the Harbor of Refuge off Cape Henlopen, There is no apparent 

 source of beach material to the shores of the dtudy area other than 

 erosion of the shores within the area. In Delaware Bay north of 

 Mispillion River there appears to be little littoral drift, A nodal 

 zone is located between Mispillion River and Roosevelt Inlet with 

 predominant northward drift at Slaughter Beach, southward drift at 

 Broadkill Beach and eastweird drift at Lewes Beach, North of Bethany 

 Beach the drift is predominantly northward toward Cape Henlopen, while 

 south of Bethany Beach the drift is southward. 



The district and division engineers and the Beach Erosion Board 

 concluded that the most suitable plans of shore protection for the 

 several sections of the problem area are: 



a. For Kitts Hummock, widening 3,200 feet of beach to a berm 

 width of 25 feet by artificial placement of sand; 



b. For Slaughter Beach, widening 1,100 feet of beach to a 

 berm width of 50 feet by artificial placement of sand and constructing 

 two groins. 



c. For Broadkill Beach, widening 1,000 feet of beach to a 

 berm width of 50 feet by artificial placement of sand juid landward ex- 

 tension of two existing groins; 



d. For Lewes Reach, widening 4,600 feet of beach to a berm 

 width of 50 feet by artificial placement of sand; 



53 



