It is a narrow sandy barrisr beach isl?nd about 3.5 miles long between 

 Midway and Pawleys Inlets* The entire islnnd is privately owned. Erosion 

 has caused recession of the shore line. High aand dunes in front of the 

 houses have been washed away. Many of the houses have been moved to the 

 rear of their lots and cannot be moved farther back because of the prox- 

 imity of the nershes in back of the island. Edisto Beach is also a 

 summer resort community. Its summer population is estimated at 2,000. 

 It includes the ocean frontage of a narrow, sandy barrier beach island 

 about 4.,4 miles long between Jeremy Inlet and South Edisto River. About 

 ItA miles of the shore frontage at the north end of the island are in- 

 cluded in the Edisto Beach State Park. The remainder of the shore is . 

 privately owned. Erosion has caused recession of the shore line except 

 at the southern end of the island which is an area of marked accretion. 

 ;any cottages were damaged or destroyed during the 1%0 hiorricane. The 

 cx,aoe HighvTay along this shore has been damaged by erosion in recent 

 years. Hunting Islard is a State Park. The island is about 0.7 mile 

 Tdde and has an ocean frontage of about 4-. 3 miles. The beach is wide 

 and flat, backed by a series of high sand dunes. Although the entire 

 shore is publicly owned, building lots have been leased for the con- 

 struction of private cottages, only one of which has been built. The 

 public bath house, the only buildir^ close to the shore, is not at present 

 seriously threatened by the recession of the shore line which has been 

 rapid in the past few years . 



The irri"ie diate soi.tt''ces of material reaching the problem areas are 

 the adjacent sections of the shore north of the respective areas t 

 ihe beaches are composed generally of fine to medium sand^ The tides 

 in the area are semidiurnal. The mean ranges of tide are 4-. 5 feet at 

 Pawleys Island, 6.1 feet at Edisto Beach and 6.2 feet at Hunting Is- 

 land. Spring ranges are 5,3, 7.2, and 7.3 feet respectively* Waves 

 approach the shore from the north and northeast during the fall and 

 vanter and from the southeast during the spring and summer. The pre- 

 dominant direction of littoral drift is toxvard the southwest. 



The district engineer, considered the desires of the cooperating 

 agency, deter-nined the sources and moveirent of beach material, the 

 changes in the shore line and offshore bottom, the effects of winds, 

 waves and storms, the effects of experimental groins, and developed a 

 plan for protecting and improving the shores of the study areas. He 

 concluded that complete systems of timber groins properly placed will 

 arrest or retard the drifting material to the extent necessary to pro- 

 tect the endangered beaches at Pawleys Island and Edisto Beach, and that 

 groins supplemented by artificial nourishment will be required to protect 

 the beach at Hunting Island. He also found that the permanent type 

 pile and timber groins are suitable to produce the desired results 

 with a minimum of maintenance. He recommended that, if immediate pre- 

 vention of further erosion of the localities studied is desired, 71 

 cr.^ocoted pile and timber groins 300 to 375 feet long and 600 feet apart 

 be constructed, supplemented by artificial nourishment to be placed 

 bstv/een the groins at Hunting Island. The division engineer concurred 



43 



