prime requirement of coastal development, 

 and it has little or no effect on adjacent 

 properties. What impacts it does have are 

 generally beneficial, since the neighbors 

 end up with an incoming supply of sand 

 from the longshore transport system." 

 The hitch? 



It's expensive. In the United States 

 alone, more than 400 miles of coastline 

 have been replenished at a cost of about $8 

 billion, cites an article in the Journal of 

 Coastal Research. 

 Beach nourishment is 

 high-maintenance, 

 usually requiring a 

 50-year commitment 

 by a community. And 

 it's not a cure for 

 erosion. 



For many 

 advocates of 

 replenishment, 

 Miami Beach, Fla., is 

 a monument to how 

 nourishment can be a 

 prudent and success- 

 ful coastal manage- 

 ment tool if the 

 benefits outweigh the 

 costs. A 10.5-mile 

 nourishment project 

 in Miami, whose 

 initial restoration was 

 completed in 1982, 

 cost $54.5 million. 



"They took an 

 area that had little or 

 no beach, and not 



only did it provide the beach for the tourist 

 industry, but because the project was 

 publicly supported, it demanded that there 

 be much more public access than there 

 ever had been," says Rogers. "Street ends 

 were opened up; parking lots were 

 established. The entire beach has basically 

 been turned into a public park." 



Because replenishment is funded 

 primarily with tax dollars, communities 

 with higher density development and 

 plentiful public access are favored 

 candidates. Obviously, beachfront property 

 owners stand much to gain from nourish- 

 ment. But access ensures that taxpayers 

 with inland berths can reap their invest- 

 ment too — whether that means a chance 



to birdwatch, fish, surf, swim or sunbathe. 

 Proponents also point out that coastal 

 tourism dollars boost the state's economy. 



Nourishment projects, which are 

 designed and built by the U.S. Army Corps 

 of Engineers, are funded through federal, 

 state and local cost-sharing. The split is 65 

 percent federal and 35 percent nonfederal, 

 says John Sutherland, chief of the N.C. 

 Division of Water Resources planning 

 section. The state can provide up to 75 



Michael Halminski 



Room with a view. 



percent of the nonfederal portion, with the 

 remaining cost assumed by local govern- 

 ment, he says. 



In the case of neighboring Wrights- 

 ville and Carolina beaches, the only two 

 ongoing beach nourishment projects in 

 North Carolina, that local share is heavily 

 supplemented by New Hanover County's 

 hotel and motel occupancy tax. 



"It works out such that basically the 

 people who come to visit with us and use 

 our beach strand the most actually pay for 

 it," says Wrightsville Beach Town 

 Manager Tony Caudle. 



This is a convenient solution to recoup 

 the local cost. But many argue that 

 noncoastal residents, who pay their share in 



state and federal taxes, are unfairly burdened 

 with beach upkeep. 



"Although the local communities have 

 shared the costs, a large part comes from the 

 Corps of Engineers to protect the interests of 

 a relatively small group of people," says 

 Michael Orbach, a Duke University 

 anthropologist who studies coastal issues. 



The total price tag for Wrightsville 

 Beach and Carolina Beach so far has been 

 just under $24 million to nourish about 5 

 miles of beach over a 

 30-year period, says 

 Tom Jarrett, chief of the 

 Coastal Engineering 

 Branch of the corps' 

 Wilmington District. 

 The tab for the 

 Wrightsville Beach 

 project, which began in 

 1964, comes to about 

 $7 million, or $13.8 

 million when adjusted 

 for inflation. Actual 

 costs for Carolina 

 Beach, begun in 1965, 

 total $16.9 million; 

 today's dollars inflate 

 the figures to $30.4 

 million. 



Meanwhile, other 

 sand-starved coastal 

 communities are lining 

 up for nourishment. 

 Other sites under study 

 by the state and the 

 corps include Kure 

 Beach, Ocean Isle and 

 the Dare County beaches. Initial restoration 

 along 10 miles of beach at Nags Head, Kill 

 Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk would cost 

 $32.5 million, according to preliminary 

 estimates by the corps. Renourishment at 

 four-year intervals during the 50-year 

 project would cost about $4 million each. 

 Figuring in inflation, the project would 

 average about $7.5 million a year. The corps 

 is awaiting the go-ahead to delve into a 

 more thorough feasibility study for Dare 

 County beach-building. 



The inescapable long-term commitment 

 to nourishment can douse dreams the 

 sandman may have induced in many beach 

 communities, particularly smaller ones. 

 When the corps concluded a decade of 



20 JANUARY I FEBRUARY 1994 



