study on nourishment at Topsail Beach, the 

 community couldn't ante up. With initial 

 construction estimates of $13 million to 

 $14 million, the town's share would have 

 ranged between $1.5 million and $5 

 million, depending on how much of the tab 

 the state picked up, says Town Manager 

 Eric Peterson. 



"Our annual operating budget for the 

 town is just $1 million," he says. "We 

 couldn't afford to do the renourishments 

 after that." 



The town of 

 Long Beach made 

 similar decisions, as 

 will undoubtedly 

 many small commu- 

 nities exploring the 

 replenishment option. 



Beach nourish- 

 ment has other 

 impediments besides 

 cost, not the least of 

 which is the difficulty 

 in finding sources of 

 high-quality sand; the 

 farther away the 

 sources, the higher 

 the costs of getting it 

 to the beach. Its high 

 profile in the public 

 policy arena has left it 

 open to other 

 criticisms. Some 

 argue that by shoring 

 up vulnerable 

 property through 

 beach nourishment, 



the government is abetting new develop- 

 ment and rehabilitation of damaged 

 property. Some contend that these blankets 

 of shuttled sand are giving coastal residents 

 a false sense of security and discouraging 

 responsible building. 



East Carolina University geologist 

 Stan Riggs calls beach nourishment, at 

 best, a "better-than-nothing" approach. 



"What I see happening is that a lot of 

 people and state agencies are using this as 

 the answer, rather than dealing with the 

 real problem," he says. "We continue to 

 allow unlimited development. It would be 

 better to get on with planning for the long 

 term." 



For Riggs and others, long-term 



planning may include a gradual retreat 

 from the shoreline, whether this means 

 stricter setbacks for new construction or 

 relocation of existing ones. 



"All of a sudden, it (beach nourish- 

 ment) has become a magic solution," says 

 Riggs. "Yet we know very little about the 

 sources and very little about its impacts." 



Overzealousness about the miracle of 

 replenishment has caused what many 

 perceive as irrational behavior in coastal 



Scott D. Taylor 



Spreading sand on Bogue Banks. 



management. A precarious erosion hot spot 

 and a panic over how to protect it has 

 produced a controversial conundrum at the 

 Canadian Hole. This shallow estuary in the 

 crook of Cape Hatteras will soon be doing 

 duty to the oceanfront, surrendering the 

 equivalent of 20,000 dumptrucks full of 

 sediment to nourish the beach at Buxton. In 

 the wake of Hurricane Emily, the N.C. 

 Department of Transportation requested an 

 emergency permit from the Corps of 

 Engineers to dredge the sound and place 

 the material between the ocean and N.C. 

 12, the Outer Banks' only thoroughfare. 



Rogers and others have noted that it is 

 storm surge overwash from the sound — 

 which has been previously dredged — that 



threatens the stability of the road, not the 

 ocean. Deepening the Canadian Hole 

 further will only increase the chances that 

 a new inlet will open. Buxton is a classic 

 example of imprudent beach nourish- 

 ment, says Rogers, pointing to the 

 beach's chronic losses from erosion. 



"We need more intelligent control of 

 beach management practices," says 

 JoAnn Burkholder, a N.C. State Univer- 

 sity botanist who chairs the N.C. Marine 

 Fisheries 

 Commission's 

 habitat committee. 

 The project, which 

 will drop the depths 

 of Canadian Hole an 

 average of 13.5 feet, 

 threatens more than 6 

 acres of prime 

 estuarine sea grass 

 beds. 



"I don't know of 

 any sea grass that'll 

 grow 30 feet down in 

 the mud," she says. 



Further, the 

 fine-grained material 

 borrowed from 

 Canadian Hole will 

 whisk away as 

 certainly as it has in 

 the past, says 

 Burkholder. "Even a 

 short-term gain is 

 questionable," she 

 says. 



The U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service also opposes the 

 project based on the potential damage to 

 estuarine resources. There may be 

 tourism impacts as well. 



"We may be making tradeoffs we 

 may not realize," says Orbach of the 

 dredging at Canadian Hole, a magnet for 

 windsurfers from all over, particularly 

 Canada. "Part of the reason it's popular is 

 that it's shallow. We're changing the 

 whole hydrology and wave patterns and 

 configurations." 



The corps has issued permits for the 

 project, which was also contested by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service. 

 Orbach dubs this policy a "dangerous 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 21 



