precedent." 



"I don't think that anybody's trying to 

 be insensitive to the needs of coastal 

 property owners," he says. "What we need 

 to make sure in our public policy is that all 

 of the costs and benefits are put into the 

 equation." 



The questions of who pays and who 

 gains will be at the forefront of the beach 

 nourishment debate as development 

 pressures and coastal populations swell. As 

 sewer, 

 water and 

 other public 

 works 

 projects 

 compete for 

 funding, 

 replenish- 

 ment will 

 need to 

 prove its 

 worth. 



"There 

 is no way 

 we have the 

 resources to 

 pay to 

 replenish all 

 our beaches, 

 and they're 

 all basically 

 eroding," 

 says Riggs. 



The 

 National 

 Academy of 

 Sciences 

 has 

 appointed a 

 committee 



to evaluate, among other issues, whether 

 beach nourishment lives up to its claims. 

 No one disputes that beach nourishment is 

 inherently a sacrificial enterprise; it's not 

 like anyone expects that the new sand 

 won't eventually wash away. 



"There are clear benefits of a project, 

 even as it disappears," says Rogers. 



But there is much contention about 

 whether post-monitoring of projects is up 

 to par. 



"The most critical point is that there 

 has been very little followup of very 

 expensive nourishment projects," says John 



Wells, director of the University of North 

 Carolina at Chapel Hill Institute of 

 Marine Science. "The projected lifespan 

 for virtually every project exceeds the 

 lifespan of the project." 



Early crude attempts at beach 

 nourishment in the United States date 

 back to 1922, when sand dredged from 

 New York Harbor was dumped onto less 

 than a mile of beach at Coney Island. By 

 the middle of this century, beach 



Michael Halminski 



Overwash on Highway 12 at Rodanthe. 



nourishment became more refined, based 

 on sophisticated engineering and 

 scientific models. 



"When we nourish a beach now, we 

 know you can't simply nourish the upper 

 part of the profile," says Jarrett of the 

 corps. "Some of the early designs didn't 

 appreciate that. 



"I think the biggest misrepresenta- 

 tion given is that when we go back to 

 renourish a beach, it's a surprise," he 

 says. 



But the balance of money spent on 

 construction still dwarfs the amount 



devoted to monitoring and surveying. For 

 example, of the $7.5 million projected 

 yearly cost of keeping Dare County 

 beaches in place, the corps has earmarked 

 less than 1 percent for monitoring surveys. 



"The corps says they've got 30 years 

 experience in beach nourishment," says 

 Stephen Leatherman, director of the 

 Laboratory for Coastal Research at the 

 University of Maryland. "I say they've got 

 one year of experience 30 times." 



But 

 Jarrett says 

 the corps is 

 constantly 

 fine-tuning 

 beach 

 nourish- 

 ment design 

 projects and 

 is making 

 an effort to 

 improve 



-nw,.,«» f0U0W-Up 



monitoring. 

 Along with 

 the Federal 

 Emergency 

 Manage- 

 ment 



Agency, the 

 corps 

 requested 

 the National 

 Academy of 

 Sciences 

 study, 

 which will 

 look at 

 benefits 

 provided by 



beach nourishment and its effectiveness as 

 an erosion-control method. 



"Unfortunately, we don't do a good 

 job of really documenting what (nourish- 

 ment projects) do in terms of damage 

 reduction once they are built," says Jarrett. 



Many involved in beach nourishment 

 say the benefits provided by beach 

 nourishment to amenities such as tourism 

 and recreation aren't given their due in the 

 cost-benefit analysis. The academy study, 

 which will also evaluate this issue, is due 

 out the middle of this year. 



22 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1994 



