Nature's Work-in-Progress 



B v P a m S m i t h 



iming is everything. Yolanda and 

 Don Hitko can attest to that. The Michi- 

 gan transplants moved to Yaupon Beach the 

 day before Hurricane Floyd slammed 

 onto the North Carolina coast. 



Its driving winds, tides and floods 

 cut fresh scars on beaches, already 

 struggling to heal from an earlier assault 

 by Hurricane Dennis. Meeting little 

 resistance, Floyd managed to wipe out 

 many remaining dunes, pushing sand 

 across ocean beach roads and into 

 soundside marshes. 



Waves crashed up the beach and 

 scoured sand from the base of the man- 

 made six-foot dune that stood between 

 the advancing sea and the Hitkos' new 

 home. The line of dunes that runs along 

 their property and the public access way 

 also took a pounding. 



"I believe the dunes protected us," 

 Hitko says. With about $25,000 worth of 

 property damage, he feels blessed 

 compared to many Oak Island neighbors 

 whose homes and businesses were 

 destroyed by Floyd's direct hit. 



Oak Island is in line for a major 

 beach nourishment project in 2004 that 

 will transport sand to widen its beaches 

 and engineer a dune system along its 

 popular ocean front beaches. In the 

 meantime, some sand from the 

 Wilmington harbor relocation project will 

 be placed on part of its sand-starved 

 shores. Traditionally, the town has 

 redistributed sand that could be retrieved 

 in the wake of storms. 



"I am definitely a believer in beach 

 nourishment projects and am willing to 

 pay my share," Hitko pledges. 



But Hitko knows that beach erosion 

 and beach nourishment are "hot button" 

 topics that evoke as many opinions as 



grains of sand on the beaches he would 

 like to see restored. 



The catastrophic 1999 hurricane 

 season heightened public awareness of 

 the vulnerability of erosion-prone coastal 

 communities, where beach erosion is a 

 fact of life — nature's work in progress. 



Still, storm damage, coupled with 

 mushrooming coastal development, 

 seems to have been a catalyst for new 

 pleas to state legislators for a funding 

 mechanism to address long-term beach 

 nourishment needs. 



Coastal Development 

 Regulations in Place 



In 1974 the N. C. General Assembly 

 passed the Coastal Area Management Act 

 (CAMA) to coordinate state and federal 

 programs affecting coastal land and water 

 resources, and to promote sustainable 

 coastal development. Among other 

 things, CAMA seeks to preserve natural 

 ecological conditions for the barrier dune 

 systems and beaches, and to safeguard 

 their economic and aesthetic values, says 

 Walter Clark, North Carolina Sea Grant 

 coastal law and policy specialist. CAMA 

 established the Coastal Resources 

 Commission (CRC) as its regulatory arm. 



Beginning in 1985, the CRC 

 established building setback regulations 

 based on historical rates of erosion, 

 averaging two to three feet per year. 

 Building relocation and beach nourish- 

 ment are the preferred CRC erosion 

 control methods. Bulldozing is allowed as 

 an emergency remedy in some situations, 

 Clark explains. And sand-bag placement 

 is permitted only as a temporary measure. 

 Hardening measures, such as sea walls, 



Continued 



Renourishment is a 

 method of placing 

 compatible sediments 

 from another source, 

 usually from state or 

 federal navigational 

 dredge projects, onto the 

 eroded beach. Bulldozing 

 is the process of redistrib- 

 uting sand to provide 

 temporary protection to 

 existing dunes and 

 beachfront structures. 

 It does not add new 

 sediment to the beach 

 from outside sources. 

 Each method comes with 

 a set of environmental 

 criteria. 



COASTWATCH 



17 



