Beach Erosion--Can it be fixed?

The Duke University professor in today's AJC says that the demise of the beach is inevitable - that only arrogance of the wealthy beachfront owners keeps everyone in denial.

 

Stands to reason that he isn't one of the wealthy in "denial"...seems like someone that probably doesn't like the beach anyway.....I will be nice and not write what I am thinking....

 

I'm just quoting the article, not expressing an opinion, so please don't slam me. Here's the link: http://www.ajc.com/search/content/shared/news/nation/stories/07/12DENNIS_BEACH.html

 

I wonder if he has ever been to a beach? Isn't Duke a good 3-4 hours from the Beach? I wonder what his field of expertise is? Is the AJC just looking to raise a brow? Maybe interviewing him is like Jay Leno asking basic Current Events questions to the public so that we can get a kick out of listening to the answers. That is why I don't read the AJC, and never will. Give me the days when the Walton Sun had only local stuff. I hate reading into a story, then look to see that it is about Chicago or somewhere. The Walton Sun is still better than the other mind controlling garbage like the AJC.

 

Thanks. No bashing going on here. Getting the entire article puts it in a better perspective.

 

AJC is referred to "the fishwrapper" around Atlanta.....nickname fits in most cases

 

I refer to it as the daily rag. My bashing is not for this article, which I never read, nor will read. I need it to tell me what the beach is like or what people are like. If the quote from this guy from Duke is accurate, I wonder if he has met any of the people living life on the edge, literally speaking. I also wonder who else he lops into biased chunks of society. Money does not determine who one is, only one's self can do that. I can guarantee you that the Duke Boy has never held a conversation with the ladies enjoying the sun from what remains of there deck over in Blue Mtn. I thought the AJC was supposed to be a "news" paper, not an editorial paper.

 

I think that "The Atlanta Daily News" is the fishwrapper IMHO. I'm a conservative, but I respect my hometown paper. I am an ATL native, born at Crawford W. Long and delivered by the famous Dr. Thomas F. Davenport, Jr. So please don't "dis" my town or its paper, as liberal as it might be. OOPS! Guess I've stepped on even more toes and will get even more hate mail.

 

Peace.....everybody is entitled to their opinion and likes and dislikes...that is one thing that makes this country/life great......

 

Exactly.

 

Here is that section of the article. I think the quotes are interesting and did not find them offensive in any way. It's kind of hard to argue with what he is saying, considering what has happened in the past year.



In recent years, property owners and the billion-dollar-plus tourist industry have tried to get an upper hand by dredging sand from the ocean floor and pumping it onshore. The process is commonly called "beach renourishment," but critics say its is little more than an expensive, and ultimately futile, dredge-and-fill operation.

"It's arrogant of us to think we'll solve the problem, especially in Florida, which has a long record of hurricane damage," said Orrin Pilkey Jr., professor emeritus in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and a leading expert on shoreline erosion. "It's an irrational thing, but it's a political thing. Many of the people who own beach property are very wealthy and very politically connected."

Pilkey advocates building far back from the shoreline; an idea he admits has very few adherents in beach communities, where the value waterfront property has skyrocketed in recent years.

"It's a form of societal madness," Pilkey said. "We're dealing with dynamic barrier islands and shorelines. It's not very smart to think we can stop the erosion ? to hold the shoreline in place."

 

How is the beach replenishment paid for? Is that a county issue or are there federal funds involved?

 

oooo, I like that phrase !

I've got to think of a way to use that at the next cocktail party I go to.

 

Sea Turtle I think you already have more than enough cocktail party fodder!

 

So true. It's hard to imagine getting through the remainder of hurricane season without being affected to some degree by another storm or two. But I agree that the homes with exposed foundations have to be saved.

I do not envy the people making the decisions regarding beach re-nourishment. It' an expensive, no-win proposition.

 

My solution is to have the guvment purchase all the property south of 30-a and cart off every stick and stone, restoring the area to it's untouched state, except for grass and sand parking lots, boardwalks, restrooms, and a few camping sites. Dogs would not be banned, but some people would be.

But that would cost billions. HEY - how many freaking bombs do we need anyway.

If someone gets $2 mil instead of $4mil for their property, well there will be plenty of hourly work for those poor folks from the process to make up the shortfall.

 

Kurt,

I'm curious. Always wondered during visits there why the extraordinary investment in home construction without corresponding bucks into foundation protection. You talking about substantially reinforced concrete berms or something else? (Yea, I'm a gear-head, though not that field. Dad was a civil and "fun" summer projects sometimes involved building low - 5-6' - concrete dams across creeks on our land to mitigate erosion, so I'm at least noddingly familiar with bucking mother nature techniques ;-)

On the up side, today's track map projections on that new windy wench are farther south, with outer bands a good 350 mi south of you folks. Fingers crossed...

 

My wife introduced me to the SoWal beaches back in the early 80's, and I have been in love with both ever since. We lived in Florida for 10 years along the West Central coast, and we were able to take some weekend jaunts to different areas up and down the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, but the beaches could not compare to those in the Panhandle. So most of our longer vacations were trips back to P'cola Beach, Blue Mountain, Seaside, etc. No matter which area we chose, it was the beaches that drew us back.
We had another return trip planned last Sunday, but Dennis changed all that. But what really hit us hard, was what happened to the beaches up and down the Emerald coast. We feel bad for those that lost homes and businesses, hopefully they can be saved or rebuilt. I wish the same could be said for the beaches.That will take time. We just hope it won't be too long.