I thought some you might be interesed on how your federal tax $ are being spent concerning beach issues. http://www.epa.gov/beaches/
Beach replenishment is ridiculous. The EPA needs to push sand out and form a sandbar along the coast instead of wasting money every year with replenishment. Its common sense. Sandbars fluctuate but don't generally get destroyed every year like the stupid replenishment does. For example, Ocean City has a great sandbar and the beach has been huge for a while.
there is way to many multimillion dollar properties on the beaches along the entire mid atlantic for them to not spend gobs and gobs of our money to protect them. And just pushing sand out is one very temporary solution. The coastal process in our area is dominated by littoral transport (longshore currents) this makes it a tricky situation to try and replenish the beach. At least in OCMD we dont rely to much on hard stabilization (groins, jetties, breakwater). the main thing we utilize here is pumping from offshore and other soft stabilization tactics
You haven't surfed OC for very long have you? Beach replenishment has really screwed the sandbars up in the past 15 years or so. Damn, 15 years is a while. Nevermind.
well I have but not for 15 years, more like 4, and I'm a DE local. Im just saying that because of how bethany beach ended up. It used to be pretty nice with the jetties but now its poop, not to mention the IR inlet too.
they are doing sand replenishment now in wildwood. I remember when it took you at least 10 minutes to get the water from the street and how there were 3 deep rows of dune grass with acess roads in between them 6 years ago. Now is a 2 minute walk and at high tide the water comes right up to the dunes and the 3 deep rows of dune grass and now 1 row
just out of curioisty how much better would the waves be if thye never started beach replenishment? i know shorebreaks wouldnt be as frequent ( though i sponge and dont mind the uptown smash). what im saying is even if it never started, waves in the summer wouldnt be that much nicer would they? i mean we could have perfect sandbars but unless there is swell its not like anything with break on them or am i missing something.
I can tell you from my own experience that before replenishment in OCMD, the Carousel used to be one of the top breaks with sick bars and waves breaking about 50 years off the sand. now its shore dump.
carousel still gets good just gotta kknow when to go out, luckily i can see it break from my house .i thinks its from the obvious beach replenishment, but also from when they made the south jetti longer in oc becuase it blocks the natural flow of current to deposit the sand, anyone agree?
when OC pumped all that sand in 1989-90 and buried all of the jetties it pretty much turned that uptown area from a series of semi-consistent jetty breaks to little stubby rockpiles. 118th, 80th, 72nd all formerly good spots. It seems like OC uses sand from off fenwick when they pump the north end of town and sand from off OC inlet when the pump mid town south...the sand they get for mid-down town is finer grained and forms sandbars...uptown is ..well uptown.
ever been to assateague island? The national park up north on down to the tom's cove on the south would be a good indicator of what it would be like without beach replenishment as we know it. Of course, then the island would be migrating westward a few inches a year, but that's what barrier islands are for - nature's barrier between land and sea, naturally removing and transporting sand, building up the island on the bay side and south sides, while shrinking on the ocean side and north sides. Wouldn't it be something if places like Ocean City, MD started looking at new technologies and contracting those that implement them? E.G. artificial reefs/sandbars that would be cheaper in the long run and much more permanent! Damn, there are people that specialize in coastal protection while still looking out for the surfers, i.e. beach replenishment that forms a perfect point break by using sand bags or something.. food for thought.
I agree When they do the beach replenishment project, do they (I guess ACE) have a comment period or public meeting? I understand that the fat cats are going to get the most attention, but the surf/break is also a "resource" for surfers, swimmers, and structure for marine critters. If you don't have to screw up one resource to save another more "users" would benefit, and hey we pay taxes too! Isn't a dumping shore break bad for tourist or anyone wanting to play in the ocean. Another point, wouldn't it be better to disspate erosive wave energy before it reaches the beach. I realize it is tough to deal with barrier islands once millions $ are at stake in development, but you would think that there has to be a better way. One of my old college textbooks showed a structure built right on the beach in OC as an example of where not to build, which thankfully was washed away.
After thinking for a few hours, I think it's more like a little over 20 years for me. Before beach replenishment in 1989, 48th street used to break a good bit outside of the jetty, which extended out into the surf a good 50-75 yards or so. You could walk way out on it. And to think now, it's nothing but a few rocks sticking up after a storm. Things change. But there will always be good breaks in the area, and it doesn't take long to check "the strip".
Barrier islands (technically what OCMD is) are always changing. This summer, when there was a severe lack of waves for a few months, the south-most jetty (6th st) was comPLETELY covered up, with only about 2 ft of the pole visible. Once Bill came along, the pole reappeared, eventually so did the rocks and the pole was once again was about 8-9 ft tall at the base, as it should be. Tons and sons of sand several ft deep/thick was moved further south. That is a lot of sand. It's a never-ending process. Beach replenishment only "protects" man-made structures and keeps beach areas from deteriorating temporarily Last year sometime in the winter - then the morning Bill started hitting. Same pole, same jetty.
