If this bill passes S599 "Inlet Stabilization Pilot Program" we all might as well get used to going to other states for our beaches. The ecological and fiscal harm that would be introduced by this bill would ensure that a select few would be benefiting from the taxpayers of North Carolina while restricting access to all citizens.
The hardening of our beaches by governmental or private concerns will lead to an "arms race" where only the privileged few can afford to protect their property. By instituting a groin (sea wall, jetty) the erosion will be migrated south of the construction. The policy of allowing litoral drifts of sand is why North Carolina has some of the best beaches in the world. By allowing us to alter the geologic patterns in one area others suffer. Not only will the public lose the high water boundary in front of the jetty we will also lose the eroded areas as well. We can never economically alter this pattern and the people that benefit are the property owners. The rights of the citizens are being lost here.
That's exactly right. You can't stop beach erosion, you can only move it. The hardened structures will protect certain areas at the expense of other areas. We need to think about what we have, and whether we care enough to stop the privileged few from destroying the beaches for the rest of us.
the islands move. they've always moved. they're moving now. inlets on old maps don't exist. current inlets didn't exist 200 years ago. blackbeard's ship went down near an inlet that no longer exists. the islands move. every hurricane they dredge and rebuild hwy 12 to hatteras. every hurricane they dredge and reshape three topsail islands. all to protect beachfront property. don't build so close. screw shell island. these islands move. you know the risk. you take your chances.... stop spending tax dollars on dredge/jetty projects! mother nature will win in the end anyway....
Well said... C and I are on Hatteras now, and having grown up Down East, understand what Dr's Orrin Pilkey Sr and Jr (and a host of other experts who know the coastlines) said about living on the beach...it just isn't a long term prospect. I object to the taxpayer funding protection for beach front property, as we are holding off natural events with the many paying for the privilege of the few. Dredging an inlet reduces the littoral sand flow southward, so what gets unnaturally moved, then begets subsequent erosion southward. My building a sand groin along Fort Macon will lead to erosion of Atlantic Beach. Ones they build lead to erosion of Salter Path. In the name of development benefiting the few, we are playing a beach erosion pass the buck game, where the object it to keep your sandy beach (unnaturally) and have the down stream beaches disappear.
Agreed. Even beach renourishment is bogus in my book. Essentially these people built their homes on a giant sandbar and in the process destroyed much of the natural vegetation and dunes that held it in place to begin with.
Now they are an interesting study in wastefulness. The dunes on the Outer Banks are the result of the WPA in the 30's. The dunes are actually harmful to the natural migration of the Outer Banks westward, but guess what our tax dollars again at work to rebuild the dunes when they get washed out.
This bill (S599) passed the Senate in May, and has been referred to the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, then to the Judiciary I Committee. I can't tell if it's still in Environment, or has been sent on to Judiciary, but here's where you can find who is on what committee to make your voice heard. Environment and Natural Resources Judiciary I
