In Rhode Island, Protecting a Shoreline and a Lifeline
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Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times
LOSING GROUND Coastal erosion has shrunk parts of the beach near the Ocean Mist, a seaside bar in Matunuck, the structure on the far left, to less than a dozen feet during high tide. More Photos »
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SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Mike Couchie looked up from his Heineken as an opened door ushered an unearthly roar into the Ocean Mist, a seaside bar here.
“Was that the waves?” he asked, as high tide pulled sheets of foamy water underneath the building’s raised decks, confirming the guess.
Mr. Couchie, who has lived here all 57 years of his life, can remember when there was more than 100 feet of beach in front of the Ocean Mist, a watering hole in Matunuck, a mostly working-class neighborhood on the open southern coast of Rhode Island.
Coastal erosion, a natural effect of Matunuck’s direct exposure to the elements in an area prone to sand-sucking northeasters, has shrunk parts of the beach to less than a dozen feet during high tide, not only imperiling seafront structures like the Ocean Mist but also threatening the only road that residents can use to get in and out of here, as well as the water line beneath it that serves over 1,600 customers.
As the beach washes away — it lost about 20 feet in a recent 12-year period, estimates a state geologist, Janet Freedman — one effort to shore up the waterfront and another to protect the road have moved slowly. They have been limited by state regulations that discourage building walls along the coastline because when waves reflect off their hard surfaces they can take sand with them, accelerating erosion.
Now, some residents and officials are looking to a combined strategy of one wall and additional efforts to hold the shore together. But this sliver of sand has become a flash point for the state’s coastal management strategy, with officials well aware that what happens here could set precedents up and down this wilting coastline.
“The whole shoreline is eroding,” Ms. Freedman said. “If people are allowed to build sea walls here, then most of the objections to this were that then other areas would be able to do this too.”
The problematic part of Matunuck is about 1,400 feet of beach, parceled into private lots, between two old sea walls that extend in opposite directions and were built before state regulations came into effect. Along some parts of this open stretch, there are less than a dozen feet of sand protecting the road — the town’s lifeline — from the water.
In theory, this leaves the neighborhood with three basic courses of action. It can protect the beachfront, it can protect the road or it can retreat and move away from the encroaching shoreline, as a growing number of environmentalists and scientists recommend.
Almost nobody here likes that last option. “If we do this, how far do we retreat?” asked Frank Tassoni, the president of the Mary Carpenter’s Homeowners’ Association, which includes residents who keep trailers and small cottages on the tract of land across the road from the beach. “If we keep doing this, Rhode Island will be gone. We’re trying to find a balance. We’re not killing baby seals out here.”
South Kingstown’s town manager, Stephen Alfred, said the town had no choice but to protect that road. “If we were to lose the road, we would lose all public safety access and egress,” he said.
So it came as a relief to many when the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council last week approved, on appeal, the town’s application to shore up the road with a sheet-pile wall, a metal wall that will be pounded into the ground. The council denied the town’s first application last month, saying it needed to do a more thorough review.
“The town needs a temporary stopgap measure — put the sheet pile in,” Grover Fugate, the executive director of the coastal council, which he advises but is not part of, said in an interview before the meeting. “And then what we need to do in the long term is have a study on the long-term erosion threat and see what the ramifications are and what the cost implications are going to be.”
But the wall may not help everyone. Some of the beachfront property owners, like Kevin Finnegan, the owner of the Ocean Mist, are concerned that the wall could exacerbate erosion in front of it. “Everybody said that the steel wall will destroy the beach,” Mr. Finnegan said shortly after the ruling. “If the town gets their road protected, what’s their incentive to keep moving?”
On a recent afternoon, Tara Mulroy, the 41-year-old owner of Tara’s Tipperary Tavern, another beachfront property, leaned over a wooden fence and looked solemnly over the worn sandbags and labyrinthine wooden joists that hold up the walkways and decks behind the pub.
“We can’t keep doing this, putting sandbags down,” said Ms. Mulroy, recalling how a 2005 storm nearly toppled one of the rental properties she owns. “It’s just been an absolute battle.”
Mr. Fugate has recommended that the sheet-pile wall be accompanied by so-called soft methods like sand replenishment and “geomatresses,” a flexible grid to help hold the shoreline together.
“The Matunuck erosion issue is the proverbial tip of the iceberg,” Mr. Fugate wrote in a memorandum before the council vote. “The Rhode Island shoreline is facing significant erosion issues and more needs to be done in analyzing, communicating the issues, and proposing management measures to deal with this growing dilemma.”
Ms. Freedman, the geologist, cautioned that even the experimental measures would not solve all the problems. “The shoreline’s still going to continue to erode, and structures are still Band-Aids,” she said. “These communities, they’re on their last legs.”
“I think relocation is one of the things we’re going to have to seriously consider,” she added.
But many in Matunuck say they will keep fighting for a small section of beach that could save a place with a deep history. “If the science is out there, let’s try it,” said Mr. Finnegan, the owner of the Ocean Mist. “And if it works, we’ll sit on the beach and have a beer. If it doesn’t work, we’ll sit in the bar and have a beer.”
But, Mr. Finnegan said, they will not yet retreat. He recalled how one patron once responded when asked if the piles holding up his deck were going to withstand strong waves one afternoon. “He said, ‘Those piles are going straight to hell, and the devil’s hanging on.’ ”
“Was that the waves?” he asked, as high tide pulled sheets of foamy water underneath the building’s raised decks, confirming the guess.
Mr. Couchie, who has lived here all 57 years of his life, can remember when there was more than 100 feet of beach in front of the Ocean Mist, a watering hole in Matunuck, a mostly working-class neighborhood on the open southern coast of Rhode Island.
Coastal erosion, a natural effect of Matunuck’s direct exposure to the elements in an area prone to sand-sucking northeasters, has shrunk parts of the beach to less than a dozen feet during high tide, not only imperiling seafront structures like the Ocean Mist but also threatening the only road that residents can use to get in and out of here, as well as the water line beneath it that serves over 1,600 customers.
As the beach washes away — it lost about 20 feet in a recent 12-year period, estimates a state geologist, Janet Freedman — one effort to shore up the waterfront and another to protect the road have moved slowly. They have been limited by state regulations that discourage building walls along the coastline because when waves reflect off their hard surfaces they can take sand with them, accelerating erosion.
Now, some residents and officials are looking to a combined strategy of one wall and additional efforts to hold the shore together. But this sliver of sand has become a flash point for the state’s coastal management strategy, with officials well aware that what happens here could set precedents up and down this wilting coastline.
“The whole shoreline is eroding,” Ms. Freedman said. “If people are allowed to build sea walls here, then most of the objections to this were that then other areas would be able to do this too.”
The problematic part of Matunuck is about 1,400 feet of beach, parceled into private lots, between two old sea walls that extend in opposite directions and were built before state regulations came into effect. Along some parts of this open stretch, there are less than a dozen feet of sand protecting the road — the town’s lifeline — from the water.
In theory, this leaves the neighborhood with three basic courses of action. It can protect the beachfront, it can protect the road or it can retreat and move away from the encroaching shoreline, as a growing number of environmentalists and scientists recommend.
Almost nobody here likes that last option. “If we do this, how far do we retreat?” asked Frank Tassoni, the president of the Mary Carpenter’s Homeowners’ Association, which includes residents who keep trailers and small cottages on the tract of land across the road from the beach. “If we keep doing this, Rhode Island will be gone. We’re trying to find a balance. We’re not killing baby seals out here.”
South Kingstown’s town manager, Stephen Alfred, said the town had no choice but to protect that road. “If we were to lose the road, we would lose all public safety access and egress,” he said.
So it came as a relief to many when the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council last week approved, on appeal, the town’s application to shore up the road with a sheet-pile wall, a metal wall that will be pounded into the ground. The council denied the town’s first application last month, saying it needed to do a more thorough review.
“The town needs a temporary stopgap measure — put the sheet pile in,” Grover Fugate, the executive director of the coastal council, which he advises but is not part of, said in an interview before the meeting. “And then what we need to do in the long term is have a study on the long-term erosion threat and see what the ramifications are and what the cost implications are going to be.”
But the wall may not help everyone. Some of the beachfront property owners, like Kevin Finnegan, the owner of the Ocean Mist, are concerned that the wall could exacerbate erosion in front of it. “Everybody said that the steel wall will destroy the beach,” Mr. Finnegan said shortly after the ruling. “If the town gets their road protected, what’s their incentive to keep moving?”
On a recent afternoon, Tara Mulroy, the 41-year-old owner of Tara’s Tipperary Tavern, another beachfront property, leaned over a wooden fence and looked solemnly over the worn sandbags and labyrinthine wooden joists that hold up the walkways and decks behind the pub.
“We can’t keep doing this, putting sandbags down,” said Ms. Mulroy, recalling how a 2005 storm nearly toppled one of the rental properties she owns. “It’s just been an absolute battle.”
Mr. Fugate has recommended that the sheet-pile wall be accompanied by so-called soft methods like sand replenishment and “geomatresses,” a flexible grid to help hold the shoreline together.
“The Matunuck erosion issue is the proverbial tip of the iceberg,” Mr. Fugate wrote in a memorandum before the council vote. “The Rhode Island shoreline is facing significant erosion issues and more needs to be done in analyzing, communicating the issues, and proposing management measures to deal with this growing dilemma.”
Ms. Freedman, the geologist, cautioned that even the experimental measures would not solve all the problems. “The shoreline’s still going to continue to erode, and structures are still Band-Aids,” she said. “These communities, they’re on their last legs.”
“I think relocation is one of the things we’re going to have to seriously consider,” she added.
But many in Matunuck say they will keep fighting for a small section of beach that could save a place with a deep history. “If the science is out there, let’s try it,” said Mr. Finnegan, the owner of the Ocean Mist. “And if it works, we’ll sit on the beach and have a beer. If it doesn’t work, we’ll sit in the bar and have a beer.”
But, Mr. Finnegan said, they will not yet retreat. He recalled how one patron once responded when asked if the piles holding up his deck were going to withstand strong waves one afternoon. “He said, ‘Those piles are going straight to hell, and the devil’s hanging on.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com
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