As I See It

Bill Sargent, The Daily News of Newburyport, Edition February 15, 2020

“On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I entered the National Wildlife Refuge parking area and headed north. My plan was to walk the four-mile length of the developed part of Plum Island from the refuge to North Point.” 

“There was snow on the ground so I could see a crescent of exposed sand where high tides had slammed against the seawall below the Blue Inn.” 

“But the rest of the beach had a broad plateau of sand that had buried all the groins except the center groin.” 

“The bulked-up center groin has become an end groin for the groin field, holding back the natural flow of sand north. This had created the thick plateau of sand to the south of center groin but had also created a second crescent of erosion north of center groin.” 

“There the island was only 100 yards wide and could be easily breached by Atlantic waters bursting through the 4-foot high dunes into the Basin. If this happened it would cut off the water, sewer and electric lines to 750 houses.” 

“Beyond the crescent of erosion, the beach expanded again until it reached the south jetty.” 

“The jetty was also acting as a groin preventing the natural flow of sand to the houses of Northern Reservation Terrace. These houses were also in danger of being undercut by the next significant storm.” 

“All of these areas of erosion are manmade, caused by the groins, jetties, and seawalls. Blame for this hodgepodge of erosional hotspots falls largely at the feet of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Affairs’ vacillating enforcement of regulations and lack of an overall policy directive.” 

“Is the state’s policy to defend houses from erosion or to promote coastal retreat? It hasn’t made up its mind so it continues to vacillate back and forth with confounding regulatory decisions.” 

“The result is this crazy quilt of erosional hotspots. After the 2012 March storms that condemned 2 w9 houses the DEP disallowed homeowners from borrowing sand from the beach to protect houses along Harvard, Fordham and Annapolis Way.” 

“In desperation, homeowners defied the state and built illegal seawalls. But the Great Wall of Newbury fails every year and has to be rebuilt at considerable expense.” 

“This was all done while the state and town looked the other way.” 

“However, now the DEP has decided to get tough and is slowing efforts to dredge near-shore sand or borrow sand from above south jetty build two sacrificial dunes in front of the houses on Northern Reservation Terrace.” 

Waves breaking against houses on Northern Reservation Terrace during last week’s nor’easter.

“This wouldn’t cost taxpayers or homeowners any extra money and the dunes would only have to protect the houses until enough sand flows through south jetty to regrow North Beach 400 feet back out to where it was before the jetty was repaired in 2014.” 

“What is needed is a consensus between local, state and federal officials that, yes, barrier beaches are ephemeral and threatened by sea-level rise and more intense storms. But that almost every barrier beach also has some houses that are likely to be safe for 10 to 20 years.” 

“That is long enough for a family’s children to grow from being a toddler enjoying the beach to an 18-year-old entering college. It represents an entire generation and is longer than a 15-year mortgage.” 

“Such houses can be protected without affecting the integrity of a barrier beach island. We should do what we can to protect such existing houses, help people who want to leave the island and discourage people from building more houses that will be attacked by the ocean before they are even completed.” 

“This wouldn’t cost taxpayers or homeowners any extra money and the dunes would only have to protect the houses until enough sand flows through south jetty to regrow North Beach 400 feet back out to where it was before the jetty was repaired in 2014.” 

“What is needed is a consensus between local, state and federal officials that, yes, barrier beaches are ephemeral and threatened by sea-level rise and more intense storms. But that almost every barrier beach also has some houses that are likely to be safe for 10 to 20 years.” 

“That is long enough for a family’s children to grow from being a toddler enjoying the beach to an 18-year-old entering college. It represents an entire generation and is longer than a 15-year mortgage.” 

“Such houses can be protected without affecting the integrity of a barrier beach island. We should do what we can to protect such existing houses, help people who want to leave the island and discourage people from building more houses that will be attacked by the ocean before they are even completed.” 

Copyright © 2020 The Daily News of Newburyport, Edition 2/15/2020