Beachfill and Safety

Beach replenishment is one of the only tools in the Army Corps of Engineers’ toolbox, not to mention the largest. We have said it deserves a critical eye for quite some time now, and Delaware Beach Life magazine did just that from the safety perspective. Lynn R. Parks takes a good hard look here, one needs to register to see the full article, but it is free and well worth typing in your name and email.

If one more person breaks their neck on a replenished beach will all that expensive, temporary property protection be worth it?

DE Beach Replenishment Projects Near Completion

The news reports about beach replenishment projects often cite erosion from a recent storm and just accept it as fact.  Storms pull sand offshore, often into sand bars and beaches typically seems less wide a month after a storm.  But six months or a year after a storm the sand is typically back and the beaches are at pre storm widths.  But they never measure the beach just before these projects to show the sand has returned; they just do the project, like they did here in Delaware.  Original story from Nov, 12, 2013 by Elaine Bean appears in Delmarvanow.com

News reports often don’t mention the problems associated with beach fill or beach replenishment.  Read about them in the “Costs of Beacfill section of this Beachapedia article.  And read some specific situations from Delaware here and here