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| A large was pond, was left on the beach in south Nags Head, following the beach nourishment project because the contractor was not allowed to push sand around illegal properties. Since the project ended, the ocean has pushed the sand in and filled the pond. However, the beach in that area has lost over 50% of it's post nourishment width. Is this another example of where it pays to go against the rules, especially if the rules/law isn't enforced? |
Tim Kana of Coastal Science & Engineering wrote: "The measurements in November 2011 suggest that if any sand has shifted to south Bodie Island since nourishment, an equal volume has shifted to Nags Head from Kill Devil Hills". Kana said, "the Nags Head nourishment project is performing better than expected, and the profile is adjusting to a shape and configuration which is indistinguishable from a natural beach."
Interestingly, Kana also said that "following normal adjustment and fall storms, 52 percent of the nourishment sand remains on the visible beach above mean low water and 48 percent is contained (in the ocean) between mean low water and the 12-foot (ft) depth contour (~800 ft offshore).
A copy of Kana's letter and report can be found here
EOD comments:
It has been EOD's understanding all along, and certainly before nourishment took place, that the problem with Nags Head's beaches was that there was not enough sand on the beach. EOD doesn't recall anyone saying there was not enough sand in the ocean off the beach and EOD will wager no one thought that was a big problem. In fact, everyone was saying, "the sand's eroding off the beach and out into the ocean". So,the problem as EOD understood it was that everyone wanted more sand on the beach, not out in the ocean.
Furthermore, EOD assumed everyone thought we were getting 4.3 million cubic yards of new sand on the beach and it would stay there for 10 years. That's what the engineer said, isn't it?
So now, Kana is telling us that " after nourishment and after adjustment only 52% of the nourishment sand is now on the visible beach above mean low water and 48% is now (out in the ocean) in the water below mean low water and 12ft of water! IN OTHER WORDS, IN TWO MONTHS, WE HAVE LOST 48% OF $32+MILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF SAND TO THE OCEAN....AND THE PROJECT IS A SUCCESS??
Well, if EOD was a Nags Head taxpayer with a 16 cents tax increase, he wouldn't care if there were 2 million cubic yards more sand out in the ocean now than there was a year ago, because he doesn't think a 12 foot wave slamming the beach cares how much sand is down under it. If you were a wave, would you?
EOD thinks the people wanted more sand on the beach to protect their investments, not more sand in the ocean for the waves to ride over and wash upon the beach like they did before. Gee Whiz !
By the way, EOD was on the beach yesterday behind the Comfort Inn and the ocean there is chomping at the bit to roll over the so called "visible beach" and wash against their illegal sandbags just like it did last winter. There was a nice beach cut forming there...and if it doesn't fill in before a two day northeaster hits...it will definitely play heck there just like it always has....But, January and February will tell the tale.
7 comments:
"They" always said, The tourists want the beach. Without a beach the tourists will not come. I am sure these so called tourists were not talking about the underwater sand.
I also walked the beach at Comfort Inn South on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and a good size beach cut is forming.
He's not being consistent. Kana said in a VA Pilot article he expected half of the sand to move in a year. Now he says it moved in 2 months, but that's performing better than expected? At this rate it will be down to 0% by the spring.
And I don't think that the Mayor is going to buy into this underwater sand argument. On the mayor's own site he has aerial biplane videos of the beach before the nourishment. It looks almost exactly the same width as it looks today.
Plus, he lives on the beach, he knows they had a "wading zone" sandbar before. What will Kana try to take credit for next? Good fishing? Good surfing? Nags Head always rocked in those departments before.
Kana needs to try making up some new words that he thinks the town council will not understand. He promised a wider beach. That is what needs to be delivered.
These people who threw our money into the ocean, their hired engineers, and their cronies are going to do everything they can to articulate a success after such a waste. This was to save THEIR hotels, properties they rent, and their personal interests. I do not rent rooms, houses or sell beer, t-shirts or french fries here. I am disgusted by the crooked politics, elitist attitudes, and nonsense I have seen since moving here. I will sell my house so I never have to give one more cent to enable these crooks as soon the market perks up. I will also warn my friends who had thoughts of moving here what I have witnessed since moving here.
It's an A+ so far. The NC Coastal Federation rep commented on the high quality of the sand.
The sandbars and the beach are part of the same system of sand. The bars move back and forth seasonally. And the wave does respond to the sand in the bars- it breaks, leaving a smaller break on the beach. We piled up sand on the beach with the expectation that some of it would move into the surf zone as the beach reached a more natural slope. Sometimes it takes a while for a project to reach a more natural equilibrium between beach and sandbars. Our beach got pounded, but the waves were breaking at the edge of the new beach, with 2 to 3 foot swash up to the edge of the dune. But there has been no overwash.
So the sand got pushed around by the ocean, and we went back and measured it. And it's all still in the box that goes from 6 feet + elevation at the toe of the dune approx. out to 12 feet minus depth. So far, so good. Now you measure again, same time next year, and compare. And capture blowing sand into dunes with sandfence and beach grass.
But the beach and the sandbars will certainly continue to shift and change. The longer the sand stays in that defined area out to minus 12 feet, the more economical it becomes. It's paid for over five years, and we set the plan for renourishment at 6 years or when only 50% of the sand remains in the box whichever occurs later. I am hopeful that in 8 years, we will be able to measure and account for 50% of the sand that was added to the system. Time will tell. For now, it looks like a natural beach, I see surf critters and fish and birds just like last fall, and we've bought some amount of time to see how it works, and decide what to do next.
Mayor Bob,
I am glad to see the town is getting the sand fence project started. It will be good for the beach and when that north wind blows later this winter it should capture a lot of that new beach sand and help build up the dunes, something that was not possible when there was so little sand on the beach before nourishment. However, by all means, do all you can to stop the beach pushes. They will do more harm than good.
Mr. Mayor, the NC Coastal Federation also mentioned it was eroding at an alarming rate. I have a hard time believing you are buying into the idea that half of the sand is still visible, and the sandbar is anything new.
EOD offered an explanation as to why there was no sandbar off the beach before the nourishment project in an earlier blogpost...so, the fact there is one there right now is not a great revalation.
It would have occurred without beach nourishment. Again, the winter of 2010 was unusual..
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