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CALVIN R. PECK, JR.
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Tab 9
"It's made a phenomenal difference here in 42 years," Rogers said of Carolina Beach's
nourishment project.
Letting the ocean win
Jeff Williams, a marine geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said replenishing beaches
might work for a few decades but isn't a sustainable long-term solution because of the high cost
and lack of adequate offshore sand.
"It's wrong to build up expectations that beach nourishment is going to get us out of this bind,"
Williams said. "It's not."
Williams said communities would have to adapt to rising seas by moving away from the coast.
Debbie Smith, mayor of Ocean Isle Beach and chairwoman of the beach and waterway
association, said beach communities need to learn how to adapt to rising sea levels. But she said,
"I don't think you're going to get people on the coast to retreat."
Last year, Ocean Isle asked the legislature for an exemption to the state ban on hardened
structures on the oceanfront to try to stabilize an eroding inlet. Smith said the town would
continue to seek that.
Margaret Davidson, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal
Services Center in Charleston, S.C., said communities would have an increasingly difficult time
getting federal funds for projects such as replenishing sand on local beaches and dredging inlets.
"The federal debt is rising faster than the sea level," Davidson said.
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