Coastal panel urges strict rules for terminal groins
Photo by The Virginian-Pilot
Other recommendations include requiring a full environmental study, notifying any property owner who might be affected no matter how far away the groin is, a formal monitoring program and sufficient maintenance to make the structure last at least 25 years.
The commission voted on the recommendations at a meeting in Sunset Beach.
The North Carolina Coastal Federation called the vote “non-conclusive” and “very disappointing.”
“The legislature was looking for guidance, and this vote offers very little,” Todd Miller, the executive director of the Coastal Federation, said in a statement. “The commission essentially punted. About the best that could be said for the commission’s action is that it doesn’t recommend doing away with the ban.”
Recommendations were mandated under legislation that the CRC study terminal groins, sometimes called jetties, and present its findings to the Environmental Review Commission and the General Assembly by April 1. The Environmental Review Commission is a joint legislative study panel.
The CRC studied five terminal groins, including the one at Oregon Inlet that was installed to protect the south end of the Bonner Bridge.
In a statement Thursday, the CRC said the study concluded that terminal groins, in combination with beach nourishment, can control erosion at the ends of barrier islands. But the CRC acknowledged that the study was inconclusive regarding how terminal groins would affect wildlife habitat and marine resources.
Recommended standards for installing a terminal groin were set high by the CRC. The commission said that a full environmental study should be mandated to meet requirements of the North Carolina Environmental Policy Act.
In its recommendations, the CRC said “the use of a terminal groin should be allowed only after all non-structural erosion-control responses, including relocation of threatened structures, are found to be impracticable.”
Because the effects of the structures are hard to predict, a bond, insurance policy or escrow account should be put in place to cover removing a groin and restoring adjacent beaches if it does more harm than good, the CRC said.
Owners of properties, even those far beyond the structure, should be notified if they could be affected, the commission said. After installation, a monitoring program should be put in place to ensure that its effects do not exceed environmental requirements.
Also, the CRC said, “As terminal groins are typically used in combination with a long-term shoreline management program, any proposal for use of a terminal groin in NC should be part of a large-scale beach fill project, including subsequent maintenance necessary to achieve a design life of no less than 25 years.”
Groins are widely supported by towns and counties battling erosion and shifting inlets along the North Carolina coast, but they are prohibited under state law. There have been broad differences on whether they help build up beaches and protect inlets or cause more erosion and environmental damage.
Nags Head officials, who are pushing for funding of a 10-mile beach nourishment project, see a terminal groin on the north end of Oregon Inlet as serving a dual purpose: keeping the inlet open and holding sand on the beach to the north. In a December hearing in Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head Mayor Bob Oakes advocated a second groin as another tool in the town’s beach nourishment efforts.
There is also discussion of a jetty at the south end of South Nags Head, but that is not likely to fit the technical definition of a terminal groin. The Dare County Board of Commissioners has also supported legislation allowing exceptions to the ban on terminal groins.
Sand buildup south of the groin at Oregon Inlet has been well documented. While the buildup has served to protect the south end of the Bonner Bridge as it was intended to do, Jan DeBlieu, Cape Hatteras coastkeeper for the Coastal Federation, said in the December hearing that the sand has smothered vegetation and habitat.
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Ray says:
Rob,
any idea how Renee Cahoon voted? It was 8-5. Bet I can guess.