North Carolina Senate Advances Bill to Repeal Ban on Beach Hardening
Destructive legislation to repeal North Carolina’s long-standing ban on “beach hardening” structures such as seawalls and groins has advanced in the NC Senate.
The Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee voted to approve Senate Bill 1009, “Repeal Hardened Structure Ban”, which would repeal North Carolina’s prohibition against new oceanfront seawalls, groins, jetties, and other so-called “erosion control structures.” Instead, the Coastal Resources Commission would be required to write new rules spelling out when such structures can be built.
Senators Advance Bill Despite Scientific Warnings on Beach Erosion
The Committee voted to support the bill despite objections from committee members who warned that such structures at most only temporarily slow erosion in one place while increasing it at others. Sen. Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe) said that adding hard structures to the beach just means that some coastal properties will win and others will lose. “That’s just science. I don’t know how the Coastal Management Commission is going to thread that balance in developing these rules,” said Mayfield.
The Senate Committee also ignored pleas from the NC Coastal Resources Commission Science Panel to move more cautiously. The Science Panel released its long-awaited report updating its analysis of the effectiveness of various “erosion control” approaches. “All approaches to protecting infrastructure that involve hardening the shoreline tend to produce the same adverse physical effects,” according to the draft report. Dr. Laura Moore, chair of the CRC Science Panel and a professor in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, said that their research found that in areas where a structural approach led to wider beaches, home values increased and fewer homes were lost. But in areas where the beach narrowed, home values decreased and there was an eventual loss of public beach.
A good article in the Coastal Review adds more context, including a brief history of the ban in North Carolina, and discussion of why it continues to be sound policy.
SB 1009 is a Direct Threat to NC’s Coast and Tourism Economy
As NCLCV Executive Director Carrie Clark said when SB 1009 was introduced, “Repealing our state’s ban on ‘beach hardening’ would turn our incomparable Outer Banks into another cheap knockoff of the jetty-riddled Jersey Shore,” said NCLCV Executive Director Carrie Clark. “We made a smart move over forty years ago to keep our beautiful sandy beaches natural for our shore birds and sea creatures to live in and our people to love and enjoy. Today those natural beaches and barrier islands fuel a tourism economy that turns neighboring states green with envy. Losing those natural jewels now would be the dumbest move imaginable, environmentally and economically.”
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