Our first clue that something was afoot was this:
Beach nourishment has been carried out at Wrightsville Beach since 1939. That year it covered just over three miles at a cost of $100,000. Since then, there have been over 20 nourishments. The majority were the by-products of channel dredging to improve navigation of the inlets and the Cape Fear River.
This year’s projects will include Masonboro Island, Wrightsville, Carolina, Kure, and Ocean Isle Beaches at a cost of $20 million.
Beach nourishment is controversial. As the Star News put it, “sand is cents.” Without these beaches the local economy would fail. Others, such as Duke’s Dr. Orrin Pilkey, advocate retreat: move away from the coast and stop building near the water.
The contour of the southeastern NC coast makes it more likely to lose sand during storms. Coastal geologists say the barrier islands such as Wrightsville Beach will continue to roll back until they fuse with the mainland.
That has already happened. A barrier island once existed off the northern end of Carolina Beach. It is too late for man to realize that they are called barrier islands for a very good reason. Since it is obvious that Dr. Pilkey’s plan won’t work, beach nourishment seems to be the only solution.
Standing behind the orange fencing, I was fascinated by the process. We could see the dredge Illinois from the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock to the north. Sand is pumped into the large pipes and then deposited on the beach. The tall three-wheeled machine is driven out into the water so that the operator can use a transit to check the elevation of the sand being pushed into place by the bulldozers. By the end of the project 451,000 cubic yards of sand will be sculpted into a wide, inviting beach.
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