The Battle Against Beach Hardening - Not Just A Mullins Bay Issue

In 4 years the groynes and rock revetment at St. Peter's Bay have devastated beaches to the south, damaged private property, and consigned continuous beach access in the Mullins Bay area to history

"After decades of observation, the situation is clear.


Sea walls and rock jetties accelerate beach erosion.


North Carolina law prohibits the use of groins – steel, rock or wood walls built perpendicular to the beach in order to trap shifting sand – and other permanent erosion control structures along ocean shorelines.


This North Carolina law is progressive with regard to the United States and the world and was implemented in 1995 thanks to coastal scientists in the state, but the ban is threatened frequently. Each year, the ban is attempted to be overturned by politicians catering to special interest groups – wealthy home owners and private communities.


Overturning the ban would be a major step backwards in the fight for natural beaches, public access to beaches, and ensuring what is best for the future of the beaches of North Carolina. People living in areas experiencing erosion sometimes think that the use of hardened beach structures at their beach is justified. But why is their beach more important than the beaches that will erode as a result of the hardened beach structures?


The ban is based on:


1. Extensive studies and technical data documenting the detrimental impacts of erosion control structures and;
2. 150 years of documentation of the negative impacts of shoreline stabilization on the barrier islands in New Jersey.


The data are clear: when hardened beach structures are used, accelerated erosion is the result..."

Read more:  PETITION ON HARDENED BEACH STRUCTURES

Waves crashing against the half million dollar "temporary" (according to CZMU) seawall and rock revetment built last year at The Great House at Turtle Beach in response to accelerated erosion influenced by the groynes around the bend