Friday, June 29, 2012

Sand replenishment a short-term solution


From CBS 2:

Huge mounds of sand are at the center of a debate on Rockaway Beach. The mounds have been offering protection to a building there for the past six months, but a new plan to use the sand to shore up an eroded section of beach 30 blocks to the south has residents in an uproar.

The beach was decimated when Hurricane Irene came through last year and some say that the sand does need to be used to replace what was lost.

The city Parks Department told CBS 2 that it is pursuing funding to bring in more sand, but residents said that similar efforts in the past have failed.

Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder said the real solution to protecting beach front property is long-term rock jetties.


Actually, the real solution is to stop building along the beach. But God forbid we use common sense.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is an old issue. The lesson: don't buy property directly on ocean or on sea frontage. Shorelines naturally change over the course of time and sometimes very dramatically. Do what you want, the tides and storm fronts bring in sand and remove same.

Anonymous said...

And I thought we were all supposed to become "green" and environmentally friendly... The sea wants to reclaim that land. Gaia (or is it Neptune?) has a veto over this particular appropriation.

Anonymous said...

This was something that I learned about in, no kidding, Geology 101 when I was in college.

The beaches in question, while wonderful places to swim and play at, are remnants of the last ice age and will likely disappear in a few centuries no matter what we do.

Any structure built in close proximity should only be thought of as temporary - as in less than 100 years temporary - if you're lucky.

Some people feel it's worth our tax dollars to delay the inevitable. I don't, but oh well.