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2008 PSDS Editorials

Sandbag seawalls do more harm than good

By Andrew Coburn and Rob Young
Asheville Citizen-Times
Published: June 13, 2008
Topsail Voice, Carteret News-Times, Tideland News
Published: June 12, 2008

It is time for the sandbags to go. The N.C. Coastal Resources Commission has denied an appeal by oceanfront property owners requesting an indefinite postponement of plans for removal of sandbag seawalls protecting mostly vacation and second homes.

Holding the line on terminal groins

Raleigh News & Observer
By Andrew Coburn and Orrin Pilkey
Published: June 2, 2008

Advocates for Inlet Solutions, an organization of wealthy Figure 8 Island property owners lobbying to change state law and build a terminal groin, believes a terminal groin will not only protect the beach from erosion, but that it will do so without any environmental impacts...

Prepared for Hurricanes? Missouri flood lessons for Florida

Orlando Sentinel
By Rob Young and David Bush
Published: April 2, 2008

The first day of spring is just behind us. The sun has moved slightly north of the equator on its march toward the Tropic of Cancer. The Northern Hemisphere will receive a little more solar energy today than it did yesterday, and a little more tomorrow than today. As the months pass, sea surface temperature rises with the summer heating, and the ocean stores energy to generate hurricanes.

Renamed jetty threatens shore

Raleigh News & Observer
By Andrew Coburn and Orrin Pilkey
Published: March 13, 2008

Rich Inlet, just north of Figure 8 Island, is one of North Carolina's vanishing coastal gems. It is full of sand shoals and shorebird habitat. The north end of Figure 8 Island, adjacent to the inlet, has a beautiful 3-4 acre wetland and rolling dunes. There are thick overwash sand deposits, prime habitat for endangered shorebirds. Boaters know it as one of the most stable and beautiful inlets in North Carolina. But what makes Rich Inlet so special is that it is one of the few...

A bleak future for saltwater marshes

Orlando Sentinel
By Rob Young
Published: Feb 24, 2008

Senate bill would allow state dollars to go to gated beach enclaves

Charleston Post and Courier
By Rob Young and Andrew Coburn
Published: January 23, 2008

Once again, coastal legislators are trying to get taxpayer funding to support risky coastal development. Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, and Sen. J. Yancey McGill, D-Kingstree, are co-sponsoring Senate Bill 904, a measure that they apparently hope will allow the use of public money to pay for future beach nourishment within private, gated coastal communities like Wilds Dunes at the north end of Isle of Palms...

2008 PSDS in the News

Committee plans to seek long-term solutions to beach erosion
Wilmington Star News
By Gareth McGrath
Published: April 28, 2008

North Carolina's decades-long ban on hardened structures along the coast has long been showing some holes. Now, it could be close to crumbling.

How valuable are storm predictions?
Orlando Sentinel
By Maya Bell
Published: April 10, 2008

William Gray expects 15 named storms but was off in recent years.

Beach residents fear loss of homes without barrier; Engineers, environmentalists battle over whether to build structure in N.C.
USA TODAY
By Jordan Schrader
Published: February 25, 2008

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Waves stayed as much as 200 feet from Laura and Tom Hearn's Figure Eight Island home a decade ago. Erosion changed that. Today, the surf licks at sandbags stacked right out front. Unless the state eases its ban on hard structures at the beach in May, the Hearns and other island residents will have to remove the bags and will not be able to build what they say will protect their homes: a metal structure jutting into the ocean.

Beach plan raises environmental issues on Hunting Island State Park
Beaufort Gazette
By Ben Pillow
Published: January 22, 2008

A plan to add 400,000 cubic yards of sand to eroded areas on Hunting Island State Park's coast over five years was recently revised, but a shoreline expert says the project still contradicts policies and considerations set forth in South Carolina law...

Scientists see no point to easing seawall ban
Raleigh News & Observer, Myrtle Beach Sun News
By Wade Rollins
Published: January 3, 2008

More than 40 coastal scientists have signed a letter urging state lawmakers to resist easing a ban on seawalls along the shoreline.