Upcoming editorial: Ocean City saved by a Great Wall of Sand
Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.
The remnants of Tropical Storm Ida and an early season nor’easter combined to pack a one-two wallop that lashed at Ocean City, along with much of the East Coast, last week. It was a storm of a magnitude that hadn’t been seen for more than a decade at the resort town.
Yet on Sunday as the skies cleared and temperatures rose to a nearly summer-like 70 degrees, the usual Ocean City boardwalk shops and restaurants were open for business as if nothing out of the ordinary had taken place. That couldn’t have happened a generation ago.
The difference is that Mother Nature’s fury was unleashed largely on piles of sand instead of hotels, shops and the boardwalk. For 21 years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been pumping off-shore sand onto Ocean City’s beach, building up dunes like a protective wall running from 27th to 146th streets that kept more valuable property out of harms’ way.
The dunes took a big hit, of course. Town officials estimate that up to half of all the sand used to build up the dunes has returned to the Atlantic Ocean. Some stretches of beach are much more narrow, as thundering waves swept big chunks of that sand back to the deep as well.
But Ocean City’s $8 billion in private property? The damage -- caused mostly by minor flooding from wind-driven high tides creeping up from the bay side -- is hardly worth mentioning.
The so-called beach “replenishment” project at Ocean City has drawn its share of critics over the years. Pumping sand and even building sea walls along the boardwalk can seem a bit like tilting at windmills -- the shifting sands of a barrier island like Ocean City were never meant to stay in one place for very long.
Like sand castles, the artificial dunes can’t last forever -- sometimes no more than a few years. Wind and water are simply too powerful a force to expect otherwise. Officials from the Corps of Engineers, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and local government spent much of this week assessing the damage and shoring up plans to pump more sand next spring.
Such temporary protection doesn’t come cheap. Taxpayers have invested about $100 million in the project so far, and next year’s replenishment efforts could add another $10 million or more to that.
But government engineers estimate that two decades worth of storms would likely have caused nearly $300 million in property damage if the sand and sea walls had not been there to protect Ocean City. That’s a 3-to-1 payoff on the investment so far, and that’s not even calculating how much the local tourist trade has gained from having a wider, more attractive beach.
Ocean City is simply too important an economic asset to the state to allow it to be swept away without a fight -- even if that means pumping offshore sand and replanting man-made dunes every four years.
For the $4 million set aside each year for periodic beach restoration (from federal, state and local resources), Ocean City gets a kind of short-term disaster protection. It’s not without sacrifice -- dunes are created to be destroyed so that the Dunes Manor Hotel and other Ocean City landmarks aren’t -- but last week’s storm demonstrated that it’s a trade-off that works.
Comments
What a weird editorial considering all the important stuff going on this morning in our once GREAT state of Maryland. Don't get me wrong, I heart OC but not that much these days. I worry more about the unemployment rate. My jobless neighbor. My shrinking income, Education, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Crime. Sand? Not so much.
Posted by: Carole | November 18, 2009 8:44 AM
Of the four million dollars spent annually on Ocean City beach replenishment how much comes from the federal government, how much from the state budget and how much from local sources that benefit the most from the effort?
Posted by: Ken Lewis | November 18, 2009 8:50 AM
I was hit with an assessment on my property tax bill for sidewalk installation along my street along with all my neighbors. We did not WANT the sidewalk but got it and the bill anyway.
Are ocean front property owners charges a special assessment on their tax bill for the beach replenishment that PROTECTS their investment?
Posted by: Fed Up | November 18, 2009 9:35 AM
This is a losing battle. Mother Nature Supreme will reclaim her land. Waterfront properties are a drain on governments everywhere. Money is dwindling and one day soon we may not have much for this sort of ongoing onslaught against the sea and storms. Then we may have to prioritize and relegate our beaches to the fury of the waters. Across the world where there is no money this has been the fate of many shorelines. But here people are mesmerized by the beach, and government indulges their fatal attraction to the ocean.
Skeptic
Posted by: Skeptic | November 18, 2009 11:43 AM
Ocean City was saved by a great wall of sand - this time.
Posted by: Sean Tully | November 18, 2009 1:17 PM
People usually just blame when something goes bad, but I would like to thank the Army Corps of Engineers. Pumping sand into a dune probably was not a highlight for many of these engineers and laborers. Projects like these create jobs and now this project has saved homes/businesses/lives.
Good job,
Hope they keep up the lifesaving work.
Posted by: Brian Lamar | November 18, 2009 3:17 PM
As an Ocean City native, who has survived many storms in my 53 years, the devastation that would occur without the benefit of the beach replenishment program would cripple the Mid-Atlantic region. $8B is real estate assets, not to mention the loss of Md. state tax revenue would destroy the personal wealth of many of the region's hard-working blue collar families.
Ocean City is a Md. State treasure and asset; not to protect it would be irresponsible!
Posted by: Skip Schlesinger | November 18, 2009 7:20 PM
While the wisdom of developing a barrier island can certainly be questioned, as regards Ocean City that ship sailed decades ago. Given the development currently in place on the island, efforts to stabilize the shoreline are the only reasonable course of action. Building the dune line was the best solution and its efficacy is plainly evident in the wake of this most recent storm.
I do hope that when the Corp undertakes the next round of beach replenishment it does a thorough study of the methods it uses to pump sand. Pumping deep water sand, which is more coarse than what is normally prseent on the shore, seems to result in a less stable near shore waterline. The result is an absence of a protective sandbar in the summer, which creates a steep drop off at the waterline producing a dangerous shore break.
Hopefully the Corp will expand their efforts beyond merely replenishing the dune line and pumping sand on the beach, to a process that more accurately replicates the topography of a barrier island, including the creation of a sand bar that will itself serve as a first line of defense for the beach.
Posted by: Leo Ryan | November 19, 2009 2:47 PM