Wrong direction on beach groins

Editorial by Wilmington Star-News, September 5, 2015.

While taking their sweet time deciding how many North Carolina teachers' assistants can keep their jobs this year, our honorable legislators paused to handle something really important.

The issue, we're informed, is “under negotiation.”

A terminal groin (no sniggering, children!) is a big wall or hardened structure stretching out into the ocean, usually perpendicular to the coastline. Groins are built to change the effects of beach erosion. Jetties, on the other hand, are built so a channel to the ocean will stay open for navigation.

The trouble is -- as almost every geologist and oceanographer not in the pay of developers will tell you -- groins don't really work. They stop or slow erosion in the immediate vicinity, but worsen erosion farther down the beach by halting the natural flow of sand.

Beach sand migrates, especially as ocean levels rise. Trying to stop its natural course is like old King Canute trying to keep the tide from coming in. It's folly -- potentially expensive folly.

Senior homeowners on Social Security and inland residents could wind up being taxed for “beach nourishment” to protect pricey oceanfront real estate.

For three decades, North Carolina had a good rule barring any form of beach hardening. In 2011, the General Assembly, in its wisdom, chose to water that rule down, allowing four “test” groins, including projects at Figure Eight Island and Bald Head Island.

Not content to see how the tests perform, the N.C. Senate is ready to wash away all precaution.

This is not just wrong-headed law, it's undemocratic. Nobody talked about terminal groins during the regular session. It was slipped in during the back-room “conference” negotiations as the House and Senate argued over their different budget versions.

There were no hearings. There were few chances for members of the public to squawk. There was precious little debate. All this secrecy on an issue that could have a profound effect on public beaches.

As the N.C. Coastal Federation noted, nobody was talking about wanting or needing more groins earlier in the year. So why bring it up now? Who wanted this provision and why? Whom will it benefit? At this point, we have no way of telling.

Somebody in the Senate decided it was good for us. If you have any trouble with that, we can discuss it later, presumably after more groins are built.

The Senate has taken us back to the days when a handful of our betters would meet in club rooms to decide how the state is run.

If that sort of government doesn't suit you, then ask your state senators why they let it happen. By the way, they'll be back up for election next fall.

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