Emerald Isle Beach Nourishment

Today’s blog is all about beach nourishment and whether you visit here occasionally or live here full time, beach nourishment is a story that deserves telling. Before I begin, please subscribe to my blog now, or at the end of this post.

While the term beach nourishment may strike some as an euphemism for the artificial building or maintenance of a beach, beach nourishment is an accurate reflection that beaches, dunes and, in fact, entire barrier islands need a sand supply to survive. Put simply, even under natural conditions, a plentiful sand supply is an essential requirement for a healthy, robust barrier island. Nature rearranges this sand continuously in response to long term changes like climate change and sea levels and short term changes like wind, waves, and currents. Normally, these short term changes have a fairly mild impact on barrier islands. However, when we have weather events like hurricanes and nor-easters, wind, waves and currents can radically transform a barrier island. Over the last several years, the Crystal Coast has been visited by several named hurricanes which caused significant change to property and the beaches along the Crystal Coast. In response to these changes, community officials and planners in conjunction with the Carteret County Shore Protection Office began a 3 phase nourishment of Bogue Banks beaches. Phase one covered almost all of Salter Path, all of Indian Beach and eastern Emerald Isle and was completed in 2019 Phase two covered western Atlantic Beach, all of Pine Knoll Shores, the remainder of Salter Path and a portion of western Emerald Isle and was completed over the winter and spring of 2020. Phase three of the beach nourishment program is scheduled to occur between January and April 2021. It will be completed by the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock company, the same company that performed Phase I and Phase II of the nourishment along the Bogue Banks. The project is funded in part by FEMA, the State of North Carolina, and Carteret County Beach Nourishment Reserves.

Phase three of this project includes the last stretch of western Emerald Isle near the Bogue Inlet Pier. In addition, the project includes central Emerald Isle, which has not had its beaches nourished in years, and maybe a small portion of eastern Emerald Isle nourished in 2019 but considered a “hot spot” for erosion. Without going into detail, engineers are “exploring different beach-fill geometries” for eastern Emerald Isle in an effort to find a way to address that erosion hot spot.

The process of beach nourishment is quite challenging and interesting. Great Lakes Dredge plans to mobilize two dredges, the Liberty Island and the Ellis Island in addition to land and water based pipe, heavy equipment, and personnel starting in December. Dredging and pumping of sand will commence the final week of January 2021. The dog-leg 4WD beach ramp near the Emerald Isle Eastern Regional access will serve as the main staging point for storing and assembling equipment.

The initial nourishment will focus on the beaches of central and eastern Emerald Isle. The Liberty Island will travel into the ocean and pump sand via a long submerged pipeline called a subline. A secondary connection called an elbow is used to transport the sand to the pickup line which distributes sand in one direction, east, then the other direction, west, along the beach. Lengths of pipe are added and subsequently broken down by workers while the dredge pumps sand for a 1-2 mile stretch of beach. Then, the entire operation including dredge, subline, elbow assembly and pickup line are broken down transported down the beach and reassembled to nourish the next 2 mile section. Rinse and repeat until the nourishment project is complete. In mid March the larger Ellis Island dredge will arrive to serve the Bogue Inlet Pier area in western EI and help the Liberty Island dredge complete the nourishment project before the April 30 environmental window closes for the sea turtle nesting season.

Dredged sand that is deposited on the beaches is called beach fill. And this beach fill is tied into the existing frontal dune using bull dozers. Bull dozers subsequently grade the slope of the fill from the berm of the frontal dune out to the sea. Project engineers use markers or stations positioned along the beach to monitor construction progress and to verify in-place volumes of sand pumped on the beach by the dredging. If you visit the beaches of Emerald Isle this winter, you may see wood or metal stakes at the base of the dunes that will identify these station numbers. Sea oats will be planted on top and down the entire slope of these newly constructed dunes. A mechanical planter will plant on top of the dune followed by hand planting on the slope.

The sand for this three phase beach nourishment project is relatively free. And, it certainly does not need to be trucked in like on other beaches. That’s because Bogue Inlet on the western end of Bogue Banks and the Morehead City Port on the eastern end of Bogue Banks are routinely dredged to keep them navigable for boats. Rather than disposing of this dredge several miles out on the continental shelf, the dredge is banked on the back side of Bogue Banks. As this dumping ground becomes full it can and is used for beach nourishment. To be sure, not all dredged sand can be used for nourishment projects. Free sand comes with minor drawbacks. It may have a high mud content and may contain some oyster shells. The good news is that the beach is nourished relatively inexpensively and the nourished beaches protect development behind them. And, as the sediment is reworked by the waves, the mud is washed away and the shells break down to add volume to the recreational beach. In the case of Bogue Banks, the free sand is of unusually high quality. Come on down this winter to watch this fascinating beach nourishment project in person. I will also post a video of this project on my website, EIHomesforSale.com. If you liked what you learned about beach nourishment on Bogue Banks, please subscribe to my blog.

To learn more about living in Emerald Isle, NC, visit my website, www.EmeraldIsleHomesforSaleNC.com and sign up for my blog. Explore the video tab for my weekly uploads to my YouTube channel. Text your email address to 919-308-2292 and be subscribed to my newsletter. In these ways you can still practice social distancing and learn about real estate! Stay well and Stay safe!