"Dean Phillips (author of the following article) is a Bethany Beach resident, a former town manager, and an avid, long-time student of Bethany's beach developments. His views, the results of his studies, and his historical perspective make for good reading and can contribute to  a healthy and informative dialogue about the condition of our recreational beach, its value to  the town's continuing prosperity, and what steps must be taken in the future to guarantee that we continue to have a beach. It's certainly worth considering that the Army Corps of Engineers, and its understandable protection-of -property priority flowing from the New Orleans experience, may have overlooked the unintended impact of the project on our recreational beach."

Bethany Beach may be facing a crisis!

In September 2007 I contacted you about the Beach Nourishment Project (later re-named the Beach Damage Reduction Project), for the purpose of providing you with information about the reasons why I believed the new dune system would:

(1)               Be severely damaged by the 2009 spring season.

(2)               Cause more beach damage instead of reducing it.

(3)               And, most important, would exacerbate the already overcrowded beach along the boardwalk.

As you may recall, for the past four years beachgoers have been increasingly complaining about the lack of room on the beach, particularly on the beach along the boardwalk. The complaints increased this past summer. For the first time in the 32+ years we have lived here, we saw people in July and August leaving a sardine packed beach and placing their towels and umbrellas on the Campbell grass.

It appeared that you couldn’t walk to the ocean without stepping on someone. And the stagnate deep tidal pools in the middle of the beach created another hazard and further reduced beach space.

Bethany is a headland beach, which is subjected to much stronger wave action which, in turn, causes more frequent short or long term erosion. Moreover, previous Town Councils allowed construction past the dune line. Look at the first attachment and you can clearly see the bulge and smaller beach from the north end to the south end of the boardwalk. Just south of Bethany Beach, Sea Colony is set back from the ocean. And north of Bethany Beach, Sussex Shores also has a wider beach because of a more western setback.

Now the State is coming to the rescue with 200K cubic yards of sand. Tony Pratt should be given a medal. But the problem with the plan design will, within two years, bring us back to where we are now – a dangerous, smaller beach where access is limited or blocked.

And here is the second clue about how we got into this mess. Typically, maintenance projects are recommended every five years. The last project was in 1997. The next should have been planned for 2002. Instead of another pumping five years after 1997 in 2002, the Town waited almost 10 years for the Corps to fund its study to restore the beach. Meanwhile the beach eroded from 2001 to 2007.

From the late 1980s to 1994, Bethany Beach was the first and only resort to get funding for re-nourishment projects. But, from 1997 to 2007 (10 years) we became the last to be funded. Even little Fenwick Island beat out Bethany Beach on two occasions for project funding.

Based on my surveys, I had expected trouble within two years after the 2008 Corps project. I was wrong! In May of this year a storm damaged the dune, beach, dune fencing, etc. Political types beat their chests claiming “It worked the way it was supposed to – the boardwalk was saved!” But the recreational beach was almost lost! Furthermore, the erosion of the beach had started months before that May storm. By June 2008, there was an average of only 56’ of beach to sit on at high tide along the boardwalk beach.

The last time we faced a similar crisis was in 1985 -86 when two back-to-back major hurricanes (Gloria and Charley) swept by Bethany Beach and caused severe erosion and damage to the boardwalk. No oceanfront houses were damaged! And the boardwalk was repaired at a minimal cost. A few years later, the entire boardwalk including decking and substructure were replaced and reinforced. No further damage occurred to the boardwalk decking and piling from storms for over 15 years!!

So how did we get from 1985 with a great beach to today with a poor beach? In 1981, when I was hired as the Bethany Beach Town Manager, there were only a few small dunes at some street ends. During the 1982 winter, the staff recommended that the Town Council begin to erect dunes at every street end after convincing the State to allow us to truck in sand from inland borrow pits. Additional sand was pushed up from shorelines. This also allowed sand to be placed on the beach instead of losing it as it flowed along the shore northward. Beachfront owners who wanted a dune constructed in front of their homes had to pay 100% of the cost. 

During this same period, Ray Hudson and I conducted yearly beach surveys. In 1986, eight months after Hurricane Gloria, our surveys showed our first beach erosion which was primarily located in the area from Central to Wellington.

The beach erosion increased after Charley. At my own expense, I had started to attend beach presentation/engineering seminars in Florida and after touring several off-shore dredging re-nourishment projects, I recommended that the Town request that the State pump sand from the inlet sand shoal or use any off-shore sites to dredge/pump sand to replenish our beach every five years. Initially, only one Town Council member supported this proposal. National and Sate papers ran editorials and cartoons portraying me as a “Nut!”

For several years the State ignored us and advocated beach retreat instead of beach restoration. That is until Mayor Parsons and I held a press conference to announce the closing of the southern beach and boardwalk block from Parkwood to Hollywood Streets. This story made National and State news. An editorial cartoon in USA Today, showing me with a sand shovel and pail, made fun of my idea but the Governor and DNREC were finally embarrassed and funded our first beach project. We worked with them on three projects until 1996. The last project was in 1997.

Information from the Corps may have led everyone to believe that 3.2 million cubic yards of sand would be pumped on our beach when, in fact, only 1.4 was planned for the Bethany portion, and of that total, you have to deduct an amount allocated to the project that was used for the dune, and on the Sussex Shores and Sea Colony beaches. In future years, the Town will have to pay a share of the cost for maintenance projects.  

In August 2008, I ran a post-construction survey at Central Avenue groin and measured a 125 foot beach, not the promised 150 foot beach. This is only 25 feet more than the beach berm width measured in August 2007. If my theory is correct and I really hope it is not, we could again be hearing about how crowded the beach is within 2 years!!!

I am surprised that no one has asked why a dune was not constructed in front of the boardwalk during the 4 previous re-nourishment projects. Because the Feds and State said that, due to proximity of the bulkheads to the ocean and the shorter length of the groins, there simply was not enough room for a dune and boardwalk and an adequate recreational beach. So unwittingly, the Town Council may have sacrificed our beach for a dune.

Demand for beach space along the boardwalk will increase every year as out-of-town buses and individuals come to Bethany and off-load on Garfield. Additionally, the Town shuttle buses are off-loading a higher number of passengers in the boardwalk area than there are available parking spaces for people going to the beach in the same area. Essentially, the Town is guiding 60% of the beachgoers in a 20% two block area where the beach is the narrowest. 

I had measured the berm width prior to pumping in 2007 with an engineering wheel and measured an average 100 foot beach width. In 2008, Corps surveys showed 90 feet with most of the sand pumped in the ocean and surf zone where wave action quickly eroded it over the winter.

We may now be facing the biggest crisis this resort town has ever faced. We now have a monsterous beach dune that is protecting a handful of boardwalk properties and a boardwalk that was re-built to Federal standards to survive a 100 year storm unlike the 1962 storm which actually did the Town a favor because the boardwalk was so old and not properly maintained it needed to be torn down and replaced anyway.

Ours is one of only 3 families who came to Bethany Beach, raised a family, and still reside here year round. My wife’s family moved to Bethany Beach in 1973. My family – 1959. In July 1976, I proposed to my wife, Cathy, at 1st Street in Bethany Beach. The boardwalk was as uncrowded in 1976 at 1st Street as it is now, and I did not need another 8’ of boardwalk to get down on one knee. Moreover, we know the beach better than most people, and the surf rats (two daughters) we raised here absolutely hate what the Feds and State have done to our beach.

So I am writing you one last time to request that the BBLA Board discuss the condition of the beach and dunes with the membership to consider options to restore the great recreational beach that we once had. If we do not, our town/resort property values will continue to plummet as prospective buyers continue to see or hear about an overcrowded, eroding beach. It has happened before – in N.J., Florida, etc.!

We need to get back on track and realize that the Corps project is only about protecting oceanfront property – not providing a wide, easily accessible beach.

Moreover, the Town has to adopt a long range plan to finance a local share of future re-nourishment projects. The Corps has already said that, in the near future, Bethany Beach will have to share in the cost. That is if the Corps continue to obtain funds for future maintenance.

The Town also needs to plan for a maintenance nightmare with the current dune plan/profile.

The first step to averting this crisis would be to retain a consulting firm to prove that the 150 foot dune seaward of the boardwalk will not protect the beach and provide us with a 300 foot beach.

Secondly, we should request that a sizeable portion of the dune system be reduced in width, height and slope from 3rd Street to Wellington.

In addition, we should work with the Corps to evaluate where a different project used in similar beaches could be constructed here and tied into our groin field.

Next, we should investigate options to remove obstacles that contribute to erosion, and repair the groin field.

We should find ways to reduce beach congestion by diverting beachgoers to non-boardwalk or new state beaches during the 10 am to 3 pm period.

We should explore the feasibility of constructing investor financed Town pavilion/pool complexes as alternatives to the beach. We should encourage the State and County to build similar recreational complexes in the County for inland owners.

Finally, we should find out if the inlet bypass system is adversely impacting our sand flow and supply.

There is a lot we can do. We must do something now!!

                                                            Dean Phillips

Attachments

Attachments: Survey of Beach Conditions Oct. 31 – Nov. 1, 2008

Attachments:

#1            Depiction of how dune and beach would look upon completion of Corps-State project. Depiction is wrong!! Shows a smaller, gentle slope dune system with visibility of ocean and beach from boardwalk.