South Carolina Beach Fill

Several beach renourishment projects have been conducted in South Carolina in recent years. In response to the extensive erosion of the 2004 hurricane season a major beach renourishment project was sponsored by the Army Corps of Engineers at Folly Beach during the summer and fall of 2005, using a combination of federal and municipal funding. In addition, $4.75 million dollars in state renourishment funding was allocated to Edisto Beach State Park and the Town of Edisto Beach for a beach renourishment project in 2006. Other renourishment projects during 2006 include a privately funded project at DeBordieu Beach, a state-funded renourishment project at Hunting Island State Park, and a locally funded project at the Town of Hilton Head Island that started in September 2006 and ended in March 2007. Finally, a smaller renourishment project designed to replace sand lost during the 2005 hurricane season was constructed at portions of Folly Beach during 2007.

Two renourishment projects were conducted in South Carolina in 2008. The Isle of Palms project placed 885,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from an offshore sand source along 2.6 miles of beach, while the Grand Strand project, constructed in three phases, placed 2.9 million cubic yards of sand dredged from an offshore source along 26 miles of shoreline in North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, and Garden City.

The following represents a ranking of beach renourishment and beach restoration needs based upon DHEC-OCRM Regulation 30-18, which sets forth criteria for evaluating beach renourishment projects. Proposed projects are ranked based upon the environmental impact of the project, the public recreational benefits, the storm damage mitigation benefits to adjacent buildings and structures, the expected useful life of the project, and the extent of support for the project. Beaches which are highly eroded but already scheduled for renourishment during 2006 are not included in this list.

First Priority: The Grand Strand
The 26-mile stretch of beach from the Cherry Grove section of North Myrtle Beach to southern Garden City Beach near Murrells Inlet was all included in a massive beach nourishment project sponsored by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1996-1998. At the time, the overall effort was described as a 50-year project, with follow-up renourishment expected to be performed every 8-10 years. If federal funding is available it is likely that another large-scale renourishment project will be constructed here around 2008. Based on past federal/state/local funding ratios it is expected the state's share of this next project will cost approximately $10 million. State money should begin to be allocated to this project now, and over the next few years, so that the total amount required will be available when needed.

UPDATE: A 3-million cubic yard, 25-mile-long renourishment was scheduled to start on the Grand Strand in November 2007. About 70 percent of the $30 million cost will be paid by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The renourished stretch will go from Little River Inlet to Georgetown County and should take about 14 months to complete. The contractor completed the stretch of beach in Garden City Beach and then left town to do emergency work elsewhere. North Myrtle Beach is now scheduled for beach fill in July 2008, with Myrtle Beach to follow starting in late August to early September 2008. This schedule is not supported by many hotel owners, who fear a loss of business and would prefer a fall start to the work.

FURTHER UPDATE (July 2008): The Myrtle Beach phase of the three-part project was supposed to have started in February 2008, then the work was bumped back to July. The work has now been pushed back to September 2008, according the Army Corps of Engineers. Garden City Beach and Surfside Beach have already received 750,000 cubic yards of sand over about eight miles of beach. Their portion of the project finished in March 2008. Myrtle Beach will get 1.5 million cubic yards of sand over nine miles of beach. North Myrtle Beach will get 750,000 cubic yards over almost nine miles of shoreline. North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach and Horry County are paying for $9.6 million of the $29.5 million project, and state and federal funds make up the rest. More info.

Second Priority: Pawleys Island, Georgetown County
The southern end of Pawley's Island is low-lying, with little or no sand dunes. A 1999 beach nourishment project using sand borrowed from the sand spit at the southern end of the island provided temporary relief but did not add any new sand to the littoral system. The dune that protects the public parking area has been chronically eroded for the past few years and has been rebuilt several times by emergency sand-scraping. This large public parking area, one of the few areas providing good public beach access in Georgetown County, is in jeopardy. The developed southern end of Pawleys Island also lacks a sand dune, and the ocean water comes up under several houses at high tide. The Corps of Engineers is currently studying the beach erosion problem at Pawleys Island. Any federal renourishment project here will most likely include a requirement for both state and local funding.

NOTE: Sullivan's Island, Charleston County
While most of Sullivan's Island is stable to accretional, the section closest to Breach Inlet from Station 29 to Station 32 has a long-term erosion rate of -2 ft per year and has been chronically sand-starved for at least 10 years. This 3-block section of Sullivans Island, about 2,000 ft long, is one of the most critically eroded beaches in Charleston County. The beach is steep and narrow with little or no sand dune and no high-tide beach. Local match for state money may be problematic.

Total state expenditures for 1991-2000 were $25,480,000, an average of $2,548,000 per year spent on beach re-fill. No state money was allocated for beach re-fill during the 2001-2002 fiscal year, or during the 2002-2003 fiscal year.¹⁵

As indicated in the above table, a large-scale beach fill project was conducted at Folly Beach in 1993 at a cost of $11.8 million ($3.5 million local share). The project included placement of over 2.8 million cubic yards of sand over 28,200 linear feet (5.34 miles) of beach and rehabilitation of nine groins. Based on historic erosion rates, periodic re-fill was estimated to occur every eight years. Since this project performed better than estimated (despite an extraordinary 2004 hurricane season), the next re-fill was not necessary until June 2005. This project consists of about two million cubic yards of sand dredged from about two miles offshore and placed on Folly Beach at a cost of $12.5 million. Since a study in 1988 showed that the Charleston Harbor Jetties contributed 57% of the historical erosion at Folly Beach, the normal 65%/35% cost share split between the federal government and the local sponsor was adjusted to 85%/15%. The beach fill project was estimated to be completed in November 2005. It was the only beach fill project in South Carolina in 2005.

Since the beach fill project was conducted during turtle nesting season, the project included turtle patrols conducted by the volunteer Folly Beach Turtle Watch. At least 35 nests were relocated during the project and there were no reports of injured turtles. This project also includes a contract for installation of fencing and the planting of dune grass, scheduled to be completed in Spring 2006. More information on this and other beach fill projects in South Carolina is available at the Web site of the Charleston District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This Web site also contains a good general discussion of beach fill, including an animation of the typical beach fill process.

Back in the 1950s, reports the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium in its Coastal Heritage newsletter, the town of Edisto Beach (pop. 641) completed an extensive program of beach fill and groin construction to hold the shoreline in place. Dozens of homes built there mushroomed in value during the boom times.

Now, though, sections of this shoreline have eroded as much as 40 feet in a single year. One cottage underwent severe damage during a recent northeaster. Pilings supporting houses along an 8-block stretch are regularly flooded at high tide. Consequently, residents and local officials are backing a new fill effort that would cost $6 million. $4 million of this would come not from local sources, but from the state. Proponents seek to protect real estate values and note that beach tourism and coastal growth have done much to fuel the state's economy. Skeptics warn that such efforts are often futile and that the best way to preserve beaches is to let them migrate naturally.

The Edisto Beach scenario applies as well to many volatile stretches of the Carolinas coastline. At Charleston, NOAA reports, the sea level continues its rise—10 inches in the last 80 years. With land subsiding in some places as well, the situation promises only to get worse. And while state funds for fill are becoming harder to get, the federal government is also increasingly unwilling to help local communities maintain previously replenished beaches. South Carolina's projects of this type have received virtually no federal funding in recent federal budgets.

Hilton Head Island's latest beach fill project began in September 2006. The town has budgeted $16 million for the project. The last two fill projects, in 1990 and 1997, cost about $9 million each.

The project is part of the town's regular renourishment of about six miles of beach. It originally was scheduled to take place somewhere between September 2005 and April 2006, but the busy 2004 hurricane season increased the demand for beach-fill services, which would have caused a dramatic increase in costs to Hilton Head, according to town officials. The $16 million project is paid for almost exclusively by tourists. The money comes from a 2 percent tax charged to overnight lodging, known as the beach preservation fee.

The main part of the work was scheduled to stretch from the Westin Resort to Alder Lane in South Forest Beach, with work also being done in portions near Fish Haul Creek and in South Forest Beach. The project was completed in early February 2007.

The Town of Hiton Head Island Municipal Government Web Site has a substantial amount of information about the above-referenced project. They are even considering broadcasting the progress of the project via a 24-hour-a-day Web cam. Their Web site is:
http://www.hiltonheadislandsc.gov/Depts/ppfac/BeachRenourishment/Permitdocs.htm

Beaches along the Atlantic shorefront, Port Royal Sound and the South Beach area are being targeted for the next project. Meanwhile, the town still is considering adding a separate section of beach to the project. Residents of The Spa at Port Royal, a north-island condominium complex on Port Royal Sound, want the beachfront in front of their property nourished. But widening the 4,000-foot stretch of beach during the off-season could disturb the piping plover, an endangered water bird that winters in the area. At the request of state environmental regulators, the town is taking an environmental habitat inventory of the area.

An interesting controversy arose in early 2006 regarding a plan by the town of Kiawah Island to rebuild dunes used to protect the Ocean Golf Course's 18th hole. Piping plovers forage along a sand spit that would be the source of sand for the dune-rebuilding project. The Army Corps of Engineers issued a "cease and desist" order for the golf course to stop piling sand on the beach. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service then began preparing a "biological opinion" on the project in preparation for considering whether to allow permits.

A compromise was announced in March 2006 which allowed dune rebuilding to protect the 18th and 16th holes of the golf course and the driving range but reduced by half the amount of sand taken from the sand spit which is the piping plover's habitat.

Additional information regarding beach fill plans in this area were mentioned in an article by Jill Coley in the Charleston Post and Courier on February 8, 2007. Following are edited excerpts from that article:

Property owners in the area proposed a plan to harvest 180,000 cubic yards of sand from the Cedar Creek spit, also known as the Morgan Creek spit, and truck it along the shore to the affected beach. Owners from Ocean Club, Seascape, Port O'Call, Tidewater, Summer House and Shipwatch villas, and two homes on Summer Dunes Lane, joined to create Isle of Palms North Beach Owners, a limited liability company, to seek a permit for a nourishment project. Property owners will pay for the project, which could cost more than $1 million, depending on dredging market prices.

While the Wild Dunes Resort has not joined the property owners' company because of its corporate structure, a representative of Wild Dunes has stated that they would pay its share to protect the 18th green of The Links golf course. The Ocean Point neighborhood of Wild Dunes stands behind the 18th green, which buffers homes from the ocean. Ocean Point stretches between the spit, where the sand will be harvested, and the heavily eroded area, where the sand will be transported. Accretion often follows periods of erosion on the northern tip of the island. The project described in the permit is a stop-gap measure. Long-term solutions are required, both sides agree. Comments from the public will be considered before DHEC issues a permit on the project. A water quality certification, which should take a few months, also must be issued before the permit is granted.

"To date, no synthesis of beach nourishment impacts (beach and borrow areas) longevity, spatial distribution, etc. have been undertaken, and the OCRM-required monitoring conditions have varied from permit to permit."