Mark Anthony Pratt
Beach
Empty beach with birds flying above.
The Isle of Palms City Council will consider short-term options to deal with beach erosion at the southwest end of the island while waiting for possible long-term help from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Council members were expected to look at a proposal put together by Coastal Science & Engineering at their regularly scheduled June 27 meeting. Company President Steven Traynum presented a report to the Council at its June 13 workshop, pointing out that two or three properties are close to being within 20 feet of the high tide line, which is defined by the state as an emergency situation.
“We will send a proposal for a sand placement project that would cover the most impacted area,” Traynum said later. “They asked for a quote for engineering and design so they could get quotes to do the actual work.”
He pointed out, however, that serious help might be on the way from the federal government. He said the Corps of Engineers is considering a “beneficial use project,” where beach-quality sand would be taken from islands created along the Intracoastal when the waterway was dredged and transported to the IOP and Sullivan’s Island beaches. He said the goal is to begin work on this project by later this year or early in 2024.
At the workshop, Council Member John Bogosian said the Isle of Palms shouldn’t bear the brunt of the financial cost of renourishing the beach.
“These are public beaches. It shouldn’t be the Isle of Palms tax money that’s going solely for beach renourishment. I think that’s something we need to take up with some of our representatives and our lobbyists to make sure we get our voices heard,” he commented.
According to City Administrator Desiree Fragoso, the city has approximately $7.5 million in its beach renourishment fund. IOP collects a 1% tax on hotel rooms and short-term rentals, a revenue stream that brought in $1,836,468 in fiscal year 2022.
Traynum pointed out that currently, only one structure, a swimming pool on the property just north of beach access 2, is within 20 feet of the high tide line. He added, however, that several other properties are within 30 feet of the line and that “they could be qualified before too long.” He said once the city receives a permit from Ocean & Coastal Resource Management with the Department of Health and Environmental Control, homeowners would be able to spend their own money to hire a contractor to bring in sand to place in front of their property. Those within 20 feet of the high tide line would be eligible for scraping and sandbags.
Traynum said that typically, the beach recovers from winter erosion in the summer, but, considering the possibility of storms during the hurricane season, “it’s not predictable what’s going to occur and when.”
“It’s certainly a concern that we need to be out front of as much as possible if erosion impacts a greater area or more properties,” said Traynum, whose company has done work for IOP on a regular basis since 2007. “If there were more houses where erosion is within 10 feet or in a larger area, it would be a lot easier for the city to respond to that. Doing it piecemeal would be a lot less efficient.”
“While today it is only one house, we’re well aware that one storm puts everything in an emergency situation pretty quickly,” he added.
Traynum also noted that Coastal Science & Engineering is not recommending the use of sea walls along the IOP shore. He pointed out that the city prohibits sea walls within 200 feet of the OCRM setback line, and he said Coastal’s recommendation would be to leave that law in place.
“If one person installs a sea wall, it increases erosion to their neighbors. When there’s erosion behind it for other homeowners, the sea wall starts to fail,” he explained.
