The 30-mile long south shore coast of Rhode Island is shrinking – losing an average of three feet annually, and putting homes and businesses built along the beachfront in danger. According to Janet Freedman, a coastal geologist for the state Coastal Resource Management Council, the south shore — which stretches from Watch Hill to Pt. Judith — is the most active in terms of erosion. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most populated areas in terms of development.
”Because these beaches are located right along Block Island Sound they are subject to larger waves,” she said. “These waves and the currents erode the sand, bringing many homes closer to the water.”
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This force of nature is wreaking havoc for home and business owners along the south shore and could ultimately cost them everything.
According to Ray Nickerson, South Kingstown’s principal planner, there are currently six homes and two businesses in Matunuck which could literally fall into the ocean if the erosion continues at its current pace — and there is little anyone can do.
”Rhode Island law says that if more than 50 percent of a structure is destroyed, it can not be rebuilt,” he said. “So these people face losing both their homes and their livelihoods.”
Though there is a plan to replace the beach with material from local dredging projects, Nickerson said the price tag is high and the odds of a long-term solution are slim.
”This project bears a price tag of close to $2 million,” he said. “It’s a habitat restoration project. The problem is there are such spatial constraints. There are no additional areas where you can create a grade along the beach, and as a result it is almost inevitable that it will be washed away quite quickly.”
Jon Boothroyd, the state geologist and also a professor of geo-sciences and the University of Rhode Island, said the problems in Matunuck are being felt all along the south shore. He said much of the area’s development was done after the 1954 hurricane, at a time when the homes were built 200 feet back from the water’s edge.
”Many of the houses were built before the state had any sort of management plan,” he said. “And though they were built so far back, the shoreline has come to them and it now looks like they were built right along the water.”
According to Boothroyd, the perception of increased erosion occurring all at once, is just that – a perception. He said the sand continually moves along the shoreline from west to east. As a result, a structure that has a lot of sand in front of it now may not have that same amount next year.
”There will always be zones of erosion as the sand moves along the shoreline,” he said. “The sand buffer comes and goes. People just become more aware of it when they have less sand in front of them.”
In addition, Freedman said, the sand erosion varies from year to year. In the winter of 1998, residents living along the water in South Kingstown lost nearly 30 feet of beach front, causing some to move their homes back, and the town to truck in additional sand for its town beach at a cost of close to $40,000.
”It’s hard to predict what is going to happen,” she said. “You can lose 30 feet in one storm, and then have pretty calm weather for the next thirty years.”
But for those who want to build or buy a home along the south shore, the rewards are greater than the risks.
Jeanie Lane, a real estate agent with JBL Realty in Narragansett, said the waterfront market is “hot. When you own a house right on the water you are required to have, and are covered by federal flood insurance. People know what they are getting into and are willing to take that risk.”
According to Lane, most people prefer to buy a home along the shore instead of building one.
”It’s better for people to buy a resale, because there isn’t a lot of waterfront that is even buildable anymore,” she said.
Boothroyd said building booms along the shore usually coincide with a period of slow erosion along the shore.
“What happens is that people see the beach at its widest width and think that it’s safe to build,” he said. “But when the erosion cycle turns and it looks like the water is coming back up – people get concerned.”
In fact, CRMC strictly regulates building along the waterfront. Part of those regulations is a requirement that homebuilders set their structures back based on the area’s erosion rate over a 30-year period. For example, if a landowner wanted to build along Charlestown Beach, they would have to multiply 3.1, the area’s estimated erosion rate, times 30 and then create a 90 foot setback from the determining coastal feature, either the sand dune line, or a headland bluff, with a salt pond behind it, before building. Every 300 feet of coastline is given its own erosion rate. Along the south shore those rates range from 2.2 feet to 3.7 feet
“You can’t build on active beach now, like you once could,” Freedman said. “The regulation requires that you multiply the area’s erosion rate by the 30 years to determine the necessary set back.”
The current setback regulation has been in effect since 1978, and additional regulations have gone into effect as recently as 1995.
”The new regulations have more teeth in them than the old ones did,” Boothroyd said. “They are designed to protect the beach.”
