by Ashley Shomo, The Aberdeen Daily World , 11/30/2001
WESTPORT - The small strip of land that connects Grays Harbor's South Jetty to the Westhaven State Park means a lot of things to a lot of people.
The Corps of Engineers sends trucks up and down the strip to make repairs to the South Jetty, the City of Westport counts on the beach to hold the angry winter waves back from the city's developments and local residents like to go there for casual walks and ocean gazing.
But despite their prayers, rock barriers and millions of dollars worth of sand, Mother Nature just isn't willing to cooperate.
In the last month, as winter storms come in, a total of about 50 feet of sand has washed away from that important strip of land on both sides and officials are scrambling to heal the wounds before it breaches. Three large ravines, about 5 feet deep, have cut through the strip.
It's no surprise to the city, state and federal agencies because erosion is just another part of life in Westport. But right now it's moving fast and officials are scrambling to hold it back. The Corps of Engineers is footing the bill because their haul road has already washed away on one side.
"I think at this point our main concern is this continuing contract from last year to this year to restore the South Jetty," said Hiram Arden, a project manager with the Corps. "We need to maintain access so that the remaining work can be completed on schedule."
Last week, the Corps responded to the erosion on three levels:
They piled sand along the beach;
brought in smooth, round rock to reinforce and protect the beach;
and constructed another temporary haul road from a high spot near the park to a high spot at the jetty.
The sand and rock patches are only temporary and the long term solutions still need a few adjustments.
The drawing board
In 1993, a breach that occurred in the same area prompted several studies and some new ideas about how to combat local erosion.
The city says the Corps of Engineers didn't respond at first.
"(The breach) did not compromise the safety of the South Jetty and therefore was not their problem," said Randy Lewis, the Westport city administrator.
Meantime, a group of local and statewide agencies had formed an intergovernmental group called the Coastal Communities of Southwest Washington. Grays Harbor County acts as the lead agency and the group secured several grants to assist with erosion up and down the Pacific Coast in Grays Harbor and Pacific counties.
In addition, the state Department of Ecology was prompted to begin its Southwest Washington Coastal Erosion Study.
"We expected (the beach) to accumulate sand," said George Kaminsky, a coastal engineer with the Department of Ecology. "The fact that it didn't made us question how much we understand our local coastal processes."
In 1995, the Corps of Engineers hopped on board and started some work.
The biggest and newest idea was something commonly referred to as "the mound," or "the defraction mound."
The Corps performed a series of wave pattern studies and found that the South Jetty was causing the waves to whip around crash into the western beach at Half Moon Bay. To divert the waves, the Corps constructed a large rock structure at the eastern end of the jetty.
In the model, the mound caused the waves to strike further east, where the beach is more gradual and can withstand the energy. But in reality, it didn't pan out.
The reason may have been a difference in the plan and the action, Arden said.
The plan called for additional river rock to placed below the mound and around the western beach at the bay. The Corps stopped just below the mound.
"Part of that was because people preferred that there be the sandy beach there," Arden said. "Being mindful of that, we minimized it and scaled back from what we had approval to place there."
The city credits the Corps with a good idea, but agrees that the mound needs a little work.
"It's been a couple years now and its definitely shown it can work," Lewis said. "It just needs some adjustments."
But even with the long term remedies, Mother Nature likely won't stop trying.
"If anyone asks our opinion," said Kaminsky, "We'll be consistent and say the land along Westport and much of the Grayland beaches is essentially in an erosion mode, and there's no expectation that it's going to change."
The question Kaminsky and others have been trying to answer for years, is why?
How does it happen?
Several answers have been given to that question, but all seem to agree on one thing: There's not enough sand returning to the beach to compensate for what gets chewed away every winter.
"The sand just doesn't seem to be able to accumulate there," Kaminsky said. "We basically have a net loss of sand along those beaches."
One hypothesis is that the sand is getting blocked by dams that have been constructed in the Columbia River.
"The reason we have these wonderful sandy beaches is the Columbia River," said Sandy Howard, a spokesperson for Ecology.
"We're losing sand from our beaches," she said. "We kind of come and go for a while then we'll accrete. It's almost like a breathing kind of action."
Another hypothesis about erosion has to do with dredging around the mouth of the Columbia.
"The sand is dredged and gets placed in areas where it doesn't get back to the beach," said Bob Burkle, the assistant regional habitat program manager for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife out of Montesano. "Essentially what you have going on there is a system that is always eroding and a system that doesn't have a sand base anymore," he said. "Getting in the face of that is just about impossible and impractical."
The Corps of Engineers is starting to work with the state to "be more conscious" about dredging, according to Howard, at Ecology.
"If we place it properly it can feed the beaches," she said.
"There's a lot of studies being performed on that and there are a lot of concerns on sediment," Arden added. "I think we have a lot better tools and a lot better information all the time."
Wanted: More sand
As far as solutions, Burkle said the only successful remedy that the agencies can hope to come up is something that resembles the natural environment.
"You can't really hold back the ocean," he said. "The only thing that's really capable of resisting this kind of energy is sand. That's the stuff that can mold and move with the water, take the energy out of the water."
Burkle said the jetty rocks just reflect the waves and don't soak up the energy that keeps tearing away the shoreline.
"They don't dissipate any energy like sand does," he said. "It's just simply going to be an effect of that jetty. Sand is going to have to be bulked."
Burkle's interests rest with the fish and wildlife in the area. For the Corps of Engineers, navigation is the main concern and the jetty is crucial.
"We have been placing the dredge material in Half Moon Bay at times and it's been placed in a near shore berm at times for nourishment," Arden said. "I think we're being responsive to a lot of the issues and trying to come up with the best alternatives."
As for the jetty, "It would be really a big job to remove that jetty," he said. "It shelters the entrance and provides a reliable location for the navigation channel. Otherwise the entrance would be shifting back and forth and unreliable and unprotected."
The other view
Although a breach would be a nightmare for city officials who don't want to see their proposed developments wash away, some have a different take.
"This repair is way more about politics than it is about science," said Jim Phipps, a retired college instructor who studies coastal erosion. "East coast, west coast all over this country, we don't have erosion problems until somebody puts a house there. Then it becomes a problem.
"My personal opinion is that if it breached ... it will form a natural hook like the one that exists at the end of Willapa Harbor," he said. "It will erode back and fill in Half Moon Bay and become a more natural looking piece of land."
For some, like Burkle at the Department of Fish and Wildlife, that sounds like a good idea.
"It makes me sound a little cold hearted and callous to say that a situation without jetties, or watching all that land ready for development wash away, would be better for fish," he said, "but biologically it's true.
"Something that resembles the natural condition more is better for fish and wildlife because that's what the world was like before we came in with our navigation, channels and jetties."
The future
The Corps of Engineers isn't likely to remove the rocks any time soon and the immediate concern lies somewhere on the little strip of land between the South Jetty and Westhaven State Park.
The long term prediction from the Department of Ecology is that the beach will undergo "a somewhat moderate amount" of erosion over the next 20 years.
The highest erosion rate will be occur near that piece of land and it will taper off southward.
"We never actually put what you'd call a line in the sand and say this is where the shore is going to be in the future," he said. "There's a number of possibilities and we didn't come up with one prediction."
As for the city, "With this one, obviously we're having a rough winter," Lewis said. "So obviously we have some concerns and work to do on the South Jetty."
Darrin Graham, Westport's code enforcement officer said, "We have things as under control as we can at this point and the right agencies are involved to bring remedy."
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