Hunting Island beach restoration methods debated

Harbor Island residents spoke out against plans to restore Hunting Island’s beaches Tuesday, saying previous renourishment efforts have negatively affected the private barrier island north of the state park.

During a public hearing at Beaufort City Hall on plans for another Hunting Island beach renourishment project, Harbor Island residents argued existing groins installed during the most recent project at the state park have had adverse effects on its beach.

Sand built up in the mouth of the Johnson Creek Inlet has blocked the natural flow of sand to Harbor Island’s beaches, they said.

“I feel that Harbor Island is being sacrificed to save Hunting Island,” Harbor Island homeowner Tricia Gardner said.

Others, including Friends of Hunting Island State Park and Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce president Blakely Williams, said the work was necessary to preserve an undeveloped barrier island visited by a million people each year.

“We must ask the question ‘Is it worth it?,’ ” Friends of Hunting Island president Denise Parsick said. “Hunting Island has proven its worth.”

State park officials are asking to pump 635,000 cubic yards of additional sand onto Hunting Island’s beaches and to build two low-profile groins. The permit application will have another 15 days of public comment before the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Ocean and Coastal Resource Management staff form a decision.

Groins are hard structures built perpendicular to the beach. Six groins were built during a previous restoration project in 2007.

In opposing the groins, Harbor Island residents and the Coastal Conservation League’s Kate Schaefer cited research on accelerated erosion down the beach from the groins.

The groins have affected the character of Hunting Island and degraded areas of the beach not supported by the groins, the Conservation League argued in a letter to the DHEC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The conservation group supports the additional sand for the park’s beaches.

Duane Parrish, director of the state’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism department, said last week the groins have been effective in the targeted areas.

Bruce Hoffman, a Harbor Island resident, said the effects of the existing groins haven’t been properly monitored. State law requires the problems experienced by Harbor Island to be fixed, including breaking up the sand built up in Johnson Creek, Hoffman said.

“Harbor Island is extremely damaged by what has occurred,” he said.

But engineers who have worked on Hunting Island’s restoration projects say they have closely monitored the area after installing the initial groins. It is difficult to tell how much of the sand in Johnson Creek can be attributed to Hunting Island, said Coastal Science and Engineering president Tim Kana, whose company is overseeing the work.

State parks director Phil Gaines said engineers have gone beyond what was required in the previous permit.

'Little Blue,' one of Hunting Island's last cottages, still fighting against the sea

 

Nov. 28, 2015 When "Little Blue," one of Hunting Island's last cottages, disappears, it will also mark the end of an era for Beaufort County. | READ

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This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 9:27 AM with the headline "Hunting Island beach restoration methods debated."