Volunteers planting the seeds of a new dune on SPII came across an article in the Press of Atlantic City yesterday that highlighted the ongoing debate of sand dunes, the protection they offer and the fact that front row property owners in southern New Jersey don't want them because they ruin their ocean view and make it more difficult to get to the water. Now I am not from New Jersey but I do know the value of a sand dune and its ability to naturally protect against storm surge without sacrificing the beach and to ask to destroy one or lower it is ludicrous in my book. To be honest, the sand dunes that are being discussed in the article were engineered and are not historically natural dunes.
To illustrate the irony of beachfront property owners not getting it, here is a story. I was informed yesterday that a beachfront owner in Loch Harbor, New Jersey actually filed suit against the town and another property owner who constructed and vegetated a dune to protect his property. It went to the New Jersey Supreme Court where the court ruled that the dune was in violation of the local fence ordinance and ordered the property owner who created it to bulldoze it. Now the woman who filed and won the suit is furious with the town because the street in front of her house, that might have been protected by the previous dune, is now covered in sand after every storm.
Hurricane Ike woke up the majority of beachfront property owners on South Padre Island in the summer of 2008 and they realized the importance of a dune. However, as with New Jersey there are a few that just refuse to see the handwriting on the wall.
Here on SPI, the town is in the process of working with the University of Texas at Brownsville and the Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter to construct a continuous dune line for storm surge protection. Yes, this is another "engineered" dune restoration project. However it is being done to replace dunes that were bulldozed in the 70s and 80s to make way for some of the beachside hotels we have now. Just like New Jersey, there are a few property and condo owners who threaten suit every time a dune vegetation planting is planned. The reasons vary from "the dunes are ugly" to "where are we going to put our volleyball court". Many of these people either live in condo complexes that had water washing through their ground floor units or had pools filled not with water but sand after Hurricane Ike two summers ago. But because they were not directly affected, this time anyway, by the storm because of being on a higher floor, they would deny the others the protection that a dune would provide.
In my opinion, the town of South Padre Island has two options. One is to seek to continue the continuous dune line and try to protect beachfront properties AND try and preserve their beach or build a seawall that would protect those properties but kill its beach.
It seems to me that the answer is clear.
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