It’s Happening
By
Progressive Charlestown guest columnist Jim Bedell
This is the
complete and illustrated column that ran edited letter the Independent. Jim’s organization, the Rhode
Island Shoreline Access Coalition fights for the right of all Rhode
Islanders to use and enjoy the shoreline as guaranteed by the Rhode Island Constitution.
 |
| Some of “It” is scary, some of “It” is hopeful. |
The
scary part is the consolidating evidence of global warming, the surprising
acceleration of sea level rise, and the accepting of the profound effects these
will have on Rhode Island.
The hopeful part is the proactive call to arms by
our little state, stepping out in front of the crowd to take meaningful steps
to deal with the changes coming our way.
Those
steps come in the package of CRMC’s Beach SAMP (Special Area Management Plan.)
If you don’t know what that is…well…start paying attention.
It is time to look over the time horizon. Sea
level rise is accelerating way beyond previous assumptions.
Before anthropogenic warming began
accelerating in the mid 1900s, scientists spoke of natural post glacial sea
level rise in terms of a few inches per century! The latest NOAA projections
cite the range in sea level rise above 1990 levels to be a maximum of 7 feet by
2100.
The youngest of our current schoolchildren will live long enough to see Waterplace
Park, Galilee, Misquamicut and much of Wickford and lower Newport under water,
and whole waterfront neighborhoods abandoned.
They have been gathering
data, holding public discussions, and putting together useful proposals to help
shore towns and cities think, and more importantly act, to minimize the cost
and disruption of the coming changes.
A
good example of an early proactive measure is the “armoring” of the sewerage
treatment facility in Narragansett near Scarborough State beach. The proposed
earthen berm (i.e. an artificial
ridge or embankment) and wall will be needed to protect that critical
infrastructure item from damage in the future as the sea rises.
But
there is something else that needs protection as the coastal future becomes the
coastal now, and Save the Bay has taken a step to make sure that it is included
in the SAMP process.
Save
the Bay, and CRMC, are also protecting the people of Rhode Island in another
important way.
They are protecting our very precious and unique right to use
the shore. Among other rights of the shore, we
have the right to “pass along the shore.” STB has entered an opinion regarding
the Narragansett sewer project, saying that without including a way to walk,
fish, or collect seashells along the shore in front of the sewerage plant, the
engineering for the project is not complete and it should not go forward yet.
They have proposed moving the protection structure forty feet landward to allow
passage in front of it. That would be a good thing.
I
would add an alternative proposal if another is needed. Namely, if the barrier
truly can’t be moved inland, put a walkway along the top of the structure to
allow passage across the treatment property to the beach on the other side.
That would be a good thing also.
Most
certainly creative, outside the box solutions will have to be part of the
remedy for this never before experience of dealing with such rapidly accelerating
climate change.
Of
course the sewer plant project in Narragansett is just one pixel in a much
larger picture. As another example I have included a pair of pictures from the
SAMP data available on the CRMC website titled Shoreline Change Maps.
One shows a satellite view of a house and a
hotel in Misquamicutt Beach along Atlantic Avenue with the movement of the
land/water boundary, identified by colored lines, over the last 77 years. You
can see that both locations have constructed boulder walls across their
property.
There
are several very important things to learn from these photos.
One
lesson comes from the boxes at the end of the survey lines going out into the
water. The black box shows the total movement landward of the land/water
boundary since 1939. At line #169 it has moved 109 feet, which means that 109
feet of that real estate has disappeared!
The learning comes with realizing
that although the sea has risen only a number of inches over this time, the
land/water boundary location moves many feet landward because the land, in most
places, is a gentle slope rising away from the water.
The
white boxes show the same survey data in another way. They show the average
number of feet per year the shore has moved inland. At the location of line
#169 it has been retreating at an average rate of 1.5 feet per year…every year,
and that rate is accelerating!
The
colored lines highlight the second lesson we can gleam from this CRMC image. The
red line is 1939, the black is 1951, the purple is1963, the green is 2012, and the
blue is 2014.
Notice that through 1951
the shoreline was far enough in front of the house and hotel that there was
room for anyone to pass along the beach without problems.
By 2012 the sea had
risen up the land to the point that there was no longer anywhere to walk in an
effort to pass along the beach. By 2014 a person would have to hazard rock
climbing the wall to get by along the shore.
Bear
in mind that people don’t come to Misquamicutt for the restaurants and hotels
and happen to use the beach. The restaurants and hotels only exist there because
of the fabulous, unobstructed, world class strand of sand on which they can
recreate.
Every year the town of Westerly takes in millions of dollars because
of the miles long beach that people can enjoy and “pass along.” Protecting
lateral access along the shore is as much a local economic business issue as it
is an emotional civil rights one.
The
second picture is of a house in Greenhill Beach. The owners of the large home
built a seawall to try to prevent their property from disappearing. That was
legal at the time and was their right (though they may be hastening the erosion
of the adjacent properties), and good luck. But…
People
have walked along this beach as far back as memory of it goes. The blue line is
from 2014 surveying. Even then people would have had to climb over the foot of
the rock wall to pass by.
At the present time (2016), at high tide or after a
big storm, the only safe place to walk is along the top of the rock pile wall
across the house’s yard.
It will be a challenge going forward for shorefront
properties to find ways to accommodate citizens passing along the shore as the
sea advances up and over the land.
The
important take away is that the shoreline location maybe changing, but our
constitutional privileges of the shore are not. There are many, many more locations
in Rhode Island with the same dynamic unfolding.
I
have one last “happening” to report. Check out the photo from the Rose Nulman
Park at Point Judith in Narragansett. The signs posted all along the shore
read, “Pedestrian Easement 10 ft landward of mean high water along shoreline.”
So
I urge all of us to do three things:
1.
Become, and stay, informed about the analysis and projections coming out of the
SAMP project. [http://www.crmc.ri.gov/samp_beach.html]
2.
Participate in local and regional discussions about the process and the local
choices and decisions to come.
3.
Remain steadfast and vigilant in your efforts to preserve the priceless
inheritance of our citizens’ rights to use the shore…for us today and for
generations of Rhode Islanders to come.
This article is
the opinion of the author. Jim Bedell is a geologist and teacher of Marine
Environmental Science, biology and physics who believes that the constitutional
rights of Rhode Islanders to explore the state’s shore are being threatened. He
welcomes comments or questions from readers seeking more background on public
access rights or any coastal issues. He
can be reached by calling 401-499-1405 or e-mailing jimbedell@cox.net.