August 2015 � Delaware Beach Life 4342 Delaware Beach Life � August 2015

Shoreline changes that follow beachreplenishment projects spark complaints from

wave riders — and safety concerns from others

An incoming wave carries a line of surfersand boogie boarders to shore.

Jim McGrath isn’t certain of theexact day. But sometime in July 2014, he wandered down to the beach fromhis Bethany Surf Shop and noted howrough the surf was.

“There must have been a storm outin the ocean,” he says. “Whatever it was,the swell was big and there were somereally nasty shore breaks.”

The waves were crashing onto thesand with such intensity, he recalls, that“people were getting hurt like crazy.” Hetold a nearby member of the BethanyBeach Patrol that the beach should beclosed. “Swimming in that was a goodway to get killed,” he recalls.

And sure enough, a short time later

the beach was closed. Lifeguards postedsigns warning that it was not safe to ven-ture into the water.

Of course, Delaware’s Atlanticbeaches have always had their occasion-al days of heavy surf — days that waveriders of all sorts welcomed with relish.But in recent years the state’s shorelinehas changed so much that a day at thebeach, heavy surf or not, sometimesisn’t as much fun as it used to be,McGrath asserts.

Sand replenishment projects havemade the slope steeper, he notes, andhave covered up groins and jetties thatused to make waves start to curl fartherfrom shore. Now, waves don’t break until

BreakBy Lynn R. Parks | Photographs by Chuck Snyder

44 Delaware Beach Life � August 2015

obvious,” he says. “I saw a big difference assoon as the first replenishment project wasdone. Now just a 2-foot wave is potentiallydangerous.”

Joe Donnelly is captain of the BethanyBeach Patrol. He acknowledges that follow-ing replenishment projects, waves that rollashore aren’t great for surfing.

“Beach nourishment changes the topo-graphy and the way that waves break andwe don’t get those rolling waves that peo-ple like to ride,” he allows.

But he disagrees that the beach is lesssafe than it used to be: “There is a notice-able difference in the beach and I under-stand that for a lot of people, that’s a veryemotional issue. And I know that it’s acommon belief among a lot of surfers thatthe beach is more dangerous. But there isno evidence to support that. The statisticsdon’t back them up.”

The Army Corps of Engineers, whichoversees the replenishment projects, echoesthis. “It’s important to bear in mind thatthe oceanfront itself is an inherently haz-

August 2015 � Delaware Beach Life 45

they hit the shore, making many of the state’s beachesunsuitable for surfing.

“In the old days, we used to surf for an hour a day, oreven two,” McGrath says. “Now, that’s all gone, gone,gone.”

Colin Herlihy agrees. A native of Bethany Beach andowner of the Wave Riding School in Ocean City, Herlihyhas been surfing for 30 years — since he was 4: “I wouldride my bike to the beach every day to surf. Now, I don’teven try. They have ruined it for surfing. Sometimes, I juststand on the boardwalk and look out over the ocean. Itdefinitely makes me sad.”

When Herlihy and McGrath want to surf, they headsouth to Assateague Island. There has been no beachreplenishment project at that barrier island, and the waves break the same as they always have.

In a 2014 report titled “The State of Surfing inDelaware,” the Delaware chapter of the Surfrider Foun-dation (an international group dedicated to protectingthe world’s beaches) says that of the nine coastal Sussexbeaches that used to attract surfers, only two — at CapeHenlopen State Park’s Herring Point and the south sideof the Indian River Inlet — remain surfable.

“Most surfers agree that beach nourishment has nega-

tively impactedsurfing in Delaware bysteepening shore slopeangles, causing waves tobreak closer to shore,and by burying groins insand,” the report says.The beaches it citeswhere waves are nolonger good for surfing:Cape Henlopen at Gordons Pond, Rehoboth Beach,Dewey Beach, Delaware Seashore Tower Road, the northside of the Indian River Inlet, Bethany Beach and FenwickIsland.

And to some, there’s more to this situation than simplya loss of surfing spots. Herlihy and McGrath both say thatthe new beach conditions are dangerous — for swimmersas well as for surfers and even anyone who just likes towade in the shallows.

“The waves now come in with such force,” McGrathsays. “Even a small wave throws you down so hard thatyou can be injured.”

Dan Herlihy, Colin’s dad, has been surfing Delawarewaters for more than 50 years. “The changes are quite

People familiar with coastal Sussex beach condi-tions say renourishment projects have reshapedthe shore break, creating dangerous conditionsfor swimmers like these young women, surfersand people just wading in shallow water.

Groins and JettiesAlthough many Delaware

beachgoers refer to the rock-and-timber structures jutting out from local

beaches as “jetties,” they are more accu-rately called “groins.”Groins are built perpendicular to the shore-

line. Intended to control erosion, their purposeis to trap sand being carried along the coast,suspended in the waves. Jetties are much larger structures, typically

constructed to stabilize shorelines along water-ways, such as at Indian River Inlet and RooseveltInlet in Lewes. �

August 2015 � Delaware Beach Life 47Photograph by Kevin Fleming

ardous environment,” says Edward Voigt, spokesman for the corps’Philadelphia office. “The presence of lifeguards in almost everybeach community is testament enough to that fact. We simplyhave found no statistical, factual basis for directly correlatingbeach nourishment one-on-one with swimming or surfinginjuries.”

What the numbers say Delaware’s first major beach project was done in 2005 in

Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach and Fenwick Island. Major projects followed in Bethany Beach and South Bethany in 2008.Beaches were extended seaward to provide more room betweenthe surf and oceanfront properties and to allow space forconstruction of grassy protective dunes.

Replenishment projects were done again in 2009 (Rehoboth,Dewey, Bethany and South Bethany), 2011 (Bethany, SouthBethany and Fenwick Island) and 2012 (Rehoboth, Dewey,Bethany and South Bethany). Another project in 2013 at all fivebeaches restored areas damaged in October 2012 by HurricaneSandy.

The wider beaches and the dunes were credited with limitingSandy’s impact on Sussex County’s ocean resort communities. Butthe wide beaches also meant that groins that had extended intothe ocean, many of which were built in the 1930s, were buried insand. The Surfrider Delaware chapter says that construction ofthose groins is what made for surfable waves in the first place.When water runs into the structures, the natural flow of sand thatis riding in on the waves is interrupted and sandbars form. Those

46 Delaware Beach Life � August 2015

deposits of sand mean that waves, traveling over anuneven ocean floor, start curling sooner than they wouldotherwise.

In addition, replenishment projects made the beacheshigher, creating a steeper slope down to the ocean. Wavesare affected by their “swell period,” the length of time thatthey travel over shallow water. As the friction of the oceanfloor slows them down, the wave energy is pushedupward, causing an increase in height. A gradually slop-ing ocean floor makes for a taller wave as well as one thatcurls over more slowly, something that surfers love. Moresteeply sloping bottoms result in a faster wave with amore upright face.

Jason Wilson, owner of Alley-Oop Skim in DeweyBeach, says that for skimboarders, especially experiencedones, the new surf conditions are good, because they canride up the waves that roll onto the beach. “We like heavyshore break,” he says.

But, he adds, “as a general statement, I would say thatbeach replenishment has made surfing conditions on ourbeaches worse. The waves don’t roll into the beach asmuch. You have deep water, then you get to the shoreline,and the waves just slam onto the beach.”

And he agrees with Herlihy and McGrath that thebeach isn’t as safe as it once was: “Swimming conditionsare potentially dangerous. You walk in and all of a suddenyou are in chest-deep water. The waves are slamming intothe beach and it’s hard to swim. It’s tough even just tohang out on the shore.”

Jason Wilson, of Dewey, says the new surf conditions are favorable for skimboarding, but detrimental to surfing and even swimming.

Beach replenishment work takes place in Rehoboth in 2012. Supporters saypumping sand to widen beaches and fortify dunes helps offset erosion andlessens damage during storms.

A Physician’s PerspectiveWhile the University of Delaware and the state study

whether Sussex beaches are different from how they used tobe, Dr. Paul Cowan, chief of emergency medicine at BeebeHealthcare, is conducting an investigation too. It has nothingto do with beach replenishment; rather, he is trying to figureout what environmental variables make it more likely thatsomeone standing or swimming in the surf will be injured.The variables being examined include water temperature,wind speed and direction and wave height.

The Beebe study, being done in collaboration withDNREC, the University of Delaware and five ocean beachpatrols, is in its sixth year. It started when Cowan noticedthat people coming to the emergency department with surf-related injuries seemed to come in clusters. “Some days, wewould see a lot of injuries, then we would have a period oftime where there were very few,” he says. Cowan wanted tofind out why that was, so beachgoers could be warned ofconditions more likely to cause injuries.

He keeps a record of people who arrive at the emergencydepartment during the summer months with injuries incurredwhile in the surf. Those injuries range from scrapes and abra-sions to broken bones, even death. Some have occurred whenthe injured person was only ankle-deep in water.

Through Labor Day 2014, 1,519 people had been includ-ed in the study, which Cowan says isn’t extensive enough todraw any conclusions. But he does offer one piece of advicefor anyone going to the beach: “Never turn your back on thewaves. You wouldn’t try to cross Route 1 blindfolded. Ignor-ing the ocean when you’re on the beach is kind of the samething.” �

A Fisherman’s ViewSurfers aren’t the only people com-

plaining about the effects of beachnourishment. Rich King, a regular surffisherman and owner of the websiteDelaware Surf Fishing, says that withthe seaward beach extensions, thefishing isn’t as good as it used to be.

“Replenishment changes the ‘struc-ture’ — holes, sandbars and shoals —that hold fish,” he says. “When thatstructure is filled in, it no longer holdsfish.”

Over time, King says, currents movesand around, which re-creates thestructure. But that process can take acouple of years.

King would like to see the planningfor beach replenishment have a broaderfocus. “Recreation is never consideredby these projects,” he said. “Plannersjust think about protecting property,and creating pretty beaches for peopleto sit on and enjoy the view.”

And that runs contrary to the histo-ry of coastal Sussex, he adds: “Most ifnot all of our beach towns were createdaround the fishing and recreationindustries.” �

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August 2015 � Delaware Beach Life 4948 Delaware Beach Life � August 2015

Donnelly of the Bethany Beach Patrolsays that records simply don’t back up thatassertion. In the past 10 years, he says, thenumber of medical emergencies onBethany Beach has remained fairly steady.

Even so, those records do show anincrease in medical emergencies followingthe initial beach rebuilding project. In thesummer of 2008, the first summer with thenew, wider beaches, lifeguards respondedto 28 medical emergencies requiring thatan ambulance be called. That number wasup from 11 the year before. (The beachpatrol records don’t break out the numberof medical emergencies that involve a surfinjury. Included in those 28 calls couldhave been people having heart attacks, forexample, or suffering from sunstroke.)

In 2009, following the second project,there were 24 medical emergencies. Sincethen:

2010, no replenishment project — 15emergencies2011, no project — 192012, after third project — 20 2013, no project — 15 2013, after post-Sandy repairs — 152014, no project — 10

Donnelly insists that there is no rhymeor reason to explain when surf injuriesoccur. “There are so many variables that gointo whether someone gets in trouble,” hesays. “The weather. The number of peopleon the beach. Whether it’s raining or hot orsunny. Whether the surf is heavy or light.It’s so random; to try to draw conclusionsbased on anything is a frustrating process.

People want a reason for something.They want to pinpoint something, Iunderstand that. But in this case, youcan’t pinpoint anything.”

Douglas Scott, emergency medicalservices chief with the Bethany BeachVolunteer Fire Co., agrees with Donnellythat there isn’t any correlation betweensand replenishment and the number ofsurf injuries his department responds to.Even so, he acknowledges that the beachhas changed. “I grew up here and I knowthat there’s a difference in the beach,” hesays. “The waves used to roll in nice andeasy. Now, there really is a shore break.People just have to be careful.”

Kent Buckson, captain of the RehobothBeach Patrol, tells a different story. He hascoined a new phrase for the area wherewater meets sand: the “impact zone.” The slope of the replenished beach issuch that there is a “trough” between itand the surf, he says.

“People get caught in that trough,”Buckson explains. “When they see a bigwave coming, they try to run out and it’shard because the beach is so steep. They

turn their backs on the waves to run bet-ter, then they get caught from behind andthe wave slams them down on the beach.That’s when we see injuries.”

For people riding waves on boards,“that slope makes for a dead stop,” headds. “There’s no more just gliding in ona wave.”

Statistics from Buckson’s beach patrolseem to back him up. Between 2001 and2014, the number of spinal (includingneck) injuries that lifeguards respondedto peaked at 38 in 2005, the summer thatfirst rebuilding project was completed.The previous year, there were 12. Thenumber has dipped below 20 only twoyears since then, in 2007 (17) and in 2013(six). Last year, lifeguards in Rehobothresponded to 28 spinal injuries.

“I understand that beach replenish-ment is necessary,” Buckson allows. “Wedon’t want to have property damage instorms. But the way the beach is now canhurt a lot of people.”

Tim Ferry, captain of the FenwickIsland Beach Patrol, says that immediate-ly following sand nourishment projects,

In its report “The State of Surfing in Delaware,” the state chapter of theSurfrider Foundation points to HerringPoint, on the southern end of Cape Hen-lopen State Park, as one place where thestate took into account the concerns ofsurfers in a project to replace dilapidatedgroins with new ones. That project“demonstrated the potential success incollaborative shoreline managementplanning,” the report says. Other projects,to replenish washed-away beaches, havebeen completed “with little or no consid-eration of surfing.”

Herring Point is the one of two spotswhere surfing is still possible in Delaware,the group says. A photograph in thereport, titled “Surf Break Created by GroinEffect,” shows the beach at Herring Point;several waves are rolling into shore afterbeginning to break on the seaward end ofthe stone groin.

According to Kimberly McKenna, acoastal geologist with the division’sShoreline and Waterway ManagementSection, groins were initially built at Her-

ring Point by the U.S. Navy, when thearea was still part of Fort Miles. Thestructures — low seawalls built at a rightangle from the shore — helped to protecta bluff in which one of the fort’s batterieswas built. The construction probablyoccurred in the 1960s, she says.

That section of the shoreline wasturned over to the state by the federalgovernment in the 1970s.

Thirty years later, the groins werefalling apart and the bluff was threat-ened with erosion. “So around 2006,[representatives with] the Shoreline andWaterway Management Section metwith local stakeholders — surfers, surffishermen, beach users and historicalinterest groups — to discuss options forprotecting the bluff,” McKenna says. Thegroup decided to rehabilitate the twoexisting groins.

McKenna acknowledges that thatproject did take into account what thesurfers wanted. “But the design had tosatisfy the needs of all the user groups,”she adds. �

Doing Right by Surfers at Herring PointThere are so many

variables that go intowhether someone getsin trouble.”

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50 Delaware Beach Life � August 2015

surf conditions are pretty rough. But henotes that in Fenwick, natural sand move-ment soon takes care of that. This summer,he says, “the beach is in great shape.”

And he disagrees with Buckson that thebeach replenishment projects have madethe beaches less safe than they used to be.“I don’t see any significant increases inbeach medical injuries after beach replen-ishment,” he says.

Slope and sand grainsIn the face of complaints from the

surfing community, the state’s WatershedStewardship Division and the Universityof Delaware’s Center for Applied CoastalResearch are conducting a study to deter-mine what changes, if any, have occurredalong the state’s ocean shoreline. Kimber-ly McKenna, a coastal geologist with thedivision’s Shoreline and Waterway Man-agement Section, says that the study wasstarted in August 2014 and is expected tobe completed in August 2016. Scientistsare collecting information about thebeach profile from the landward toe ofthe dune, through the surf zone and outto a water depth of 30 feet and making

comparisons to see how it has changedover time.

The state has consistently measured thebeaches since the 1990s and has some datadating back to the 1960s, McKenna says.Now, measurements are taken twice a year,in the winter and again in the summer.

“We have been hearing complaints for many years now, and this study willgive us a good scientific base so we knowwhat’s happening,” she explains. “After weknow what the data says, we will sit downwith the people who design the beachesto identify the key elements in futuredesigns.”

The cost of the study is $236,521, withfunding provided through the state’s BeachPreservation Act.

McKenna is hesitant to say whetherbeach replenishment is causing the prob-lems that surfers and others describe. “Thatis something that we are trying to answer,”she says.

Dr. Jack Puleo, an associate professorwith the UD Center for Applied CoastalResearch who is working on the study,notes that the quality of the sand pumpedonto the beach from offshore — its density

as well the size of its grains — could affectthe beach slope.

Indeed, the coarseness of the importedsand is something else that Herlihy,McGrath and Wilson have noticed. “Now,it’s almost like a cobblestone shoreline,”Wilson says. “It’s not the fine sand that weused to have.”

“After that 2005 project, the beach wasmade up of pebbles and rocks,” Bucksonsays. “It was a nightmare.”

McKenna acknowledges that that earlyproject deposited “more gravel than wasexpected.” Sand used in recent projects hascome from the Fenwick Shoal, the shallowarea just off the Atlantic coast that the Fen-wick Island lighthouse was intended towarn sailors to stay away from. The shoal“has been a good source for sand andmatches the ‘native’ grain size,” she says.

Seeking a better wayFenwick beach patrol captain Ferry

asserts that as the sand replenishment proj-ects have progressed, they have gotten bet-ter. In addition to a higher quality of sand,the grading has improved to create a morenatural beach.

August 2015 � Delaware Beach Life 51

Buckson agrees about the sand. But heisn’t so sure about the grading. He’d like tosee Rehoboth Beach kept at a lower eleva-tion, lessening the drop-off to the water.

Buckson also suggests that the statereplace the groins and put sandbars inabout 100 yards offshore of the state’sresort towns. That suggestion has the sup-port of the local Surfrider chapter. “Thestate of surfing in Delaware will continueto deteriorate unless shoreline managersbegin to consider surf break restoration inthe design and implementation of proj-ects,” its 2014 report says.

Those groins would act as the old onesdid: to encourage waves to start curlingfarther out. They would also, Buckson pre-dicts, lessen the energy of the waves so thatbeach erosion would be diminished andreplenishment projects wouldn’t have to berepeated so frequently. Now, the resortbeaches are slated for renourishment everythree years.

Colin Herlihy, the veteran BethanyBeach surfer, believes that the solutionlies in the Army Corps of Engineers tak-ing into consideration surfing and otherbeach recreation activities when theydesign replenishment projects. “It seemslike they don’t even know what a goodsurfing wave is,” he complains.

But the projects that the state has con-ducted so far are designed with one purposein mind, and that’s to protect the beach andoceanfront property from flooding. “Thegoal here is storm protection,” McKennasays. “It would have to be up to the designengineers to determine if the modificationsproposed by the surfers would work.”

“We design these projects based onoptimal level of storm protection; all otherbenefits are ancillary,” says Voigt with theArmy Corps of Engineers. At the requestof a community, the corps “will considerrecreation,” he adds. But any changes tothe plan cannot “compromise flood riskmanagement benefits, increase cost ordelay construction.”

Buckson believes that making thebeaches better for recreation would beworth whatever effort or money it wouldtake.

“When you do projects that changesomething that is visited by thousands ofpeople, you need to design them so thatthey don’t hurt anybody,” he says. �

Lynn R. Parks is a regular contributor to DelawareBeach Life.