Could a change in state law keep destination beaches from vanishing?

SANDWICH, Mass. — Cape Cod beaches may look a bit different this summer after being battered by nor'easters all winter.

Images are startling and show signs of major erosion along beaches all over the Cape.

Nina Coleman says the situation is dire. She's the manager of Sandy Neck Park in Sandwich.

"It's the infrastructure that is teetering on the edge of the dune. That's where we have these big erosion events. That's where we start getting into the red zone," Coleman explained.

Coleman said erosion is so bad at the beach, it devoured nearly 40 feet of a dune protecting the parking lot.

The lot brings in $250,000 a year in parking fees. The park was forced to truck in 4,500 cubic yards of sand so those profits wouldn't be eaten too.

"Parking is gold, no doubt on The Cape and many communities are struggling with this right now, the erosion issue and parking lots -- so we don't want to lose any of that," Coleman stated.

MORE: Cape Cod reportedly lost up to 20 feet of beach in blizzard

Nauset Beach in Orleans, one of The Cape's crown jewels, had 60 feet of erosion this winter alone.

The town was forced to demolish Liam's Snack Shack, a local landmark, because it was in danger of collapsing after a series of nor'easters.

"When you have erosion as significant as this, you don't expect to get the sand back in the summer to replace it," said Nate Sears, Orleans' Natural Resources Manager.

BARRIER BEACH, BROKEN IN HALF

In nearby Chatham, the Barrier Beach used to extend from Orleans all the way southward to Monomoy Point, but erosion has chipped away at it.

Ted Keon's, Chatham's Coastal Resource Director, said the blizzard of 1987 broke the Barrier Beach in half and this winter hammered it again.

"We're kind of seeing on a micro-scale, what the world may be seeing on a much larger scale," Keon said.

He said as the break on the Barrier Beach widened, the inner shoreline took the brunt of higher tides and erosion has been swallowing sand for a decade.

"We've seen sea levels rise internally in the harbor system as much as a foot almost overnight and our shoreline is trying to respond to that," Keon said.

Greg Berman is a scientist at the Woods Hole Sea Grant and is an expert on coastal erosion.

"It is alarming that we seem to be having more of this erosion, it is not necessarily unexpected," Berman said.

Berman said erosion has been happening for thousands of years and that 68 percent of the Massachusetts coast is eroding.

He said some of it is manmade because many homes and roads that can't be moved are built right along beaches.

"We have drawn a line that we're assuming the erosion is not going to go past, but the erosion keeps marching on regardless of what we do," Berman said.

To combat erosion, many Cape beaches are being forced to truck in tons of sand, which can cost a ton of money.

LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES

But a citizens advocacy group, the Trustees of Sandwich Beaches, is pushing dredging as a cheaper and more viable alternative for beach nourishment

"Massachusetts does not allow you to take sand from the bay and put it onto beaches.  We're working on that -- to make it a law, so we can get that sand," said Laura Wing, president of the Trustees of Sandwich Beaches.

It's extremely expensive to dredge off the Cape Cod coast and there are numerous environmental issues.

In March, Governor Charlie Baker announced a $1.4 billion climate change bond bill; $165 million of that is targeted for coastal resiliency, including erosion.

MORE: Historic, unprecedented erosion eating away at Cape beaches

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