Posted on October 9, 2023
Erosion on the Isle of Palms continues to be a big concern for IOP city leaders and property owners.
Council members, the mayor and coastal engineering experts met Tuesday afternoon to discuss short term solutions.
The issue is so urgent that city leaders took action, approving more than a million dollars to fund short-term solutions for the erosion.
Beach erosion has long been a problem on the Isle of Palms
“There’s a lot of concern,” City councilmember Rusty Streetman said.
However, the city says it’s starting to get worse.
“Some of our residents down there have hit the critical line of 20 feet, water within 20 feet of their structure,” Mayor Phillip Pounds said.
The city has no control over one of the major causes of the erosion, king tides.
“Tides were supposed to be 6 and a half feet and with the winds and waves, it was about 8 and half, so pretty significant difference than what we were expecting,” Pounds said.
However, what leaders say they can control, is their response to the issue.
Pounds said, “We need some immediate relief and some immediate guidance to our residents down there on what they can and can’t do.”
“Beach erosion will always be here, it’s a fact of life. We live with it so we just have to try and plan as well as we can to handle that,” Streetman said.
The city approved about one and a half million dollars to continue digging sand from the shoreline for dune renourishment.
It’s a project that has been ongoing since tropical storm Idalia hit in August.
They also say they’ll use that money to bring in more sand if needed and provide sandbags for residents who need them.
Streetman said, “We also have a beach renourishment fund that is taxed onto the accommodations tax, that is targeted just for beach renourishment.”
In January, a long-term renourishment project in partnership with the Army Corp of Engineers will begin.
They’re going to rebuild some of the beach in hopes of mitigating erosion for years to come.
