PLUM ISLAND — The ocean has reclaimed a section of newly replenished beach near Plum Island Center, but most observers say there's no need to panic just yet.
Estimates of the loss range from less than 10 percent to as much as a third of the approximately 120,000 cubic yards of sand deposited along 2,500 feet of shoreline in October by a dredging company under contract to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. of Oak Brook, Ill., dredged the Merrimack River channel to improve navigation and used the sand from the channel to rebuild sections of beach on Plum Island and Salisbury Beach. Work was completed around mid-October.
The most serious erosion appears to be occurring in the area that was most endangered before the beach nourishment project got under way — approximately 550 feet from the stone groin at Plum Island Center northward to about 12 Northern Blvd.
"We're keeping an eye on it," said Donita Rardin, who lives with husband, David, at 4 Northern Blvd. She said she views the erosion with "concern but not alarm at this point. Just keeping a watchful eye. Hopefully, they'll fix the jetty and that will stabilize this area."
Many observers think the culprit in the accelerated beach erosion problem in the last three or four years is the Merrimack River channel's south jetty, off the northern tip of the island.
Several of the jetty's large stone blocks near shore have settled or been displaced, which apparently allows water to scour out the island center. Repair the jetty, people say, and the problem goes away.
Former Newbury Selectman Vincent Russo said similar erosion in the 1960s stopped occurring after the Army Corps repaired the jetty in 1970, the last time any work was done on the structure.
Russo, the owner of beachfront property on the island, is co-chairman of an organization called the Merrimack River Beach Alliance, a coalition of federal, state and local agencies that spent the better part of two years planning and advocating for the beach nourishment project.
State Sen. Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican whose district includes Newbury, is the principal co-chairman of the Beach Alliance.
Russo said fixing the jetty is the long-term solution, and he and Tarr believe it should be the next objective of the Beach Alliance.
Annapolis Way resident Robert Connors said simply rebuilding the jetty may not solve the problem.
"The jetty repair is expedient, but restoring it to its original design, which dates from 1880, may just be perpetuating the current pattern of erosion," he said.
Connors is director of the Plum Island Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy organization that is a member of the Beach Alliance.
Overall, many Plum Island people who worked on the beach nourishment project think that it is a success, despite the gouge that the ocean has taken from the shore in the seven weeks since the work was completed.
"It's holding up really well," said Ron Barrett, president of Plum Island Taxpayers and Associates. "We've lost a little, but we've had a lot of storms."
Barrett is a longtime island activist who convened the original meeting of what became the Beach Alliance two years ago.
"I think it will last the winter," he said. "It all depends on how many storms we have."
Russo estimated that the erosion near Plum Island Center has taken less than 10 percent of the sand.
"What we see at the center near (the former) Jeanne's (restaurant) is a small portion of the total project," he said.
Connors said the island actually got more beach than originally expected from the renourishment project.
The original design called for 20 feet of new dune and 60 feet of new beach, but the actual profile is closer to 60 feet of dune and 80 feet of beach, he said.
"What looks like erosion is just the acclimation of the natural contour of the beach to our tides and wave run-ups," he said.
But Newbury Conservation Agent Doug Packer said he thinks the beach may have lost as much as a third of the new sand.
"I don't think it's realistic to expect that just placing sand on the beach would solve the erosional problem, so it's disappointing to see a third of it gone, but it's not unexpected," Packer said.
Newburyport resident Ross Wescott, who owns property on the island's Fordham Way, was probably the most vigilant observer of the dredging and renourishment work that began around Labor Day. Wescott estimates he took 500 to 600 photographs of the work in progress, which he watched every day — often for hours at a time.
He praised the professionalism and skill of the Great Lakes workers, calling the completed project "a stellar job."
The loss of some sand is not unexpected, he said.
"It seems to me that we've at least bought some time," he said. "The sand is probably staying within the system, so next summer maybe we'll get some of it back."
He said the work of the Beach Alliance showed what's possible when there is real cooperation and a common goal.
"The Beach Alliance is the mechanism for making something happen," he said.
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