Running head: EROSION 1

Erosion: The Issue and Raising Awareness

Blake Taylor

First Colonial High School

Legal Studies Academy

Abstract
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This research paper discusses erosion as a significant environmental concern. It explores the

causes and effects of different types of erosion, such as beach erosion and waterway erosion.

Global warming and ozone depletion are included to give a background of sea level rise, which

worsens the effects of erosion. The prevention and replenishment aspects of erosion are

discussed to show ways to combat the problem. Then the overall cost is explored with an

example that gives an overview of issues that challenge most coastal cities. A court case is added

to show how many industries are not held liable for the damage they leave on the environment.

Finally, a conclusion is provided to give a holistic view of the paper.

Erosion: The Issue and Raising Awareness

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Concern with environmental issues is generally minimal because people aren’t directly

affected by it everyday. Most people don’t notice that the river has gotten wider since last year,

or that their local landfill has grown exponentially in the past few years. Or maybe they do notice

them, but still most people go on about their lives without action. Most aren’t aware that many of

the coastal areas that they currently enjoy won’t be the same when their grandkids are around.

This is because many of these environmental problems are change over time issues, and most

people don’t think that they are serious issues because society can worry about them later. The

problem with this is, there isn’t as much time as people think.

Thesis

Erosion is diminishing our beaches, one of our largest sources of revenue for Virginia

Beach.

Where Erosion Takes Place

Beach erosion or erosion of our dunes can occur because of the ocean waves or current

pulling sand into the water, where it can deposit into other areas in the ocean. Water can also

return sand to the beach. Many people may think that there is no way to prevent this or that there

isn’t fault. Now there really is no way to fully prevent this, but it has worsened because of global

warming melting the polar ice caps, which raises sea level, which makes it so the water level

rises to places it hasn’t been before, increasing the problem of dune erosion. Some areas have

been trying to slow or delay erosion by adding sand back to the beach, which will really only

help gain revenue in the short term, but in the long term, that sand will eventually be taken from

the beach. Receding sand also affects the trees that are close or on the beach; some trees that

once were located close to the water but were safe and healthy are now being drowned by the

rising water level and receding dunes. In 2010, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials said “As erosion
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worsened, the cost to American taxpayers of repeated destruction of the parking lot and

causeway from rising sea levels would only increase” ("Special Report: As Seas Rise, a Slow-

motion Disaster Gnaws at U.S. Shores," 2014).

Erosion is not limited to waterways, but it can take place on land too. Land erosion is a

problem for people with low lying areas, or areas susceptible to significant waterfall and

accumulation. Farmlands also have runoff fertilizer, nutrients, and toxic chemicals that can be

hazardous to plants and animals, especially if they were to accumulate in a body of water.

Global Warming

The Greenhouse effect is a description of how the Earth warms itself. It does this by

sunlight coming and hitting the ozone layer; some is reflected and the rest is absorbed into the

atmosphere and goes into a continuous cycle of reradiating the Earth. What is also happening is

the burning of fossil fuels by human is causing earth warming because of the gases released

when burning them. Because little of the gases escapes the atmosphere, the rest stays in and

causes the Earth's temperature to rise ("Greenhouse Effect," n.d.).

Ozone depletion is largely caused by Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. These CFCs go up

into the atmosphere and they come into contact with ultraviolet rays. Once in the atmosphere,

they break down into chemicals that react with oxygen, which destroys the ozone molecule

(Thiessen, 2009). “Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases

that remain semi-permanently in the atmosphere and do not respond physically or chemically to

changes in temperature are described as ‘forcing’ climate change.” These certain gases include

water vapor (H20), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), and carbon dioxide (CO2). ("Climate

Change Causes: A Blanket around the Earth," 2017).

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Water vapor “acts as a feedback to the climate. Water vapor increases as the Earth's

atmosphere warms, but so does the possibility of clouds and precipitation, making these some of

the most important feedback mechanisms to the greenhouse effect.” Carbon dioxide is “released

through natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions and through human activities

such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels.” Humans have also attributed to

carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by more than one third since the industrial revolution. Methane

gas is released from both natural and unnatural sources including “decomposition of wastes in

landfills, agriculture, and especially rice cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and manure

management associated with domestic livestock.” Methane is a much “more active greenhouse

gas than carbon dioxide,” but because there is less of it in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide still

has a greater contribution to the greenhouse effect. Nitrous oxide is “A powerful greenhouse gas

produced by soil cultivation practices, especially the use of commercial and organic fertilizers,

fossil fuel combustion, nitric acid production, and biomass burning.” ("Climate Change Causes:

A Blanket around the Earth," 2017) .

Global warming has caused the sea to rise an average of 1.8 millimeters per year over the

past 100 years, with a total of about 7 inches for the century. Small islands will soon be engulfed

by the rising water levels (Warne, 2017). Global warming is important to consider when

considering erosion because sea level rise is a large contributing factor to receding shoreline and

therefore worsening erosion.

Prevention and Replenishment

Beach nourishment is a temporary option, but it is typically not good for the ecosystem

that the sand is taken from, and it also doesn’t do anything to try to slow future erosion. It is

simply putting more sand somewhere continually and knowing it will disappear over time. It is
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also a very expensive process. Beach nourishment in Delaware costs about $15 million every ten

years ("The Cost of Beach Retreat vs. the Cost of Beach Nourishment," n.d.). Some of the

environmental effects include the following: disturbance in environment due to the construction

equipment brought in to nourish the beach, the sand grain may be a different size and chemical

makeup than the sand that is naturally on the beach, and the sand placed can kill species living

there, and repeated replenishment can prevent the species from flourishing like they once did

("Beach Nourishment," n.d.).

Seawalls are various types of hard structure walls making a defining line between land

and water. Sea walls offer years of protection for an area and also require much less space to be

effective than other alternatives.Vertical seawalls are generally the least effective, as they take

much more impact from the force of the waves. These currents also hit the bottom of the sea

wall, and the water rebounds and carries away sediment from the bottom of the vertical sea wall

causing trenches. This is why most seawalls are sloped, which causes the wave to break and

therefore less impact from the wave, or contain irregular surfaces, which will cause the wave

reflection to split into different directions. However, sea walls aren’t cheap. “Some of the best

unit cost information is given by the English Environment Agency (2007), for unit costs relevant

to the UK. This source gives an average construction cost for seawalls of US$2.65 million (at

2009 price levels)” This is a good alternative to beach replenishment because it is less expensive.

("Seawalls," n.d.). A great example of a seawall is in Galveston Texas, whose giant seawall is

seventeen feet tall and covers about 7 miles of the shoreline. This seawall not only protects their

coastline from the tides of the Gulf of Mexico, but also has become an additional source of

recreational activity for people to walk or bike on ("Seawall Web Cam Live from Galveston,

Texas," n.d.).
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Marshes naturally trap sand and other sediments. When water pushes the sediments into a

marsh, the plants trap them in and this allows the ground level to keep up with the water level

(US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2016).

Marshes not only act as a sediment trap, but they also act as a filtering system for hazardous

chemicals, excess nutrients, and disease causing organisms ("Marine Biodiversity Wiki," n.d.).

Living shorelines are the natural shorelines that contain natural materials such as plant,

rock, and sand. These shorelines are the preferred alternative for Virginia Beach, and if possible,

they are required to use them (US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration, 2016). A product called Flexamat® or Tied Concrete Block Mat (generic) is a

new technology that is making it much easier to start and maintain a living shoreline. “Flexamat

consists of concrete shapes, locked together with a high strength, polypropylene geogrid. There

are openings around each concrete block that give Flexamat the flexibility and enable it to be

packaged in rolls.” This has been a breakthrough for coastal erosion protection, because of its

natural function as a living shoreline, and the use of concrete to act as a sort of seawall.

There are also many ways to inhibit erosion that doesn’t take place near a large body of

water. There are prevention methods to excessive rainfall in low-lying areas or slopes. The first

method is using contour swales, which are ditches made in an environment to control the flow of

water. With the area left by the ditch, berms are used to soak up and disperse the water. Berms

are materials placed in the ditch, typically wood chips, soil, mulch, or brush, which then move

the water into them and this makes the sides of a contour swale a place great to plant trees or

shrubs ("Erosion Control," n.d.). Using these types of surface erosion protection, farms would

have greater yield and less harmful fertilizer and chemical runoff.

The Cost
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The ASBPA says:

A recent study of the beaches in the state of Delaware(1) weighs the cost of beach retreat

against the cost of beach nourishment over the next 50 years. The study concluded that

the cost of retreating from eroding coasts will be approximately four times the cost of

renourishing the state’s beaches. To reach this conclusion, the study considers four types

of costs associated with a policy of retreat. The first is land loss. As the beach erodes, the

coastline moves inland. Over the next 50 years, there will be a significant loss to the total

acreage of the state of Delaware. While it is beachfront that will be eroded, the loss of

land will reduce the amount of inland land. As the coastline moves in, some beach will

always exist along the water’s edge. However, this beach will be created from land

formerly used for residential, commercial and agricultural purposes. The second type of

loss associated with beach retreat is capital loss. Capitol loss considers the extent to

which beachfront structures are lost to the ocean as it migrates inland. These include

homes, commercial buildings, boardwalks and parking lots. Capitol loss also includes

costs for maintenance and adjustments to preserve the structures to extend their use

before their inevitable loss. Proximity loss is the third cost of beach retreat. Because

people are aware of the eroding coastline, there will be less development near the beach.

Proximity to beaches adds value to homes, there will be a loss of value due to

development further away from the beach. In addition, beachfront structures along a

retreating coastline will depreciate in value when compared with the value of the same

structures along a stable coastline. As the final cost of beach retreat, the study cites

transition loss. As the coastline moves inland, existing structures will have to be

removed. If any structures are to be relocated further from the coastline, then transition
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loss accounts for the cost of moving them. Next, these four costs are calculated over the

next 50 years. Using the historic rates of erosion along the Delaware coastline, the study

estimates the cost of beach retreat between 2000 and 2049 to be $291 million. The study

concludes cost of beach nourishment is about $15 million dollars per decade. Therefore,

the cost of replenishing the beaches is about $60 million over the next half century. This

is a significant savings over retreat, and the most economically practical option.

This quote is used to give a detailed example of the full cost of erosion. This helps build a

fully developed view of erosion because it explains all the different types types of cost, whether

it is the physical cost of damage to land and property, or the economic cost of attempting to

protect the shorelines and maintaining oceanfront tourism and therefore revenue. This quote is

also a good example because it talks specifically about beaches in Delaware, which are similar

Virginia Beach in the fact that they bring in a lot of tourists which makes the beach a huge spot

for development ("The Cost of Beach Retreat vs. the Cost of Beach Nourishment," n.d.).

Court Case

Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority – East v. Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.

was a case disputing whether or not the defendants were liable for the destruction and land loss

that they had caused by dredging canals. The dredging caused exponential land loss and damages

to the surrounding area. The owners of the property in the surrounding area (Levee Board) filed

suit that alleged state-law claims based on tort, contract, nuisance and property law. “The

plaintiff Levee Board’s premise was that the defendants’ operations caused land loss, land loss

reduced the ‘buffer’ of marshland between areas in the Board’s flood protection jurisdiction and

the Gulf.” Because of this receding buffer, the storms would come further to the shore with more

force, and ultimately damage the levee system that the plaintiff is responsible for. “When the
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lawsuit was filed in 2013, environmentalists hailed it as an effort to hold the industry

accountable.” Most saw this as the opportunity to hold a big industry responsible for the

destruction and pollution of an area, but it didn't turn out well. U.S. District Judge Nannette

Jolivette Brown’s “ruling said the authority’s levees were too far from, or too indirectly affected

by, the damage allegedly caused by the industry.” (McGill, 2017). The ruling once again allowed

another big industry to get away with harming the environment, but this was the only coastal

lawsuit to make it to federal court in Louisiana, which is why it received so much attention

(Institute for Energy Law, n.d.).

Conclusion

As shown throughout the paper, there are many ways to combat erosion. Seawalls, beach

nourishment, and living shorelines were all explored, as well as some other options to prevent

rainfall from accumulating in unwanted areas. “While coastal erosion affects all regions of the

United States, erosion rates and potential impacts are highly localized. Average coastline

recession rates of 25 feet per year are not uncommon on some barrier islands” ("U.S. Climate

Resilience Toolkit," n.d.). This quote shows the significance of how much our coastlines can be

affected and why erosion is an ongoing environmental concern. Seawalls and living shorelines

are fantastic ways to protect the coastlines that mean a lot to landowners and tourists alike.

However, there is no way to fully prevent erosion, only ways to slow the progression of it.

Global warming and ozone depletion was discussed to show their roles in sea-level rise, which in

turn causes shorelines to recede further. Legal aspects were also explored, and it was shown how

little manufacturers and industries are actually held accountable for the destruction and pollution

they cause.
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Erosion: The Issue and Raising Awareness
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