Cockle Cove Beach in Chatham
CHATHAM – Chatham Selectmen have unanimously approved a beach nourishment plan at two of the town’s most popular, and profitable, beaches.
Both Harding and Cockle Cove beaches have been hit hard by recent storms, chipping away sand at what are already dwindling shorelines.
“It’s been ongoing for quite awhile,” Chatham Director of Natural Resources Robert Duncanson told the board.
“But recently with some of the storms we’ve had out of the southwest, if you were down there after that most recent blow-about two weeks ago we actually lost art of parking lot at Cockle Cove for the first time in in many, many years.”
The beaches bring roughly $250,000 into town coffers each summer, but town officials fear that any further loss of beach will lead to overcrowding and may lead beachgoers to soak up sun elsewhere.
The project calls for regular deposits of sediment to be deposited at Cockle Cove beach every five years beginning next year, at an estimated cost of $450,000.
At Harding Beach the deposits will begin the following year, repeated every seven years at a rough cost of $300,000.
“As you know, our south facing Nantucket Sound beaches are some of the primary assets to the town” said Duncanson.
“It’s where our three pay beaches are, but it’s also recently that the southside it’s taken a fairly significant hit from erosion.”
During his presentation Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon told the board that the sand will be obtained using the county dredge program.
Keon said that the town is lucky to have adequate sand sources which have already been permitted for dredging.
By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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