EASTHAM – A coastal geologist with the Center For Coastal Studies in Provincetown met with Eastham selectmen last week to explain how dredging a channel located near the Nauset slip could accelerate erosion.
Mark Borelli said the barrier is rapidly changing at an abnormally rapid speed.
“Because the barrier right now is in a transitional phase things are changing there rapidly more so than normal, more so than other places.”
Borelli explained that the action of dredging would reduce the widening of the barrier beach that occurs during wash over events.
“And it’s getting flatter right there but it’s also getting wider that means that sand is washing over from the beach all across the barrier and its depositing and its depositing and that’s how a barrier responds to sea level rise,” he said.
This has served as a problem for commercial fisherman, and rescue and safety vessels.
However, according to Borelli, keeping the barrier in place will be a difficult task.
“If you want to hold it in place that becomes problematic because all the wave energy and all the tidal currents are working to put the barrier in a certain place and now you’re going to try to fight that. It’s not impossible but it’s something that takes a lot of work a lot of sand and a lot of effort,” he said.
Borelli’s findings are aligned with the dredging plan conducted by the town.
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