Newport’s only public beach is eroding. Should the city save it?

Newport has one public beach and it’s washing away fast. The severe storms this past winter have exacerbated erosion at Easton’s Beach, which was already eroding at alarming rates. Now, Newport officials want voters to decide whether to fund a multi-million dollar sand replenishment project to help shore up the beach. Some people are questioning whether it’s the smartest idea as sea levels continue to rise and storms get stronger.

According to some scientists, Easton’s Beach, also called First Beach, is currently eroding away at a rate of 1.2 feet per year. The Atlantic Ocean is already destroying buildings at the beach, threatening infrastructure, and endangering the very existence of the beach itself, the sand.

The Newport Beach Commission is the public body charged with maintaining the beach, a task that has been increasingly difficult in recent years. As the climate continues to warm, storms are getting worse. Over the past winter, three major storms wreaked havoc on the beach. They destroyed parts of concrete walkways, flooded buildings. They carried seawater past the beach, into the road, and very nearly into the town’s water supply. The storms were a reminder of the uncertain future ahead for Easton Beach and the tough decisions the city needs to make.

“I think it kind of really was eye opening in terms of how far we are into this sea level rise and erosion concern,” said Rick Klaffky, chair of Newport’s Beach Commission.

The storms also sealed the fate for two beloved structures that had been too heavily destroyed to save: the nearly 75-year-old building that housed the vintage carousel, and the snack bar. The city is set to finish demolishment on those by next week. But in their stead remains a question of whether to rebuild the beloved attractions and the beach itself.

“The beach is a vital part of Newport. It’s a big part of the character of Newport and it’s also a big economic draw for Newport,” said Klaffky.

Pending approval by the General Assembly, Newport voters will vote on a $98.5 million dollar bond this November that includes $12 million dollars in funding to add sand to the beach to try to preserve it. And the beach commission will consider a study that could include rebuilding the snack bar and the carousel. Some beachgoers think it’s worth spending money to preserve Easton’s Beach, but other people are questioning whether that’s a great idea.

On March 28, Rhode Island environmental advocacy organization Save The Bay opened its new aquarium in downtown Newport on America’s Cup Avenue, near the ferry docks. The organization relocated from its old location on Easton’s Beach after winter storms began to threaten its animals. The aim of the aquarium is to show visitors the marine life that’s in the bay, such as sea urchins, star fish, sting rays, sand sharks, and lots of carnivorous snails. Save The Bay Executive Director Topher Hamblett is hoping visitors will be inspired to help protect Narragansett Bay and its watershed by seeing the sea creatures.

“Most of the species here are from Narragansett Bay, and we borrow them from the bay and we return them to the bay,” he said.

Hamblett says an event 12 years ago prompted the organization to begin considering their move to higher ground. In 2012, the storm surge from Superstorm Sandy cut off electricity to the building and threatened the animals.

“So we released almost all the animals that we had back into the bay, before the storm really hit. And we found a temporary safe home for the ones that we couldn’t return back into the bay,” Hamblett said.

At that point, Save The Bay realized it needed a more sustainable solution going forward. Scientists think damage from Superstorm Sandy was exacerbated by climate change. And it’s widely accepted in the scientific community that storms and ocean surges are expected to get worse as oceans continue to warm. So immediately after the storm, even as it was rebuilding its Easton’s Beach aquarium, Save The Bay began looking for higher ground.

“It was a real wake up call that we needed to move,” he said.

The aquarium moved its animals to the new center in downtown Newport shortly before the sea began walloping the buildings at Easton’s Beach this winter.

“We thank our lucky stars that we made the move when we did,” Hamblett said.

Save The Bay director of restoration Wenley Ferguson said this winter’s storms brought just as much erosion to the beach as Sandy did. But despite the building destruction at the beach and the disappearing sand, Ferguson is opposed to the idea of rebuilding the buildings and trucking in more sand to fill in the beach.

“Up in the North Shore of Boston, those folks just did a shoreline stabilization project. A nor’easter came through and took out the whole sand stabilization project,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson is not the only person who has cited Salisbury Beach as an example of what not to do. After a group of private Massachusetts landowners spent $600,000 adding sand to their beach, a storm in February swept through just three days later and carried all the sand away. To prevent a scenario like this, Ferguson says the focus instead needs to be on reinforcing and building dunes by planting beach grass. In 2012, while studying the destruction and erosion at Easton’s Beach after Sandy via aerial photography, Ferguson noticed that one tiny strip of dune grass that she and her team had planted before the storm did a lot to protect the road from washing out just in that small area.

“Our little dune held,” said Ferguson. Her planting showed that dunes can “help protect infrastructure, protect the built environment, capture sand, keep sand on the beach versus blowing it down into the roadway. And so we started planting anything we could.”

Ever since, Ferguson and her team have been planting native beach grass on dunes all over the state. She thinks planting more seagrass will help fortify Easton’s Beach too.

Some people like Ferguson are also concerned that the city of Newport may be overly focused on protecting a recreational beach, at a time when sea water intrusion is also threatening the city’s drinking water.

The city is also now commissioning a study on the viability of adding sand to the beach and rebuilding the structures, though it is unclear whether it will come out before a potential bond vote.

Recreation Administrator for Newport Erik Reis is now in charge of managing a beach that will look a lot different this summer. The city has replaced the snack bar with mobile food vendors, and the carousel horses are in a storage facility awaiting their fate. Reis says the city is taking the pulse on what amenities on the beach are a necessity, and what amenities can be mobile forever.

“For me, it’s the basic operation of the beach first before you start thinking about all those other ancillary things,” he said.

The Public’s Radio in Rhode Island and WBUR have a partnership in which the news organizations collaborate and share stories. This story was originally published by The Public's Radio.