While Isle of Palms faces constant risk from high tides and beach erosion, two major projects are underway to combat these threats. On the western end, between Breach Inlet and 10th Avenue, IOP City is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild dunes with 550,000 cubic yards of sand — enough to fill approximately 170 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
“That sand is being placed in the low-tide area,” said IOP coastal engineering consultant Steven Traynum, president of Coastal Science & Engineering in Columbia. “And the city is moving about 35,000 cubic yards of that sand to replace dunes eroded over the past two years.”
The estimated project cost is $300,000 and will come from the city’s Beach Preservation Fee Fund. All work is scheduled to be completed in April and is part of an ongoing island-wide renourishment effort.
On the eastern end, however, the situation is far more urgent. Traynum pointed out that of all the island’s at-risk areas, the only one meeting the state’s definition of an emergency condition is along “Beachwood East, Seascape and Ocean Club areas of Wild Dunes.”
To this end, sand from a new shoal that is attaching to the beach directly in front of Beachwood East is expected to bring at least some form of temporary relief. “Currently, there are about 10 homes threatened around Beachwood, and two large condo complexes threatened at the east end,” Traynum said. “The shoal is adding 600,000 cubic yards of sand to the island but creating localized areas of severe erosion while it attaches.”
The project at Wild Dunes will require 120,000 cubic yards of sand to be moved from the seaward end of the attaching shoal and placed in the focused erosion areas. It will cost approximately $800,000, of which the Wild Dunes Community Association will contribute $600,000, with the balance coming from the city’s Beach Preservation Fee Fund. Work is expected to be completed in mid-May.
“However, the city is pursuing several additional measures to manage the long-term health of the beach, including temporary sandbags, and planning the next large-scale nourishment,” Traynum said.
Since 2007, six island beach areas have been monitored, with south IOP, south Wild Dunes and north Wild Dunes identified as the most eroded areas. “In recent years, erosion has outpaced natural sand flow,” said Traynum for an earlier Island Vibes story published in 2024. “We lost about 100,000 cubic yards of sand in these three sections every year from 2008 to 2018. But if the new shoal provides sufficient interim nourishment, we might be able to push a large-scale dredging project further into the future.”
If so, it won’t come a moment too soon for Wild Dunes residents. At their annual Community Association meeting March 22, beach nourishment was a main topic of concern. “We had approximately 200+ residents in person and many others via Zoom,” said Terri Haack, managing director for Wild Dunes Resort.
Andrew Schumacher, chief operating officer for the Community Association, added that for its 2,135 residential properties, “we believe a majority of the community is supportive of a healthy and robust beach.”
Mike Gollobin is one. Since moving to Isle of Palms in 2014, he has watched nature push more menacingly into neighborhoods and the two golf courses.
“We lost our par 5 18th hole on the Links Course seven-to-eight years ago and had to rebuild it, and then it washed out again within a year or two, and we had to convert it to a par 3,” he said. “In the last few years during many of the king tides, we’ve had to close down the 9th, 10th and 11th holes on Harbor Course because those holes are underwater. And for the last five or six years, we get a presentation at each community meeting about erosion control efforts because it’s become a recurring issue for us.”
For some more than others, such as Jimmy Bernstein. When Bernstein moved from Chicago to Beachwood East in 2011, he and his wife did so partly because “this was where we wanted to be – right on the ocean.”
But now the ocean is encroaching uncomfortably close – such that the tides have eaten away 15 feet of his ground level garage slab. “It used to measure 40 feet; now I am constantly worried about when other parts of the house are going to be gone,” he said. “When I bought the house in 2011, none of this was happening. I had at least 50 yards of greenery, and then 50 more yards before you got to the ocean. Now that’s all gone.”
When asked why he just doesn’t wait for the worst to happen, collect the insurance money and relocate to another beach, Bernstein said he only wishes it were that simple, as “damage on the first floor is not covered by insurance,” and he doubts he would get the full insurance value of the house.
“Beach homes have high deductibles,” he said. “And in any case, I don’t want the insurance money – I’d rather have the house.”
Along with current renourishment efforts, city leaders anticipate that major beach projects now need to occur every eight-to-10 years. What remains uncertain is whether they will be enough to stem the tides from eventually overtaking the island.
“The city is pursuing a permit for another large-scale nourishment project, presently considered for 2027,” Traynum said. “The work along the east end is highly dependent on the pace at which the current shoal attaches to the beach; however, we are optimistic that the work being done will provide sufficient protection until that time.”
By L. C. Leach III
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