RINSE, REPEAT …
From 1954 to 2010, a whopping $351 million (in 2010 dollars) has been spent on “beach renourishment” projects in South Carolina. For those of you not hip to the term, “beach renourishment” is when government takes your money, purchases sand … and dumps it into the ocean.
Again and again.
No seriously …
Government’s answer to the unavoidable impact of longshore drift (i.e. the natural evolution of the coastline) is to drive dump-trucks full of sand out onto our beaches, back them up and empty them.
And then repeat, as necessary.
And the millions have continued to pile up since 2010, as we noted in this report.
Now, according to The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier, another massive taxpayer-funded renourishment push is about to begin in the aftermath of “Floodmaggedon,” this month’s record rainfall event that resulted in widespread flooding.
“Another round of renourishment is imminent, bringing with it a multimillion dollar price tag,” reporter Bo Peterson noted.
Jeez …
One thing that can be said for this money, though? Unlike a lot of expenditures in this state, at least we know where it’s going …
18 comments
Gigantic White Donkey in the Room!!!…LMAO
Hi, my name is Mr. Lawrence.
… and I’m a trollaholic.
There’s no climate change. Nope. No proof. Nothing different has been happening. Nothing to see here.
And ISIS is the JV, too…and the Arab Spring will solve all the problems in the Mideast, right..
Based on your track record, you have a Hell of a nerve attacking the GOP over Climate Change…We ain’t forgot about The East Anglia Hoax you were caught in, either. Dumbass.
You have to forgive GrandTango, he once almost drowned because he kept looking up with his mouth open during a rainstorm.
The South Carolina’s coast has been changing for millennium (ever hear of the sand hills). That is long before man ever used fossil fuels.
” … natural evolution of the shoreline …”
Yes. Yes. And Yes again.
The great “original sin” of coastal “development” is SC and on far too much of the east coast was to build much too close to the high tide line, level out sand dunes, and build, build build. In the Myrtle Beach area, this started around the turn of the 20th Century, when what is now known as B&C began giving land away to anyone willing to build on it is (as it was then called) New Town.
These geniuses never did understand the actual purpose, in the grand scheme of things, of many ridges of sand dunes, and the vital maritime forest growth that covers them. Didn’t understand that this in fact is the natural evolution of the shoreline in action, and if left alone it is what keeps even more flooding from happening than what we do get. In fairness, though, they didn’t need to see that then. The dwellings on the land were mostly cheap affairs, easily rebuilt. Not the obscene behemoth structures that blight the beach now, and block out the sun for sunbathers for much of the late afternoon.
Now, it is what it is, and it can’t help but be one massive boondoggle that continuously empties the pockets of taxpayers to … guess what? … provide an insane level of welfare to the rich owners of ocean-front properties.
Gosh , I wish they’d a let you have control of the Grand Strand all those years ago. It would have been done perfectly…I’m sure…LMAO…
I was not alive when it started. By the time I came of age, it had started to metastasize beyond control.
Hurray – more Federal dollars. More Federal “green coke” like the type Grand Tango likes. Hurray!!!!
Does anybody know why the northern South Carolina coast is in the shape of crescent? For the same reason Hudson Bay has mostly a crescent shape, too. Over 500 Million years, ago, before North America split from Europe, great big rocks came and sat right down on those two places. Every 3,000,000 years or so, all the sand rides north.. Then, 3,000,000 years or so, later, it all seems to wind right back up where it started. And frankly, I wish they’d let nature do its thing, so all I have to do is drive a few miles from Columbia to be at the beach. But that will probably not happen any time soon. There is more ice in Antarctica than at any time since records have been kept. It was 10° hotter in ancient Greece than it is today. But that was only 2500 years ago, obviously when there more factories and cars.
I doubt one statement there is anywhere near correct, though I don’t know about the Antarctic ice part.
And that’s because….?
Some tourists in the Museum of Natural History are marveling at some dinosaur bones. One of them asks the man in a suit standing nearby. “Excuse us, please, but do you work here and can you tell us how old the dinosaur bones are?”
The man replies, “No, I am Vice-President Joe Biden, and I don’t work here, but I do know their age. They are
three million, forty-one years, eight months, and
two days old.”
“That’s an awfully exact number,” says the tourist. “How do you know their age so precisely?”
VP Biden answers, “Well, the dinosaur bones were three million years old when I came to Washington and started
working in the Congress, and that was forty-one years, eight months, and two days ago.”
Pretty little man made sand dunes with planted sea oats and little picket fences are nothing but window dressing – they serve no useful purpose other than to look pretty. The least bit of heavy rain and/or tidal action, it all easily washes back into the sea. Let it go…
Cornbread Confucious says, “If you are flush enough to buy ocean front on a Carolina barrier island, be wise enough to do so on the southern end”.
And hopefully, it’s Edisto.