§ 196A-12. Coastal Erosion

A. Preamble

Coastal banks are likely to be significant not only to the interests protected under state law, i.e. storm damage prevention and flood control as cited in 310 CMR 10.30, but to other wetland values protected under the Orleans Bylaw (§ 160-1) i.e. erosion and sedimentation control, fisheries, shellfish habitat, wildlife habitat, recreation and aesthetics. There are adverse impacts on these protected interests when the coastal shoreline is cut off, by revetments or other erosion control measures, from the natural systems of which it is a part.

Among these adverse impacts can be loss or lowering of beaches, or deprivation of bank sediment which would normally be moving in the littoral drift. Limited or altered access along the shoreline impacts hunting, fishing and passive and active recreational opportunities. Wildlife habitat is also destroyed or affected when natural bank vegetation is altered. The aesthetic value of a natural shoreline may also be substantially reduced.

Loss of sand from previously eroding banks may result in the gradual drowning of marshes and changes in shellfish habitat and fisheries, as well as loss of nutrients to these resources. Also marshes which would normally follow an eroding and retreating coastal bank can be blocked by erosion control measures, and their continued growth and health limited.