Red River Seaweed Removal To Continue

Amid Concerns About The Dunes, Seaweed
Removal To Continue At Red River

HARWICH — Essentially granting after-the-fact permission for the town’s dune nourishment practices at Red River Beach, the conservation commission last week unanimously approved an amended order of conditions allowing sand to be placed on vegetated dunes to help dispose of seaweed.

The practice is the only way to dispose of the mountains of codium that wash up on the beach daily, Conservation Administrator John Chatham argued.

Dean Knight of South Harwich, who has led the opposition to what he sees as the destruction of viable dunes on the end of the beach, presented the conservation commission with 50 signatures on a petition opposing the practice.

Knight said on Monday an appeal of the commission’s decision to the state Department of Environmental Protection was unlikely. During last week’s hearing one board member pointed out there are two vacancies on the commission and encouraged him to seek appointment. Knight said he has notified the selectmen’s office of his interest in serving on the commission.

In 2002, the town obtained permission to build dunes by planting beach grass on piles of seaweed, shells and sand, a practice which has been successful for years. With dunes already created on the west end of the beach, and with an exceptionally large amount of codium to dispose of, Chatham decided this spring to begin using dunes on the east end of the beach to bury the seaweed. The decision was made in conjunction with a beach nourishment group with representatives from several town departments.

On May 26, Knight asked the board of selectmen to bring a stop to the practice after he saw heavy equipment driving over vegetated dunes. It is absurd, Knight said, for the town’s front-end loaders to drive over viable dunes, when signs are posted nearby warning beachgoers not to walk on them. Earlier this month, Chatham told selectmen that it was a mistake for him to proceed without obtaining permission from the conservation commission. If he waited for that permission, there would have been a much larger amount of seaweed to handle, Chatham argued.

Last Tuesday, Chatham appeared before the conservation commission seeking an amendment to the original order of conditions allowing the dune work. Chatham said the town needs to continue creating two or three cells of dunes on the east end of the beach in order to handle the codium, which cannot be removed by truck, burned or composted, he argued. Otherwise, he said, the beach will become choked with seaweed, making it unsuitable for bathing just before the Fourth of July.

“We’re in one of those periods here where [managing the codium is] critical, or else we’re just going to have to leave the seaweed on the beach, probably, or a great portion of it,” he said. “The options are very thin.”

Knight detailed a lengthy list of concerns, saying he understands the seaweed disposal problem, but disagrees with the way the dune plan has been executed. He suggested that the original order of conditions be allowed to stand, but that the work be kept to its original limits.

“People want the seaweed problems addressed, but not at the expense of existing, beautiful dune vegetation,” he said. The dunes should also be limited in height to allow people in vehicles to see the water. If seaweed on the east end needs to be removed, a truck should be used to move it each day to the west end of the beach to be buried, Knight argued.

The town should also examine the use of nets strung between the groins, a practice used in Hong Kong to keep the beaches safe from sharks. Those nets also have the benefit of keeping the beach weed-free, he noted.

“I think we need to try something different,” he said.

Conservation Commission member Robert Bourgoin said Knight made a number of points, “and a lot of them are very legitimate.” But with the beach season ready to peak, there needs to be a short-term solution to the problem.

“You can’t have seaweed on the beach just festering and smelling,” he said.

Commission member Michael Schreibman said his group must weigh competing interests when it comes to managing Red River Beach.

“It’s a scale, here. We have codium and we have dunes,” he said.

Commission Chairman Chester Berg said Knight has clearly done his homework, “and our objective is probably no different than your objective,” namely to preserve dunes and help protect Red River Beach.

Business leader Richard Waystack suggested the town create an ad-hoc committee to meet in the fall to reexamine the seaweed management practices at Red River Beach. Knight would be a logical choice for a seat on that committee, he said.

Chatham argued that what the town is doing at Red River Beach is about creating dunes, not harming them.

“You keep saying we’re destroying, we’re destroying,” Chatham said. “We’re simply trying to manage a resource here. We’re not intending to destroy that dune.” The town doesn’t have the manpower to truck seaweed from one end of the beach to the other each day, he said. Town officials have considered many possible solutions, including the removal of the jetty at the east end of the beach. Doing so might destabilize the entire system, experts have warned.

“The danger of that is losing the whole beach” to erosion, he said. Likewise, state officials would not allow the town to place a net across the jetties.

“I don’t know what else we can do,” Chatham said.

On a unanimous vote, the conservation commission amended the order of conditions, with the caveat that the town must create a working group to meet in the fall to consider a long-term solution.

6/26/08