11-18-2007: Exclusive island fights to keep its footing

The erosion on Figure Eight Island, near Wilmington, has renewed a struggle over the shape of the N.C. coast.

Residents, some of whom are prominent and all of whom are wealthy, are pushing for an exception to a long-standing ban on permanent coastal structures such as jetties and sea walls. They want to spend millions to build a submerged wall, jutting into the sea, to keep the north end of the beach from washing away.

Environmentalists say the plan would lead to erosion elsewhere and set the wrong precedent.

At the center of the fight are the shifting sands of the N.C. barrier islands. The islands and the inlets between them change constantly with the currents. Permanent structures attempt to regulate such changes -- with results that are difficult to predict.

Millions of cubic yards already dumped onto Figure Eight's beach for renourishment have ended up back in the ocean.

"That's our sand out there," said Beth Howard, as she motioned toward sandbars in nearby Rich Inlet. She and her husband built a 4,100-square-foot oceanfront house four years ago. The water is so close they're already considering installing sandbags.

"It's so frustrating," Howard said, "because I feel that I could just go and get a wheelbarrow and go out there."

To get permission to build the structure, residents created a political fundraising committee and hired a public relations specialist and three lobbyists. They've also made concessions -- promising to study alternatives and the environmental impact, to use private money and to dismantle it if it fails.

Those promises helped the residents win N.C. Senate approval in May. House consideration is next, and opponents are still fighting.

"This is the biggest danger to North Carolina's beaches that I have seen in the last 40 years," said Orrin Pilkey, a retired coastal geologist at Duke University.

Wealthy getaway

Figure Eight Island was developed in the 1960s, when a group of wealthy men from Wilmington vowed to create North Carolina's answer to coastal resort towns in Georgia and South Carolina.

It is relatively small. About 460 houses are spread down the island's 4 1/2 miles of landscaped roads and cul-de-sacs. Most are larger than 3,000 square feet. About 50 are larger than 5,000 square feet, according to property records.

Property sold in the past six months had an average value of $2.2 million.

The island has almost no commercial development -- only a yacht club that is far more modest than most houses around it.

Its most famous homeowners are Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth.

Unlike most other barrier islands along the N.C. coast, it remains privately controlled. There's no sign for the island at the turn off U.S. 17. A guardhouse waits ahead, and a uniformed guard demands a pass before letting visitors cross a bridge.

The beach itself is public -- for those who can get there by boat.

Why some want a wall

David Kellam, the administrator of the Figure "8" Beach Homeowners' Association, said erosion near the island's northern end worsened with Hurricane Fran in 1996 and has continued ever since. The problem hasn't been severe enough to condemn any homes, but about 20 oceanfront homeowners got permission to install sandbags.

The ocean's current usually runs from north to south near Figure Eight, making the northern end most vulnerable to waves.

One way to protect the island, Kellam said, would be a submerged wall that supporters call a "terminal groin." It is similar to a jetty, but would not extend as far into the ocean and its purpose would be erosion control.

Kellam said he hopes it could also improve water quality in the sound behind Figure Eight by opening the inlet to more tidal water. He grew up on the island after his parents built one of the island's first houses in the 1960s.

The terminal groin "is not intended to be a seawall," Kellam said. "That is not what we are looking to accomplish. We're not trying to put a seawall down the coast of North Carolina."

The structure might initially be made of giant sheets of corrugated steel driven into the sand, poking a few feet above sea level. If it's successful, Kellam envisions reinforcing it with rock.

North Carolina's ban on such structures has been in place since 1985, when the Coastal Resources Commission, a state regulatory board, decided that seawalls, jetties and groins would do more harm than good. There have been a few exceptions, such as a groin on the northern end of Hatteras Island to stabilize the endangered Bonner Bridge.

"Hardened structures steal sand from the system and, as a result, they can build up sand in places, but they also cause greater erosion," said Jim Stephenson, a lobbyist for the N.C. Coastal Federation, an environmental group.