Coastal Hazards Commission
March 13, 2006 Meeting Summary

Jim O'Connell, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant Office and Barnstable County Extension, provided a comprehensive overview of coastal hazards issues in Massachusetts entitled Coastal Hazards: What's the problem and how did we get into this situation? Rich Zingarelli, Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and a Commission member, then presented background on Massachusetts State Hazard Planning and, in particular, focused on strategies that the Commonwealth uses to plan for and respond to coastal hazards. Christine Player from Vine Associates complemented the earlier presentations by focusing on Coastal Engineering Structures in Massachusetts and describing a pilot project that she recently completed for DCR that inventoried and rated the condition of approximately 18 state owned coastal engineering structures including seawalls, groins and bulkheads. The presentations by Zingarelli and Player will be available on the website soon.

Following these presentations, the Commission discussed many of the topics from the presentations and asked the speakers questions. Key issues that arose during discussion include:

• Need to maintain publicly-owned coastal engineering structures ("pay now or pay more later"). Within this discussion, the Commission needs to consider not only infrastructure that the state owns, but also infrastructure that it is responsible for. The need to prioritize necessary maintenance and consider whether there are other options to rebuilding. The need to determine who owns individual structures (Based on Vine's pilot project experience, this will be a difficult task) and who is responsible for maintenance. The Commission should consider developing maintenance agreements with municipalities that clarify this issue.
• Beneficial sand reuse - Make sure that we are not disposing of clean and compatible sand from dredging projects that can be used for beach nourishment. There is an additional cost for nourishment—to bring sand up on beach—who will pay? Concerns about contamination, grain size (silt will just wash away), and benthic habitat. The Commission would like to be provided with historical information/data on where beach nourishment sites are located. What are the costs? What are the review and permitting times?
• "De-armoring" of coast when appropriate. Might there be some opportunities to try this where infrastructure or houses will not be impacted.
• Need to prevent the construction of state infrastructure in hazardous areas.
• Should explore innovative mechanisms to fund coastal engineering structure repair, municipal/regional hazards planning, and beach nourishment. Should explore "recession-proof" funding mechanisms like the State Revolving Fund. How can we position state to receive more federal funding (FEMA, ACOE)?
• Need incentives and technical support for municipal/regional hazards planning. Should use model communities/regional hazard plans as models for other areas. Should encourage regional collaboration on hazards planning (like Cape Cod Commission did).
• Need to strengthen and clarify existing regulations regarding coastal hazards. Need to identify management options available through current regulations and policies and then look for "enhancements".
• Conservation Commissions need better training on hazards issues. Need for more consistency between Commissions on how they handle hazards regulatory issues.