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> Erosion eating at shoreline
Southsider2k12
post Mar 3 2020, 04:07 PM
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https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local...cbd8257224.html

QUOTE
MICHIGAN CITY — With wind gusts up to 28 mph creating waves up to 7 feet Thursday, a steady stream of people flowed through Washington Park to view the whitecaps from the warmth of their vehicles.

“Love them!” said Patricia Majot. “I like bad weather.”

“They’re what we would consider moderate,” said her husband, Joel Majot. “They were bigger yesterday. It’s beautiful, we love it. We’d like to see our beach come back though. It’s about as bad as we’ve seen it in many, many years.”

With more big waves forecast for Friday, Lake Michigan’s record-high water levels and a warm winter that has prevented ice from building up to protect beaches from the waves’ wrath are driving growing worries about erosion, in a region that relies heavily on tourism each summer.

In a recent email to constituents, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, said the issue has his full attention. Last week he visited harbors in St. Joseph, Benton Harbor and South Haven to gauge the effects on tourism, boating, fishing, homes and infrastructure.

Upton earlier this month signed on to a bill introduced by two New York state representatives, the Safer Harbors for Our Recreational Economy Act, that would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Office of Management and Budget to account for recreation-based considerations in cost-benefit analyses for harbor maintenance projects.

Upton, local elected officials and lakefront homeowner groups want the corps to dredge harbors more and redistribute the sand to eroding beaches.

Michigan City Mayor Duane Parry said he is concerned about the city’s disappearing beach fronts, but he’s not worried they will impact the coming summer tourism season.

“Normally we’re not concerned about it but because of the high water level in the lake, it has changed things and now we are a little bit concerned,” Parry said. “I’m not anywhere near requesting that our beach area be declared a disaster and requiring federal assistance.”

Parry said he’s noticed that wave action has eaten into the base of the dunes near Washington Park, creating a “4- to 5-foot drop-off … but we feel that’s nothing that a little bit of contouring” can’t correct in time for the summer beach season.

He said a small ice shelf formed late this winter, extending about 35 to 40 feet, compared to well over 100 feet usually, and he thinks that will prevent significant erosion.

Parry said the city’s main public beach, while smaller than it used to be, is still 400 to 500 feet deep.

“We have less beach but we still have certainly enough to accommodate our summer visitors and local beachgoers,” he said. “I would like to have a lower lake level with a little more beach but I’m not going to go overboard on it yet and freak out. We’re OK.”
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