Oct 2007 -- Vicksburg, Miss. -- The National Shoreline Erosion Control Development and Demonstration Program, commonly referred to as Section 227, is a five-year, $21 million national initiative administered by ERDC-CHL. 

The program began in 2000 through a coordinated effort among federal agencies, members of academia and the private sector.  It provides state-of-the-art coastal shoreline protection by employing innovative or nontraditional protection strategies and advancing coastal storm damage reduction technologies.  These technologies are designed to protect our coastlines, native wildlife and a region’s economy, among other things.

“CHL is part of a research and development organization,” said Dr. Jeffrey Waters, Section 227 program manager.  “Our mission is to find and apply innovative solutions to problems facing our shorelines.  Shoreline protection is important for a variety of reasons - it protects vital infrastructure, shore birds, sea turtles, essential marsh habitats, and recreational beaches.”

According to Waters, beaches are an important economic resource on a local and national scale. 

“Most foreign tourists visit the beach when they come to the United States and more than 50 percent of the U.S. population lives near the shoreline, with more than 3,000 new residents daily.  Homes, roads, bridges and community infrastructure have been built to support that population.  We need to protect this investment,” Waters said.

Development and demonstration projects

Section 227 currently has 10 development and demonstration projects located along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes. 

Members of Congress and Corps districts propose development and demonstration sites.  For consideration, each site must:                                     

• preserve wildlife habitats or viable economic or community infrastructure
• be environmentally compliant using materials or substances native or historic to the region
• have adequate spatial scale or public accessibility for obtaining data and feedback
• have value added to the non-unique coastal system using innovative or nontraditional methods versus using more traditional methods
• have financial resources to develop, demonstrate and maintain a project through its lifecycle

The 10 Section 227 sites are in varying stages of development or demonstration ranging from consideration to design to monitoring. 

In Allegan County, Mich., perched groundwater was causing bluff recession at three sites along Lake Michigan.  Using passive bluff dewatering strategies, they are removing excess groundwater while monitoring slope movement.  Preliminary results suggest that dewatering is a successful tool for short-term slope stabilization.

In Ventura County, Calif., along the Pacific Coast, the Corps plans to refocus wave energy by constructing a submerged structure offshore.  The sand-filled geotextile compartmentalized reef is designed to keep the beach from eroding while amplifying/rotating waves that will create high breakers for recreational surfing. 

“The surfing element created by the structure will attract more visitors to the beach.  I think it’s tremendous!”  Waters said.

The demonstration site in Jefferson County, Texas, was selected because its high erosion rate is depleting the shoreline around the McFadden National Wildlife Refuge.

“The erosion is allowing salt water from the Gulf of Mexico to infiltrate the only freshwater source for migratory birds that are native to the area,” Waters said.  “The salt water is also killing the grasses the birds feed on. 

“We have taken a 30-mile stretch of coast and applied a technology called Low-volume Beach Nourishment, which prevents underlying sediment from eroding the shoreline and sustains the food and water sources for the birds.”

This technology involves constructing beach nourishment templates and a 762-meter long dune designed to withstand a five-year return period storm.  Construction was completed in 2004 and the site is now in the monitoring stage, which includes cross-shore beach profiles, aerial photography, sediment samples, water-level measurements and structure inspections.

The Chesapeake Bay Breakwaters in Maryland and Virginia offered the 227 program an opportunity to monitor technologies that have been in use for more than 15 years along Chesapeake Bay.  Over the years, breakwaters have been used more and more to protect the shoreline.  The project has at least 41 breakwater study points along the bay, which over time, have become more resilient to storm activity.  Pocket beaches have formed that protect the shoreline during storm activity, and have led to wetland planting and habitat enhancement.

According to William Curtis, associate technical director for Flood Damage Reduction, this site project’s goal is to “obtain data from breakwater performance around the Chesapeake Bay and develop design guidelines for breakwaters in cohesive, sand-limited and sheltered systems.

“What we learn from this project will be applied to other projects with similar environmental conditions.  We must be able to transfer lessons learned from one project to another.”

Cape Lookout State Park, Ore., is a popular campground and day-use area west of Portland.  A dynamic cobblestone revetment was constructed by the state of Oregon as an alternative to hardened structures.  Since very little design guidance is available on such revetments, the Section 227 program is monitoring the structure’s performance. 

“Cobblestone revetments appear to offer a viable alternative method of erosion control that provides a natural-looking solution without any hardened structures,” Curtis said.

Other demonstration sites in Section 227 are located in California, Florida, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Hawaii.  Demonstration projects normally take three to five years from site selection to monitoring.  The members of the Coastal Engineering Research Board, which consists of three general officers and three coastal civilian engineers and scientists, provide project oversight. 

Current state of program

Currently, the Section 227 program is at a standstill because the program’s authority expired in 2005, but Curtis and Waters are hopeful that the program will be reauthorized.

“The Water Resources Development Act bill was just passed by Congress and only needs signing by President Bush to reauthorize the program,” Curtis said.  “Once signed, the bill will extend the life of the development and demonstration program indefinitely.”

That is good news for a country whose shorelines play such a vital role in our quality of life and as protection against hurricanes and coastal storms.

For more information, visit http://chl.erdc.usace.army.mil/section227.