Vanishing coastline sends Texans notice
Published 5:44 pm Thursday, January 4, 2018
If a fragile Texas coastline is going to prosper or even endure, then continuing work in Jefferson County may matter greatly.
Eroding shoreline here and elsewhere along the 367 miles of Texas that abuts the Gulf of Mexico has been the ongoing victim of subsidence, sea level rise and storm surge, the Texas Tribune reported on our pages this week.
In some cases, the Texas General Land Office says, up to 30 feet of shoreline disappears annually. The average rate of erosion is more than 4 feet and consequences are apparent: sinking property values, declines in tourism, impacts on fishing and farming, and an endangered industrial infrastructure that includes imperiled ports and roads.
Todd Merendino, the manager of Ducks Unlimited, assessed the situation succinctly but well for the Tribune:
“One day, you wake up and go, ‘Wow, we’ve got a problem.’ And it’s not just an isolated problem where one swing of the hammer is going to fix it.”
Relentless pressures on our coastline require consistent, erstwhile responses. Texas is making some.
Among those responding to these threats are the Jefferson County commissioners, environmentalists and industrialists who fully appreciate the value of a bolstered coastline. Among those responses: construction of a 20-mile-long berm along McFaddin Beach. The goal is to create protective dunes where vegetation will grow and wildlife will thrive, where plant roots will take hold and keep the shoreline more intact.
Will that work? Maybe. Is that the final remedy for what ails the coastline? Maybe not, because problems are many and diverse; panaceas, unlikely. But we have to try, and partial and even temporary answers are better than none.
Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick suggests the tack may prove the right one to protect our shoreline and the industry beyond it, which includes “some of the most critical energy resources in the United States.” That’s what he told the Tribune, and it makes perfect sense.
Challenges, some natural, some manmade, are imposing on a shoreline that seems fragile. That makes solutions more important.
But Texas is not without resources.
The beach project itself will cost at least $25 million; costs may yet double or more. Settlements related to the BP oil spill in 2010 may cover the tab for that project. But those funds are not inexhaustible.
Important, too, is that many Texans hold an appreciation for how serious the issue of coastal health is and will remain. They can provide the continuing resource of leadership, which is and will stay vital to the shoreline challenges that will extend well past our lifetimes.
What’s happening along Jefferson’s coastline reflects our worst problems and best intentions. Doing nothing would be an option but the wrong one. The coastline’s future depends on what we do now.