Breakthrough at Nauset Beach

[Sweetwater]

Recent article in Cape Cod Times suggests that the break at the south end of Nauset beach may be there for a while. I guess folks will have to wade to their cottages.


By DOUG FRASER
STAFF WRITER
May 04, 2007 6:00 AM
Two weeks after a large, lumbering spring northeaster gouged open a hole in the barrier beach off Chatham, experts told selectmen they are not sure when, or if, it will close.

Graham Giese, a coastal geologist working with the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, and Ted Keon, Chatham director of coastal resources, briefed the board on the status of the new break earlier this week.

"It's too early to tell what the future of this (break) really is. It's flowing at high tide at a fairly rapid rate," Keon said in a phone interview yesterday .

The biggest concern is that there is still a flow out of Pleasant Bay, through the new channel, at dead low tide, Keon said. That is scouring out sand and keeping the break from silting over. He estimated the channel to be 1½ feet deep on the Pleasant Bay side, and 3 to 5 feet deep on the Atlantic side.

"It could last weeks, months, perhaps a year," Keon said. The vast majority of the water draining from Pleasant Bay during low tide goes through the larger inlet, south of the new break. That inlet was formed by a 1987 break in the barrier beach. The new break appeared on a narrow stretch of the beach where Giese had predicted one would occur.

Keon said most hope it will close; if it is permanent, and widens, it could expose Chatham's eastern shoreline and homes to wave action and erosion.

Chatham Harbor Master Stuart Smith said mariners are being advised to stay away from the break, as boat traffic will cause more damage.

Off-road vehicle traffic opened Wednesday on the southerly side of the beach from Orleans to the new break in Chatham. Vehicles are not allowed beyond the First Village camps to the break, to allow for as much sand buildup as possible, according to Chatham Police.