THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606160053
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 58 lines
Sand dredged from the ocean floor more than three miles off the Virginia coast will help restore eroding shoreline at the Navy's Fleet Combat Training Center at Dam Neck, according to a recent agreement.
The accord announced Friday between the Navy and the U.S. Department of the Interior, which manages offshore resources and minerals, is a first on two fronts.
It represents the first time federal regulators will allow sandy bottom to be mined from Sandbridge Shoal, a rich ocean ridge on the Outer Continental Shelf. The city of Virginia Beach and the erosion-plagued Sandbridge community also hope to replenish their shores with the shoal's clean, grainy bottom.
The agreement also signals the Navy's first foray into beach nourishment at its Dam Neck facility, which is losing about three feet of oceanfront a year to nature's force, said Andy Porter, the training center's director of engineering and environmental services.
During one heavy storm this winter, Porter said, Navy officials watched nervously as surging waves and tides wiped out 60 feet of beachfront property, bringing one building within 50 feet of the ocean.
Porter said about $100 million worth of buildings and equipment could be at risk if erosion is not curtailed.
``The naval center down there appears to be in great danger of being overwashed by a large storm,'' said Don Hill, a deputy program director at the Interior Department. ``This is more of a shore protection project, given what they're facing.''
The project comes in two phases. The first is the construction of a mile-long chain of sand dunes that will replace those beaten down by years of storms and erosion, Porter said.
The second phase will be beach nourishment. The Navy will pay a contractor $3.8 million to dredge about 808,000 cubic yards of sand from Sandbridge Shoal, carry it to Dam Neck and spread it on about 9,200 feet of oceanfront, Porter said.
The Navy hopes to create a 150-foot-wide beach; the training center now has about 30 feet of beach in areas where nourishment is planned, Porter said.
Given the rate of erosion, Porter figures the project should keep the training center safe for at least a decade and probably longer.
Work is expected to begin in mid-July and should be completed within 60 days, according to the agreement.
The Department of Interior has been concerned about opening the Outer Continental Shelf to sand mining, mostly for fear that ecologically important organisms in the sandy ocean bottom may not recover, Hill said.
Throughout the Navy project, and for two years afterward, federal scientists will study the environmental impacts of dredging ocean sediments so far from shore.
``We want to make sure that these areas re-populate with organisms,'' Hill said, `` that this crucial habitat can recover.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff Map
Area Shown: Rebuild beach for 1.75 miles
KEYWORDS: SAND REPLENISHING EROSION VIRGINIA BEACH U.S.
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