3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2018
‘Washaway Beach’ tries to change its fate
Residents, tribe
fight against the
rising water
By AMY NILE
Chinook Observer
NORTH COVE, Wash.
— There’s more than disaster
porn to see here.
David Cottrell, a fourth-gen-
eration cranberry grower, is
tired of storm chasers and TV
news crews coming to North
Cove for a look as thundering
winter tides pull his neighbors’
homes into the Pacific.
The small community north
of Willapa Bay is determined
not to go down with its nick-
name — “Washaway Beach.”
Unrelenting
saltwater
scours off more than 100 feet
of the shore around North
Cove most years. That makes
it the fastest-eroding spot on
the West Coast, according to
the Washington Department of
Ecology.
Since last winter, cran-
berry growers and neigh-
bors have been experimenting
with a different way to slow
the encroaching ocean. While
their work was put to its first
test during the January storm
and king tides that pounded the
shore, state lawmakers ham-
mered out a deal on the con-
struction budget. It includes
$650,000 for North Cove ero-
sion control.
The sea has already swal-
lowed more than 50 homes, a
school, a Coast Guard station,
a lighthouse, a clam cannery,
a grange hall, a post office and
the town of North Cove itself.
A gritty fight
For decades, experts and
officials have been telling peo-
ple who live around the inlet
south of Westport there was
nothing they could do to pre-
serve it or at least nothing they
could afford, Cottrell said.
But with homes teetering on
the shoreline, the ocean eating
the western edge of the street
grid, and saltwater threaten-
ing to cross State Route 105
and kill cranberry crops, peo-
ple are pulling together to pro-
tect North Cove — at least for
awhile.
“We’re rolling up our
sleeves and doing it with what-
ever we’ve got,” Cottrell, 59,
said. “Now’s the time to do
something. We know if we do
nothing, we’re going to fail.”
The chairman of the local
drainage district and longtime
Grayland Cranberry Grow-
ers Association board mem-
ber learned about a way to
build a barrier to protect the
shore that’s had some success
in Oregon and California. He
wondered if it would work for
North Cove, so the diking dis-
trict started testing it.
Now, Cottrell, fellow farm-
ers and neighbors are hauling
bulldozer loads of cobble-size
basalt to the beach and piling it
with driftwood and other natu-
ral materials along the shore-
line. Unlike a seawall made of
large boulders and concrete,
a barrier with smaller stones
moves and shakes as it absorbs
the destructive force of the
waves, more closely mimick-
ing nature. It’s also cheaper and
easier to build, Cottrell said.
After decades of hearing
North Cove was doomed, the
community is rallying behind
building the dune.
“We’re all ‘can-do’ kind of
people,” Cottrell said.
Photos by Natalie St. John/Chinook Observer
TOP, Homeowners have tried all kinds of tactics to slow the erosion in the northern Pacific County community of North
Cove, known to many as ‘Washaway Beach.’ Despite their best efforts, homes continue to fall into the sea at an aston-
ishing rate. LEFT, A beached boat and a bridge to nowhere overlook the remains of the elaborate driftwood and sal-
vaged rope barrier that one late-coming resident began building in 2014. He hoped his makeshift berm would buy him
10 years. Less than three years later, much of the protected area is gone. RIGHT, Wearing his custom ‘Wash Away No
More’ jacket, resident David Cottrell checked on properties at the water’s edge during an unusually high tide in January.
The section of the barrier
they’ve already put in place
held up to the crashing king
tides, turbulent sea and roaring
winds last month.
“It was a really good
shakeup for our work,” Cot-
trell said. “But we’re taking it
one storm at a time. Right now,
I’d love to get through the win-
ter without losing anything.”
After the mid-January
storm relented, Cottrell found
about 30 feet of shore had
eroded away at the worst spots.
That’s compared to roughly
150 feet during the last storm
of similar strength a couple of
winters ago.
Although the barrier is
keeping the water at bay, it’s
not a long-term solution.
“I describe it like putting
one can of paint on a house —
it looks better but it’s not done
yet,” Cottrell said.
Damming on the Columbia
River and dredging in Willapa
Bay contributed to erosion of
the sand spit that supported the
now underwater town of North
Cove, in an area once known as
Cape Shoalwater.
The barrier dune that used
to protect it has washed away.
As the ocean erodes the shore,
storm surges and flooding
reach farther inland. Rising sea
levels also threaten the area.
Guillaume Mauger, a research
scientist with the University of
Washington Climate Impacts
Group, said by the most opti-
mistic projections, the ocean is
expected to rise at least 6 inches
by 2100. Although climate mod-
els vary widely, many indicate it
could go up more than 6 feet.
“Even really small changes
are going to be important,”
Mauger said.
A 6-inch rise in sea level
could bring 100-year floods
every few years, he said. And 6
inches during the next 50 years,
is “pretty much guaranteed.”
Mauger said Washington
state is more likely to see a rise
of about 2 feet by the centu-
ry’s end. That’s three times the
4 to 8 inches it rose during the
previous 100 years. And peo-
ple aren’t thinking about that,
he said.
Scientists are just starting
to scratch the surface of what’s
to come in terms of poten-
tial effects of climate change,
Mauger said. He expects the
costs of dealing with them will
outweigh budgets by far.
Scientists don’t need to
agree on how much sea level
is going to rise, Mauger said.
They know it’s going up. He
suggests people and local,
state and federal governments
‘Now’s the time to do
something. We know
if we do nothing,
we’re going to fail.’
David Cottrell
Fourth-generation cranberry grower and North Cove resident
Rising seas are likely to
take over parts of Washington’s
coast and cause more frequent
and severe flooding in others.
The saltwater could damage
infrastructure such as waste-
water treatment sites, storm
drains and roads, contaminate
groundwater and kill crops.
Rising temperatures and ocean
acidification threaten marine
life, putting the food supply
and the economy at risk.
start planning for the change
now.
“We need to be looking at
this through the climate lens,”
he said.
‘Wash Away’ no more
The Pacific Conservation
District provided a $50,000
grant last year to build the first
stretch of the barrier, Cottrell
said. The local drainage dis-
trict also helped get another
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
503-325-8221
½
PRICE
WEDNESDAYS
60 & OVER EAT FOR HALF PRICE ALL DAY
CHECK OUT OUR
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
$
Volunteer
Pick of the Week
Luna
(More on http://Petfinder.com/ )
C LATSOP C OUNTY A NIMAL S HELTER
1315 SE 19 th Street, Warrenton • 861 - PETS
www.dogsncats.org
Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat
EQUAL HOUSING
OPPORTUNITY
All Rents
Electricity · Garbage · Water
Include:
ASK ABOUT
NEWLY REMODELED APARTMENTS
6 DAILY SOUP & LUNCH SPECIALS
MON:
TUE:
WED:
THU:
FRI:
TRIPLE GRILLED CHEESE WITH TOMATO BASIL SOUP
CHICKEN SALAD WRAP WITH MINESTRONE SOUP
BOWL OF BLACK & WHITE BEAN CHILI AND CORNBREAD
FRENCH DIP WITH POTATO LEEK SOUP
COD FISH TACOS WITH A CILANTRO LIME SAUCE AND RICE
OUR SOUPS ARE, OF COURSE, HOMEMADE
OPEN DAILY AT 11AM
Astoria Band Boosters
CAN & BOTTLE DRIVE
1 P.M.- 3 P.M. • SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4 TH
AT ASTORIA HIGH SCHOOL
Ch ec
k th e L a b e
l
P LEASE , NO EARLY DROP - OFFS
Items must have the 10 cent, OR redemption label
in order to benefit the band programs
The Band Boosters are the primary source of
funds to keep Astoria’s school band programs
functioning. Please help by dropping off your
empties or making a donation.
Play, nap, and wake up
softly in the company of
a kindly little fur-person.
Sponsored
By
2 & 3 BEDROOM
APARTMENTS
!
Nine year old Tuxedo
American Shorthair
Hope floats
Cottrell and others are hop-
ing to expand their project and
help find better ways to man-
age coastal erosion. As seas
rise and communities begin
drowning across the globe, les-
sons from work in North Cove
could not only help protect its
homes and farms, but benefit
other areas as well.
“So everything is on the line
for us,” Cottrell said.
Nelson said people seem
more hopeful now that the
community and the tribe have
come together with county,
state and federal agencies to
fight erosion.
“It’s the individual voice
that makes a difference,” she
said. “There has to be people
saying we’re not leaving, we’re
looking for a solution.”
EMERALD HEIGHTS
APARTMENTS
IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR!
WANTED
$50,000 for homeowners to
extend the project.
Cottrell had hoped to get
more conservation money
for the work this year. But he
was told the county didn’t
have it because the Legislature
delayed approval of the con-
struction budget.
Meantime, the Pacific
County Marine Resource Com-
mittee stepped in with $10,000
to shore up some of the worst
spots this winter.
The North Willapa Har-
bor Grange is raising money to
buy more basalt from a quarry
in Raymond and extend the
barrier. Volunteers are selling
stickers, T-shirts and reusable
grocery bags that say “Wash
Away” in faded gray letters
with “No More” printed over
the top in bold red.
The
Grayland
non-
profit is also taking dona-
tions online at gofundme.com/
wash-away-no-more.
“People are more posi-
tive now that they’re more
involved,” Shoalwater Bay
Tribe Chairwoman Charlene
Nelson said.
The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers is hiring a contrac-
tor to rebuild the berm that
helps protect the tribe’s reser-
vation near Tokeland. The fed-
eral agency expects to spend
$10 million to $25 million to
repair damaged sections of the
25-foot-tall, 12,000-foot-long
barrier by early 2019, accord-
ing to a government descrip-
tion of the project.
Last spring, Nelson went
to Washington, D.C., to ask
Congress for $480,000 to plan
to move the tribe upland and
build a road for tsunami and
storm evacuation. She told
lawmakers the berm the Army
Corps finished four years ear-
lier had temporarily halted
erosion that threatened the res-
ervation and SR 105, which
connects the surrounding area
to schools, grocery stores,
health care, banks and hous-
ing. According to a transcript
of her May testimony, she told
a federal budget subcommittee
efforts to protect the area from
erosion revealed the need for
the tribe to move inland.
Relocating away from the
ocean shoreline isn’t an idea
unique to the Shoalwaters. North
along the coast, the Quinault
Indian Nation is working to
move the village of Taholah at
the mouth of the Quinault River
to higher ground due to threats
from tsunamis, storm surge and
riverine flooding. And in 2012
federal legislation allocated
785 acres of former Olympic
National Park land as a new site
for the Quileute Tribe’s town of
La Push.
The state Department of
Transportation started work
last summer on a $3.6 mil-
lion restoration of a berm that
reinforces SR 105 near North
Cove. Crews are scheduled to
finish adding cobble to stabi-
lize damaged sections of the
barrier this winter.
“The rocks take some of
the punch out of the ocean,”
Department of Transportation
spokesman Bart Treece said,
adding a longer-term solution
is needed.
In the meantime, the work
is expected to improve high-
way safety between Aberdeen
and Raymond and reduce the
need for costly emergency
repairs and unexpected clo-
sures. The state departments
of ecology and fish and wild-
life are also working to com-
bat coastal erosion.
1 BLOCK OFF BROADWAY • 1 BLOCK FROM BEACH
20 N. COLUMBIA, SEASIDE • 503-738-4331
NormasSeaside.com
Call (503) 791-8134
or email i_want_to_help@astoriabands.org
for more information.