RI beaches are eroding faster, putting Newport drinking water at risk
NEWPORT, R.I. – July 16, 2024 – With climate change bringing along more powerful storms, local environmentalists warn that Easton’s Beach in Newport is eroding at a faster pace.
Now there’s growing concern about the city’s public drinking water, which is right across the street.
“During any major storm, we are seeing the waters not only wash out those facilities and amenities we have at the beach, but coming halfway up the dam for our public drinking water supply,” Newport Mayor Xaykham Khamsyvoravong said during a taping of Newsmakers earlier this month.
According to Wenley Ferguson, the director of restoration at Save the Bay, the beach is now eroding a foot and a half on average each year.
She said erosion is a natural process where storms and flooding push sand inland, and that it often comes in pulses. She said a major example of that was when Superstorm Sandy arrived on Rhode Island’s shores in 2012.
“The dune migrated inland about 30 feet,” Ferguson said.
Homes were destroyed, roads were covered in sand, and the coast was dramatically reshaped. Since then, Ferguson said the speed in which shorelines are shrinking continues to ramp up as climate change fuels more powerful storms more frequently.
“In New England, the nor’easters can be just as impactful as a hurricane because they come more regularly than named hurricanes to our region…Click here to read the whole article.