SALISBURY — Standing before a smattering of local officials at Blue Ocean Music Hall, state Sen. Bruce Tarr detailed what he called a “new threat” to Salisbury Beach.
Joined by town environmental consultant Tom Hughes and Town Manager Neil Harrington on Monday, the Gloucester Republican said the northern part of the beach is in serious danger of massive overwash.
Overwash is the flow of water and sediment over a coastal dune or beach crest during storms.
“The damage will be exponentially worse than what we’ve seen so far. And importantly, it will make the cost of remediation substantially higher, if it’s even within reach. This area of the beach is extremely vulnerable and it compels our action,” Tarr said.
The Senate minority leader’s speech was billed as the latest attempt to stave off severe, ongoing erosion at Salisbury Beach.
After a few minutes, Hughes took the microphone and elaborated on the latest threat.
“That overwash elevation is a little bit above 15 feet above sea level,” Hughes said.
Until last fall, according to Hughes, all of the dunes exceeded that elevation. But now there is a 1,200-foot stretch of the northern beach that is in the 13- to 14-foot range.
“This is what would happen if nothing is done is we would get a significant overwatch event, a sustained storm that essentially just flattens the barrier and exposes 1A and all of the homes behind it to risk,” Hughes said, referring to Route 1A (North End Boulevard).
The fix Hughes has been working on with Tarr would come in two phases. Phase one would look to restore the dunes to an elevation of 17 feet above sea level. The estimated cost would be $1.75 million.
“It’s a very small project. It would need to be maintained until we can do a phase two,” Hughes said.
The phase two project would bring the elevation up to 19 feet and extend the volume out further towards the water.
“That requires more significant permitting,” Hughes said.
The total cost for both phases would be approximately $6 million.
“For us to be able to act, we have to be concerned about the shorebirds that will soon be on the beach, or at least there’s the potential for them to be on the beach, which presents a significant constraint in our ability to do work,” Tarr said.
Tarr said to secure Salsibury Beach it will take the cooperation of various parties, including the Merrimack River Beach Alliance, Department of Conservation and Recreation, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, state legislators, town officials, federal legislators, local stakeholders, United States Army Corps of Engineers, Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Transportation and other state regulatory agencies.
“We cannot address this situation properly without everyone being at the table, and we think that we have set the stage with all the work that’s been done and all that you’ve heard today for us to have a productive path and one that will avoid significant damage,” Tarr said.
Asked where the funding would come from, he said it would come from a number of sources, including the Salisbury Beach Preservation Trust Fund.
The Salisbury Beach Preservation Trust Fund was the idea in 2008 of former state Sen. Steven Baddour, who worked with then-state Rep. Michael Costello, D-Newburyport, to make it a law. Baddour and Costello undertook that task after devastating storms ravaged Salisbury Beach three years in a row, including the Patriots Day storm of 2008, which scoured sand from the beach that is owned and maintained by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.
“That’s in the near term, and in the long term we hope to cobble together the resources to have a sustainable beach. And again, our federal partners have identified some very promising sources,” Tarr said.
Tarr emphasized that one of the big reasons the beach is such an urgent issue is that it protects Route 1A.
“One-A is the subject of a planned project for reconstruction that literally is going to cost millions of dollars, so there’s a transportation component here, and we’re exploring the synergy potentially between investment in the road and investment in the beach that protects it,” Tarr said.
Route 1A is also an emergency route for the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station.
Regarding a timeline for securing funding, Tarr did not provide specifics but stated that for this initial short-term solution they would need to have it done by mid-June.
“That means getting dollars fast, that means executing emergency contracts, that means mobilizing equipment,” Tarr said.
He said he has continued to have in-depth conversations with Gov. Maura Healey.
“She has walked this beach. She was instrumental in getting three access points restored after they were damaged by a storm not all that long ago. She knows what we face, and we’re all trying to work together to find a path forward,” Tarr said.
Harrington shared that he hoped Healey is paying attention.
“We are here to plead with the governor to listen to the citizens of Salisbury, to follow the science about what’s going on here at the beach, and to work with our legislative delegation to get this critical, immediate funding for the beach,” Harrington said.
Erosion at Salisbury Beach has been going on for some time, dating back to December 2022 when the initial damage from nor’easter Elliott occurred.
Local leaders first learned during a Salisbury Beach Resiliency Subcommittee meeting May 4 that the Department of Conservation and Recreation had shut down Points 8, 9 and 10 for a year due to beach erosion caused by the nor’easter. Points 9 and 10 were reopened the Friday before Memorial Day, with point 8 restored just before the Fourth of July.
