Submitted by A Chaney.
The next time you visit Sunnyside Beach, look toward the Tacoma Narrows and pan left as you take in the vast area of water. Then consider that the tide changes the water’s level by more than ten feet on a typical day. All this water runs through the Tacoma Narrows, and much of it past Sunnyside Beach. It’s so much that it doesn’t make sense to use gallons to talk about the amount, but rather acre-feet of water.
All this moving water erodes the shoreline. In the past we have built various styles of sea wall to try to stop or slow the erosion, but the process of erosion goes on, and will continue no matter what we do. While a sea wall slows erosion, it also leads to coarser and narrower beaches, degrading shallow water habitat for wildlife. It also makes an obstacle for visitors to access the beach.
Next week (June 7th) the Steilacoom Town Council is scheduled to get a briefing on options for the failing sea wall. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have published a wonderful 44 page pamphlet, “Your Marine Waterfront, a Guide to Protecting Your Property While Promoting Healthy Shorelines.” It provides a great illustration of other options for the Town to consider. On bulkhead installation it says, “Bulkheads are now considered an option of last resort and most often built only where required by site conditions. Most jurisdictions prohibit bulkheads unless it is demonstrated that erosion will directly threaten a home in the near term.”
Perhaps the Town could get some grant funding if it chooses a more ecologically sound solution to the failing bulkheads. The pamphlet is available here https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/01791/wdfw01791.pdf
Interesting information. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you. We need to consider the hard truth about what we are doing in this area. Allowing species in the Salish Sea to thrive should be job one. And while the loss of Sunnyside Beach Park as it is today would no doubt cause an outcry, the real barrier to our enjoying our beaches is really the railroad. But that battle was lost a century ago. To allow the punishment to wildlife to continue is now on us.
Rethinking how we continue forward while promoting a healthy planet is in order.
Disclaimer: I have not read the pamphlet A Chaney referred to.
Sunnyside Beach was never meant to be. It exists only because the Thompson Gravel Pit operated for about 40 years on the hill above Sunnyside and dumped its waste sand there. (Remnants of their shipping dock are still visible.) The first attempts to slow down the natural current-induced erosion were in the mid-Seventies, when the Town realized it needed to protect its sewer treatment plant (where the volleyball courts now exist.) The Corps of Engineers predicted that that project would last perhaps 15 years. They were close. And now once again we’re faced with the same dilemma. The alternative to protecting Sunnyside is to let nature take its course, give up on protecting the beach and ultimately let the railroad deal with the erosion problem.
With regards to Cindy’s comment about “allowing species in the Salish Sea to thrive” I can only agree. But I also offer for consideration:
In my early AF enlisted days, the only places we could afford to take our kids were the equivalents of Sunnyside Beach. One only has to note the hundreds of military and other young families that on every sunny day, similarly make use of what Steilacoom provides, and it becomes apparent that we are filling a huge need. It would be so wonderful if we could simultaneously take care of the needs of our Salish Sea species/neighbors as well, but I can’t help but think: Such a big Salish Sea, such a tiny badly needed, little park.
Why settle for just one benefit? We can choose both. Geo-mimicry suggests a course of action that both preserves the community-building benefits of a waterfront park and enhances the aquatic habitat. Using geo-mimicry, i.e replicating key headland conditions that protect natural beaches, those boulders can be re-purposed into a just-off-shore wave break, perhaps supplemented with several more a little farther out to accommodate season variations and storm surges. A little math, shoreline map, knowledge of the currents, a long lever arm on a low tide day, and, to be fair, a lot of permits, but we were going to have to get those anyway.
Then, it’s a win-win-win: the aquatic flora and fauna that other don’t fare so well on a scoured bottom get some protection; the public gets a boost from a beach has some protection; and best of all, the lobbying groups can avoid another battle to squash each other. For more info on the physics that makes this all work, please check out the OSU marine labs.