Town wants to protect its strip of sand

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. (WPRI) - As the beach season draws to a close, the Town of Narragansett finds itself experiencing a familiar problem it faces every year: erosion.

Town Councilors are plagued with options on how to protect their strip of sand in South County.

"We've been losing sand at a steady pace for almost 100 years...slowly but surely, but with the succession of storms and that rate has somewhat accelerated," said Town Councilor Chris Wilkens.

Wilkens also noted that Tropical Storm Irene played a big part in that acceleration, removing almost four feet of sand from the town beach.

The Woods Hole Group has been hired by the town to do a feasibility study of how replenish the beach, but many of the options are proving to be expensive.

"The cheapest [option] is a million-plus for the very short term fix to about $10-million for a twenty year or generational fix," Wilkens added.

Bringing in sand from local dredging projects and from offshore sites are two of those methods mentioned which could prove to cost the town.

However, the Town Council and the Woods Hole Group will hold a meeting to decide on which solution will be selected, but no decisions have been made as of yet.