PI beach

Here's something I haven't talked about in depth recently. But I got an email earlier this week from local architect, native Newburyporter, and former Daily News reporter Bob Gould, who told me about a series of stories he wrote about erosion on Plum Island in the 1970s for the daily.

So we arranged to meet and I toddled over to his office this morning and made copies of his stories, which were written in 1975 an 1976.

The first, from Jan. 6, 1975, is about a theory that water flowing under Plum Island from the Basin, and the "unthinking design" of the PI bridge, "are causing much of the erosion along the center of the island." This was according to one Dr. Howard Reith, who at the time was the chairman of the environmental biology dept. at North Shore Community College and a Rowley conservation commissioner.

Keep in mind as you're reading about Reith that he also predicted in the piece that it would take about 3 years before the Basin and the Atlantic would break through to each other. This was based on a study he did in which he followed patterns of erosion and sand movement on the beach for several years, in conjunction with his students.

I'm glad that his prediction did not come true since it also involves the part of the island I live on disappearing rather quickly after the break.

"You've got to study the problem and figure out what you want to do," Reith said early in the story and goes on to criticise "efforts to stop erosion without understanding it." (That second statement was a paraphrase from the story.)

"Also, the Corps of Engineers has been completely unsuccessful at solving coastal problems, with the possible exception of some at San Diego. What bothers me is that it's my money being spent, when people don't know what they're trying to do."

Reith had conducted salinity tests in the Plum Island River, which he said confirmed his hypothesis. "It's almost entirely fresh water coming in at the bridge," he said.

Reith's specialty field, by the way, was geomorphology, the study of land forms and their changes. Gould said he had tried to track Reith down, unsuccessfully.

What's interesting also is that he recommends building culverts, the repair and expansion of which was the subject of a recent Globe North story (I linked to this story before, so you may have already read it).

Gould again talks to Reith in Jan. 1976, when the Plum Island Taxpayers Association, or PITA, was proposing building a sea wall to fight erosion.

"[Reith] says salinity tests off the Island's center indicate water there is about 20 percent less salty than ordinary ocean water - suggesting fresh water is reaching that part of the ocean ... Reith explains the erosion by saying fresh water, flowing underground from the Basin, lifts sand grains up from the coastal floor, rendering them more liable to be washed away. The problem is exacerbated by the fact the sea is rising worldwide, while the coastline is sinking slightly."

Finally, Gould says, "Apparently, and many Islanders seem to agree, it is just about impossible to keep the dune barrier - which has been shifting throughout its history - in one place permanently, so that Plum Island can be saved as it is now."

So as to not make this post impossibly long, I'll post about the other 2 pieces Gould wrote in 1976 later.