‘If we desire beaches on the North Shore, we are going to have to get out of the way” — the most pointed quote of the week, from Dolan Eversole, a coastal geologist with the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program.
He was commenting on the issue of protecting beachfront homes with “burritos,” giant, unsightly tubes of sand covered in heavy fabric that serve as emergency wave-blocking barriers. Since 2018, property owners on a stretch of the North Shore have had dispensation to employ the burritos without going through the usual approval process, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources finding that their homes were “imminently threatened.”
As we all know, the ocean is mighty aggressive — more so as the result of climate change and rising sea levels. There’s no stopping it, and measures such as burritos, seawalls or other methods of “shoreline hardening,” are nothing but Band-Aids. In the end, the sea will win. And meanwhile, all those barriers? They’ll mess with the natural movement of waves and sand, eventually costing us our beaches.
For years, state officials have warned landowners they will need to move away from the eroding shoreline. Of course, that’s easy to say when it’s not your home under threat. We still have to respect the rights of those who’ve invested money and care — not to mention property taxes — to build lives in oceanfront spots.
To try and strike a balance, the state for years has allowed homeowners to put protections in place, usually for a limited time during which they’re supposed to secure more permanent fixes that won’t damage the beach. Extensions are more likely than solutions, though, and the barriers rarely come down.
It’s time to break the cycle. No more extensions, burritos, seawalls, sandbags or piles of rocks to hold off the waves. The state must safeguard the public shoreline, even when the waterline creeps up onto what used to be someone’s backyard.
We need to stop fighting the ocean, and use this time instead to figure out a way to give some relief to those whose homes are going to become unlivable. The result could well be new public beach parks, campgrounds, better access to fishing and surf sites. But it will come at a cost that requires inventive solutions that reach beyond what government can do alone.
For the state to straight-up buy out the homeowners is likely too expensive and impractical. It could instead take a partnership with innovative nonprofits, such as those that buy land for preservation; it could mean channeling some federal relief funds to threatened homeowners; it could require a public-private foundation that would acquire land or accept gifts from landowners, then keep the beaches safe. It likely will take a combination of such ideas, and more.
The answers are not easy or obvious, which is why lots of brainpower has to be dedicated to the problem now. Many people have a vested interest in a solution that is fair to property owners, or at least a compromise. Conceding the fight against the sea would seem to focus all these interests on the side of preserving the beaches, a priority the state of Hawaii has long set for itself.
While government can protect us from many acts of nature, some of the most destructive are simply beyond reach. You only had to watch the Kilauea lava flows advance on Big Island homes to understand that. Stopping the flow was unthinkable; the best humans could do was help pick up the pieces.
And what was able to put out the fires of Kilauea? The sea. It has a power that can’t be stopped. This is a hard reality for those with homes along the ocean. But sadly, if Mother Nature really doesn’t want you there, you’re just going to have to get out of the way.
