North Carolina Groin Installation

Author(s): Orrin Pilkey, Megan Dawson, Raphael Sagarin and Sheril Kirshenbaum

Published: January 2008

download: policy brief (.pdf) >

North Carolina has a long history of protecting its beaches from hard structures. In 1985, the Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) banned coastal hard structures, written into law in 2003. After evaluating shoreline modifications along the New Jersey shore and many other examples, it was concluded that the unforeseen negative effects on beaches were virtually irreversible and the CRC decided to ban construction of such disputed engineering solutions. Included in this list are terminal groins, which are structures perpendicular to shore that are intended to slow or stop erosion.