HARWICH – The Town of Harwich will seek to enlarge and extend a revetment at the east end of Red River Beach to curtail erosion.
The Conservation Commission voted last month to support a project which would extend the structure by about 55 feet in an effort to slow erosion from the flow of the Red River.
“Behind that revetment there has been wash out,” said Town Administrator Christopher Clark.
“As Red River comes down it has been washing out and undermining the area.”
Clark said the town has tried several soft solutions over the last few years.
“We’ve dumped sand in there in the past. We’ve put sandbags in really to no avail,” Clark said. “It waits until the next storm and then washes out.”
The plan calls for the installation of filter fabric, large toe stones and armor stones.
“Really the idea behind this is just to stabilize the area and prevent the erosion,” Clark said.
Town meeting voters must approve $100,000 in CPA funds for the project which would also require state approval.
The Wetlands Protection Act requires soft solutions be tried before placing hard structures.
Amy Usowski, conservation agent for the town, said sand was placed in the area repeated. The town also used filter fabric and sandbags with vegetation under an emergency certification.
“That only held for about a year,” Usowski said.
She said the town is continuing to use soft solutions.
The end of the revetment has started to slump which is causing additional erosion on the back side.
Hard structures are only supposed to be used to protect pre-1978 dwellings under the Wetlands Protection Act.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection rejected a proposal in 2012 to extend the revetment because it was not protecting an older dwelling.
“Since then they have approved two very similar situations here in Harwich, both of which do not protect a pre-78 dwelling within 100 feet,” Usowski said.
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