Permit Application from Shell Island for Emergency Sand Bag Revetment.

New Hanover County and Wrightsville Beach August 30, 1996

Application is for an Emergency - General Permit and is applied for by New Hanover County and the Town of Wrightsville Beach.

The landowners involved are:

1. George Henry Hutaff trust No. 2 c/o Oliver C. Hutaff.
2. Shell Island Resort Homeowners Association, Inc.
3. Town of Wrightsville Beach
4. K.E. and P.O. Haigler
5. Robert P. Andrews Jr.
6. John W. McAden Jr. c/o F.H. Elmore

The project applied for will be an emergency sand bag revetment to protect a high-rise building, CAMA Beach Access facility, and other property for a 3 to 5 year period from rapid erosion caused by inlet migration.

Mason's Inlet, located between Shell Island and Figure Eight Island, has demonstrated a history of rapid migration to the south, approaching the Shell Island high-rise resort, a public beach access facility including restroom, and the cul-de-sac terminus of a public road.

There is general agreement that if left unchecked, the inlet could easily reach the resort in six months.

The Resort building property is in the Inlet Hazard and Ocean Hazard Areas of Environmental Concern.

The "Inlet Hazards Areas" study by Priddy and Carraway in 1978 found that between 1945 and 1963 Mason's Inlet migrated 3,000 feet southward. From 1963 to 1977 it migrated 300 feet northward.

Aerial photography shows that from 1978-1984 the Inlet migrated approximately 800 feet south. From 1984-1992, the Inlet migrated approximately 1,400 feet south.

When the resort building was constructed in 1986, the site was approximately half a mile south of the inlet.

The south side of Mason's Inlet has migrated south an average of nearly 130 feet per year from 1945 to 1995.

From 1992 to 1995, the north side of the inlet migrated south 400 feet. The south side migrated south approximately 1,400 feet or an average of more than 450 feet per year causing the inlet channel to widen.

The main flow channel through Mason Inlet is approximately 200 to 250 feet wide with a maximum depth of 10 to 11 feet below mean low water.

The overall width of the Inlet, measured between the mean high water shorelines, varies from approximately 1,300 feet on the ocean side to around 600 feet at its narrowest point.

The structure, to be constructed over the next six months, is an emergency and temporary Phase One measure to protect the resort until a long-term permanent Phase Two measure can be designed and constructed over a three to five year period.

It is presently anticipated that the Phase II project may be an extensive dredging project to relocate the inlet.

The structure is expected to be located on the Hutaff property on the north side of the CAMA Beach Access facility.

Project will utilize 13 large sand filled geo-textile containers that will be mostly buried, on a slope, underground. Sand dunes will then be created on top of the structures.