Letter to the clipper 2

The seawall on Duxbury Beach protects the entire town.

If the wall is repaired or rebuilt (the state owns the wall, the town is responsible for repairs, and FEMA will pay for 75% of replacement costs), we get a century of normal beach. A shoddy 1950s seawall, neglected by the town, made it to 2018. A proper seawall would last even longer.

The purpose of Duxbury Beach is her function as a barrier beach. She protects Duxbury from direct ocean surf. Without the beach, storm waves will break on Powder Point.

Destruction of the barrier beach would quickly imperil the $128 million high school. It would stand a very real chance of becoming Atlantis University.

Abandoning the seawall means abandoning Gurnet Road. Unless the bridge is closed, you will most likely never need to use Gurnet Road. It still serves you, however.

Heavy equipment can't move over the bridge. This includes DPW vehicles, ambulances, fire trucks, trucks full of sand... all needed to operate and sustain Duxbury Beach. They can only be moved down Gurnet Road.

Neither Duxbury Beach Park nor the resident beach lot would be able to function without Gurnet Road. Saquish would become an island, and then a catastrophe. Duxbury Harbor would no longer be sheltered.

The seawall is essential to the health of the dunes and the marsh. The ocean off Duxbury Beach moves via a north to south current. Sand that would normally wash into (and fill in) the marsh instead is washed down the wall to strengthen the dunes.

Without the dunes, the beach washes away, and you are just a few storms away from the Powder Point Bridge being a fishing pier sticking out into open ocean.

We would lose millions yearly in property taxes when houses on Washington Street become unsellable, even at cut rates. We would lose more with the end of the shellfish industry.

Destruction of the shellfish beds isn't a dystopian fantasy that the beach residents are trying to scare you with, it is what the town's grant application cites as a justification.

These destruction scenarios also aren't the scare tactics of the Seawall Committee. They are the potential outcomes one needs to be aware of before making a financial decision, the difference between being Penny Wise and Pound Foolish.

Repair the seawall. Protect Duxbury.