Waves crash over a Camp Ellis street during high tide in March 2018. Liz Gotthelf/Journal Tribune file photo
SACO — Maine’s Congressional delegation expects the language of a project partnership agreement that forges a path forward to a resolution of the ongoing erosion in Saco Bay and beyond to be finished sometime later this spring, along with an update on federal financing.
That was the word Monday from Bonnie Pothier, regional representative for Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, as local state and federal officials involved with the bay gathered for an annual symposium.
Several years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed building a 750-foot spur perpendicular to the existing Saco jetty to break up waves as they made their way to the shore. In 2007, $26.9 million was allocated by Congress to offset erosion, but the project was shelved for an extended period. Saco City Council in April 2021 signed a letter to the USACE designed to kickstart the process of halting erosion along Saco’s shoreline.
Officials locally and on the federal level know that the $26.9 million approved 15 years ago will not be enough.
“We know costs are going to definitely be higher than they were and will exceed the 2007 authorization so there’s work going on behind the scenes; we are all working together on this and hope to see it continue to move forward productively,” said Pothier.
Storms pounding the shoreline have meant the loss of 38 homes over the last 50 years in the Camp Ellis section of Saco.
The beaches are periodically nourished with sand, though erosion continues, depleting sand in some locations, and sending it north.
“All of the sand put south of North and Main (avenues) has disappeared over the years and moved up to the beach,” said Peter Slovinsky of the Maine Geological Survey. Also, he said the nourished beach from Beach Avenue up Lower Beach Road has eroded heavily, but that overall, there was beach growth from 2019 to 2022, though that is starting to erode as well.
And then there is the rising sea level. Slovinsky said the sea level had been rising about 1.8 millimeters annually, which sounds like a small amount, but that has increased over the years.
“Over the last 25 years we’ve seen a doubling of the rate,” he said. “That is about what is happening on a global scale.”
Slovinsky said rising sea level is also having an impact on erosion and notes that the Maine Climate Council has recommended the state plan for a 1.5-foot sea level increase by 2050, and 3.9-foot increase by 2100.
Rep. Lori Gramlich of Old Orchard Beach said a loss of additional shoreline and rising sea levels will have an impact.
“In Old Orchard Beach if we don’t have a beach, we don’t have an economy, it’s just that simple,” she said,
Sea level rise could cost Maine $1.67 billion in tourism spending by 2100, and 13 million fewer visitors due to a narrowing of Maine’s beaches, among other costs, Gramlich said.
The spur remains the project on the table, though the nonprofit SOS Saco Bay likes a proposal from a company called Living Shoreline Solutions, which proposes a series of 15-foot-tall foot tall wave attenuation devices that break up wave activity.
“This is not part of the city’s negotiations with the Army Corps,” Roche pointed out. He said the state funded a study on the wave attenuation proposal last year. “We’d like to have it as an option,” said Roche.
Roche also spoke of SOS Saco Bay’s application to York County Commissioners to fund the $1.8 million purchase of a dredge and accompanying equipment through American Rescue Plan Act funding that could be used by several area communities. Commissioners heard the original proposal in November and offered SOS Saco Bay additional time to gather support from other municipalities. County commissioners are expected to decide on whether to approve the measure in April.
“This is not something we can wait on,” said Saco Mayor William Doyle regarding sea level rise and erosion.
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