Three days after 15,000 tons of sand were placed along a 1.5-mile stretch of Salisbury Beach, half of it was washed away by a storm on March 13 (“Salisbury seaside homeowners see tide wash away mitigation efforts,” Metro, March 15). This has happened before and will happen again and will get worse as sea level rises. Predictably, the owners of the roughly 150 properties affected seek relief from the state for future sand replenishment projects. If the state agrees, this will set a bad precedent, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on futile attempts to protect beachfront properties all along the coast. Retreat from the shore is the only long-term solution that is sustainable.
Martin Ross
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Rockport
The writer is a professor emeritus of geology at Northeastern University.
