Beach Nourishment

The last beach nourishment project was in March of 2022. Beach nourishment is officially referred to as Coastal Storm Damage Reduction or CSDR .

PLACEMENT OF SAND

The decision about where and how much sand to put on the beach is based on how the beach area holds up during storms and the amount of erosion since the last nourishment. Purpose of the sand placement is to protect the integrity of the infrastructure of the town and mitigate property loss during storms. The beach is measured and compared to previous nourishments. History shows that sand typically leaves and returns to most areas of the beach in between nourishments. The sand placed on our beach comes from the bed of the Atlantic Ocean.

HISTORY

In 1995, the town entered into a 50 year contract with the US Corps of Engineers (Corps) for placement of sand on the beach every three years. At that time, the areas of Hanby and Wilmington Beach were not annexed into either Carolina or Kure Beach, therefore the project was referred to as 'Carolina Beach and vicinity area south'. The Corps makes the decision about where and how much sand to put on the beach.

Historically, sand has been placed in two areas:

  • N. Carolina Ave in Carolina Beach to Myrtle Ave, at the northern town limits of Kure Beach

  • Davis Road to Camp Wyatt Ct, at the southern town limits, to Building 18 of the Ocean Dunes complex

FUNDING

Funding for these projects is 65% from the Federal government, 17.5% from the State of N.C., and 17.5% from the Room Occupancy Tax (ROT) fund. ROT is a 6% tax that hotel and vacation rentals must charge and remit to the county. No Kure Beach property tax dollars are used for nourishments.