Report paints dire picture for Plum Island - Boston Globe
At least 26 beachfront homes on Plum Island could be destroyed by 2019 without a plan to blunt beach erosion, according to a report by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The report found that the central section of Plum Island, at the mouth of Newburyport Harbor, lost an average 13.3 feet of shoreline annually between 2000 and 2007.
The Corps will probably embark on a temporary fix: expanding the beach by moving sand dredged from the Merrimack River channel and depositing it onto the eroding shore. But if the current rate of erosion continues, the proposed beach expansion would protect the area for only another five years.
The report, published last month, calls for quick action while a more permanent solution is found.
"If protective measures are not implemented, it is anticipated that long-term erosion will continue at the current rate and eventually threaten the shorefront structures along Northern Boulevard and the sewer and water system under the road," it said.