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As erosion threatens lakefront, North Shore towns seek solutions together

For two centuries, man-made structures that jut into Lake Michigan along the shore north of Chicago have impeded the natural southward drift of sand — the geological phenomenon that created the Indiana Dunes.

In cities like Waukegan, a buildup of sand has clogged harbors and marinas, interrupting commercial shipping and requiring expensive annual dredging. In other shoreline communities like Lake Bluff, there isn’t enough sand, meaning frustrated leaders facing the shrinking of their beaches have resorted to trucking sand in and installing structures that safeguard their stretch of lakefront — but can further starve areas to the south.

But the piecemeal approach to addressing the issue of sand in the lake has had limited success over the past several decades. Illinois State Beach Park in Zion, for example, has lost acres of wildlife habitat. A breakwater off the shore of Waukegan unintentionally created sand dunes at the local North Beach Park, while the amount of sand at beaches south of the structure — including Waukegan Municipal Beach — has diminished.

And, in areas without sand blanketing the clay lakebed, Lake Michigan waves have permanently carved out deeper shorelines, creating the conditions for higher and more violent swells, which in turn lead to accelerated erosion.

Since March 2015, public officials and government agencies have come together in the first-ever attempt to develop a regional plan to manage sand for the public shoreline from Evanston north to the Wisconsin state line. The 32-mile stretch of lakefront along the North Shore is home to more than two dozen beaches, several marinas and harbors, some of the state’s most expensive real estate and some of the most complicated coastal dynamics.

The so-called Illinois North Shore Sand Management Strategy, an initiative by the nonprofit Alliance for the Great Lakes and funded through a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, invited policymakers, scientists and businesses to identify issues stemming from the erosion of sand and brainstorm regional solutions.

But leaders seeking collaborative solutions recognize not everyone involved is likely to see eye-to-eye.

“We want to help communities make an informed choice on how they want to move forward as a region,” said Diane Tecic, program director of the state department’s Coastal Management Program. “There will be some trade-off here and there. There are competing interests. But we should approach it by asking, are there new ways to look at this that are going to better protect all interests that we have out there?

“No one can really address this big hairy issue alone,” she added. “What we’re trying to do is tie this all together.”

At the group’s most recent meeting on Tuesday in Waukegan, participants identified issues such as beach erosion taking a toll on tourism and the regulatory and permit hurdles involved with transferring sand in or out of the lakeshore. But they agree the biggest challenge will be financial: Whether a community has too much or too little lake sand, viable solutions carry hefty price tags.

Through surveying participants, the Alliance for the Great Lakes conservatively estimated yearly costs associated with managing the public shoreline along the North Shore at $3.7 million. Waukegan alone spends about $1 million annually to dredge sand trapped in its harbor, Mayor Wayne Motley said at a meeting of the group, according to its minutes. Off Zion’s shore, a water-intake pipe, which used to be protected from pounding waves by a layer of sand, could cost about $9 million to replace or repair, Mayor Al Hill said at another meeting.

“For many of our communities, shouldering this burden alone is next to impossible … and pulls valuable resources away from other community needs and projects,” said Jim Anderson, director of natural resources for Lake County Forest Preserves.

Compounding the issue of beach erosion is that lake levels, which are about 1 foot higher than the historical average, have also swallowed up sizable amounts of recreational shoreline. At Tuesday’s meeting, Evanston Assistant City Manager Martin Lyons was among those lamenting the loss of beach — in Evanston’s case, roughly 100 feet.

“It’s all underwater now,” Lyons said.

By looking at other regions of the country with similar problems, the working group examined a number of potential solutions, including the removal of some man-made shoreline structures and the addition of artificial offshore reefs to protect against waves.

The sand management group had planned to outline specific solutions at Tuesday’s meeting, but members said more data collection and monitoring is needed before the group drafts concrete plans and suggests ways to overhaul regulations. The group now hopes to address those issues in a second phase this fall.

The DNR announced that it recently secured approximately $200,000 in a grant from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to map Lake Michigan’s shoreline from Chicago to Kenosha, said Ethan Theuerkauf, a state coastal geologist. This fall, a helicopter carrying an electromagnetic photo array will measure sand thickness across the region in an attempt to identify areas of erosion and accumulation.

“One of the big gaps (of information) is how much sand is even out there,” Theuerkauf said. “That’s a big issue because sand is a dwindling resource. We get it all from Wisconsin and it gets trapped along shores, in harbors. … That’s the sand that nourishes our beaches. Just having a fundamental understanding where it is and isn’t will make our management better.”

The sand management effort will also look to engage private lakefront landowners, such as Northwestern University, in the near future. Wisconsin and Indiana have similar coastal management efforts and outreach to them will be critical going forward as well, Tecic said.

“We need to consider beyond the boundaries in Illinois,” Tecic said. “It’s just figuring out when. Wisconsin … is critical for us because that’s where we get our sand. If they are already thinking about it, we need to link efforts.”

The next meeting will be held in the fall.

tbriscoe@tribpub.com

Twitter @_tonybriscoe