Last winter’s storms took a heavy toll on the city’s beaches, including Easton’s Beach, which is located at the start of Newport’s famed Cliff Walk. The city’s public services director, Bill Riccio, is the person in charge of leading Newport’s response. As part of our ongoing series on shoreline erosion in the region, Riccio spoke with Morning Edition host Luis Hernandez about the road ahead for Rhode Island’s city by the sea.
Editor’s note: This story is part of “Washout: Our vanishing beaches,” a series about the reshaping of Rhode Island’s shoreline. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TRANSCRIPT:
Luis Hernandez: So Bill, if you could tell me a little bit about what you’ve been seeing over the years. Is it getting worse?
Bill Riccio: I think it is. For example, when the seas get rough, the sea walls along ocean drive down at Brenton Point are constantly getting, I’ll say tagged, if you will. Overtopped, just like to seawall in Narragansett. Everyone focuses on that during an approaching storm or just heavy seas. We are regularly out on the drive, as we call it, cleaning rocks off the roads. Green Bridge is another section on Ocean Avenue that has been overtopped regularly, especially this past winter. It’s just a challenge everywhere, but we need to take appropriate actions to limit damages as we can or get out there as quickly as we can following or during to make sure roads are accessible.
Hernandez: You, just as a citizen, I’m interested in what you’ve seen over the years because I hear this from people in many places. They say, ‘I’ve seen more flooding. I’ve seen more intense storms. I’ve seen things today that I didn’t see 20 years ago.’ How have things changed?
Riccio: Yeah. I mean, as a citizen, there are beaches I went to as a child that are no longer there. Obviously, as a citizen and a lay person, I say, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ As a child, I could walk down the beach at high tide and I can’t do that anymore because it’s up to the seawalls and there’s no beach access at high tide anymore. So in relation to Newport, where I’ve worked for 17 plus years now, the evidence is there that the tides and the amount of beach exposed at high tide has changed. Looking at past photos of a beach day in July and how deep the towels are versus what they are now. We as an overall team are looking at ways to attempt to mitigate what’s going on because we have much we need to protect. There’s possible bigger effects to how we move around down at Easton’s Beach. The closer it gets to the road, the closer it’s getting to one of our drinking water sources. It’s things we’re thinking about. If people can’t move around, if people can’t do their daily tasks via roadways, et cetera, getting where they need to go – however, on foot by car, by bike, whatever – it’s going to change how people live now and into the future.
Hernandez: My understanding is the city has awarded a contract to bring in some experts on coastal modeling. What is that?
Riccio: One of the words utilized up and down the eastern seaboard is can we renourish the beaches? Can we find a way to put back what’s been taken away over the years? So we have recently hired an engineering team that is going to be working with the Woods Hole Group, who does a lot of shoreline modeling, to determine if there are ways for us, be it beach nourishment, bringing sand back, or creating dunes or recreating dunes, or making them bigger. We don’t know what the options are going to be that come out of the study, but we’re utilizing experts to sift through the research out there and try to develop options for us to look at, to protect not just the beach, but structures on the beach, what can be offered at the beach, the adjacent roadway, as well as the drinking water supply of the city.
Hernandez: I know one thing that some communities around the country are starting to talk about, but it’s a very difficult thing to talk about, which is managed retreat. I don’t know if Easton Beach is at that point, but has that even come up?
Riccio: The retreat conversation is out there, I think. I’m not sure if it’s out there as much for Easton’s Beach, but when you see other damages that our city has experienced along our coastline – the obvious one is damages to the Cliff Walk – retreat has been part of those conversations, as it should be. I think this is not just a coastal matter because the frequency of storm events are creating different levels of havoc, if you will, on the inland sides of things too, with not just sea level rise, but more rain comes down, the rivers swell up, and the ancillary effects of so much on everyone, not just those that live along the coast.
Hernandez: I’ve been speaking with Bill Riccio, public services director for the city of Newport. Bill, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you for all the insight.
Riccio: Sure. Thanks. Have a great one.
Click here to read more from “Washout: Our vanishing beaches,” a series about the reshaping of Rhode Island’s shoreline.
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