Saco has received the long-awaited project agreement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin construction of a 750-foot jetty spur at Camp Ellis to mitigate the coastal erosion that has led to the destruction of 39 homes and the annual loss of 3 to 4 feet of sandy beach.

The proposed project agreement is under legal review, and won’t be shared publicly until sometime next month, but already some local politicians are calling it a historic moment in the city’s effort to protect a neighborhood under threat of being washed away in the next storm.

“I don’t think there’s anyone who thinks the project is going to solve the coastal erosion problem on Camp Ellis,” said City Councilor Mike Burman, whose ward includes Camp Ellis. “But the jetty spur on its own is a giant step forward that will pay huge dividends.”

But the leaders of Save Our Shores, a local nonprofit dedicated to shoreline restoration, say the city shouldn’t sign the agreement, arguing the proposal doesn’t provide the city with as much beach replenishment sand as promised and requires the city to assume liability if the jetty doesn’t work.

“It’s not the deal we were promised,” Save Our Shores Vice President David Plavin said during a break at the group’s annual coastal erosion conference on Wednesday. “I am hoping it’s just a typo, an oversight, because the city has turned those exact terms down before.”

More than 150 years ago, the Corps built a jetty extending out from the Saco River, adjacent to Camp Ellis Beach, and expanded it in the 1950s. This jetty altered water flow and sand deposition and is the primary cause of the severe erosion of Camp Ellis.

The remediation project has been on the books since 2007, when Congress authorized $26.9 million for jetty remediation after three homes were lost earlier that year in what locals call the Patriots Day storm. In 2013, the Corps came up with its solution: construction of a 750-foot jetty spur.

Since then, the project has been put on a back burner, with disagreements over who should pay to replenish the beach sand in the future and who assumes future liability stalling any agreement. As time passes, the total project cost continues to go up, topping out at $43 million.

The project was revived after Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, tapped into $45 million in funds from the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022. It didn’t hurt when a Corps official who studied coastal erosion while attending the University of New England took control of the project.

People in Saco say they feel helpless as they watch powerful storms and high tides carve away the shore of what was once a vibrant fishing village. Homes are washing away during major storms. Stretches of frontage roads and 3 to 4 feet of sandy beach are washing away each year.

Camp Ellis isn’t the only coastal Maine community fighting the effects of coastal erosion. But marine geologist Peter Slovinsky told the 90 people who rotated through his afternoon conference session that Camp Ellis is probably the worst case of beach erosion in Maine.

“There are things we can do here to slow what is happening, but we need to realize that we can’t stop what is happening altogether,” Slovinsky said. “The dramatic loss of this beach began with the jetty, but sea level rise and the increasing storm surge is kicking in now, too.”

Rising sea levels attributed to climate change have magnified the effects of storm surges, a trend expected to accelerate in years to come. In Maine, sea levels have risen nearly 10 inches over the past century.

The long-term forecasts have fueled arguments that coastal communities should retreat rather than continuing to armor the coastline and rebuild roads and buildings that will only be washed away as the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine continues to rise.

At the conference, attendees listened raptly as state regulators talked about new regulations being written that will make it easier for people to use alternative beach erosion control methods, like wave attenuation devices wrapped in coconut fabric to curb storm damage.

Save Our Shores wants to employ some of these measures to protect the parts of the beach that the jetty spur won’t shield.

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