By Larry Barszewski
Manalapan officials are intrigued by new environmentally friendly technologies being used in sea wall creation and shoreline protection, but they know it will be up to town residents to decide whether to have them installed on their properties.
Representatives from Miami-based Kind Designs made a presentation to commissioners at their May 12 meeting about the living sea wall and offshore wave attenuation devices their company produces that can foster an environmentally improved Intracoastal Waterway and impede the erosion of shorelines.
But in a town where all the beaches are private, the town doesn’t own any sea walls, either.
Instead, the town is looking to publicize the benefits of the products that are out there and potentially create incentives for property owners to consider those more environmentally friendly products.
“The town is kind of an intermediary in this situation,” Town Manager Eric Marmer said during a May 27 interview. “We did some exploration. This is just one company. … They make things that help mitigate some of the risk that the town faces.”
Those risks come from seasonal king tides impacting properties along the Intracoastal and from passing storms that pound the coastline and erode beaches.
Unlike the ubiquitous smooth sea walls that have been built historically, Kind Designs and other manufacturers promote walls with caves and crevices — or specialty tiles with the same features that can be attached to existing sea walls. They promote growth of oysters and other sea life, or can include mangrove plantings.
The idea behind living sea walls is to repopulate the Intracoastal with organisms that will filter the water and begin to turn it from murky brown into a clearer shade of blue — while also protecting properties from rising seas and growing king tides.
Living shorelines, on the other hand, seek to protect the coastline. Kind Designs uses 3D printing to create structures that can be placed offshore and promote reef-like coastal environments while also protecting nearby beaches.
“With 3D printing, we’re able to create any shapes, sizes,” Kendall Jaquez of Kind Designs told commissioners. “It’s pretty easy to install as well.”
At the May 12 meeting, Mayor John Deese, who called in from a cruise off the coast of Africa, suggested the town hold a public meeting for residents on the subject, maybe at the town library.
Marmer said an information session will probably be held in the fall, going over the opportunities that are out there.
Manalapan isn’t the only coastal South County municipality taking a deeper dive into the living sea wall and living shoreline opportunities.
Presentations have been made on the subject recently to commissions in Ocean Ridge and Boynton Beach, and other communities have explored the subject as well.
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