Wealthy coastal residents remove illegal seawalls. But dispute rages as seas rise

[TexasTowelie]

Virtually every property owner who built seawalls in an exclusive oceanfront community south of Myrtle Beach has torn down the walls they hoped would protect the neighborhood’s high-end homes from rising tides and storms.

But the decision to remove the structures, a victory for beach protection advocates who say seawalls worsen erosion, doesn’t end the dispute at Litchfield Beach over how — and whether — to protect one of the narrowest, most storm-threatened stretches of South Carolina’s coast.

Property owners who live in The Peninsula at Inlet Point South want the federal government to approve a controversial beach renourishment project that would widen a half-mile-long stretch of the sand spit by about 50 yards.

The extra sand would help protect more than $60 million worth of houses with grand views of the Atlantic Ocean and the salty, wildlife-rich tidelands at Litchfield’s southern-most tip.

Read more: https://www.thestate.com/article247226404.html