Coastal consultant: Kiawah Island sees shoal attachment, localized dune vulnerability and long-term spit narrowing

Patrick Barano, vice president and project manager at Coastal Science and Engineering, told the Kiawah Island Town Council on May 5 that long-term monitoring data show both cyclical sand movement and locally concerning trends.

Barano said the company’s profiles—some with data extending back about 40 years—showed a major shoal attached on the East End around 2020–2023 that has altered sand transport; the attachment led to two years of seaward erosion in that reach but has also begun delivering sand westward, producing a recent net gain on the East End of roughly 150,000 cubic yards, which Barano said converts to about six feet of dry‑beach width in places.

Why it matters: the shoal attachment and shifting channels can change quickly in the face of storms, Barano said, creating both short‑term hazards near inlets and longer‑term management questions for the town’s beach and access infrastructure. “A single relatively minor storm can move a channel thousands of feet,” Barano said, adding that a visual assessment at low tide is often the fastest way to spot imminent hazards.

Barano highlighted two council areas of concern. First, parcels along Eugenia Avenue and Mariners Watch have narrowed vegetated dune buffers—down to about 50 feet in places—and the report documents dune recession there. “In this area a single storm…could easily overtop the dune leading to property damage and flooding,” he said, describing the location as “fragile.” He recommended immediate, low‑cost measures such as sand fencing and additional dune grass plantings to capture wind‑blown sand and help dunes accrete vertically during the coming summer season.

Second, Captain Sam’s Spit has narrowed dramatically over recent surveys. Barano said the spit’s width fell from roughly 400 feet in 2010 to about 200 feet as of September 2025, a pattern that averages near 20 feet of narrowing per year over the last decade. That narrowing creates a breach hazard that, depending on storm frequency and sea‑level rise scenarios, could threaten Beachwalker Park access within decades.

On longer‑term options, Barano described an approach that would require a major permit: selectively excavating a small marsh area and using the material to construct living shorelines that could extend the spit’s life by decades. He cautioned that such a plan would be novel in South Carolina, would require extensive coordination with state and federal resource agencies and could take more than a year of permitting. The town may also be able to rely on a recently issued programmatic biological opinion to speed emergency inlet or channel work during an annual window.

Council reaction and next steps: Council members pressed for parcel‑scale vulnerability data and clearer lines of responsibility where private community association lands are involved. Barano offered to perform a finer‑scale vulnerability assessment (different survey hardware and focused engineering work) to map dune crest elevations and prioritize sites for sand fencing or targeted nourishment. The council signaled interest in pursuing targeted, relatively low‑cost dune measures this summer and in pursuing further technical work to refine policy options.

Supporting context: Barano noted a regional increase in the number of named storms affecting the area since 2015, and he referenced measured sea‑level rise trends that have raised mean low water about a foot at the Customs House in Charleston since 2000. He emphasized that island‑wide sand budgets remain positive over multi‑decadal scales but that inlet‑adjacent reaches can experience rapid, high‑magnitude change.

The council did not take a formal vote on capital projects tied to the report at the May 5 meeting but asked staff to consider follow‑up vulnerability work and short‑term dune measures ahead of the summer season.