“The docks, everything to the south of me, would be under water,” he said. “The water will be lapping up to the doorstep,” and without whole sections of that barrier beach, that water might be a good deal rougher than what the harbor sees now. The new forecast means that this will be waterfront property by the end of the century. Pave East Beach Road? It, too, will be among the first to go, along with most of the barrier beaches that protect the town’s harbor, river and coastal ponds.ĭavid Cole lives five houses up the road from Westport Point at an elevation of 14 feet. Open Beach Avenue to cars? The ‘road, that beach - the whole strip will be long gone. The sea should silence some contentious Westport issues. The water would inundate sections up and along River Road, “And septic systems everywhere will have their feet in the water table.” Without barrier beaches, “Cockeast Pond would be part of the ocean … We’ll lose all of the big coastal ponds from Westport to Little Compton - Briggs Marsh in Little Compton, Quicksand Pond, Round Pond, Richmond Pond … “ Up river, “Even way up at Head of Westport the impact could be extreme … The Head of Westport is like a little Bay of Fundy - there is more tidal surge as the river narrows up there.” We’re already losing them at an alarming rate - you can see it year to year.” And with the marshes will go much of the coastal sea and bird life. The marshes would disappear - “It’s already happening. “The fishing pier at Westport Point - it will be gone and with it some of the Point.”Īcross the harbor, “Tripp’s Boatyard - I can’t imagine it surviving a ten foot sea rise … And without it, without the docks - that will wipe out the ability of people to get access to the harbor and river …The harbor is an economic engine for Westport. Jim Whitin, chairman of the Westport Planning Board, said that as he drives the Westport-Little Compton area, he can’t help but imagine the impact and how it will change the map, not to mention the economy and character of the region. Local experts and observers are trying to get their heads around the enormity of that number. It is happening three to four times faster along the East Coast north to Massachusetts than the global average. Rising seas will soon - much sooner than anyone imagined - inundate beloved parts of Little Compton, Westport and Tiverton.Ī new forecast calls for an ocean rise of nearly ten feet here, not a thousand years from now but by 2100 - within the lifetimes of those in our youngest generation.
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