STONE HARBOR – The borough is going to pilot a beach-scraping project where sand is taken from the low-tide water line and moved to the dry beach as a means of combating erosion.

Councilman Tim Carney, new chair of the Natural Resources Committee, outlined the project at the Tuesday, Jan. 16, meeting of the Borough Council.

The process was one of the recommendations made by the borough’s former beach consultant, Douglas Gaffney, in a feasibility study of retaining sand on the beaches and combating the effects of erosion in the years between federal hydraulic replenishments. No mention was made of the feasibility study when Carney announced the pilot effort.

Stone Harbor suffers erosion of the berm on many of its beaches following the replenishments as natural wave action moves sand to the south, depositing much of it at the protected Stone Harbor Point.

Neighboring Avalon was a pioneer of a process since labeled back passing, where sand from areas that naturally replenish is scraped up and trucked to north end beaches that often experience erosion.

The difference in the Stone Harbor proposal, as it has been explained in public meetings, is the sand scraped from wet areas at low tide will be used for the immediately adjacent dry beach. No heavy equipment is needed to truck sand in or out.

Carney said the beach areas at 80th to 83rd streets will be the location of the pilot effort. He added that the location was selected because there are no homes in that area.

Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.