Resembling the proud parents of a new baby, officials of the Fox Waterway Agency held a show-and-tell Tuesday to officially unveil the agency’s latest approach to stemming waterfront erosion.
But there was very little to see. And that was the whole idea, because the key to the program lies underground, buried under grass, sand and other natural features.
Officials said it is an attractive, economical and far more effective protection against erosion than the traditional sea walls that most property owners erect to forestall shoreline destruction by wind, waves and power-boat wakes on the Fox River.
Utilizing what it calls “biotechnical bank-protection methods,” the agency focused on three spots along the Fox that previously had been hard hit by shoreline erosion to test the new technique.
Sea walls just aggravate the problem because they reflect, rather than absorb, the wakes of fast-moving boats, according to the agency’s executive director, Karen Kabbes.
With the help of a $30,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and assistance from other federal, state and local agencies, the waterway agency set out in 1994 to test a concept that is so simple it seems radical.
At each of three test sites, a stretch of shoreline was dug back a few feet. A blanket of synthetic material called Pyramat was laid over the prepared ground and then covered with sand or soil and planted with grass. In some places, dogwood was added.
“We’re pleased with the outcome,” Kabbes said.
At the Lion’s Park site in Fox River Grove, “the sand has stayed in place. Occasionally, they put more sand in . . . primarily to make a nice bank for the kids to play in,” she said.
Kabbes said that the natural slopes of the reconstructed shoreline absorb the waves and the wakes and that the Pyramat blanket helps hold the soil firmly in place.
The end result is a natural-looking waterfront that experts said is more stable than what nature provides and makes the water accessible to bare feet and toy boats.
It is also something property owners “can do on their own. It’s not high tech,” Kabbes said.
She noted that constructing a 3-foot-high sea wall would cost up to $80 a linear foot. A Pyramat installation would cost as low as $26 a foot if installed by a contractor, or about $18 a foot for a do-it-yourselfer.
She said the installation is not labor-intensive. It took about 72 hours of labor to complete the 130-foot installation along the Fox River Grove shoreline.
Ron Baker, the agency’s Lake County director, said he looks on the cost as an investment. Curbing erosion–which, in some places claims 6 inches to 12 inches of shoreline a year–“makes (a landowner’s) property more valuable,” Baker said.
With more than a year’s testing of the process behind it, the agency is seeing “a lot of interest from homeowners,” Kabbes said. She said about 400 brochures explaining the system have been sent out in response to requests for information.
The agency does not have the funds to help property owners pay for installing the system.
“We’ve got a budget like everybody else,” Baker said.
But the agency’s director, Bill Hauck, said that providing on-site instruction is being considered.
“And if we do another (test site), we could say the public is welcome to come down and watch us,” he said.
