State of 's Beaches in 2019

Peter A. Slovinsky Marine Geologist, Maine Geological Survey Stephen M. Dickson Marine Geologist, Maine Geological Survey Hannah M. Corney Marine Geology Intern, Maine Geological Survey

Maine Geological Survey DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, CONSERVATION AND FORESTRY Robert G. Marvinney, State Geologist

Open-File Report 19-3

2019

A publication of the Maine Geological Survey pursuant to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Awards NA17NOS4190116 and NA18NOS4190097 Financial assistance to initiate this program was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Maine Sea Grant Program through a pilot grant Co-management of Maine's Beaches through Volunteer Monitoring by Homeowners, Technical Evaluation by Scientists, and Annual State-of-Maine's-Beaches Meetings to J. T. Kelley, S. M. Dickson, and D. F. Belknap from January 1999 - December 2000. Financial support for volunteer beach profiling teams was provided by the municipalities of Biddeford, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Ogunquit, Old Orchard Beach, Saco, South Portland, Wells, York Acknowledgments We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the profile volunteers involved in this project. This report would be impossible without your efforts. The scientific understanding of the state of our beaches would be lessened without your diligent and sometimes heroic data collection throughout the year. We thank all the groups and municipalities that, with Maine Sea Grant and the Maine Coastal Program, have jointly funded the program in the last two years. We greatly appreciate the collaborative efforts of the Maine Sea Grant Program and Wells Estuarine Research Reserve that have coordinated profiling teams, conducted education and outreach programs, provided quality control on the data, and provided the Shore Stewards web site and database. We thank you all for a superb team effort - you have made this report possible. Portland tide gauge data were made available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Tides & Currents program. Data on ocean conditions were provided by the Northeast Regional Association for Coastal and Ocean Observing Systems. Additional information was provided in collaboration with the Gray, Maine office of the National Weather Service. This analysis was supported, in part, by the financial assistance provided by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended, administered by the Office for Coastal Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This report, prepared by the Maine Geological Survey, was made possible by a matching grant from the Maine Coastal Program with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Department of Commerce.

Table of Contents Background ...... 1 Spatial and Temporal Extent of Beach Profile Data ...... 3 Spatial and Temporal Extent of MBMAP Data ...... 3 Trends in Sea Level and Coastal Storms ...... 5 Southern Maine Sea Level ...... 5 Wave History from 2007 to 2019 ...... 7 2017 Storms ...... 9 2018 Storms ...... 10 2019 Storms ...... 14 Trends in Storms from 2007 to 2019 ...... 15 Maine Beach Mapping Program (MBMAP) Beach Responses ...... 16 Crescent and Seapoint Beaches, Kittery ...... 17 Long Sands Beach, York ...... 20 Ogunquit Beach, Ogunquit ...... 23 Wells Beach, Wells ...... 26 Drakes Island and Laudholm Beach, Wells ...... 29 Crescent Surf Beach, Kennebunk ...... 32 Parsons Beach, Kennebunk ...... 35 Goochs Beach, Kennebunk ...... 38 Goose Rocks Beach, Kennebunkport ...... 41 Fortunes Rocks Beach, Biddeford ...... 45 Hills Beach, Biddeford ...... 48 Saco Beaches, Saco ...... 51 Old Orchard Beach, Old Orchard Beach ...... 54 East Grand Beach and Pine Point Beach, Scarborough ...... 57 Ferry and Western Beach, Scarborough ...... 60 Scarborough Beach, Scarborough ...... 63 Higgins Beach, Scarborough ...... 66 Crescent Beach State Park, Cape Elizabeth ...... 69 Willard Beach, South Portland ...... 72 Small Point Beach, Phippsburg ...... 75 Popham Beach, Phippsburg ...... 77 Reid State Park, Georgetown ...... 82 Pemaquid Beach, Bristol ...... 85 Discussion of Maine Beach Mapping Program (MBMAP) Limitations...... 88 Limitations in Monitoring techniques and datasets ...... 88 Time-span of dataset limitations ...... 88 Comparison with previous editions of the Beaches Report ...... 88

Discussion of 2019 Maine Beach Mapping Program (MBMAP) Results ...... 89 Discussion of State of Maine Beach Profiling Project (SMBPP) Results...... 93 Maximum Vertical Position (MVP) Changes ...... 93 Upper Beach Width (UBW) Changes ...... 93 Discussion of Factors Affecting the Health of Maine’s Beaches ...... 96 Influence of Storm Events ...... 96 Influence of Sea Level Rise ...... 96 Influence of Tidal Inlets...... 97 Other Influencing Factors ...... 97 Cold Weather ...... 97 Beach nourishment and dune restoration ...... 97 Maine Beach Mapping Program – Online Viewer ...... 98 Conclusions ...... 99 References Cited and General Sources of Additional Information ...... 100

P.A. Slovinsky, S.M. Dickson, and H.M. Corney

Maine Geological Survey Open-File Report 19-3

State of Maine’s Beaches in 2019

Peter A. Slovinsky Stephen M. Dickson Hannah M. Corney Maine Geological Survey Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry 93 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333-0093

Background The 2019 State of Maine’s Beaches Report is the 7th report in the series coinciding with the biennial Beaches Conference. This version of the report summarizes observed changes at Maine beaches that are monitored as part of the State of Maine Beach Profiling Project (SMBPP; Maine Sea Grant, 2019) and the Maine Beach Mapping Program (MBMAP) from 2007 to 2019. The SMBPP uses trained volunteers to collect monthly beach profiles that start at a benchmark (in the frontal dune or in a seawall) and continue shore-perpendicular to roughly the low water line. Fixed starting locations are used with the Emery Method of beach profiling (Emery, 1961). The data are entered by volunteers into an online database where it can be viewed, graphed, and downloaded by others (Maine Shore Stewards, 2019). SMBPP is funded and managed by the Maine Geological Survey (MGS), University of Maine, Maine Sea Grant, and Maine Coastal Program. For the 2019 report, there are 15 participating beaches in the SMBPP, as shown in Figure 1. As part of MBMAP, MGS scientists collect shore-parallel data along the seaward extent of dominant dune vegetation along the larger beach systems in southern and mid-coast Maine. Data are collected using a Real Time Kinematic Global Positioning System (RTK-GPS) on an annual basis and are compiled in GIS by the MGS. MBMAP beaches are also shown in Figure 1. Please note that this report mainly focuses on Maine Beach Mapping data results from 2007 to 2018, as appropriate. The report does provide a short summary of SMBPP data at the end of this report. In addition, posters of each of the beaches participating in SMBPP are provided in Maine Geological Survey Open-File Report 19-4 (Corney, 2019), which includes descriptions of the changes observed in SMBPP datasets.

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Figure 1. Beaches participating in the SMBPP and MBMAP monitoring programs.

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Spatial and Temporal Extent of Beach Profile Data Along each collected beach profile, topographic (elevation) points are collected at about 3-meter (10-foot) intervals, from the starting point (usually a stake in the dune crest or mark on a seawall) seaward to the low-water line using the Emery Method of profiling (Emery, 1961). Points are recorded with reference to the starting point, with negative values being below the starting point, and positive values above. The starting points were surveyed in using GPS so that their elevations are referenced to standard vertical datum. All profile elevations are thus referenced to centimeters, North American Vertical Datum (NAVD). This report will provide a time-series analysis of various features of each beach profile from 2007 to 2019, or when data was collected. Please refer to Maine Geological Survey Open-File Report 19-4 (Corney, 2019) for figures and summaries of changes, while Table 2 (later in the report) summarizes observed changes in profile data. Beach profile features analyzed are shown in Figure 2 and include: • Maximum Vertical position (MVP), in meters, NAVD. The MVP is the maximum elevation along the profile; • Upper Beach Width (UBW), in meters. The UBW is the width of the upper beach from the MHW to the HAT. Spatial and Temporal Extent of MBMAP Data The 2019 report will include analysis of horizontal positions of the surveyed vegetation line from 2010 to 2018 along with the mean high-water line and calculated resulting dry beach width. Beach and dune metrics analyzed for the 2019 report include: • Dune Change (2007-2018), in feet per year. The dune change is a measure of the rate of change calculated using available shoreline position data from 2007 to 2018. • Beach Change (2017-2018), in feet. The beach change is a measure of the difference between the shoreline positions of the mean high-water line from 2017 to 2018. • Dry Beach Width (2018), in feet. The dry beach width is the distance from the mean high-water line to the seaward edge of dune vegetation or seawall in 2018. • Dry Beach Width Change (2017-2018), in feet per year. The change in dry beach width is the difference between the dry beach width from 2017 to 2018. Negative values indicate that the dry beach width decreased.

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Figure 2. Key metrics from beach profile data analyzed as part of this report. Please note that supporting figures are provided in Maine Geological Survey Open-File Report 19-4 (Corney, 2019).

Dune and beach shoreline change metrics were derived by using a linear regression fit (or end-point method if less than 3 data points were available) between available shoreline position data. Calculations were done using a GIS tool developed by the Maine Geological Survey based on methodology from the United States Geological Survey (USGS, Thieler et al., 2008). The additional metrics of dry beach width and dry beach change, and how they are calculated, are shown in Figure 3.

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Figure 3. Key metrics from Maine Beach Mapping Program data analyzed as part of this report includes dune change from 2007 to 2018, beach change from 2017 to 2018, dry beach width from 2018, and the dry beach change from 2017 to 2018. Trends in Sea Level and Coastal Storms Southern Maine Sea Level For over 100 years, the trend of sea level in the has been rising. Throughout the 20th and early 21st Centuries, sea level rose at a rate of 1.84 millimeters per year or 7.24 inches per century (Figure 4). During this overall rise, there were times when sea level rose quickly (e.g. 1940s and 1960s) and times when it fell (around 1920 and again from 2010-2014). Some of these excursions were on the order of 10 cm (4 inches).

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Figure 4. This graph shows annual sea level recorded at the Portland tide gauge from 1912 to 2019 (a partial year). The blue line shows a linear regression through all the data. The red line shows a linear regression through the data from 1993-2009, to match the years that global sea level has been measured by satellite altimetry. Data were downloaded from the NOAA CO-OPS web site.

The interannual variability in mean annual sea level is result from many oceanographic and atmospheric forces. The highest sea level was recorded in 2010, the year with particularly high tide levels along most of the U.S. East Coast. In this mo