In the 1970s, a TV commercial for Chiffon Stick Margarine taught us, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”

So far in 2025, the city of Ocean Shores isn’t trying to fool Mother Nature, but rather keep her at bay. Almost a year ago to the week, the city’s berm along the southern shoreline was mired in a losing battle with the relentless wind-fueled waves of the mighty Pacific Ocean.

Between king tides and the usual rhythmic pounding of the surf, the “sacrificial berm” originally erected in late 2023 needs to be replaced and lengthened and that’s exactly what the city is doing.

According to Scott Andersen, Ocean Shores city administrator, homes would have been destroyed had the original sand berm not been put in place.

“Two of these homes would have already been lost completely had we not started the berm, and I have no doubt they would be completely underwater today,” Andersen said. “The primary goal of the city is to protect the city’s infrastructure, which is our water treatment tank, our sewer system, and also fresh waterways. If we get saltwater massively encroaching into our fresh waterways, that will not be good. We’d also have to potentially move this whole infrastructure compound, which would be several million dollars.”

Ocean Shores contracted with Seattle-based engineering firm Mott MacDonald to develop a temporary structure to protect city infrastructure along Marine View Drive, including roads, sewer lines, water tower, power, cable TV, phone, etc.

According to Ocean Shores Lead Planner and Shoreline Administrator Marshall Read, it was determined that it would be better to stop the shoreline retreat rather than wait for encroaching waves to destroy homes and threaten critical infrastructure.

“A decision was made to start with the least environmentally damaging type of materials and that led us to the sacrificial sand berm,” Read said. “After one or two storm events, it was painfully clear that the sand berm was not a sustainable measure to prevent or take care of the erosion issues in that general area, there was too much current, too much wave action, we couldn’t haul sand fast enough.”

The Army Corps of Engineers then equipped the city with heavy-duty one-ton plastic sandbags that provided a more sustainable, but imperfect solution. Weather events of Winter 2023-24 poked enough holes in that idea leading to the creation of a new cobble berm.

“We needed something a bit more durable. The cobble we’re using is similar to what they use in the culvert replacements for salmon habitat and those types of restoration projects,” Read said. “We’re using that material to create a cobble berm that can dissipate energy as the waves run up the berm. It’ll be a berm that has as much slope to it as it does height, we’re looking to achieve a five-to-one slope on the face of the berm. This technology was used at Washaway Beach at the north end of Willapa Harbor, it was also used on a dynamic revetment in front of Westport by the Sea just south of the south jetty. We decided to carry the cobble berm a little farther. As the shoreline continued to retreat through this winter, the first couple of storm events, we had water breaching between the houses and getting into the ditch and that’s where the public infrastructure starts.”

This new cobble berm, with an approximate crest elevation of 15 feet, will be extended to the Ocean Shores Marina.

The city’s efforts to stave off the worst effects of shoreline erosion will have a wide-ranging impact on protecting infrastructure, homes and recreation. To this end, the city is using money from U.S. Department of Commerce grants totaling $688,000 to pay for the longer, sturdier berm.

“They had some emergency funding in their coffers for environmental and other types of disaster relief in Washington. We put together a plan that showed our current berm and the funding needs for that,” Read said. “The Department of Commerce was able to come up with additional funding that would fund the cobble at 15 feet elevation and a five-to-one slope. We’re not trying to prevent overtopping in this measure, we’re just trying to dissipate wave energy as it approaches the beach.”

It took some doing but the city secured agreements with all the affected homeowners allowing berm construction on their properties.

“We’re not building this for the benefit of the private landowners, they’re going to receive some inherent benefits, but the purpose is to stop the retreat before it gets to the public infrastructure,” Read said. “The private property owners have provided easements to the city to locate this berm on their private property.”

According to Andersen, the city has also been actively working with the Quinault Indian Nation regarding property access and asset protection.

“They’ve been gracious stewards, they’ve been nice enough to allow an access road (for) people to get up to Damon Point, and they have given the city permission to construct anything we want that would benefit their property,” Andersen said. “They are losing campground lots, that last storm I believe they lost between four and six lots as a result of king tide.”

Andersen said the city of Ocean Shores is seeking a dual-pronged long-term solution that staves off shoreline erosion and protects navigable waters.

“(Ocean Shores) just got a Community Technical Partners grant to study this, the real key is to build out the old remnant jetty,” Andersen said. “That won’t just stop the erosion, it would allow some of this land to begin accreting and we’ve seen that in other places. The Army Corps of Engineers is only going to rebuild the (North) jetty as it currently exists. They’re going to start in 2025 rebuilding the jetty, they have no plans to do this remnant jetty that cuts across. We would like to prove through our grant that when this sand flows out, it’s flowing into the navigable waterways. It means they have to dredge more often to keep those lanes open. We can kill two birds with one stone.”

Read explained that Ocean Shores and Westport are looking to pool their resources and apply for an additional Community Technical Partners grant to fund a comprehensive plan for the outer harbor.

“The first (Community Technical Partners) grant is independent, that’s just the city of Ocean Shores, and that’s going to be looking at that area between Damon Point, the (remnant) jetty, and Oyhut Wildlife Recreation Area, to see the sediment flows, and impacts of that (remnant) jetty and now the impacts of a potential channel opening along that jetty into the inner bay and the North Bay,” Read said. “That data will feed into other projects as we merge resources with the city of Westport moving forward.”

The total length of the new, improved cobble berm will be 2,800 feet (just over half a mile) along the north shore of Oyhut Bay, much of which lies along Marine View Drive Southeast. The project, roughly halfway complete, is benefiting from a welcome break in the weather.

“We feel like we have it at bay for now, of course with weather like this it’s hard not to succeed, we’re one good storm event away from having to change paths, for now, we’ll take the weather we’re getting,” Read said. “We have received a little gift from Mother Nature when it comes to this winter’s weather, it could’ve been much worse.”

A bulldozer delivers the next load of cobble for the new berm along the south shore beach in Ocean Shores.

A backhoe operator lays cobble for the new south shore berm in front of private residences along Marine View Drive Southeast in Ocean Shores.