Before

After completing numerous smaller stormwater best management practices together, we worked with the Hillsmere Shores community to identify this site as the community’s highest priority for coastal resiliency due to ongoing threats to infrastructure from increasing storm surges. This location had significant need due to the damaging high tides that periodically washed into and over the bulkhead and riprap that lined the only access road leading onto the sand spit and community marina. With a lack of natural buffers against flooding and climate change, this area was increasingly vulnerable and the areas behind the riprap frequently washed out. 

Without intervention, the peninsula would have continued to erode. The alternative solution to this would have been the much more costly option of installing more hardened infrastructure and impervious surfaces to repair and maintain the community’s recreational access to the area. Coupled with the opportunity to restore marsh and aquatic habitat to over 650 linear feet of shoreline, Arundel Rivers was delighted to embark on our largest project to date within the Hillsmere community. 

In order to create this new habitat and prepare the marina for future storm surges, the shoreline has been bolstered with sand, rock, woody debris, and grasses. Widely spaced headland breakwaters (rock structures) absorb and direct wave energy to maintain stable, crescent-shaped beaches with a combined 18,000 square feet of habitat. This project provides ecological lift through water quality improvements and the creation of pollinator, dune, marsh, beach, and shallow water habitat. The sand beach area will provide habitat for diamondback terrapins and horseshoe crabs. Fish and other estuarine invertebrates can seek shelter in the coves and among the woody debris.

The 252 oyster reef balls placed in the water will help to disrupt wave action and create new habitat for various aquatic species, including oysters! 32 of these reef balls were set with spat, or covered with baby oysters, to kickstart the growth of this new oyster reef. Conservation plantings and dune grasses help filter stormwater runoff and hold the soil/sand in place during storms. These plantings have also created a migration corridor for tidal marsh as sea levels rise.

Impervious and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Credits

Impervious Surface Reductions (ISR): 26.16 acres

Total Nitrogen (TN): 113.1 lbs

Total Phosphorus (TP): 79.8 lbs

Total Suspended Solids (TSS): 214,512 lbs

After

This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement 4I-95300101 to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, nor does the EPA endorse trade names or recommend the use of commercial products mentioned in this document.