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Shoring Up the Shoreline

Door County has come a long way since its beaches first came under scrutiny after a contamination incident at Nicolet Bay Beach in 2002.

Egg Harbor’s expanded beach.

A pro-active effort to find the cause of the contamination events traced the problem to storm water runoff. Now several municipalities have taken steps to mitigate the problem. Sister Bay installed a filtration system, and other towns and villages cleaned up beaches, enhanced natural filters, and enacted new rules for activities on the shoreline.

Most noteworthy in 2009 is the project taken on by the Village of Egg Harbor, which overhauled its entire beach with biofilters and natural vegetation as part of a beach expansion. A design flaw discovered after the project’s completion dulled first impressions near the year’s end, but the village plans to fix the error in time for next summer, when visitors will be welcomed to an impressive – and clean – shoreline.