The good news is shoreline erosion, damage, and flooding can be dealt with on the Lake Erie shoreline. 
The bad news is it would cost billions of dollars.
A pair of community consultation meetings were held at the Links of Kent golf course in Chatham yesterday, outlining draft adaptation concepts for the high bluff areas; Erie Beach, Erie Shore Drive, and the dyked farmland; flood prone communities around Rondeau Bay; and the federal navigation channel and Rondeau Barrier Beach.
Report author Peter Zuzek says the only way to really protect the dike is a massive rock wall.
“We’re just talking about a massive volume of rock to protect these properties and stop the water from coming over the road and threatening the road and threatening your access in and out,” Zuzek says. “This rock abutment on the order of 3.3 kilometres long, the cost for that is $47-70-million plus annual maintenance.
Meantime, when it comes to Talbot Trail, Zuzek says protecting the road, including the section that is closed, is a monumental undertaking.
“This is a community-scale planning exercise, this is not lot-by-lot, this is to say we’re making a conscious decision to harden the shoreline from Wheatley Provincial Park to Erie Beach, 40 kilometers of shoreline, your costs are in the neighbourhood of $600-900-million.”
It would also require upkeep in the neighbourhood of an additional 1% annually.
The final report on the Chatham-Kent Lake Erie Shoreline Study will be presented in the spring.
