WTRF Channel 7 News 07/01/12 22:09:12

… And to recap as reported yesterday.

Over two dozen customers at the Wheeling Island Casino lost verses the odds that Mother Nature would not strike back. Locals were shocked yesterday after the two day rain storm that charged the Ohio River overran part of Wheeling Island causing a half acre of the south western part of the island to sink and float away. Although a minor portion of the business’s property, this extreme erosion puts a note of seriousness toward whether a change of location is in the near future.

Just three years ago a local geological study of the island had shown that over the previous seven years the amount of erosion documented has been increasing at a cumulative rate. This loss does not account for the largest annual documented erosion, though it is the single most destructive account.

The Environmental Protection Agency warned in a recent report that rising sea levels are submerging low-lying land and eroding beaches.

Erosion is one of the biggest threats to islands and coastal regions. A variety of man-made and natural disasters are quickly destroying coastal regions around the world. This growing problem has led many scientists and researchers to develop new and innovative ways of fighting this problem.

One promising solution that has been proposed for coastal regions is the creation of an artificial barrier reef around islands and coasts using oyster shells. The oyster shells serve a number of functions beyond protecting the coast such as providing a natural habitat for fish and plant species and filtering water. Non-coastal solutions are still being researched.