PLUM ISLAND — They look a little lumpy after a rough couple of days, but they're still in place.
The giant sandbags that make up an artificial dune at Plum Island Center took their lumps from waves and high tide Monday night but showed no serious damage yesterday.
"After 48 hours of tough surf, they held up well," said Newbury Town Administrator Chuck Kostro. "They've taken a pounding from the surf, but they did what they were supposed to do."
Plum Island Taxpayers President Ron Barrett said he inspected the dune yesterday and counted nine bags leaking sand. That is a small fraction of the sandbag system.
Waves and stormy seas caused by the weather Sunday and Monday pretty much swept away the sand and dune grass that had been covering the sandbag network and wiped out the snow fence at the bottom of the dune that is intended to keep people from climbing on it.
Kostro said the bags will have to be covered again with sand, which protects them from the sun (assuming there is sun at some point). In March, the sandbags were covered with 1,200 tons of sand at a cost of $26,100.
He said he wasn't sure whether it was too late in the year to replant the dune grass. Indeed, a Web site on dune restoration operated by the Woods Hole Sea Grant and Cape Cod Cooperative Extension recommends an April 15 cutoff date for planting new grass.
The artificial dune extends from Plum Island Center northward for about 500 feet with sandbags five layers deep.
The bags are made of coconut fiber mat and burlap. They are stitched together and held down with galvanized steel anchors.
A row of the 27-foot bags is buried on the beach, topped by a row of 6-foot bags perpendicular to the base. Three more rows of the 27-footers are stacked on top, bringing the structure approximately even with the natural dune behind it.
The system was designed by the town's consulting coastal engineer, David Vine of Newburyport-based Vine Associates Inc.
The cost of the original dune was $151,334. It was installed by a Lexington-based erosion control company called Netco.
Local contractor John D. Hartnett and Son did the work to cover the bags with 1,200 tons of sand.
A landscape contractor then planted 15,000 stems of dune grass in the sand to hold everything in place. The planting of the dune grass, a $3,150 effort, was done by Great Meadows LLC of Rowley.
Kostro said he wasn't sure where the money would come from to pay for a new shipment of sand to cover the bags. The new fiscal year begins next week, he said, and funds could be transferred from another account. But then a source of reimbursement for the other account would have to be identified.
There is money remaining in the original state grant account that was used to finance the dune installation.
Kostro said local records indicate there is still $73,711 in the grant account, but that he would need to check that figure with the state granting agency, the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Kostro said he would ask Vine Associates to evaluate the condition of the sandbags and make recommendations on how to repair the system.
The weekend storm was the latest moment of concern for Plum Island residents, who have been watching parts — not all — of the beach erode.
The beach north of Plum Island Center has deteriorated rapidly since it was ravaged by the Patriots Day storm of April 2007.
The sea undermined a house at 16R Northern Blvd. so severely that it had to be demolished the day before Thanksgiving. Owners of other buildings along Northern Boulevard have had to tear down decks that lost their underpinnings.
In addition to jeopardizing half a dozen houses, the erosion threatens the island's newly installed water and sewer systems.
Officials also fear that a breach at the Center would likely swamp the only road between the island and the mainland, Plum Island Boulevard.
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