BETHANY BEACH, Del. - Beachgoers may want to get used to filling in the holes they dig in the sand if they don't already. The town is working on an ordinance to regulate how deep people can dig on the beach and to require them to fill holes in before they leave.
Beatrice Sheehan of New York loves digging for beach treasures when she goes to Bethany Beach with her grandparents.
"Sometimes if you dig in the wet sand or near the wet sand, you find crabs or pretty shells," Beatrice says. "One time Granny dug a hole so deep that it was like a pool." Beatrice's Grandfather, Tom Woo, has seen how larger holes can be unsafe. "I've see people dig and they look like they're having a lot of fun, but then they go away and they leave the hole for somebody else to fill in," Woo says. Mayor Rosemary Hardiman says the town has a rule against large holes on the beach, but its not enforceable. With the ordinance, people could be fined $50 to $100 for not filling in holes they dig or for making them too big. Hardiman says digging holes on the beach is part of the summer experience and that the town doesn't want to take that away. She says the goal is to make this activity safer for people and beach vehicles that could get caught in holes if they're too deep, citing a deadly accident in 2017. "What happened in Ocean City, where the woman fell into the hole at night, we don't want something like that to happen here and given the number of visitors we have and how narrow the beach is, we don't want people falling in or tripping," Hardiman says. Under the ordinance, holes can be no longer or wider than 2 feet and no deeper than one foot, but Hardiman says that beach ambassadors are not going to be bringing a tape measure out to check. "They're not going to go and measure every hole," Hardiman says. "What they can do is look at a hole and say that is too big and if they would even just put their foot down into it and say it comes up to their knee, they are tall enough to know that it's higher than one foot." Hardiman says a contractor advised the town how heavy sand can be to help them establish a maximum hole size for the ordinance. "The amount of sand that can fit in a 1 cubic foot hole, which is 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet weighs between 2,200 and 3,000 pounds and just half of that, if you dig a hole to 18 inches, it's enough if it collapses to suffocate even a strong man," Hardiman says. Luca and Gabriel Pinzon and Camilo Vargas of Maryland like making big holes in the sand. "We usually dig each other in it," Camilo says. "I can put my entire leg down in it, but I can't put my other leg down in it," Luca says. The boys don't want anyone to get hurt, which is why they say they fill any holes they dig in. "There was one time where my Aunt walked in and she had her sandal and accidentally fell in there and lost her sandal, but it was like really deep so we had to dig it back in and lots of sand fell," Gabriel says. Mayor Hardiman says the ordinance will become effective after its second reading on April 16th.