Reply To: Houston (1991) [Journal of Coastal Research, 7(1) 565-577], Re: Discussion of Pilkey and Leonard (1990) [Journal of Coastal Research, 6(4), 1023 et seq.] and Houston [Journal

Houston's latest discussion is largely a repeat of his earlier discussion. He chooses to selectively address our defense of our numbers and our criticisms of his. He continues not to address the real question at hand. The question is: do replenished beaches disappear faster than their natural predecessors? We say they do. Houston says they don't. We review 11 proposed U.S. East Coast beach replenishment projects and show that beach durability estimates continue to be absurdly optimistic. We believe that the past and continuing poor quality of American replenished beach design occurs because the assumption of identical pre- and post-fill loss rates is completely wrong.