Sometimes, it just takes a while for things to work through. Following the unintended appearance of poor-quality material on Atlantic Beach during a nourishment project over a year ago (see here), some large mudball outcrops persisted into this year (see here). Fortunately, the persistance of several individuals at the US Army Corps of Engineers in Wilmington and the town of Atlantic Beach eventually resulted in some of the worst parts of the muddy areas being removed. The photo above is a bulldozer working on breaking up and carrying away one of the muddy outcrops. Following this, the dozer then smoothed over the area, improving greatly the appearance of the beach (see below). Of course, it doesn't entirely solve the problem (there is still some muddy areas in this area of the beach) but it is a first step towards improving the situation.