Kennebunkport, ME Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 2.8 miles northeast of Kennebunkport, ME
Good news, and an honest one: USGS's data can't distinguish this stretch, 2.8 miles northeast of Kennebunkport, ME, from a flat trend. Whatever small movement it measured here is statistical noise, not a reliable direction, so none is claimed.
What "Kennebunkport" means on this page
USGS surveys the coast in transects spaced a few hundred feet apart; this page groups the nearest ones into a single ~3.5-mile reading for the stretch closest to Kennebunkport, ME, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 43.40, -70.43. USGS's New England / Mid-Atlantic assessment last surveyed this stretch through 2007-2009, computing the rate with its LRR method. Other US regions were surveyed in different years, sometimes decades apart, so this page states its own rather than implying one national vintage.
What backs this reading up
This reading comes from 13 individual transects averaged together, 8% of which measured erosion rather than growth. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.2 ft/yr. The unadjusted figure here, 0.14 ft/yr, would place it 882 of 1211 if ranked directly - but an unreliable rank isn't a useful one, which is exactly why "no significant trend" is the headline instead. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. Sanibel, FL sits at national rank 1176 for growth (2.71 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 1342 miles from here. 0.9 miles away, Biddeford, ME is the nearest other measured stretch: also no significant trend.
Kennebunkport, ME on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.