Eastern SoWal beach restoration

[Sally]

Info from Brad Pickel: The Eastern SoWal project will take another year, maybe 2 to permit - so commencement of placing sand would probably be in 2008. Large sand deposits from ancient beaches have been found off sandestin and seacrest areas. Another 100 core samples will need to be taken and analyzed.

The State park beaches are not considered critically eroded by the DEP ( because there are no buildings there :!: ). This means no matching funds would be available for those areas but that if you skip a 1000 foot section of beach that wouldn't work so the whole stretch between Inlet Beach and the current project in Sandestin needs to be done.

This will require a bond (borrowing money). Bed taxes collect about $2 million a year for restoration but actual costs for dredge and fill are about $4 million per mile.

Good info on this site about the whole issue of beach erosion, beach building, beach economies, etc.

.

 

[Beachlover2]

http://www.floridacapitalnews.com/erosion/



Lots of interesting stuff in this website - thanks for posting it.

 

[katie blue]

WOW! That's big news!
I'm assuming "ancient beaches" means "clean white sand." Pickel always said the issue with Seacrest restoration was they hadn't yet found a pocket of white sand close enough to the area to be able to afford to barge it in...Destin was the closest at that point, and it just wasn't cost effective. I will wait for a little more info before I do the happy dance, but this is good stuff.

 

[Kurt]

WOW! That's big news!!!!
I'm assuming "ancient beaches" means "clean white sand." Pickel always said the issue with Seacrest restoration was they hadn't yet found a pocket of white sand close enough to the area to be able to afford to barge it in...Destin was the closest at that point, and it just wasn't cost effective. I will wait for a little more info before I do the happy dance, but this is good stuff.

He has said they have found plenty of high-quality sand available which was the first hurdle. The permitting process takes a couple of years.

Also, they may not restart the current project until November or December instead of October 1, since cooler water would mean less chance of killing turtles.

 

[pmd8]

"High quality sand" doesn't mean identical sand. Take a look at the restoration in Bay and Walton County. It's not that squeaky snow-white quartz sand.

People want a temporary solution that will permanently change the beach in a detrimental way.

Instead of thinking of the coming hurricanes in the next five years, think of the ten or twenty years that it could take for natural restoration. In the meantime, if man made structures wash away, so be it.

 

[Beachlover2]

If the sand deposits are off Sandestin and Seacrest - won't it be the same sand?

I walked the restored area in April while they were working on it and it looked good to me - but then I am no sand expert.

 

[Kurt]

Critics of dredging say once you start it is a never ending process. PCB and Pensacola have done it more than once and the sand is getting coarser and darker.

At some point in an ongoing dredging process in SoWal, the supply of premium sand will be gone and a decision will be made to stop, or not.

 

[Smiling JOe]

What Kurt said. At some point, the question comes, "do you want brown sand or no beaches?" Personally, I love seeing the white sand, but I am happy with whatever Mother Nature does with the color of the sand. I just hate to see Man trying to make nature "perfect" to suit his needs. We need to learn to move and flow with nature. We are not permanent fixtures and the Earth doesn't revolve around us. Go out and seek the Earth. Touch it. Feel it. Absorb it with your mind. Get connected. I dare you!

 

[BPickelTDC]

The sand that has been located for the remaining sections of beaches have been determined to be 7/2 and better. There are pockets of material that are whiter than 7/2 within the overall area but we are looking to fine tune the offshore borrow areas with additional sampling.

For more information go to www.protectwaltoncountybeaches.com and look under future beach initaitives. The initial page is the current state of the investigation. There are two additional links on the left navigation bar that include a pdf of possible restoration areas with the underlying critically eroded beaches, and a press release regarding the upcoming workshop to discuss the possible restoration areas, sand source information and the post-Dennis state of the beaches.

Brad Pickel
Director of Beach Management
Walton County TDC

 

[pmd8]

What is the grade of the original sand?
Thanks.