Newsletter #6 (3/24-3/30)

Welcome Sustainable Shorelines' Newsletter #6 (3/24-3/30) chronicling this past week's events on and about our coastlines.

As in every letter, I urge you to forward this e-mail to others concerned for our coasts.  To those friends without e-mail, please print this and give/mail to them.  The more people who know and the more they know about what is happening on our coastlines, the more likely we can influence this for the better.

Jerry Berne Sustainable Shorelines, Inc.

Sustainable Shorelines is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to documenting current environmental events on our shorelines, identifying and seeking to change those coastal policies and practices which are harmful and advocating protecting our coastal habitats and the ecosystems these support with methods proven to be environmentally sound and sustainable.

NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA
As the Cherry Grove, SC "takings" case  proceeds through the courts, the latest $400,000 renourishment of trucked-in sand is through at Cherry Grove.  New sand has to be dumped every 2 years in Cherry Grove while the rest of Myrtle Beach area is renourished every 8 years.  Northward, Brunswick County, NC beaches get more frequent renourishment:  Holden Beach replenishes every year;  Ocean Isle Beach renourishes every 3 years, next in late 2003.  Bill Eiser with the SC Office of Coastal Resource Management says no one has a good answer as to why some beaches erode faster than others.  Maybe he is asking the wrong people.

At Folly Beach, SC, this same agency approved permits for a $650,000 groin to protect the county park at the south end of the beach.  Environmental groups it oppose it saying it will cause erosion to a pelicans nesting island and on Kiawah Island.  This is most probably a correct assessment of its effect.  The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission will monitor the neighboring islands and set aside $200,000 to rebuild beaches there if they erode.  Sounds like an optimistic figure to me.

Pine Knoll Shores, NC, still finds its proposed Section 933 project in jeopardy.  This project would put stored dredge spoils from Corps of Engineers' navigation maintenance on Pine Knoll Shores and Indian Beach at less cost than these areas' newly finished renourishments.  There is a catch to getting the money together in time to meet a June 7 deadline in that the new federal budget only allocated $13 million, $14.3 million less than required.  The towns are fronting for the required $2+ million local matching funds, though there is increasing concerns about selling these additional costs to the voters given the nourishment and studies moneys already spent.  There are still problems with Pine Knoll Shores fulfilling its requirements for public access from its last nourishment project.

Weeks Marine delivered the last load of sand for Phase 1 of Emerald Isle's $17 million renourishment project.  Hopefully that last load was better than the rest:  sand samples taken throughout the project exceeded limits, often greatly, for shell content.  Phase 2 should begin in  2004-2005.  These plans include having a dredging contractor shift Bogue Inlet's channel away from homes and infrastructure and using the sand mined there to nourish beaches along the town's western end.  Sound's like nature at work again to me to cause that "natural" erosion many misguided coastal groups talk about.

Dare County, NC is beginning to acquire easements for its renourishment project which will involve 1400 parcels along 14 miles of beachfront.   These are beachfront construction template areas where the Corps would be placing sand. These parcels, once they become part of the project, must be federal land open to public access.  Beach access is required by the Corps every one-half mile. Parking must be within one-quarter mile of each access.  The project will be executed in three different contracts in three different contract years. Because of unpredictable federal appropriations, Planning Director Ray Sturza said, the project will run either from 2003 to 2007 or from 2005 to 2008.

FLORIDA AND GEORGIA
Port Everglades plans a massive dredging project that would destroy part of a coral reef.  The Corps is drawing up plans to deepen, widen and lengthen the main channel for the newest deep-draft ships. The extended channel cuts right through the reef destroying an estimated 20 acres of habitat.   Don Fore, project manager for the Corps says this is a business decision and it will mitigate its destruction of the reef by creating an artificial one.  Paul Johnson, of Reef Relief, said such attempts often fail as no one has figured out exactly how to replicate natural systems' biological diversity.  Ports around the US are racing to dredge deeper channels for the new generation of big container ships. Current depths of 35 to 45 feet are going to become channels of 45 to 53 feet.  This is because it is cheaper for the importers and shipping industry.  No mention is made of the true real cost of this insanity:  massive coastal erosion, death of natural systems, billions in real property damage, loss of tourism revenue, etc.  Is it really worth losing our shorelines just to save a dime on a cheap trinket or a penny or so on a gallon of gas? Indian River County, FL is about 1/3 through its $9.6 million, 2-mile renourishment project.  It includes building a 5 acre artificial reef to attempt to mitigate the loss of a reef being buried.

As reported in our last newsletter, the Corps stopped Jacksonville Beaches' badly done nourishment project.  The Corps basically ran out of time and sand to fortify the beach using debris littered spoils from the St. Johns River deepening project.  At the same time, the St. Johns River Restoration Working Group is estimating $650 million, and possibly several times that, to restore the river.  Neil Armingeon of the St. Johns Riverkeeper organization says the estimate includes at least $137 million to restore damaged aquatic habitat, much of that through wetlands projects. Future expenses could be prevented by protecting wetlands more energetically now.

The Minerals Management Service is looking for sand to mine in federal waters beyond the state's 3 mile limit. The state-owned shoals have been mined to extinction.  Jacksonville's beaches are restored about once every five years

The Stump Pass dredging project has once again been altered as nesting Wilson Plovers force the relocation of the channel alignment 300 feet further north.  Two anticipated future dredgings will again shift 300 feet south.  FL DEP originally requested moving the proposed channel 300 feet to the south to preserve more state park land at the southern end of Manasota Key and minimize disturbance of shorebird and sea turtle habitat.  The DEP is also requiring a formal contract with the local turtle club to monitor turtles and oversee their protection.

Even as Florida continues to pump sand, money is drying up for programs to clean up Florida's lagoons, estuaries and lakes.  These funds would be severely scaled back under legislative budget proposals, jeopardizing the very waterways that pump life into the state's ecotourism industry. 

High rise condo construction has come to a halt at Ponce Inlet.  Height regulations have already forced the removal of a condo building  in Martin County.  Demolition is still an option for the uncompleted Ponce Inlet units. The Ponce Inlet case began two decades ago, when voters chose to protect their coastal view by approving a charter amendment that limited buildings to 35 feet.

Collier County, FL commissioners approved spending $165,000 of Tourist Development Council funds to continue a Hideaway Beach renourishment engineering study.  Access is still an issue, however.

Melbourne Beach, FL will complete the last mile of a $13.5 million, 3.8 mile restoration for that city this week.  US Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Melbourne, a supporter of shoreline preservation, got $7.5 million federal dollars for the project. The state and Brevard County each contributed $3 million.  According to an editorial in the local paper Melbourne Beach, though "... the sand eventually will wash away, renourishment is the only practical way to save the beaches."  It continues, "The long-term solution is a moratorium on construction along the state's shoreline, far deeper setbacks for future construction and the preservation of more beachfront land for public use." Major portions of Broward County's $52 million planned beach renourishment project will be delayed until nearly 2006 to allow increased the monitoring of coral reef beds.  Experts are saying the stirring of sediments in the water will cause extensive and long-lasting turbidity of the South Florida waters.  The project will destroy 13.5 acres of reefs.

The first Pensacola Beach drowning this season prompted some bystanders to ask whether renourishment may intensify rip currents.  The beach nourishment official dismissed that saying "There's no science that anything we are doing out there will have any effect on that."  Caulk up another false statement OT the dredging folks.  Drownings after nourishment are common.  In Savannah, a former lifeguard says there have been two or three drownings following each beach renourishment projects.  Dredging causes new, strong currents that endanger swimmers, he said.  This is also has been documented in New Jersey. The Corps is soliciting bids for placing sand on the beach at Bal Harbour requiring 180,000 CY over .85 miles. The sand source is an ebb tidal shoal at Bakers Haulover Inlet 1,200 feet from the north end of the project.

MID-ATLANTIC
Near Annapolis, MD, the South River Federation hopes to convince waterfront property owners that "living shorelines" -- natural buffers that use plants, sand, rocks and nature to prevent erosion -- are a viable alternative to bulkheads, rock walls and other traditional barriers.  St. John's College replaced a portion of bulkhead, sprouted a lush marsh habitat and attracted a variety of wildlife.  "I think (the living shoreline) is actually much less complicated than structural solutions, and the cost is significantly less than structural solutions," the college spokesman said. "You add on top of that the benefits of low maintenance -- you never have to replace it once it's there."

NORTHEAST
Seaside Park Beach, CN lovers formed Seaside Park Coalition last fall.  The coalition has set up an April 16 meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding a $1.5 million renourishment.  The groups says dredging Southport Harbor could provide sand and help both communities at once.  Parks and Recreation Department Director Phillip Handy said there are environmental concerns with the idea. The group is also seeking private funding.

Old Saybrook, CN is about to have its harbor dredged after 10 years:  entrance channel, 100 feet wide and 11 feet deep;  12 acre outer anchorage area, 11 feet deep; and 17 acre inner anchorage, 6 feet deep.   The 252,000 CY of silt/clay material, if tested safe, is to be dumped in the Cornfield Shoals Disposal Site, Long Island Sound.  The town has no suitable land site for its disposal.

GREAT LAKES
In the 2003 U.S. Court of Appeals decision in Banks v. United States, 314 Fed.3d 1304, the judge ruled statute of limitations had not expired when the claimants filed their class-action lawsuit in 1999 for a taking of their property rights due to government action.  John and Mary Banks and 35 of their neighbors own beachfront property on Lake Michigan sued the Corps after it unsuccessfully attempted to stabilize the beaches in front of their properties.  In 1903, the Corps built jetties (1903), depositing fine and coarse sand on the beach (1986 and 1993), depositing barge-loads of large rocks (1995).  Finally in several Corps technical reports published in 1996, 1997 and 1999, the conclusion was the erosion is permanent and irreversible.

GULF
At Baldwin, AL beaches the Corps recently changed its practice of placing sand dredged from Perdido Pass near the jetties on the west side of the pass, the material will now be pumped about a mile west of the outlet.  Supposedly, this places it away from the jetties that block tides and currents, allowing the waves along the coast to continue the natural process of deposition.

Both Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are also working on renourishment projects.  The West Beach at Gulf Shores is undergoing a temporary $2.8 million nourishment partially paid for with hurricane relief money from FEMA.

A new bill in the Texas legislature aims at giving the beach time to recover from a storm before calling in the bulldozers to demolish structures that wind up on the public beaches as those beaches erode. The bill would allow the land commissioner to issue a moratorium on enforcement of the Open Beach Act. The initial moratorium would be two years and could be extended another two if the commissioner believed the beach was recovering sand lost to erosion.  The delayed enforcement is see if the beach would rebound naturally or though artificial renourishment.  Opponents, however, say Texas beaches are eroding, not accreting.

WEST
Hawaii's reefs may not be the relatively unspoiled ecosystems of generations past, they are still largely in good health.  Coral reefs are critical to the state's tourism and marine-related industries.  These also act as a natural barrier against wave erosion and coastal hazards and their biodiversity makes them of great interest to scientists searching for cures for diseases. Programs such as the scientist-based Hawaii Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program and the volunteer-based Reef Check inform the public and policymakers about the condition of reefs.

Currently, however, the Corps is working with the Hawaiian Department of Land and Natural Resources to hasten approval of sand replenishment projects.  New, quicker permits would not exceed 10,000 cubic yards of sand per project, and the state would ideally take about three months to process the request. State officials will monitor the impact of the select projects on nearby reefs.

The Corps is proposing a $2.6 million plan to deal with erosion at Ocean Beach, CA.  It is set to begin a three-year study to develop a long-term plan to maintain and rehabilitate the beach.  Of immediate concern is the slumping parking lot on the bluffs above the beach.  Environmentalists have expressed concern about Ocean Beach's eroding shoreline and about sensitive habitats that have lacked consistent care.

Santa Monica, CA approved a $2 million to restore 900 feet of the 10-foot-high breakwater built in 1934 and rebuild the old harbor with 12 moorings to bring back ships and commercials vessels to the pier.

INTERNATIONAL
In Ireland, saving Silverstrand Beach in Galway could cost 6 million.  Poundings from waves and global warming will cause the beach to disappear in 25 to 40 years.  To protect the cliffs, the vulnerable areas would have to be filled in with large banks of sand and four ton granite boulders in a sloped formation.