Beach Nourishment
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If we must nourish beaches, we should use the least damaging source areas for sand and regulations/laws to that effect are needed. In addition, there is a global sand quality problem – poor quality (gravelly, muddy, shelly sand) is being pumped up on beaches (North Carolina, USA, and southern Spain). Recognition of the biological impact of placing sand on a beach is a particularly great need as beach nourishment temporarily destroys the entire nearshore marine ecosystem affecting birds, nearshore fish, and invertebrates. Source areas for sand are sometimes problematic as was the case in 2007. The US Army Corps of Engineers used off-shore sand from a former dump site from WW II resulting in the deposition of sand on a New Jersey beach along with 700 live rounds of munitions. Fortunately, no one was injured, but vacationers digging in the sand found the munitions. Dubai poses different challenges – fine sediment from the dredging operations there has done permanent damage to the coral reefs and ecosystem. Active coral reefs were buried when artificial islands were created after 2000.
Surfing in / Beach Nourishment
Can Adding Sand to Beaches Save Them?
The question is, can beach nourishment keep up with the ever-increasing forces of climate change or, like Sisyphus forever pushing his boulder up the hill, is adding sand to beaches an expensive, temporary fix to a long-term problem?
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Though wealthy, Jupiter Island gets $8.6M for beach repair from FEMA
Jupiter Island, a well-heeled seaside enclave where home values average $4.97 million, was awarded $8.6 million in federal emergency money for beach re-nourishment following a beating by 2016’s Hurricane Matthew. FEMA has obligated more than $233 million for Florida beach projects under the program.
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To shore up beaches, just add sand?
New research is shedding light on how mechanically placed sand on San Diego County beaches moves and its potential impacts.
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Factbox: Sifting Through U.S. Beach Sand Numbers
Here is a summary of what Florida and other coastal states and communities have been doing to protect and rebuild their shorelines based on to the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) data.
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Gone with the wind: storms deepen Florida’s beach sand crunch
Costs of so-called beach renourishments are a fraction of the total, measured in hundreds of millions of dollars, but the effort is crucial for Florida’s $67 billion tourism industry. And while sand needs are surging, there is not enough to go around.
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Shore towns use sand dredged from inlets to widen beaches
Coastal areas around the country are dredging clogged inlets to make them easier to navigate, and using the sand they suck from the bottom to widen beaches damaged by natural erosion or serious storms. Concerns that have arisen from inlet dredging include possibly disturbing wildlife habitat, or affecting the shape of nearby shorelines.
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Life’s a beach: Cannes ships in sand for film festival
Every year the French Riviera town of Cannes rolls out the red carpet to A-list celebrities at the world’s most glamorous film festival. Now it wants to roll out a bigger beach too. The Mediterranean resort is shipping in 80,000 cubic meters of white sand – enough to fill 32 Olympic swimming pools – to widen the beach along a 1.4 kilometer (0.9 mile) stretch of seafront.
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Did sand from Australia’s east coast get sent to Hawaii?
Is it true that back in the day, they used to mine sand at the beach?
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Bahamas sand to fill in Florida beaches? Congress gave OK for study but no funding
The 2016 Water Resources Development Act authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to study using foreign sand, such as from the Bahamas, to widen shorelines without resorting to expensive and inefficient truck hauls from inland mines. A year later the study remains unfunded in the agency’s budget.
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