Castles made of sand
How big industries’ use of sand has compromised the health of California’s beaches and what recent action against the CEMEX plant means for the Monterey Bay.
How to Steal a Beach
In Northern California’s Monterey Bay, a peculiar thing happens every time there’s a storm. The California Coastal Commission says that a mining operation has been illegally taking precious sand for years.
Bill Marks Shoals as Sources for Beach Sand, NC
Senate leaders hit the brakes last week on a fast-moving set of amendments to state environmental laws with several coastal-related provisions, including one that would for the first time target North Carolina’s three great capes as a sources of sand for beach re-nourishment.
Is there enough sand to go around?
The sand we spread our towels on in visits to the Delaware beach towns was once at the bottom of the sea, before engineers pumped it onto the shoreline in a wave of beach replenishment projects.
Documentary ‘Sand Wars’ Highlights Local, Global Sand Crises
The environmental documentary ‘Sand Wars’ was shown at The Center for Ocean Health in Santa Cruz on Thursday, preceded by a presentation by UCSC professor Gary Griggs. As Gary Griggs and “Sand Wars” demonstrate, sand has become a valuable resource worldwide due in large part to continuous construction.
Why Sand Is Disappearing ; By John R. Gillis
To those of us who visit beaches only in summer, they seem as permanent a part of our natural heritage as the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes. But shore dwellers know differently. Beaches are the most transitory of landscapes, and sand beaches the most vulnerable of all.
Monterey Bay, California: Beach Sand Mining from a National Marine Sanctuary; By Gary Griggs
The 30-mile long, continuous sandy shoreline around Monterey Bay is the most visited stretch of shoreline on the central coast. Yet, it holds the dubious distinction of being the only active beach sand mining operation along the entire United States shoreline. To make matters even worse, it all takes place along the shoreline of a protected National Marine Sanctuary. Something is seriously wrong with this picture.
Beach Sand Mining in Monterey Bay Causes a Dustup
California’s Monterey Bay boasts one of the nation’s most protected coastlines, situated within a federal sanctuary that imposes bans on everything from Jet Skis to offshore drilling. Yet most days, hundreds of tons of sand are harvested from one of its most picturesque beaches, in a mining operation now coming under increased state and local scrutiny.
Sand Mining Database
Coastal Care has an extensive list of Sand Mining resources.