‘Sand is like gold.’ The pricey race to restore Florida beaches before the next hurricane – KOAM News Now

Miami Beach Lifeguard Towers Collage (by Anthony Quintano CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).

For decades, Florida has been restoring its beaches by dredging or trucking in more sand. But the practice is becoming more challenging — and expensive, thanks to the rising cost of beach-quality sand. Offshore sand deposits, especially on Florida’s southeast coast, are dwindling after decades of repeated beach restoration projects. As local governments squabble over the right to use the remaining sand, its price is rising…

Florida beaches were already running low on sand. Then Ian and Nicole hit – the Washington Post

Daytona Beach, 20022 (by Jim Allen CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Fliickr)

“I think we’re starting to discover that, despite our best efforts and wanting to throw as much money at this as possible, it has become very difficult to keep these beaches as wide as we would like to keep them,” Robert S. Young, a geology professor at Western Carolina University and director of the Program for Developed Shorelines… “We simply don’t have the capacity to hold all of these beaches in place.”

North Topsail is getting millions for beach nourishment. How long will the sand last? – Star News Online

Unspoiled Beach of North Topsail Island, 2018 (by Michael Au CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).

Last month North Carolina doled out nearly $20 million in grants to help coastal communities better fortify and rebuild beach infrastructure battered by recent hurricanes, tropical storms, and nor’easters.

But in a world where climate change is bringing higher seas and more frequent and ferocious storms to our shores, is investing taxpayer dollars in the sand that’s all but guaranteed to have a limited lifespan on the beach a smart investment?

When beaches are trashed, who pays the price?

A recent NOAA-funded study found that when the amount of marine debris normally on beaches is doubled, coastal economies could experience a substantial negative impact due to a decrease in beach visits and loss of economic activity in those communities.

Médano Blanco Coastal Dunes, Argentina

white-dunes-argentina

Narrow cordons of coastal dunes stretch for hundreds of kilometers along this part of Argentina’s coast. The Médano Blanco is not far from the arid and windy borderlands with Patagonia, one of the windiest places on Earth.