Palm Beach Post
BEACH RENOURISHMENT STIRS DOUBTS
Ocean Ridge December 5, 2005
ANTIGONE BARTON, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
How many years must a
beachfront exist before it
is washed to the sea?
How many times must
taxpayers pay to replace
sand that nature took
away?
The answer, once again,
is blowing in the wind, as
another hurricane season
leaves sparser beaches in
its wake and another
round of beach
replenishment begins.
On Thursday, as cement-
colored plumes muddied
the teal waters
surrounding a barge a
quarter-mile offshore that
pumped sand from deep
below the seafloor onto
the shore, Palm Beach
County Reef Rescue
Director Ed Tichenor
wondered what the cost
of a broader beach would
be.
Sediment could settle
and coat the nearby coral
reef and sea grasses,
causing permanent
damage, he said.
Tichenor started testing
the water's sediment
levels after boaters and
divers called in reports of
gray and murky seas
extending nearly 10 miles
from the dredging barge.
He reported his findings -
numbers that doubled
and tripled the permitted
levels - to county
environmental officials.
"Something appears to
be wrong," Tichenor said.
Exactly what is wrong,
however, remained a
question as dredging
continued, with the $3.3
million project headed for
its scheduled completion
this week.
Wind and waves from the
southeast appeared to
play a role in the silty
water during the
weekend, county coastal
geologist Tracy Logue
said. Great Lakes,
contractor for the project,
stopped dredging during
incoming tides.
On Friday, Great Lakes
project manager Kevin
Zimmerman said
monitors had detected
excessive sediment levels
only twice and had
immediately stopped
pumping each time.
But when dredging
resumed at night, leaving
streaks of cloudy water in
the mornings, Tichenor
wondered if the sand
being pumped is the right
stuff.
While county
environmental engineers
and geologists say the
sand being dredged has
met rigorous standards,
Tichenor is not alone in
his concern that lasting
harm can be done when
sand is moved from one
environment to another.
"Renourishment kills
invertebrates. You just
plain bury them," said
Pete Peterson, professor
and beach invertebrate
specialist at the
University of North
Carolina.
And because these
creatures, which number
in the hundreds of
thousands in shallow
beach water, are near the
Copyright (c) 2005 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
beginning of the food
chain, the repercussions
are domino-like: "They
can't provide the service
of feeding the animals we
like to look at, catch and
eat."
Still, Peterson said, beach
renourishment continues
because other solutions
to sand loss are even less
appealing. Groins -
strong, low sea walls built
at an angle to the coast -
help hold beaches in
place, but at a cost to
neighboring beaches,
while sea walls cause
even greater beach
erosion than natural
conditions.
"It's a prescription for
disaster - and you're
living behind walls," he
pointed out.
antigone_barton@pbpost.
com