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Tag: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

‘Sacrificial sand’ the primary goal of beach renourishment

‘Sacrificial sand’ the primary goal of beach renourishment

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Beach, Featured, Outdoors.

Updated Nov. 23, 2020 – ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Before the arrival of Tropical Storm Eta, Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker shared his thoughts on the anticipated loss of the sand that would occur on Anna Maria Island’s recently renourished beaches.

The beach widening portion of Anna Maria Island’s beach renourishment project is complete as of Nov. 18, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ contractor, Marinex Construction, began building dunes on Nov. 20 with an expected completion date of Nov. 30. The $17 million project began July 8 at 78th Street in Holmes Beach and ended at Longboat Pass in Bradenton Beach. Tropical Storm Eta and Hurricane Zeta delayed the project’s original Oct. 31 deadline, and pulled some newly-placed sand off the beach into the Gulf of Mexico (pictured) as anticipated by project engineers. Pipelines are off the beach except for a storage area at Coquina Beach. – Cindy Lane | Sun

“Many people who follow beach renourishment see the sand go away during a storm and say, ‘It all washes away. It’s a waste of money.’ I want everyone to understand the sands there are sacrificial. The beaches are intended to wash away. Mother Nature will come in with the energy she has and extract the sand, or take something from the Island. If it’s not the sand, it’s homes, roads and utilities,” Hunsicker said.After the Tuesday, Nov. 3 county commission meeting ended, Hunsicker discussed the public criticism that sometimes accompanies the storm-related loss of renourished beach sand.

“Many people look at that as a waste of money, but that’s exactly the plan. Sacrificial sand is what we put there. Recreation is an added attribute, but its first and foremost job is to protect the Island. That’s why it’s done and that’s what it does,” Hunsicker said.

“They were significant. But I want everyone to remember that the beach we build is titled theThe loss of beach renourishment sand was also discussed Thursday morning during the county’s post-Tropical Storm Eta virtual press conference, when Hunsicker was asked what losses were sustained in terms of beach sand.

‘Anna Maria Island Shore Protection Project’ by the (Army) Corps of Engineers. The primary purpose of our beaches is for coastal protection, to dissipate the energy of the storms. We also have very real recreation benefits and habitat benefits as well for nesting shorebirds and marine turtles,” Hunsicker said.

“We lost depth and width of beach to a near-shore and offshore sand bar. It did not wash away to the middle of the Gulf or Texas. It’s nestled below sea level about 50-60 yards offshore. It will stay that way over the winter, and in the summer, the gentler waves will slowly move it back on shore. Not all of it. We lost sand, and even under normal conditions, Anna Maria Island loses about 10 feet of width every single year,” Hunsicker said.“If a sandy beach washes away, it’s done its intended job. Without the beach, we’d be looking at Gulf-facing roads, utilities and ultimately homes that would absorb the brunt of the storm and be washed away. In this circumstance, we are quite pleased. The erosional losses we saw were the measured benefit of having the beach in place for storms just like this one,” Hunsicker said.

“I want everyone to understand the sands there are sacrificial. The beaches are intended to wash away.” – Charlie Hunsicker, Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Director

“We fully expect the beach to respond the way it did. It’s the breaking tide that does most of the damage. When high tide rolls up over the beach it moves sand around, but it doesn’t drag it out like grabbing hold of a bedsheet and pulling it off a bed. Actually, high tides and flooding on the beach is a good thing. We lose the back berms and dunes, but that sand is pulled from the dunes and distributed across the beaches,” Hunsicker said.

“We’ve been asked to assess damages like any other tropical storm or hurricane, and to rough estimate the volume lost. If there is a congressional add to the budget to address damages from this hurricane season, our beaches there will be eligible for the Corps to return with a new contractor and put that sand back on the beach. That isn’t very often, but that’s how, after Hurricane Sandy (in 2012), we got relief. If you remember Hurricane Irma (in 2017), that is why the Corps is here now, to return the whole beach back to its starting elevations and widths that were there before the storm,” Hunsicker said.

“We may go through yet another episode if congressional money is available. We won’t be able to afford paying for it ourselves – or the state of Florida for that matter. But we’re always optimistic. Certainly, there were damages up and down the southwest coast of Florida and on the east coast – Miami and Key West. So, if there’s a hurricane relief bill coming to Congress, the Army Corps will make efforts to apply that funding to restore the lost sand we just suffered in the last three days,” Hunsicker said.

Egmont Key ruins in water

Egmont Key renourishment starting soon

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Beach, Environment, Outdoors.

EGMONT KEY – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is supplying the weapons in the only battle Fort Dade has ever seen – the one against erosion.

Historic Egmont Key is slated to receive sand to shore up what’s left of the 1899 fort when the Tampa Bay shipping channel is dredged for maintenance beginning this month.

The $10 million project should take about five months to complete.

Egmont’s beaches will not get the high-quality white beach sand recently collected from shoals to its north; that is being used to renourish Pinellas County beaches, according to Pinellas County spokeswoman Ashley Johnson.

Egmont Key, north of Anna Maria Island, will get the sand dredged from 17 miles of the Tampa Harbor Egmont and Mullet Key channel cuts, according to Susan Jackson, of the Corps’ Jacksonville corporate communications office.

The sand will be placed in the middle of Egmont Key’s west side, which faces the Gulf of Mexico, then the project will move to the north end of the island and make its way south, according to the project description.

The dredged material “can be beneficially placed on Egmont Key rather than at a dredge disposal site,” she said.

Nature preserve

The key is protected by both state and federal law as Egmont Key State Park and Egmont Key National Wildlife Refuge, and is a nesting ground for shorebirds and sea turtles, as well as a gopher tortoise preserve.

But the animals don’t seem to mind about the quality of the dredged sand, said Richard Sanchez, president of the Egmont Key Alliance, a citizens’ group working to restore and preserve the key.

Egmont has been renourished with dredged material from the shipping channel before, and sea turtles broke nesting records the last two years, with the 2018 season that ended on Oct. 31 producing 150 nests, he said.

Placing the sand in the early part of the winter season provides time for wave action on the beach to naturally sort the sand and silt, project biologist Aubree Hershorin said, adding, “This is important, because it ensures the beach is as suitable as possible for nesting sea turtles that will begin using the area in April.”

Erosion problem

Egmont Key was used by the U.S. Army to detain Seminole prisoners at the end of the third Seminole War in 1858, and was occupied by both Confederate and Union troops during the Civil War. It later became the site of Fort Dade, begun in 1899 to defend against Spanish attack during the Spanish-American War.

The fort, completed in 1906, served its defensive purpose so well that no battles were ever fought there.

But it has been losing the battle against the Gulf and its storms; parts of the fort are submerged.

The dredge project “will put another Band-Aid on it,” Sanchez said.

Erosion control geotubes installed on the north end of Egmont seem to be holding the Gulf at bay there, he said, although Hurricane Irma moved some of the sand off the north tip in 2017.

A $13 million Corps plan to control erosion and renourish Egmont Key has been in limbo for years, he said. Despite all the required agency approvals being in place, it’s hard to justify funds for a largely-uninhabited nature preserve when people need funds to rebuild from hurricanes, he said.

The island is a temporary home for the Tampa Bay Pilots who maintain living quarters at their docks, where pilot boats transport them to tankers entering and leaving Tampa Bay.

A lighthouse keeper also has quarters on the key. The working lighthouse dates to 1858, and replaced the original lighthouse built 10 years earlier. It is operated by the U.S. Coast Guard as an aid to navigation.

Egmont Key was named for John Perceval, the second Earl of Egmont and a member of the Irish House of Commons who died in 1770. The title “Earl of Egmont” died with the death of the childless Thomas Frederick Gerald Perceval, the 12th Earl of Egmont, in 2011.

The island has been the property of the U.S. Department of the Interior since 1974. Prior to that, it was owned by the U.S. Department of Defense, previously known as the U.S. Department of War. The key has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978.

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Erosion lands Egmont Key on preservation list

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