Our vanishing shores: The pros and cons of renourishment

While this headline sounds neat, it is not true.  Our beaches are Not vanishing.....intr.v. van·ished, van·ish·ing, van·ish·es. 1. a. To pass out of sight, especially quickly; disappear....  The beaches are still there just not where the developers and other people want them to be. A barrier island moves, just they always have, for 1.000 and 1,000s of years.  Man, in is folly, thinks he can control nature and the harmony of the universe.  He can not.

PNJ
Walking from some Gulf-side hotels to the water’s edge on Pensacola Beach is not an easy jaunt these days.

Beachgoers face sliding, jumping or gingerly climbing down the face of a 5-foot sand drop-off, called an escarpment, to reach a sliver of beach below.

The escarpment is a visible sign that, “What man builds, Mother Nature has the power to take away.” In the case of Pensacola Beach, she’s snatching up some high-dollar sand.

Rough surf throughout this year’s unusual stormy tourism season dramatically clawed away some of the 7.2 million cubic yards of sand Escambia County pumped onto the beach between 2002 and 2006, at a cost of $30 million, to create a protective barrier between the encroaching Gulf and the billions of dollars of commercial and residential properties and roadways.

The vanishing sand is allowing the Gulf to wash perilously close to expensive hotels, condominiums and roads. Some areas of the beach are so narrow that lifeguard trucks are having difficulty patrolling the shoreline.

Before too much sand slips away, beach and county officials are seeking federal and state permits and funding from BP oil spill fine money. They’re aiming for another $30 million to stabilize Pensacola Beach again — and for the first time, renourish Perdido Key — before the 2015 tourism season.

“What we’re seeing is it’s time to start patching the tire,” said Timothy Day, the county’s environmental programs manager, as he surveyed one of the more dramatically eroded stretches of Pensacola Beach in front of the Margaritaville Beach Hotel and Holiday Inn Express earlier this week.

While the sand has been eroding ever since the county first pumped it from the Gulf of Mexico’s floor 4 miles offshore onto the beach in 2002, this summer seemed to have been a tipping point.

“We’re seeing the end of the first nourishment project,” he said. “A project on the Gulf of Mexico typically lasts 10 to 12 years. Sand we’ve placed here has moved offshore and west.”

Of the 7.2 million cubic yards of sand that has been pumped on the beach — 4.1 million cubic yards in 2002 and 3.1 million cubic yards after 2004-05 hurricanes Ivan, Dennis and Katrina — nearly 3 million cubic yards of it has returned to the Gulf, some of it near the shore and some farther offshore. Some sand has migrated west and landed on the Gulf Islands National Seashore or slipped into Pensacola Pass.

replenishment is a costly and short term solution to beach erosion. I had no problem with NB replenishment the first time, but my continuing complaint is that the cost of replenishment is like throwing dollars down the toilet for society, but makes a great deal of sense for the tourists dollar revenue to the county and to the owners of the leases. I think the allocation of the costs should reflect the mistake of development on a barrier island. So this replenishment should have a little less public tax dollars, and the next one ten years from now even less dollars, until the public contribution is limited. I understand the county making a contribution because tourism brings dollars into the county, but why should FEMA funds be used for a natural cycle of sand migration?

Also, it seems like you need to stockpile by making dunes east of the beaches as a source of replenishing sand. Simply putting the sand at the beach has no source of natural replenishment. Build replacement large, very large dunes to the East as part of any bid for Replenishment. On NB they should build huge dunes along the Eglin property line as a source of replenishing sand.

The part of replenishment I did not like was the sand was not as white and was a different texture. The sugary white sand of the 1970s is gone. Take a ride on the Bowden road trip to NB from PB, the sand is almost brown and it has pieces of blacktop which makes it look like somebody chewed up a mouth full of Oreo cookies and spit it out......13 miles of oreo cookies......not only has the replenishment been handled badly, but the road construction and lack of use of concrete on the edges of the blacktop has allowed these roads to dissolve in a simple winter storm, adding more Oreo cookies to the brown replenished sand which is migrating all over the park.

Leave the beach alone  - move all High rises to Gulf Breeze

Sadly, that cow is out of the barn, however there is 13 miles of Pristine beach that Earl Bowden was instrumental in saving. His life accomplishments were many, but the legacy of his efforts to preserve that stretch of beach will be appreciated for many generations.

The naysayers, who were vocal and very adamant against building on the beach have been proven to be a 100% correct. Now the only reply is "The cow is out of the Barn" too fucking bad. Deal with it.

what naysayers....? I grew up going to Daytona where cars were regularly driven on the beach....what naysayers? I grew up going to Panama City where the entire beach had power poles 200 feet in the water......what naysayers? You never raised a question about building on the beach.....that is one thing I am absolutely certain of, and after it was done......you have now found religion. Yep, the truth hurts, but you never gave a rat's tail about building out on the beach when it was happening.....never got involved.....never went to a meeting. There is that smell in the air......I smell it far too often here........I smell it on farms......it has a very distinct smell.......yep, you actively were involved in fighting beach development in the sixties, seventies, and eighties......you should have been a comedian.

Now when a large 35 acre parcel of bay front property can be preserved for the people, and not private condos, who exactly were the naysayers who sparked the protest against Maritime Park....the truth be told they were the greedy developers who wanted the land to go to private development, so they began attacking preservation of the park and open area for the citizens......yep, tell me about your efforts in the sixties fighting private development on the beach......I love your inability to recognize how utterly inconsistent you have become.

Hey Oats How about a big "fuck you?" You were still pissing in your pants when we ran the beach. So now the dude from Alabama know all what I did the the sixties . LOL Call me a liar all you choose but the fact is the Shit you built on the beach is just that. Shit that never should have been there. If you know so damn much about me, I give you permission to post my name... LOl .....Come, Build and then leave. Nice job!!!!.

I could tell you a lot about the Trillium property. More than you think.....

Yep, I am calling you out on this one........naysayers to beach development were almost non existent in 1960s. If you are going to try to convince me as a young man you were a beach environmentalist, I am calling BS. However, in regard to Surf. There is a man I would believe, because he has actively worked on beach preservation and the environment for 40 years. However, we are all ghosts, so you can convince me that you were the young Ralph Nader on PB and you were fighting not to have block houses or a gas station built on the island.......yep ......that is the ticket.

In regard to Maritime Park......just like Earl Bowden......who supported the same......40 years from now people are going to enjoy the bay front and be thankful that some citizens did not want to allow private condos to fill the waterfront......you have already proven where you stand, and if you now want to be Ralph....who am I to say.....you may have even published that famous book on PB........condos....unsafe at any speed.

.naysayers to beach development were almost non existent in 1960s.

And how you know that? From what you read in the PNj? First hand knowledge?

Posted in the wrong place.  I can not help it.  I have been found out.  I have been living a lie all these years.  I own 6 houses and 3 condos on the Beach and 2 season tickets to the Blue Wahoos.

There!! I fixed it.

Damn.....I think Damaged Eagle brought some of his bulls down from Iowa.....there is a smell in the air. I have put my boots on as Ralph lectures us about Pensacola Beach Condos......unsafe at any speed.

The smell in the air is from the shit you built on the beach. LOL


Well part of that is actually correct. I bought on the beach, and my greed certainly led to other people building during the frenzy.......payback is a bitch.......my greed has been rewarded not by the profit from the sale on the beach, but the reinvestment of those proceeds in a 1031.....ouch.....so the guy upstairs throws a couple of hurricanes and a depression in the real estate market on the beach......and he says.....did you not read Ralph's book.....condos.....unsafe at any speed.