Exh 10Agenda #10
October 9, 2000
Report on 44th Annual Conference of the Florida Shore and Beach Preservation Assn.
Theo Mitchelson
9/26/00
On September 13-15, I had the pleasure of representing the City of Atlantic Beach at the 44th
Annual Conference of the Florida Shore and Beach Preservation Association. I have the
following information to report with regard to our own upcoming beach renourishment
project:
Our beaches are not considered to be in critical condition... in fact, because of previous
renourishment efforts, coupled with sea oats plantings, the upcoming project is considered to
be a maintenance operation.
There will be some 10 miles of Duval County coastline receiving sand from this project. The
source of the sand has been identified as Buck Island, which has been a "spoil" dump-site
from numerous river channel dredging efforts over the years. The United States Army Corps
of Engineers (USACOE) is in charge of the project. A gentleman by the name of Charlie
Stevens will be the project manager on behalf of the Corps. I followed up with Mr. Stevens
after the conference, and he was able to share additional information about their plans.
Any day now (probably by the time you read this report) the Corps anticipates receiving the
water quality certification permit from the State of Florida. Upon receipt, the Corps will
evaluate the data and set up the specs for an RFP. There will be two other requirements
before they can proceed: (1) The receipt of the "non-Federal" monies from the County
(Jacksonville makes this contribution), and (2) the granting of easements from Atlantic
Beach allowing the contractor to utilize our roads and beaches to get his equipment to the
sites where sand will be deposited. (We each received a copy of Mr. Walter Hogrefe's
letter to Atlantic Beach requesting such permission, as well as the response from Jim Hanson
re: allowance of such usage in a previous Commissioner packet).
The Corps had hoped to be able to advertise for bids by October 27,2000, but at this point
they think that their schedule may slip about a month. They originally anticipated being able
to review the bids and award the contract by February 15th, 2001, but with the advertising for
bids being delayed, it is expected that the awarding of the contract will also be delayed. They
are looking for this to occur about the middle of March, 2001.
The bid specs will "reserve" one million cubic yards of sand for placement, but it is
anticipated that only about half that amount will actually be required to complete the job.
Though Charlie Stevens is the Project Manager, another gentleman, Mr. Doug Rosen, is the
"Geo-tech" who is in charge of the quality of sand which will be placed upon our beaches.
Mr. Rosen has expressed every confidence that we will be happy with the quality of sand
deposited on our beaches because, unlike a dredge and deposit operation, this one will utilize
sand that is already above the water... in other words, you can see what you are selecting
BEFORE moving it to the deposit site. In addition, the RFP will require that frequent lab
analyses be performed so as to insure quality throughout the entire project.
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The project is tazgeted to actually "hit the beach" during late spring / eazly summer 2001.
The timing was selected to coincide with the more favorable "wave experience" which is
typical of our summers as compazed to trying to renourish during the northeasters which
frequent our winter months. This will result in more of the sand staying where it is
intended... on the beach.
I was somewhat surprised that the project was slated for the spring /summer months as this
coincides with our turtle-nesting season. It was explained to me that some areas of the State
host literally thousands of nests each year while our county receives 40-60. While not trying
to lessen the importance of OUR nests, they did say that they have every confidence in our
resident expert Mort Hanson's ability to relocate our number of nests if necessary. As such,
the project is tazgeted for the warmer months after all.
On another topic of local importance, there is a relatively new Regional Sediment
Management think-tank which is trying to coordinate activities that the Federal Government
maybe conducting, so as to better serve the State's interests in the long term (so they do not
continue to work at cross-purposes with each other)
A little history lesson is necessary to better understand how we arrived at this point...
The sand along our coastline naturally "flows" back and forth with the currents each year.
The "prevailing", or most common direction of our wave wash is from south-to-north.
Because we live in a warm weather climate region and our air masses mostly come to us
from that southerly direction, nature has a tendency to gently push the flow of sand
northwazd during most of the months of our year. On the other hand, the PREDOMINANT
direction of our wave wash is from north to south. This is due to the additional power
unleashed by the northeasters, which lash, pound, scour and chew at our beaches during our
winter months. These pull sand off of our beaches and deposit it offshore, as well as drive the
flow southward during the winter.
Florida has numerous natural inlets where rivers wind through the uplands and ultimately
reach the sea. These natural inlets have served as liquid highways ever since man learned to
transport goods over water...But, this commerce was frequently stymied by the normal
movement of these great bodies of shifting sand which would fill in the inlets, causing
shoals, pinching off channels, and making life difficult for ships' captains.
Hundreds of years ago, man learned that he could "stabilize" these channels by placing hazd
structures, or jetties, at the mouths of these inlets. Our own St. Johns River is a perfect
example.
Jetties turned out to be very successful at helping to stabilize the inlets and river mouths, but
the CURE for one problem became the CAUSE of another. By placing jetties around river
mouths, man has now altered the natural back and forth flow of sand along our beaches. The
result is that sand "accretes", or builds up, against the north side of the north jetty, causing
the beaches south of the south j etty to slowly be "starved" for sand. (If any of you have
visited Huguenot Park over the past couple years, you are aware of the tremendous "growth"
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October 9, 2000
of dry land on that beach... literally tons of sand is piling up against the north jetty... sand
which nature WOULD have brought to us).
Even with jetties to stabilize the harbor, some sand still sifts through the rocks and into the
channel (albeit at a much slower pace), and this requires periodic dredging in order to
maintain the channel for commercial and military shipping needs. Enter the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers. The USACOE is the engineering arm of the Federal Government, which is
charged with the responsibility of dredging the channel.
To change topics briefly, tourism is Florida's biggest industry, by faz and away...and, with
the exception of an amusement park with a rodent for a mascot, the reason people flock to
Florida from all over the world is because of our beaches. As such, Florida made a landmark
decision a couple years ago to create a dedicated source of continuing revenue to pay for
periodic restoration of our beaches. (A portion of every revenue stamp levied against the
purchase of any real estate within our state pours into this fund). Though some decry ANY
effort to renourish the beaches as "interfering with nature's natural erosion process", the truth
is that these projects aze an effort to bring BACK the sand that Mother Nature WOULD have
put on the beach anyway if there had never been stabilized inlets.
Sounds simple... just go out into the ocean, scoop up a bunch of sand, and throw it up on
shore... BUT NO!!!...It turns out that Mother Nature refuses to be mimicked that easily!
Beaches are comprised of certain grain-sized granules in order to stabilize and remain where
they have been deposited... Nature handled the problem easily, but when man goes searching
for material to put on the beach it becomes a monumental undertaking. We must first perform
core borings to locate deposits of the proper grain size, identify whether or not the deposit is
large enough to be used for our project, and then contract a dredge operation to pick it up off
the ocean floor and deliver it to a needy beach.
Over the yeazs, the "easy" pockets of sand have been utilized and are becoming fewer and
further in between. This translates into vastly increased dollars being required to help put
Mother Nature back together again.
Back to the USACOE... The Federal Government required them to "dispose" of the sand
dredged up during a channel maintenance project in the least expensive (and non-
environmentally damaging) manner identified. Because it is cheaper to "dump" rather than
spread the sand on the beach, the historical result has been offshore dumping of the same
sand the State is searching for to use in renourishment projects. In addition, not ALL of the
dredge spoil is of the caliber that you would WANT on the beach... but, since a great deal of
the material is the result of beach sand sifting through the jetties into the channel, much of it
is EXACTLY what the State was looking for...
Over the years, the Feds would dredge and dump, while at the same time the State would pay
huge dollars to locate and place beach quality sand back on the shore. The two entities had
different mandates from the powers that separately pulled their strings, so this has gone on
for years. Sometimes, if the additional cost differential between dumping vrs returning the
sand to the beach was assumed by the local area, an agreement could be worked out... but it
was not Federal "policy" to put sand back on the beach.
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October 9, 2000
Fast forward to Year 2000! The Federal Government has acknowledged that its own efforts
to stabilize inlets has become part of the problem, and in a rare, but logical move, the
Regional Sediment Management Plan has been initiated. Its purpose is to attempt to marry
the needs of all affected entities, and to quit dumping the very thing that the local community
needs so desperately.
Two potential North Florida demonstration projects have been identified by this organization.
Repeat... "POTENTIAL". They are "sand bypass" projects. In a sand bypass operation, the
huge buildup of sand on the north side of a jetty is scooped up by either a permanently
constructed pumping station (which is NOT probably the method to be considered for our
area) or via a mobile dredge, brought azound to a point below the "shadow" of the south
jetty, and pumped toward shore. After that, Mother Nature is free to work her magic and
distribute the sand southward again.
The two projects under consideration here in North Florida are the St. Mary's river inlet and
the St John's river inlet. (The St. Johns bypass operation may also be utilized to "back-pass"
some sand to the south tip of Amelia Island, where severe erosion is currently threatening a
bridge and road).
So, keep your eyes peeled for additional information on these two projects. You can't get
better sand for your beaches than that which Mother Nature put there to begin with, so these
projects hold a lot of promise! I'll make every effort to be on top of these for the City and
will pass information on to all of you as I become aware.
Key Contacts:
Colonel James "Greg" May-(the new) Jacksonville District Engineer for the USACOE-
232-2568
Charlie Stevens-USACOE Project Manager for the upcoming local project-232-2113
Doug Rosen-USACOE Geo-Tech (quality control) for upcoming project-232-2113
Tom Smith- USACOE Regional Sediment Management Project-232-3747
Walter Hogrefe- Beach Project Manager for Duval County-630-1372
Russell Snyder- Florida Department of Environmental Protection / Office of Beaches and
Coastal Systems (Duval County responsibility)-850-487-1262- X- 170