Beach erosion contingency plan
To the editor:
Lee County will go ahead with their Navigation Project groin, despite erosion
warnings from the State. County will go on ahead also with their new beach
restoration project despite the State having told them they need 90 percent of easements. County is not even close at 67 percent.
Originally, the U.S.Corps of Engineers recommended a 600-foot groin
structure to protect Matanzas Pass to keep it navigable. County hired
Humiston and Moore to make recommendations. They recommended that there be two 200-foot groins. County decided on a single 240-foot groin. In 2000, the State issued a permit with a warning about “potential negative impact,” and ended by suggesting alternatives “to reduce the expected problems.”
Regarding County’s beach re-nourishment project, the Town’s 2007 Applied Technology & Management engineering beach study said that the north end beach had grown by almost a foot on average towards the Gulf, from year 2000, despite Hurricanes Wilma and Charley, etc.
Moreover, the submerged area of sand grew very well. ATM summed this up
by saying it “indicates that the upper beach has remained remarkably stable
over the survey period.” In a word we had a healthy upper beach at the time
the groin was permitted in 2000 for navigation purposes.
After the 2007 ATM study, our beach situation changed from from healthy
to serious erosion at the upper end.
For example now, the 2010 aerial photo map shows in the Pink Shell’s beach
area shrank, putting their 2001 high tide line well under water. They do
need help.
Yet, the 2004 aerial map shows the Pink Shell’s 2004 beach to be wider
than their 2001 beach now under water, That 2004 beach growth was
consistent with the Town’s 2007 ATM study. Why the reversal to erosion since 2007? Some beach owners suspect last year’s dredging.
For the new restoration project, County has not told the public that a
good slice of the restored beach will be gone quickly. As a senior coastal
engineer explained, the artificial submerged sand drops off sharply
causing a significant part of the new beach to quickly return to the Gulf
waters. The remainder of the new sand left is then subject to FLorida Department of Environmental Protection’s “expected” erosion from the groin design plus the unknown cause(s) of the beach erosion since 2007.
We need to begin an engineering feasibility study now, in order to
understand the current causes of erosion and the corrections needed to the
10-year groin design. If County chooses not to participate in rectifying
their projects, then the Town staff can move forward but we need money.
We will need to draw on the independent TDC’s annual $7 million of bed
taxes that must be spent for County beaches. If we start an engineering
study now it will be the latter part of next year before it can be
completed. The groin and erosion corrections needed can be known by then.
Other Florida Towns have done it themselves. We can too, and perhaps take
back some of our $110,000 donation to County. Every year we send County $15 million in property tax and get little to show for it.
Simply, we need to find the causes rather than treat the erosion symptoms.
By Frank Schilling