Sep 12, 2007 6:02 pm US/Eastern
South Florida Buys Sand For Beach At Taxpayer Cost
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MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ―
South Florida is known for its beautiful beaches but did you know that the sand on certain parts of Miami Beach isn't even from Miami Beach. It's sand from the suburbs of West Palm and you paid for it.
The government is spending at least $2 million to fix an erosion problem on Miami Beach but they're running out of places from which to buy new sand.
Brian Flynn from the Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) says truck loads of sand cost truck loads of money.
"It is expensive, but there's really not much of an option we have at this point," Flynn told
CBS4'S Brian Andrews.
Beach erosion at 29th and 44th streets has reached a critical point.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro says it has turned into a real problem. "It's created a problem for the residents, it's created a problem for the tourists, you know, Miami Beach without sand isn't Miami Beach!"
But where do you get the sand to fix the problem? There are short term solutions such as scraping sand from other beaches and even off shore dredging which pumps sand from the sea floor several hundred feet out. But dredging has led to another problem.
"The problem is that we've been doing this for 30 years and we've depleted most of those off shore sources," said DERM'S Flynn.
According to Commissioner Barreiro, "We need over 200,000 cubic tons of sand to stabilize our beach. That's a lot of sand."
To make matters worse, officials can't just dump any old sand on the beach because state environmental laws say the sand has to be the right match.
"Before we put anything on the beach, we have to run the gauntlet, the regulatory gauntlet, and basically run it through, make sure that everything meets the standard," according to Flynn.
In addition, the availability of this expensive sand from other parts of the state is drying up.
Now, the county is asking the federal government to change the rules put in place to protect the U.S. industry, so they can buy cheaper foreign sand from Bahamas and the Caribbean. It's now up to the Army Corp. of Engineers to say yes.
In the meantime, barriers installed a few years ago at 29th street on Miami Beach are helping keep the sand in place.
"Whenever you'd get a storm out of the northeast, all the sand in this area right here would get pushed down and end up in South Beach so we had no way of holding that sand there so the purpose of these rock structures is basically to anchor the sand around that curve," explained Flynn.
Barriero also stressed, "We need to do everything possible to maintain our beaches in a pristine and natural state."
There is one more thing the county is doing. Soon, they'll be excavating tons of sand from the wide swatches of South Beach near 8th and 12th streets in order to pump the sand up in a pipe to areas severely affected by erosion to replenish the beach.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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