Pinellas to spend $126M to nourish storm-battered beaches
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A section of Indian Rocks Beach shown severely eroded after Hurricane Helene. Photo: Pinellas County
Pinellas County commissioners on Tuesday pushed forward a $126 million project to shore up the county's critically eroded beaches.
Why it matters: Beach nourishment, the process of dredging and piping in sand to widen and elevate a shoreline, is long overdue on Pinellas' storm-battered barrier islands.
- "That sand is not just there for the tourists. It's not just there for the beauty aspect of it," Commissioner Chris Latvala said. "It's there to protect infrastructure. It's there to protect people in their homes and livelihoods and lives."
Driving the news: Commissioners approved 6-0, with Chair Brian Scott absent, New Jersey-based environmental construction firm Weeks Marine to carry out the project, which is slated to begin this year.
- The majority of the funding will come from tourism development tax revenue.
- The project area spans Upham Beach, Sunshine Beach on the northern tip of Treasure Island, and a stretch of Sand Key from Clearwater to Redington Beach, excluding Belleair Shore.
Catch up quick: The county project bypasses a years-long stalemate with the Army Corps of Engineers, which since the mid-1990s had handled the bulk of the cost and work to nourish Pinellas beaches every five to seven years.
- Such projects require workers to temporarily access private land owned by Gulf-front property owners through an agreement called an easement.
- In recent years, the Corps reinterpreted its own rules and began requiring all property owners within a project area to grant public access to some of their land in perpetuity — and they mandated 100% participation.
With efforts to sway the Corps so far unsuccessful, and with new urgency prompted by Hurricane Helene's destructive storm surge, county officials decided to move forward with their own project.
- Instead of the wide-ranging easements required by the Corps, the county asked residents to sign temporary construction easements that don't mandate public access.
The latest: The county still lacks dozens of easements, with the vast majority in Indian Rocks Beach, Indian Shores and Redington Shores, public works director Kelli Hammer Levy told commissioners at Tuesday's meeting.
- Workers will skip or partially nourish those areas, she said.
Yes, but: The county is still accepting easements and will continue to "right up to the last moment that we can," Hammer Levy said.
What's next: Officials will continue to pressure the Corps for a solution, county administrator Barry Burton told commissioners, noting the county can't afford to nourish the beaches regularly.
- "We're looking at this as a one-time solution," Burton said, "not as a permanent solution."
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