Thread: Beach Renourishment as they call it.

I know we have it every 5 years or so In Pcola bch But do they do it over there? Its a serious waste of money. It cost around 25 mill to do Pcola bch. It screws up our water clarity every time there is a swell. U cant see much but silt. It has caused our Outer sand bar to extend out past the end making the end around 18' when it was newly built around 28'. It also has created a third bar say another 1/4 mile off the end of our pier that to me makes most of the fish stay out side of. It starts at Portifino to the east & ends At Sansouchi High rise west of P Bch. U can see the bar follow it. Please tell me they don't do that yall's way. Its also changed our sands natural color . It sucks. Stop it all all cost . Dont let what happened to one of the greatest beach piers in NW Florida happen to yall 30 miles down the coast. I may fish there some this spring cause they r screwing us this spring. Navarre has also started this crap. Luckily behind the pier on the west side since the east side has no condo's.

Pretty sure this was done in 2012 or 13 in GS/OB

There have been 2 large scale beach renourishment and dune restoration projects in Orange Beach, Gulf State Park and Gulf Shores since 2005, plus a couple of minor additions after storms.
As far as I know, there is not another one scheduled in the near future as the current profiles seems to be holding up due to a lack of large tropical storm events in since 2005.

Beaches are dynamic systems. Beach nourishment may temporarily change the sub-tidal bathymetric profile inside the depth of closure but mother nature quickly re-adjusts it from the built-template to the design-template. But then the profiles can also radically change from the impacts of a strong winter storm or tropical storm event. Once the weather and currents return to normal, the profile again gradually re-adjusts to match the interactions between the sand grain size vs. dominant wave climate, prevailing currents and winds. Beach nourishment might be a temporary shock to the system, but so are strong winter storms and tropical events and beaches recover from them quickly as well.

Given Florida's extremely strict beach quality sand statute, I seriously doubt that a significant amount of fines and silt was added to the beach when they were nourished and what percentage was there quickly winnows out due to currents and wave action. Also, they are required to do extensive geotech analysis to match the grain size and color of the sand as this is also strictly regulated by FL. And they have to meet FL's strict turbidity standards when dredging and placing the materials as well. C
heck their permits, look at the geo-tech reports and permit conditions, I think you will find this to be the case.

Waster of money? Depends on how you look at storm damage reduction and return on investment for the local tourism industry. I can tell you that Orange Beach and definitely Gulf Shores don't think of it as a waste of money. Small tropical storms that caused extensive damage and interruptions before beach nourishment and dune restoration now are relatively minor inconveniences. Might seem like a waste of money to you but if you lived there, were a beach-front property owner and/or City public works director, you would feel differently.

I feel yer pain Kenny, I'm not a 'fan' either.
Much of the info quoted for Alabama beach dredging comes from this ten year old report which is mainly focused on the makeup and biodiversity of the nearshore sands in 30 feet deep (or more) waters, and not the surfzone itself, or outer bar system.
http://www.boem.gov/Non-Energy-Miner...Rindsberg.aspx

Since 2000 we have had to endure several rounds of beach dredging (2001, 2005, 2012).
Alabama's Coastline | Encyclopedia of Alabama

It is VERY difficult to fairly assess (and document) the changes in a system so dynamic and diversified (as these these guys showed)...
http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps...0/m250p231.pdf

But fer sure it changes (at least temporarily) the feeding habits and biological makeup of the beach community especially for the smaller and less mobile species.
Coquina clam beds (once plentiful and far reaching along the Baldwin County gulf coast) are practically non-existent in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach since the early 2000s.
Fish, well it's hard to tell and even more difficult to prove as they are even more mobile, but silversides (tidewater minnows) are practically extinct in the same area where they flourished until this century.

Our waters have historically not been as clear as what you are used to at the panhandle piers, but still pretty deep in comparison to 2009 when our longer pier was opened.

So feel free to come fish with us @ GSPPier, it'd surely stir things up a bit ;-) lol
... and you might just like our 'non-alcoholic' atmosphere.

I worked in the mineral processing lab getting through school (even did some work on beach sands) and I can tell you that it would cost some money to classify (sort, clean) the sands better, but it could be done and I wish they had. I'm not a beach walker, but I do miss the "sugar sand."

Somebody ought to do a cost/benefit study on adding some more cyclones in the series the next time they do this. The cyclones are not that expensive, but you would also have to add a good bit of water volume to get the sands through the system.

Classifying sand is not rocket science, it's just a matter of water volume and time, both of which cost money.

U can move sand around all u want. One storm & its gone. Who pays for it? Tax payers .Who benefits from it? Not us. High rise owners, Condo's , hotels. Let them pay for it. Build the dunes back & all else will happen. Don't build on the shoreline expecting the sand or water line to stay where it is. Wont happen. Build on the North side of the road. Seems simple enough. But I'm not as diverse in this as some are. I can look at studies about it till were all gone. Its lasted thousands of years without our help.

Testin 123

I attended every one of those meetings back in '99 to try and stop the city from ruining the beach. At the last one a motel owner started wining about how no one would come to his lame establishment if there wasn't a big berm in front of it and who was I to say anything about it. I started walking over towards him to further the discussion when some guy from the back ran up between us-gavels started pounding and I was pretty much forced out of the meeting. I'm sure it was quite entertaining for Pescador who was there as well. A few months later the dredgeboat "California" sailed up and began pumping the spoils on to the beach. You can't stop "progress" man.

Good News.... They have decided to wait until June to Re nourish P-cola bch. Mid April For Navarre . The East side will get some this time I hear . Going to ruin Navarre's Spring Run.