Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Illustration of One Type of Dredge |
Tourism brochures speak of unspoiled natural beaches, which in Florida are a thing of the past. It seems like it is nearly impossible to find an unspoiled natural beach. That is certainly the case on the Treasure Coast.
Here is an article listing beach renourishment projects that are currently being conducted or that will be conducted in 2015 from Jupiter south.
http://www.wptv.com/sports/recreation-sports/surfing-blog/here-come-the-dredgers-upcoming-beach-renourishment-projects-to-look-out-for-in-2015
Much of the Sebastian Inlet to Sandy Point area has been renourished in recent years, and Golden Sands and Treasure Shores have been renourished very recently.
While much of the Sebastian Inlet to Turtle and Seagrape Trail area has lost some of their renourishment sand, you can still see the unnatural white dredged sand that covers most of those beaches.
The beach at Fort Pierce South Inlet Park has already lost much of the sand from the last renourishment project. The renourishment sand that remains is filled with so many mangled aluminum cans that you would think it is the county landfill instead of a beach. Thoroughly disgusting! The next contract should not permit so much junk to be pumped onto the beach.
The FPL area north of Walton Rocks received new sand not long ago (What was it a year ago?), and much of it has disappeared, but the dredged sand still covers the face of the dunes and the front beach.
I am seeing many turtle nests being lost all along the Treasure Coast as nests that were built in the dredged sand get destroyed as the unnatural renourishment sand erodes.
It seems Bathtub Beach is constantly being renourished.
Jupiter Inlet Park down to Carlin is being renourished and there will be new projects there and farther south in 2015 as you'll read in the above linked article.
You'll have to look long and hard to find an "unspoiled natural beach" near the Treasure Coast.
I recently received a question about how they screen renourishment sand. I'm sure it depends upon which system is used, but I think for the most part it comes down to sampling the borrow area to determine where acceptable sand can be dredged and then sampling and monitoring what is being pumped or dumped onto the beach.
Here is a link to an article telling how a 2007 Fort Pierce project was to be monitored.
http://bcs.dep.state.fl.us/env-prmt/st_lucie/issued/0269646_Ft.%20Pierce_Nourishment/001-JC_&_002-EV/FO&Variance/Stamped_Sediment_QAQC_Plan%20(12-29-06).pdf
As I said, I think they should control for the amount of trash in renourishment sand too.
Anyhow, what you are going to see around the Treasure Coast is a bunch of renourishment projects and other beaches partially covered with fine white unnatural looking sand from recent projects.
Mostly what you will find in renourishment sand is junk, however older items have been dredged onto the beach, but that occurs rarely. I showed one that came out of renourishment sand not too long ago.
On the Treasure Coast expect about a three foot surf for a few days along with a South swell.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
