Reply #1: NY Times story buried in travel section 9/16 [View All]

[fed-up]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/travel/16heads.html?ex=1347595200&en=677cb16c0e4e85a6&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Heads Up | Shoreline Erosion
The Search for Sand Is No Day at the Beach

IT is arguably America’s best-known stretch of beaches, a playground populated by tightly toned models and sunburned tourists alike. But South Florida’s shoreline is becoming known for something far more ominous: the sand shortage that is threatening to reshape all of the nation’s coasts.

Blame it on global warming or just the vagaries of nature. Whatever the cause, the reality is forcing coastal communities to re-evaluate how they’re going to keep their beaches wide and welcoming. In the process, they’re looking at a combination of creative and practical solutions, from recycling glass bottles into sand to buying their beaches (or, at least, their sand) from the Bahamas or other sources.

...snip

Some solutions involve controversy. Something like class warfare ensued when the Army Corps of Engineers, which handles most beach renourishment projects throughout the country, looked at the possibility of taking offshore sand from St. Lucie County, a mainly middle-class area about 100 miles south of the Kennedy Space Center, and bringing it to Miami Beach. The president of the Florida Senate, Ken Pruitt, a Republican from Port St. Lucie, labeled it “almost a criminal act.” The Army plan was eventually dropped.


...snip

Broward County, which completed a $44.5 million renourishment project in 2006, is considering using recycled glass bottles (since, after all, glass is made from sand). More than $500,000 is being committed to testing the idea, exploring everything from the response of beachgoers to the ability of sea turtles to nest in it. But even if the glass idea works, the issue comes down to a matter of money, according to Mr. Higgins, the erosion administrator. Turning glass back into sand requires millions of dollars in equipment and processing. If the cost proves too “outrageous,” Mr. Higgins said, then “we will have to import our sand.”


...snip



but no money is available for meth lab cleanup :(


edited to add

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/wfla/factsheet/

West-Central Florida Coastal Studies Project

Fact Sheet - Limited Sand Resources for Eroding Beaches