News

By Antigone Barton
    
The predicament that Singer Islanders described to county commissioners in early February was one familiar to South Palm Beachers: “When I look down from my balcony,” as one resident put it, “all I can see is water.”
    The plan under discussion — to build perpendicular rock jetties, or groins, as barriers to hold sand in place along the Singer Island shoreline — was an approach that could also provide help for South Palm Beach and Lantana’s rapidly eroding beachfronts.
    In the end, however, the objections of more than a dozen members of the Surfrider Foundation environmental advocacy group, who voiced concerns about the impact of the plan on sea turtle nesting, as well as western residents’ concerns about hidden costs of the plan, over-rode the pleas of beachfront property owners.
    Commissioners voted 4-3 against the plan, deciding the matter not only for Singer Island, but also giving an answer to Lantana and South Palm Beach residents worried about their own rapidly eroding beachfronts: It will not come in any form of structure built by the county.
    Commissioners Karen Marcus, Steven Abrams and Priscilla Taylor voted to continue to consider structures that would hold sand in place, and  Marcus suggested pursuing a different model of barrier that Surfrider spokesman Greg Lyon would be less objectionable to his group.  Commissioners Shelley Vana, Burt Aaronson, Jess Santamaria and Paulette Burdick voted to drop further exploration of county-funded construction.
    The beachfront towns had put earlier hopes that Singer Island plans to build breakwater structures parallel to its shoreline would establish a viable precedent for local beach protection. That plan, however, fell through when county commissioners found they couldn’t get permitting for an above-water model of the structures considered more effective.
    While commissioners then suggested county staff explore the perpendicular jetties along the Singer Island beach, their decision at their Feb. 7 meeting to drop that plan leaves continued sand replenishment as the only answer to erosion for the foreseeable future, according to Dan Bates of the county’s department of environmental resource management.
    “They were very clear they are not interested in structures,” he said.
    The effects of structures on sea turtle nesting remains unclear, Bates said.
    “As long as there’s a beach, they’re happy,” Bates said. But, he added, “Turtles don’t like structures.”
    The real impact remains unknown, he said, because areas that have added structures to their beaches had lower nesting rates to begin with.
    At the same time, the alternative of dune restoration to fortify the Singer Island shoreline, urged by Surfrider members, is not applicable to South Palm Beach and Lantana beachfronts, which no longer are wide enough to sustain dunes.
    The towns’ hopes for wider beaches may rest now on northern neighbor Palm Beach’s shoreline protection efforts. The town’s beach renourishment efforts could augment beaches south of the town. That town also is looking into building parallel breakwater structures that, because the beaches lack public access, would not be funded by county taxpayers. That could provide some protection for its southern neighbors.
    In the meantime, the county will continue to add sand to Lantana’s and South Palm’s beaches. It is better than nothing, but far from a long-term solution, managers of both towns agree.
    “If that’s what they’re saying, that’s what they’re saying,” South Palm Beach Town Manager Rex Taylor said. “Of course, that’s only true until the next commission gets in.”
    “It’s just very frustrating,” Lantana Town Manager Michael Bornstein said. The town built a seawall in 2009 that was intended to be covered by sand sloping   down to the beach. Instead the wall is now completely exposed. “I’m very glad we have a sea wall. I’d rather have sand dunes.”