News

By Cheryl Blackerby
    
    In March, Boca Raton will be trucking in sand to repair damaged dunes on the north beach. The 5,000 tons — 3,600 cubic yards — of sand from an inland mine will cost about $170,000.
    “It’s a small dune project. It’s 2,000 feet in length. It starts at the northern end of Red Reef Park and runs south,” said Jennifer Bistyga, coastal program manager for the city of Boca Raton.
    Sand is expected to be delivered in the first part of March. “It shouldn’t take long, at most 10 days,” she said.
    The city is trying to speed up beach repair for the north and central beaches. Getting permits for beach repair is not easy, she said.
    “We’re planning to fast-track permits — it’s going to take a lot of permits — from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers.That usually takes about two years, but we’re hoping for September and October this year,” she said.
    In the past, the cost for restoration of the north and central beaches has been paid by the Boca Raton Beach and Park District, and the cost for the south beach is paid by the city with state and county reimbursement, she said, and additional federal funding for the north beach project.
    Some sand will shift back to the beach, so the need for sand may not be as great as it appears now. On the other hand, if Boca Raton’s beaches get hit by another storm, the city will already have the permits in place, she said.
    The city has not applied for permits yet. “We’re developing documents to apply for permits,” she said.
    Boca’s beaches are broken into three areas and are on different renourishment schedules: The north beach is on a 10-year cycle, the central beach is on an eight- to 10-year cycle, and the south beach is between six and eight years.
    And, of course, storms may accelerate those schedules, like Hurricane Sandy did for the north and central beaches, which are still recovering from erosion from Sandy.
    “But we’re seeing sandbars offshore, and some of that sand will be coming back. And we look a lot better than beaches in other areas such as Fort Lauderdale,” she said.
    At least part of the reason Boca’s beaches fared so well was the dunes. “We have such a great dune system, and that took a beating but that’s the dunes’ purpose,” she said.
    Many residents are worried about how beach restoration will affect turtle nesting season, which starts March 1 and lasts though Nov. 1.
    “In Boca, they won’t be doing any work at night and so that will have no impact. If they have a dredge in Delray, they will be pumping 24 hours a day, and generally for a project that size they will allow nests to be relocated,” said Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.
    The first turtles to arrive on beaches are leatherbacks, but those are very few. Rusenko counted 33 leatherback nests last year from March to June, and 994 loggerhead nests from May 1 to Oct. 31. Rusenko said the permit from the Department of Environmental Protection allows him to move turtle nests if necessary.
    Sandy’s surge left escarpments as high as 4 and 5 feet on Boca and Delray beaches. If turtle nests are found at the foot of cliffs and are in danger of being washed out, those nests will be moved, Rusenko said. And turtles will likely move along the shore until they can get onto the beach and find a place to nest.
    Turtles will often avoid sand dredged offshore for the first year after it is placed on beaches.
    “It’s something about the sand taken off the floor of the ocean, perhaps the saltiness of the sand. We do know that turtles know where the high tide line is. And they nest in sand that has been washed out by rain,” said Rusenko.
    And turtles do come back the second year after offshore sand is placed on beaches.
    In Delray Beach, a convoy of trucks lined up on A1A Feb. 19 to deliver 2,500 cubic yards of emergency sand to the beach and dunes north of Delray Municipal Beach.
    The north beach, badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge, is outside the routine 10-year renourishment plan that will start in March. That project, costing $9.2 million, will include beaches that run from just north of Atlantic Avenue south to 700 feet south of Linton Boulevard. More than 1 million cubic yards of sand will come from offshore dredging.