By John Pacenti
Manalapan commissioners will take legal action to ensure their concerns about beach erosion and Palm Beach County’s sand transfer plant at the Boynton Inlet are addressed, voting to hire a seasoned environmental attorney to represent it before state regulators.
At the Nov. 4 commission meeting, elected leaders voiced frustration over the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to extend the county’s permit for operating the sand transfer plant — an operation town leaders say has profound impacts on the community’s coastline.
The sand transfer plant takes sand from Manalapan that accumulates on the north side of the inlet and pumps it southward to Ocean Ridge and points beyond. The town learned of the state’s intent to grant the extension in late October and was given only a brief window to formally oppose the decision.
Efforts to collaborate with the county have largely been unsuccessful, leaving the town without meaningful policies affecting its fragile beaches, which have basically disappeared in front of some homes.
The commission agreed to retain John Fumero, former general counsel for the South Florida Water Management District, to lead the town’s challenge.
“He is truly the local go-to person in terms of these kinds of administrative permits, water issues, the beach erosion issues that we’re grappling with,” said Town Attorney Keith Davis.
“The goal here is to get our foot in the door, get that seat at the table, get everyone’s attention, finally, and be able to have those conversations,” he said. Past legal challenges by the town have been unsuccessful.
Discussions during the meeting highlighted concerns with the sand transfer plant’s contract, including what officials described as a lack of scientific justification for operational figures from the county and an absence of transparency about the sand transfer plant’s impacts on local beaches.
“How much sand is being taken? There has to be a real calculation, and really, they don’t do enough. It’s really a laissez-faire situation,” said Town Manager Eric Marmer. “When you dig deeper, it’s like, ‘Where do you get these numbers from?’”
Marmer said it’s befuddling that the FDEP permit declares the plant — built in 1937 — has no impact on the beach.
An engineer and beach erosion expert hired by the town to look at its erosion issue said in July that the transfer plant — which pumps sand south across the inlet because the inlet blocks the natural southward flow of the sand — plays only a small part in erosion and that sea walls in town are the main culprit.
Marmer said he has been skeptical about the sand transfer plant’s greatly affecting Manalapan’s coastline until recently.
“I went down there and I could literally see the avulsion created by the sand transfer plant on our beach,” he said.
He said the plant has been a thorn in the town’s side since nearly the town’s founding in 1931.
“Manalapan residents in the ’30s and the ’40s were concerned about this, and it’s well documented,” he said.
Comments