By John Pacenti
Manalpan’s great sand transfer plant war of 2025 ended not with a bang but a whimper.
“I feel tapped out of what I can potentially do to shut [the plant] down or do anything on that matter,” Town Manager Eric Marmer said at the Beach Committee meeting on Feb. 7.
He then proposed hiring an outside firm to complete a comprehensive study of the private beaches in town — as was done in Highland Beach. Commissioner Cindy McMackin, in a thought seconded by Commissioner Dwight Kulwin, said the town should hire a lobbyist and it should be former State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
Marmer said at the Feb. 11 regular Town Commission meeting that he was going ahead with engaging Aptim Environmental & Infrastructure — the same firm that did the Highland Beach study — for Manalapan. The first phase of the study would cost $10,000 and the second phase between $17,000 and $20,000.
“I really think we need to move forward with this because we have done a lot of due diligence but we are not ocean engineers, we are amateurs,” Marmer said. “But you know, we have a concern, and I think this is the next step.”
Manalapan has been on a quest since last fall to learn everything it can about the county’s sand transfer plant at Ocean Inlet Park and whether it was robbing sand from the town’s private beaches to spew out on the other side to benefit Ocean Ridge and other municipalities to the south.
It’s been quite a journey. Kulwin spent hours with an operator at the sand transfer plant and reported back to the committee what the man said.
A resident, Dr. Peter Bonutti — spouse of Vice Mayor Simone Bonutti — was named a county liaison. He found an interesting U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study that he said showed the plant was committing highway robbery and debunked the position that all sand flows from north to south.
Mayor John Deese and Marmer set off in January to meet with Palm Beach County officials. Both came back with a sobering conclusion: Neither the county nor the plant is to blame for the town’s beach woes.
“We were greeted with very open arms and very understanding concerns,” Deese said Feb. 7. “As they explained to us, it’s not isolated to Manalapan. It’s obviously a statewide issue, but in particular to Palm Beach County.”
Since Manalapan’s beaches are private, the town cannot receive any federal or statewide money for renourishment.
“The only thing that could be done that they suggested, which is above and beyond what they can do, is to lobby the state and federal governments to allow the public money to be used, you know, to protect private beaches,” Deese said.
McMackin said the prohibition on public money is unfair because as a wealthy community residents pay a lot in property taxes. She said hiring a lobbyist — she mentioned Aronberg at the Beach Committee meeting — “would be a good use of money to fight for our town.”
As for the sand transfer plant, Marmer said the only thing he could do — if directed by the commission — is to tell the town attorney to sue the county.
However, his recommendation would be to follow Highland Beach’s route and hire a firm to do an in-depth study of the town’s beaches and what can be done to remedy erosion on them.
“They did a really good beach study, and it went property by property and said exactly what their observation was, their condition and recommendation with photos of each property,” he said.
Highland Beach then sent out notices to all the residences there to tell them what they individually could do.
Peter Bonutti, though, stressed he didn’t think the county was being honest when it came to the sand transfer plant, saying data has not been filed that is required by its operating permit.
“It is not operating legally,” Bonutti said.
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