Trucking sand in every three years is not enough, residents say. Many want weighted tubes, or groins, installed in the water.
By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published March 28, 2004
ST. PETE BEACH - Anxious residents packed City Hall last week for an update on efforts to control erosion on Upham Beach.
Testimony from the county's expert before the City Commission showed that a renourishment project, once delayed, is back on schedule. If all goes as planned, work will start in July to remove 250,000 cubic yards of sand from Pass-a-Grille Channel and deposit it at Upham, where only a short beach with a 3-foot cliff separates sea oats from the sea itself.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has restored Upham Beach five times since 1975, most recently in 2000. Everyone agrees it's a quick fix.
As Marlene Reid, a 20-year resident of Starlight Tower, said, "After renourishment, we have a beautiful beach. In six or seven months, it's gone."
Reid and many of her neighbors want permanent weighted tubes called groins placed in the water to prevent or at least slow down the erosion. Both state and federal authorities, which help fund the Upham Beach Nourishment Project, have called the idea inefficient and cited damage that would result to other beaches, which are nourished by sand leaving Upham.
The city in August abandoned the idea of installing five pyramid-shaped stacks of two tubes each, but Mayor Ward Friszolowski concluded Tuesday's meeting promising to continue research into a more permanent solution than trucking in sand every three years.
Residents who arrived early quickly filled up the City Hall seats. By the time Nicole Elko, the county's coastal coordinator, was presenting an update on the beach and its renourishment, a standing-room-only audience lined both side walls and spilled out the doors to the lobby.
They listened quietly as Elko, 28, narrated a geological history of the beach, the subject of her master's degree and ongoing doctoral research at the University of South Florida. But residents erupted with boos and jeers when City Manager Mike Bonfield mentioned the possibility of erecting a walkway across the dunes, prompting Friszolowski to warn, "I don't want to have to have anybody removed from this chamber."
The $4-million project gets its funding from the county in hotel room taxes, the state in real estate tax stamps and the federal government. It includes an additional 150,000 yards of sand for Sunset Beach on Treasure Island.
Geologists have called Upham Beach the most serious case of erosion on Florida's Gulf Coast. But it once enjoyed a healthy infusion of sand. An 1848 hurricane widened John's Pass, strengthening the current and drawing sand from Upham and Blind Pass. A jetty built in 1942 by developer William Upham stopped the beach's slow migration to the south. But it also stopped new sand from reaching the inlet, Elko said.
"There is no sand making it past the jetty down to Upham Beach," she said.
The county's periodic dredging of Blind Pass, though necessary, also keeps the beach from getting any sand naturally, she said. Ditto other jetties and sea walls that allow sand to slip away during storms but not come back.
But the biggest impediment to healthy beaches may be the condominiums.
A 1999 Times article, which Elko endorses as accurate, includes an opinion by USF professor Bill Davis suggesting that the only way to restore natural sand flow to Upham Beach would be to remove those condominium buildings at the edge of Blind Pass, as well as the jetty built by Upham.
The issue has simmered long enough for resentments to mature into full-fledged grudges.
Hugh McGuigan of Starlight Tower accompanied Reid and others in 2001 to Tallahassee, where the delegation lobbied Gov. Jeb Bush. McGuigan said he has been fighting for erosion control for 16 years. He praised the governor and U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, who saved this year's renourishment from bureaucratic delay.
"But we depend on you," McGuigan told city commissioners. "And so far we've been just a little bit disappointed."
Once the replenished sand has washed away, residents fear, water will reach their buildings. One storm in 1996 flooded ground units at Starlight Tower. Another in 2001 dumped sea water into elevator shafts, rendering them unusable for several days, Reid said.
Elko said she will continue studying ways to mitigate erosion at the beach. She also said of the available groin structures, she would favor rock over anything sand-filled.
Jackie Hand, project manager for the coastal and navigation branch in the Army Corps' Jacksonville office, said the Army Corps has no plans to install erosion-control devices off Upham Beach; the Corps is committed to returning every three years to replenish sand.
That might not be good enough for residents like Reid, who left City Hall saying, "Why should they just keep pumping in sand? Why don't they work on something more permanent?"
The county on Wednesday will invite contractors to solicit bids for the renourishment project. Work is scheduled to start July 1.
