Sands of time: Shrinking beaches pose concerns
DANIA BEACH — Storm after storm has left Dania Beach with just a sliver of beach and a dilemma that has plagued South Florida for decades.
Should we continue to spend tens of millions of dollars to build up our beaches, only to watch waves, swift currents and inevitable storms drag the sand out to sea?
Critics argue that it’s a waste of money to spend millions replacing sand that’s not going to last. And environmentalists warn that dredging projects that steal sand from offshore can do irreparable harm to coral reefs and sea life.
But supporters insist there is little choice: Sand is the foundation of Florida’s biggest moneymaker, tourism. A wide beach also acts as a natural buffer for the beachfront homes, businesses and condo towers along the coast.
A $50 million beach renourishment project, paid for with county, state and federal money, is planned for Hollywood, Dania Beach and Hallandale Beach — but not until late
2021.
Dania Beach officials say they can’t wait.
“We’ve got to do something or we won’t have a beach come 2020,” Commissioner Marco Salvino said. “One more big storm and the dunes will be gone. If we don’t have a beach, how can we be called Dania Beach? The residents are complaining. They want to know what we’re going to do about it.”
Hollywood, too, was losing massive amounts of sand and decided it couldn’t wait until 2021.
Hollywood’s redevelopment agency wrapped up its own mini-renourishment project in mid-February, spending $4 million to truck in 92,500 tons of fawn-colored sand from a mine in Moore Haven.
In Dania Beach, the problem has reached a critical stage.
A lifeguard stand nearly toppled after Tropical Storm Alberto siphoned more sand from the thinning beach. The storm also swept away much of the sand dune and 150 palm trees.
“They’re probably in the
“We would move the beach to the west. We’d want to start on it right away. We’re not sure yet how long it will take.” Dania Beach city manager Bob Baldwin
Bahamas,” City Manager Bob Baldwin said of the palms.
Desperate for a solution, the city is considering a $6 million project that calls for a much wider dune that would extend 15 feet west into the parking lot; a seawall to protect against rising tides; and an elevated parking lot that won’t be battered by the crashing waves.
Dania Beach administrators plan to present their plan to commissioners and the public Tuesday.
“We would move the beach to the west,” Baldwin said. “We’d want to start on it right away. We’re not sure yet how long it will take.”
Michael Huck, chief of Ocean Rescue in Dania Beach, says the beach was much wider when he joined the city six years ago.
“The towers were pretty far in front of the bathrooms — and now they’re closer in to the parking lot,” he said.
Sand renourishment projects can last anywhere from seven to 15 years, said Nicole Sharp, Broward County’s beach erosion administrator.
A strong hurricane can have a devastating impact, blowing sand off the beach and onto roads or sending it back out to sea.
“The sand can recover over the calmer summer months, barring there be no hurricane,” Sharp said.
Boca Raton and Delray Beach had sand either trucked in or dredged in the past few years.
Two years ago, beaches from Fort Lauderdale to Pompano Beach finally got more sand in a $55.6 million project that was 20 years in the making. The sand was trucked in from LaBelle to feed a 4.9-mile stretch of beach.
And in 2015, a $2.1 million project brought 70,000 tons of sand to Deerfield Beach and Hillsboro Beach, where Superstorm Sandy had further eroded the shoreline.
Broward County’s sandthirsty beaches south of Port Everglades are next.
When the project gets going in 2021, crews will spread about 1 million cubic yards of sand along 6 miles of coastline south of Port Everglades, Sharp said.
Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach and the Von D. Mizell and Eula Johnson State Park, formerly known as John U. Lloyd State Park, were last gifted with sand in 2005 and 2006.
Hallandale Beach is the only city not worried about the three-year wait — at least for now.
“We can wait,” Hallandale Beach City Manager Roger Carlton said. “Of course, we haven’t had hurricane season yet.”
In the meantime, Huck said there is one upside to Dania’s shrinking beach.
“This beach is the closest you can get from the parking lot to the ocean,” Huck said. “If you don’t like walking, this would be the beach for you.”