A pocket of sand in the Gulf of Mexico, one of three possible offshore sand sources found by a recently completed first phase of a study sponsored by South Padre Island and its Economic Development Corporation, could yield tens of millions of cubic yards of material for Island beaches.

• On the West Coast, beaches are sandstarved when river dams block the flow of sand.
• Eastern beaches often lack sand because inlets or navigation projects interrupt sand’s along-shore movement.
• All beaches suffer from storms and other natural events that cause erosion. Things as disparate as storm-driven waves or a simple change in an offshore sandbar may cause one coastal area to lose sand while another gains.

What can we do about it?

For decades, people have tried putting everything on the beach to stop erosion including the proverbial kitchen sink. During the 20th century, when coastal engineering and coastal geology came into their own, science played more of a role in fighting erosion.

Still, there is no one magical answer that works everywhere. Often, it takes a combination of solutions.

• Land use regulations: While requiring coastal buildings to be set back and elevated doesn’t slow erosion, it does lessen its impact on buildings. That’s why most states have enacted special coastal land use regulations.
• Abandonment: Wholesale retreat is not practical in many areas. But, in minimally populated areas with low property values, it may make sense to buy property and remove infrastructure.
• Structures: There are two kinds that “draw the line” in the sand – literally. Seawalls run parallel to the shore to protect the property behind them. Unfortunately, they don’t add sand to the system. Other structures (groins and jettys) run perpendicular to the shoreline and keep sand from moving down the beach. They can work well only when sand is already being added to the beach.
• Beach restoration: Adding sand to the beach to replace what’s been lost is the closest we’ve come to solving the problem. Coastal scientists have years of experience with beach restoration projects and have learned that adding sand in the right quantities, properly engineered and maintained, can make a beach last forever.

Why do we care about beaches? Our beaches are an American treasure in terms of storm protection, recreation, the economy and the environment.

• Recreation: Beaches are our longest national park, with more recreational use than all our national parks combined. Unlike many parks, however, beaches are accessible to metropolitan areas. Right now, public beach access must be provided in order for a beach project to receive any federal funding. That’s a great motivation to keep our beaches accessible to everyone.
• Storm protection: Studies show that a healthy beach protects the properties behind it – and the roads, buildings and sewer or water lines. That means fewer flood insurance claims and disaster assistance requests. It also means a lot less misery for coastal citizens.
• Environment: When we lose the beach, we lose invaluable natural habitat. Sea turtles have difficulty nesting on an eroding beach, and those nests are more susceptible to predators. On a narrow or nonexistent beach, birds have no place to nest or feed. Unique beach ecosystems can be destroyed when there isn’t enough sand to support them.
• Economic: America’s coast is a magnet for people who want to live and play on the beach. More than 50 percent of Americans live within 50 miles of the coast. Healthy beaches are a major draw for tourists from across the nation and the world, generating billions of dollars in revenues annually and creating thousands of jobs.

UTB/TSC Beach Restoration Plan For South Padre Island

South Padre Island leaders are considering a plan from the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College that could help create a continuous dune line on the town’s beaches.

Seaweed like the one shown here  can be used to restore Sand Dunes.

A continuous dune line-without gaps between dunes-helps protect property from high tides and swells from tropical storms by acting as a wall of sand. Also, filling gaps protects dunes by making it more difficult for waves to erode the piles of sand at their edges.

Last week, Alderwoman Courtney Hayden brought to the Board of Aldermen a plan recommended by Dr. Elizabeth Heise, an assistant professor of geology at the UTB-TSC.

“This is something that our Beach and Dune Task Force has worked hard on [to develop the dunes] for protection from a storm,” Hayden said. “And by working with the University of Texas at Brownsville… there is a plan that has come forward.”

The plan includes collected masses of seaweed that were placed at dunes during the spring and then stirring the masses weekly to help the organic material degrade into compost. That material would be used as a “rich base for new dunes,” according to Hayden’s proposal.

“Much of the seaweed raked and piled last spring has not composted because it has not been able to ‘breathe,’” states a town document explaining the plan. “If it is removed from the dunes and properly composted, it can provide a viable base for new dunes, encouraging rapid growth of dune plants because of its nutrients and water content. This means less sand is required to build new dunes.”

South Padre Island does not have access to enough beach quality sand to create a continuous dune line with sand alone, officials said.

Compost would be piled in the gaps of the dune system and then covered with three to four inches of sand, Hayden said, “as opposed to trying to build a six-foot high dune that is totally made of sand and can blow away.”

The seaweed would create stability and retain moisture, meaning plants would not need to be irrigated, Hayden said.

“We have all this seaweed and it’s free, and it’s become kind of a nuisance,” Beach and Dune Task Force member Alita Bagley said. “Finding a beneficial use for seaweed would just be a wonderful thing for South Padre Island.”

The plan would also move plants now growing on some dunes to a greenhouse at the university where the plants will be cultivated until time to replant. Those plants could be taken whenever property owners get permission from the town to lower the heights of existing dunes.

University students would map the beach to identify all gaps in the dune line and “begin a pilot project to find ways to best harvest and use deposits of seaweed,” Hayden stated in her proposal to the Board of Aldermen.

Also, the university would provide speakers to attend civic groups to educate South Padre Island’s community on the importance of the dune system.

“We have some places [along the beach] where people are asking ‘please’ to have dunes placed in front of their property,” Hayden said. “And then we have some folks who are not too enthusiastic about it at this point.”