Beach erosion, residents may take it personally

In the littoral zone, long shore current or drift is the natural process which moves sand and other sediment along the coast or offshore.  It creates a problem for construction along the shoreline since it erodes the beach.  Now sand moving along the shore is a normal part of the beach process, but if you have a condo on the beach, this could spell trouble.  So when your sand moves away, you bring more in.

The easiest solution has been just to get taxpayers to pay for pumping or trucking more sand in.  It's really no different than getting taxpayers to fund flood insurance protection where the risk is very high since private insurers know it is a good place to take a loss and they don't get involved.

Sometimes sand is pumped from offshore and sometimes it is trucked in, truck after truck after truck after truck........

Now, with money getting scarce, some condo owners are considering replenishing the beach themselves.  In Jupiter, Ocean Trail, a condo complex sitting right on the ocean, is considering footing the $3 million bill to delay the erosion there.  I say delay since there is no permanent solution.

Just north of Ocean Trail, Jupiter Beach is being replenished by pumping sand which is collected in the Jupiter Inlet, up onto the beach via long pipes.  A lot of shells come out of the end of the pipe and it's always a great place for kids to play.  When the Inlet basin is empty, our most popular game fish, the snook, congregate there as they ambush bait fish on the incoming tides.  Offshore from Singer Island large rocks have been placed to try and block the effects of the big waves.

This effort should hold the residents of Ocean Trail until the next really big storm from the northeast removes it all again.  Then, it's back to work.  Like kids in a sandbox, its fun to move the sand around, but it really doesn't make any long term difference.  It's just that the toys are bigger.