Many Treasure Coast residents are relieved to learn that the proposal to dredge up sediment from the St. Lucie shoal and use it for “beach nourishment” in Dade County is off the table.

According senior Corps official, Jerry Scarborough, “The state is not supportive of the plan, so we are searching elsewhere for sand.”

The 3- by 5-mile shoal probably serves as a wave- and storm-surge barrier for Hutchinson Island, a very low and narrow barrier island where the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant operates. Hutchinson Island beaches, which are some the state’s top surf fishing beaches and some of North America’s most important turtle nesting beaches, are already retreating. The Fort Pierce Inlet jetties block the natural supply sand, and sea-level rise plus the recent hurricanes have contributed to the problem.

Anglers are especially relieved. The shoal, which is federally designated as Essential Fish Habitat, attracts cobia, sailfish, several species in the tuna/mackerel clan and myriad other forms of marine life. It is also one of the only places to catch live bait early in the sailfish season.

Still, it is not exactly clear why the Corps made the decision to back down. In a letter to the Corps planning division from Michael Barnett, Chief of the Bureau of Beaches & Coastal Systems for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Barnett suggest that, “It may be more cost effective to obtain sand from deeper water directly offshore than to transport the material from a borrow area more than 100 miles north of the location.” But far from standing up to the Corps, the same letter seems to adopt a position of assiduous neutrality. It states that the department “has no legislative authority or guidance that would assist in determining any policy as to how to allocate any of the resource.”

But the proposal united a wide array of Treasure Coast stakeholders, who developed short- and long-term strategies to kill the proposal or “fight it to the death.” Through petition campaigns led by the Treasure Coast Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, Senator Ken Pruitt (R, St. Lucie) and other stakeholders, at least two thousand signatures were collected. Ann Bolduc, Senator Pruitt’s assistant, says the signatures are still pouring in.

Comment letters were also sent by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Both agencies expressed “significant” concerns about adverse impacts to shorelines west of the shoal and about adverse impacts to the biota associated with the shoal. EPA also cited an important study that showed how changing the sediment composition of a beach can “result in the long term reduction of beach invertebrates such as sand fleas and coquina clams.”

“Thanks to the loud and united voices of so many, we’ve won this round,” said Senator Pruitt. “Our precious sand will not be taken to Miami and the St. Lucie Shoal will remain protected. Although we have prevailed for now, we must remain vigilant and seek new and better ways to protect our sand resources and Florida’s beaches.” Sportsmen, an array of beach and nearshore water users, as well as independent scientists all think that is the takeaway message from this chapter in Florida coastal management.

Deepwater dredging is difficult and expensive, and the environmental impacts aren’t well understood. And according to Dade County officials, they have but one easily accessible “borrow area” left in emergency reserve, which they say contains relatively low-quality material. The pressure to dredge very close to coral reefs in Broward suggests that those municipalities have nearly exhausted offshore “borrow areas.” And the material used in recent Town of Palm Beach projects has been the source of a litany of complaints from divers, anglers, surfers and turtle conservationists. The last Martin County project exhausted a “borrow area,” and both St. Lucie counties also had their eyes on the St. Lucie Shoal for future projects. New sand sources in Southeast Florida aren’t materializing, and it seems that municipalities are counting on potential remaining sources, such as the St. Lucie Shoal, which may actually buffer the shorelines they want to rebuild.

With another hurricane season upon us, many are concerned that Florida’s present approach to coastal management may have the state on the verge of several ecological and economic train wrecks. Increased reliance on poor-quality beach fill would further degrade beach and reef resources, reef impacts from dredging would likely increase as sand supplies and shoals, and more and more beaches may be lost due to the proliferation of seawalls.

“We look forward to working with the Senator on better policies to protect Florida’s beaches, reefs and coastal ecosystems,” said Ericka D’Avanzo, Florida Manager of the Surfrider Foundation.