Beach Erosion and Beach Dune Escarpments Caused by 2023 severe Winter Storms. We have all been alarmed by the winter of 2023, 6-12 ft. escarpments eaten into our primary dune system. Andy Studt explained that we had a series of strong weather systems one after another, followed by wind and waves wearing the beach down. When the beach is in such a degraded condition, it makes the dunes more vulnerable.

Studt is confident that there remains plenty of sand in our coastal system to protect our beaches and infrastructure prior to the next large beach renourishment project scheduled for 2025-2026.

PB County is monitoring beach and dune "hot spots." The current assessment for Juno Beach is to continue this practice to determine if emergency action is required prior to the scheduled 2025-2026 big beach renourishment project using hydraulic dredges to bring large quantities of sand on-shore from off-shore permitted borrow pit locations. There is a balance to be reached, as to how much sand should be brought in. If there is too much sand, it could travel South to impact sensative reef systems that would require additional expensive mitigation for those reef environmental impacts.

Why do we pump sand from off-shore onto our beaches? The sand provides protection for our shoreline buildings and infrastructure; preservation for our beaches that benefit tourism, turtles, shorebirds, plants; and maintenance for our navigational channels or inlets. We build up our shoreline sand dunes that protect our beaches natural systems and the infrastructure along our coastline from the damage caused by storms, winds and waves. The natural coastal system can respond to storm events. Due to the historical building of structures on the primary dunes, we have removed the natural ability of our beaches to respond to storm events, as a consequence we have to engineer a beach in front of the buildings to protect the infrastructure.

What happens during one of these severe erosion events, where does the sand go? Studt echoed our Town Manager's video explanation that mostly the sand remains in the near shore. PB County, as part of its summer sands surveying and profiling our beaches, determines how much sand is in the near shore that will naturally be re-deposited back onto the beach. In the summer, with the gentle breezes, our beaches will accrete (grow) when the sands return, also while the sand is migrating down our coast from north to south.

PB County Beach Monitoring occurs before and after storm events to evaluate the damage to the beach and to determine what is needed to save beaches and infrastructure. Studt explained that sands, that have moved off-shore far enough, are deemed beyond the "depth of closure" and therefore not reasonably expected to return to the beach. As to Hurricane Nicole, there was over 200,000 cubic yards of sand determined to have been lost, which qualified for FEMA renourishment funding.

Studt's current assessment is that Juno Beach's coastline is stable. The County has 47 miles of Atlantic coastline with 33 miles deemed critically eroded by the State. The County is currently undergoing emergency measures to truck-in sand from in-land borrow pits to shore up seawalls and infrastructure on Singer Island and at Coral Cove Park. The in-land sourced sand costs $60 a cubic yard, where as the off-shore sourced sand costs much less at $15-$16, and it is more similar to the natural beach sand.

PB County Beach's Three Renourishment Projects for Juno Beach PB County has already provided three beach renourishment projects for Juno Beach. The initial project was 2001, then 2010 and the most recent 2021. The costs for the 2021 project included $4.5 million dollars to mobilize the off-shore dredging equipment, in addition to engineering, turtle monitoring and other costs for a total of approximately $15 million dollars to provide 1 million cubic yards of sand for our beach. The life span of the project was estimated to be 6-8 years.

Who Pays for these Multimillion Dollar Engineering Projects? These projects are paid for by the County's tourist development bed tax dollars, State funding, and by federal FEMA funds if a named storm or a hurricane is involved. The availability of State and County funding requires beach accessibility within a half mile of the project, including parking. Juno Beach qualifies for public access funding with its parking at Mercury and at the Pier. The large renourishment project completed 2021 that ended south at the Brigadoon had Federal, State, County and local government funding, with a 90% federal cost share due to 2019 Hurricane Irma dollars. Our next renourishment for 2025-2026 is expected to have FEMA funding due to the 2022 Hurricane Nicole federal dollars.

2025-2026 Juno Beach Renourishment Project by PB County

The permitting is underway for the 2025-2026 beach renourishment project to be paid for with a combination of Federal, State, and County funding. The off-shore sand will be hydraulically pumped on-shore. There will be sifting of the materials to remove the shells and rocks that make the sand less attractive to our nesting sea turtles as occurred in 2021.

Next Meeting - Mark Your Calendars for February 8th at 9 AM for a Pelican Lake Bird Walk. Bring your binoculars and your bird apps. Dr. Ross Wilcox will lead efforts to acknowledge our winter visitors. There are no other meetings in February.

Newletter written by Diana Davis, President Juno Beach Ecology Group

Board of Directors, Science Advisor and Community Advocate: as pictured here; Jim Ferguson, William Kimball, Marianne Hosta, Ross Wilcox, Diana Davis and Red Dunn