The meeting was cut short by Hurricane Ivan threats to New Orleans and most people, including me, left by noon on Tuesday. It was a 14 hour trek back to Houston.
The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association was founded in 1926 by individuals who recognized the need for an organized effort to combat erosion, a serious problem in many coastal areas. Experience had shown that long stretches of shore were affected, making protective efforts by individual property owners or small communities futile. The expertise required to design comprehensive programs of protection was largely lacking. In bygone days, the needs of navigation were regarded as paramount and there was no redress available for damages to adjacent shores by navigation works.
The founding members of the Association were active in persuading the Congress to enact legislation authorizing Federal sharing of the cost, first of erosion studies of specific problem areas and, later, of project works. Then, as now, this required data collection, research on coastal processes, and the development and the use of analytical techniques and hydraulic models (and, today, numerical models as well).
In the early years, the primary interest was in combating erosion and restoring eroded beaches but now the Association has expanded to a broad range of activities and interests related to the overall planning and management of shores and beaches. Recognizing the great diversity of our coasts, the Association encourages regional workshops, as well as national meetings to benefit those working with our shores and beaches.
Meetings like this are learning curves for the WGIPOA and Texas. The WGIPOA was a $500 sponsor and our name was on the brochure as well as all screens, videos, and literature. We were the only property owner association that participated. I and John Lee from the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management were elected to the Board of Directors for two year terms.
Federal funds are readily available for wetlands and bay restorations whereas funds for beach restoration projects are few and far between.
We can learn at conferences like this in what other City’s and States are doing for shoreline restoration projects and to see how coastal States like New Jersey and Florida handle funding of programs to protect the beaches and bays. We did learn that Florida has a tax on home transactions that yield $30 million annually for beach and bay restoration projects. Mississippi has instituted a Seawall Tax to protect its shoreline.
We plan to establish an upper coast chapter of the ASBPA and it will involve besides organizations like the WGIPOA, counties and cities to become members of a national organization that will participate in searching and evaluating erosion problems and probable solutions of the Texas shorelines.
Louisiana: I was really impressed with Louisiana and we can learn from them. They have more funds available to address the worst wetlands erosion probably of any State.
The State of Louisiana spends $35 million annually to protect the coastal wetlands. Between 1991 and 2002, Louisiana has received over $414 million from the Federal Government mostly through the CWPPRA (Coastal Wetland Planning Protection and Restoration Act) program. CWPPRA has contributed almost $223 million of funds during this time period. CWPPRA is also known as the "Breaux" Bill, named for the Louisiana Senator that created the bill. He is retiring this year and it is not certain if Louisiana will receive as much money through CWPPRA in the future. Under the program $140 million has come from the Water Resource & Development Act (WRDA), and others at $53 million. However, Louisiana is optimistic and they expect to receive another $186 million for over $600 million under the CWPPRA program.
CWPPRA has $50 to $60 million annually for projects and 147 projects have been authorized to date in the U.S. Although Texas has not been the beneficiary of the large sums that Louisiana receives, CWPPRA funds have been used in the Galveston area for sand socks in Galveston Bay in the Jumbilee Cove, Galveston Island State Park, Delehide Cove, and the new Starvation Cove projects.
Louisiana established a shoreline Science Restoration team to identify critical areas that need work. This led to the Louisiana set up a Coast 2050 Program a few years back for the target year 2050 to replenish and restore the wetlands, beaches, and shoreline that will cost $15 billion. Louisiana has over $100 billion in infrastructure in the State.
Louisiana has lost over 1900 square miles of wetlands since 1932 and they expect to lose another 500 to 700 square miles. Approximately 30% of the U.S coastal marsh is in Louisiana and the State represents 90% of the nation’s coastal marsh loss. There are 2800 miles of navaigatable channels in the State and 14,500 miles of coastline. Louisiana is like a basin for the U.S. because 41% of the Continental U.S. drains into it, which includes 31 States.
What has made Louisiana all the wealth also affected its natural resources. Oil and gas drilling over the years have taken its toll with subsidence. Almost 25% of all the oil and gas consumed in the US comes from Louisiana. For Louisiana oil and gas, 33,000 miles of pipeline are onshore while 7,000 miles of pipeline are off shore. Over 200,000 wells have been drilled. In the Gulf of Mexico, over 12,000 miles of off shore pipeline, of which 88% are off the coast of Louisiana.
On Fuchon Beach, the State stopped cars from driving on the beach and the dunes grew from 3 feet to 6 feet.
The main focus of the Louisiana Coast 2050 project is to protect the barriers islands and to date the projects have been successful. There are breakwaters at Holly Beach, Grand Isle, and Raccoon Island. The breakwaters at Grand Isle and Holly Beach were not successful in the beginning. A major sand nourishment program at Holly Beach has been successful and the beaches are accreting. Grand Isle breakwaters were re-engineered and now work satisfactorily.
What is interesting is the way Louisiana handles the restoration program by creating various divisions or "workshops" to analyze areas such as: Sediment; River Water; Hydrology History; Shoreline; Barrier Islands; and BUD (Beneficial Use of Dredged materials. Since my return to Texas we have recommended the GLO to look at these types of Task Forces to address specific opportunities and problems.
Other discussion sessions included:
Beach policy issues and challenges. Government partners with private entities such as land trusts, conservation easements, etc. One of the best Federal acquisition funding mechanisms is Federal Duck Stamp sales. Need to keep land in private ownership while protecting the wetlands. There are little or no incentives to involve local communities other than the seller of land.
Predicting coastal vulnerability to natural hazards is called EAARL or Experimental Airborne Advanced Research Lidar and CIAT or Coastal Impact Assessment Tool.
Texas Beaches and Bays: Coastal Highway 87 in Texas was closed to traffic after hurricanes Chantal and Jerry in 1989.
For Texas: Bad news: Sand reductions to beaches likely – permit process onerous.
Load allocations may include beach nourishment. Good news: River sand continues to increase flow to beaches and this will be analyzed in depth.
Texas: Gulf shoreline with critical erosion. There are 367 miles of gulf shoreline with 229 miles of critical erosion, mostly along the upper coast. There are 3300 miles of bay shoreline.
One erosion problem is the shoreline is eroding due to a wash over process during storm events. The clay is fine and layered and the sand layer is like a veneer. Under the current Section 227 of the Feasibility Study is the question if you can put enough sand on the beach with the clay layers with construction of a dune over wash. There is a three year test study off Bolivar Peninsula that will place five different groins using sand socks with a 2500 foot dune corridor – 1250 foot sand dunes and 2 x 625 foot of clay corridor dunes. It will be placed 100-150 foot off shore at a depth of 4 feet. Two of the sand socks (outer) will be filled 12 cubic yards; the next two inner will be filled with 6 cubic yards; and, the middle one will have zero cubic yards. The purpose of the program is to determine the effectiveness of beach nourishment to reduce erosion of the under clay layer. Determine the effects of the wash over – reduce. The performance measure is how much sand stays in the wash zone.
For West Galveston Island: Beaches need 50 cubic yards per linear foot for large scale projects. There is a loss of 300,000 cubic yards of sand per year that is lost on West Galveston Island beaches. For long term sediment transport management, 300,000 cubic yards of sand is necessary annually to keep the west end in balance.
Howard Marlowe (Federal Lobbyist for Galveston County) presentation: Beach funding demand under the US Army Corps of Engineers is $121 million in FY2004 and the request for FY2005 was $150 million and increased to $175 million but the FY2005 budget request from the OMB was $64 million and House appropriations at $106 million. The US Army Corps of Engineers overall budget was increased 15% but the beach portion decreased by 15%. Long term concern is that currently 55% of the population lives within 50 miles of a beach and this trend will continue. The emphasis is for more Federal funding to save the beaches and bays. Mr. Marlowe mentioned that the European community spends $3.5 billion on its beaches.
There were other great presentations and hopefully these will be made available on the ASBPA website. Texas has a lot to learn from other States and the WGIPOA participation in the ASBPA will be beneficial for the long term.
Copyright © 2006 West Galveston
Island Property Owners Association - All rights reserved
Last updated October 15, 2004