Syt. Augustine, Florida - Many residents want to understand what actual plans have been agreed to after years of struggling with different proposals to save our North Beaches, driven by the efforts of the South Ponte Vedra-Vilano Beach Preservation Association and other community organizations. Total cost of the initial beach restoration project is about $26.5 million; over 50 years $144.7 million.

The rise of toxic algae blooms in the Gulf of Mexico is pitting tourism against agriculture as the state looks for solutions.

Many of the legislative priorities for St. Johns County survived the vetoes of Gov. Ron DeSantis last week, but one project in downtown St. Augustine did not.

A former lead biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who managed the controversial dredging of PortMiami will plead guilty to lying, her attorney told a Miami federal judge on Tuesday.

While the calculated economic costs to the entire nation is expected to peak at $416 billion, Florida's regions are heavily represented in the report's pages.

The second dead right whale of the year was reported last week, and by coincidence it was spotted the same day the U.S. House voted to block the expansion of offshore oil drilling in waters of Georgia and most of the rest of the nation. Offshore oil drilling activities are a hazard to endangered right whales and to other sea life, according to the federal government.

Building walls to hold off sea rise — for just the next 20 years — would cost South Carolina’s coastal and estuary communities nearly $20 billion.

CNT: The study of Red Tide is prudent but more importantly buys time. The confrontation on the issue to rebalance the financial interests at stack can only be deferred so long. What is not known at this point is the degree of red tide impact in the upcoming summer tourism center.

Forecasters are expecting this year’s North Atlantic hurricane season to be roughly average, with about 14 named storms including six full-fledged hurricanes. Last week, the government finally dealt with the fallout from 2018, enacting a $19.1 billion relief package to help U.S. towns and cities still recovering from last year’s natural disasters. Even before that, 2018 had already drawn more emergency funding than any year since 2005, the costliest year on record.

In 2019, the city will be constructing an artificial reef as part of the Palm Beach Shoreline Project.

A month before a restriction on funding for state review of offshore oil and gas projects takes effect, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is preparing a response to a permit that will allow seismic testing.

Prefabrication represents a significant accomplishment in making affordable housing available to anyone. With the arrival of today’s advanced technologies like Building Information Modeling (BIM), 3D printing, and automation, architects and builders are continuing to explore how prefabrication can change the world. Prefabrication is the future of affordable housing all over the globe and especially in those regions affected by severe climate events.

Replacing and refurbishing old coastal pumps to brace for sea level rise could cost South Florida tens of millions of dollars per year over the next decade.

The town of Pawleys Island will seek to change state law in order to raise money for beach renourishment through a property tax. Town Council this week hired a law firm to draft the measure. It will have to decide whether it wants to champion a bill itself or hire a lobbyist.

The numbers are bananas. Or, to be more accurate, they’re turtles. Or still, embryos. Regardless, as of noon Friday the best-available statistics showed 1,857 sea turtle nests with more than 70,700 estimated eggs laid on the Georgia coast — a staggering number for this point in the nesting season.

CLAY COUNTY – Algae blooms on St. Johns River, widespread from Lake George to Duval County, came earlier this year, experts said.

Reducing harmful nutrients in state waters through moves such as more monitoring and staffing is an expected short-term goal of a new task force set up by Gov. Ron DeSantis to look at toxic algae fouling Florida waterways.

WEST PALM BEACH — A 10-year program to prepare for sea level rise could cost the South Florida Water Management District more than $1 billion.

Miami is often seen as ground zero for the challenges climate change can create for a city. But that isn’t the only significant issue the region is facing.

MANATEE, FL - The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration is predicting a near-record “dead zone” for the Gulf of Mexico this summer due to abnormally heavy rains in states across the Mississippi River watershed and the flooding that will ultimately spill hundreds of thousands of tons of nutrient-rich sediments into the Gulf.

Shoreline Foundations Inc. began placing 8-by-12-foot rectangular reef segments about a quarter-mile offshore of Indialantic this month.They are finishing the last 15 percent of a $10.6 million artificial reef that must be installed before dredges can pump sand on Satellite Beach and Indian Harbour Beach, beginning late this year. That $15 million project is expected to bring 275,000 cubic yards of new sand to those two beaches.

Fort Lauderdale beach, famous for where the boys are, is also gaining notoriety around the city for where electric scooters aren’t. The city allows the e-scooters to operate on its sidewalks except during “high impact events” when there’s a greater chance of accidents occurring.

Screeching car alarms before sunrise. Snarled traffic on Laurens and Concord streets. Blaring Caribbean music piercing Charleston’s quiet.

The owners of a floating platform in a tidal creek near the Folly River are arguing the state can’t tell them to remove the structure.

Regular maintenance to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW) is required for recreational and commercial boats to make their way up and down the body of water along the coast of Charleston. Without regularly scheduled dredging maintenance, the waterway would fill with sand, silt and sediment preventing boats from passing through at low tide.

The Cape Hatteras National Seashore (Seashore) has lifted its beach fire ban as of 5:00 p.m. on Monday, June 10.

Despite the threat of hurricanes, South Carolina’s economy has shifted toward the coast and further into harm’s way. The same is true for eight other states, Moody’s Investors Service said, but South Carolina could be at the biggest risk.

Florida is well-known for its year-round warm climate and beautiful, sandy beaches. While beach tourism drives the state’s economy, people who visit and live in the Sunshine State are losing the long-standing recreational opportunities that they cherish.

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WTOC) - The Georgia and South Carolina coasts have taken a beating from tropical systems over the past few hurricane seasons.

Liste4n to audio in article link below: "Dr. Robert Weaver, Assoc Professor of Ocean Engineering and Director of the IRL Research Institute and Dr. Kelli Hunsucker, Asst Professor of Oceanography and Outreach Coordinator of the IRLRL talk about the upcoming summer camp for kids."

TREASURE ISLAND — U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, says the fight against red tide must continue. Speaking to the regular meeting of the Barrier Islands Governmental Council on May 29, Crist announced that he was able to secure $10 million for research into red tide.

I absolutely understand that we need to protect and manage our fish and fisheries. It’s just that I’m trying to figure out how to run a business when the rules change dramatically without warning.

A $205 million Port Miami channel expansion that left a swath of dead coral and led to a legal battle over damage is facing more controversy.

One of six companies seeking federal permits to conduct seismic blast tests off South Carolina currently has its application up for review by state officials.

South Carolina tops a national list for potential in an emerging industry that could bring in thousands of jobs and provide cheap electricity, but developers aren’t lining up.

Key Biscayne is working with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to reverse a negative decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about long-term renourishment of island beaches, officials said.

Where do they come from? What lives on and between them? How do they affect swimming?

Communities in the Greater Miami area banded together to create a regional resilience strategy, Resilient305. The effort is a collaboration between the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, Miami-Dade County (comprised of 34 cities), The Miami Foundation and 100 Resilient Cities.

CLEMSON — Ask Michael Dawson about entering the carbon market and whether he would go back and do it again, and his answer is simple: “In a skinny minute.”

MIAMI — On a sunny afternoon in Dania Beach, a dozen scientists unloaded crates full of corals from a dive boat and onto a pickup truck. They gently removed each piece from large tanks on the deck and placed them inside smaller containers, which were slowly taken onshore.

Months after the drenching storm pummeled the Carolinas, rivers are still showing effects from Hurricane Florence.

Millions of Floridians flush toilets, take showers and wash clothes every day with little thought about all the waste flowing down the drains and into their septic tanks.

FORT MYERS BEACH - With hurricane season here, our most at-risk communities are making sure they are ready. These include the Town of Fort Myers, which is no stranger to storms. That is why town officials are always taking steps to ensure emergency preparedness.

SURFSIDE BEACH, SC (WBTW) - The town is looking to pay for a roughly $10 million replacement to one of its most iconic landmarks: the fishing pier.

Tom Frazer plans to make water quality a priority in new role created by Republican governor Ron DeSantis

People who live around the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse don’t want to see it slip away – literally or figuratively. As 2020 approaches, the agency is starting to plot out its next decade, and opened the process up for community input at a Wednesday night meeting.

In Florida — as in many coastal states — opposition to offshore drilling is bipartisan. Former Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, was as outspoken as any Democrat when President Trump announced he would open nearly all U.S. coastal waters to oil and gas drilling. Scott’s opposition helped convince Trump to exclude Florida’s coasts.

“It’s just a Category 1.” Ken Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center, flinches every time he hears that knowing that Category 1 hurricanes were directly responsible for 175 deaths and $103 billion worth of damage in the last 10 years.

A woman from Ohio was run over Tuesday afternoon as she sunbathed on a short stretch of beach where parking is allowed near Seaside Park in Fernandina Beach. The driver, Gregory Lee Green Jr., “immediately fled the scene, even after being told by a witness that he had run over the victim,” according to a news release from Police Chief James Hurley, who said that “at least three witnesses” gave information to his officers.

Many Georgians don’t like the idea of oil rigs dotting the horizon along their share of the South Atlantic Bight, that sinuous, concave coastline running from Cape Fear, North Carolina, to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Many in Carolina and Florida have also rejected this vision of the future.

Local elected officials speak out on offshore oil & gas development. John Koontz represents the Hartfield District on the Middlesex County, Georgia Board of Supervisors. Contact him at hartfieldbos@gmail.com.

On a sunny afternoon in Dania Beach, a dozen scientists unloaded crates full of corals from a dive boat and onto a pickup truck. They gently removed each piece from large tanks on the deck and placed them inside smaller containers, which were slowly taken onshore.

SARASOTA — Sarasota County’s challenge to the constitutionality of two amendments to the county charter survived the first skirmish in the ongoing litigation.

COLUMBIA, SC. The chairman of the board at the S.C. Department of Natural Resources has run into trouble with Gov. Henry McMaster and state coastal regulators over the construction of seawalls along the oceanfront near his beach house in Georgetown County.

The ongoing deepening of the Charleston Harbor isn’t just letting bigger container ships into port: The work will also allow more salt water to creep up the Ashley and Cooper rivers.

Rising insurance premiums could lead to an economic crash in the Sunshine State, according to one expert

They would take over ownership of public right-of-ways surrounding $220M project

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District held a conference call on April 26 to provide an update on the progress of the Navigation Improvement Study for the Miami Harbor in Florida.

At least 50 homeowners in Charleston’s historic district have inquired about elevating their homes, a practice the city once discouraged but now largely accepts after a spate of recent floods and the growing reality of climate change.

WASHINGTON - South Carolina will receive millions of dollars in federal aid to offset damages from Hurricanes Florence and Michael last year. It will be welcome news for the state’s residents hit hardest by the massive storm. According to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the situation was set to become dire “in the coming weeks, not months,” if Congress did not quickly overcome partisan disagreements and pass a disaster aid bill.

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. - A woman sunbathing on a Fernandina beach was run over Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

Delray Beach, Florida moves forward with beach renourishment.

In March, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District awarded a $4.4 million contract to Environmental Tracing, LLC for a Sediment Morphodynamic Assessment Project to examine sediment transport in southeast Florida over the next two years.

Walking along a wooden path winding through Nease Beachfront Park in St. Augustine, Danny Lippi pointed to coastal trees sprouting from the shrubbery around him. The exotic species were brought here by warming temperatures — bringing business opportunities for the local arborist.

After a pitched battle in Tallahassee over the importance of the public-private agency’s marketing efforts, state lawmakers slashed funding for Visit Florida to $50 million for the budget year that starts July 1, down from $76 million for the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Georgia has issued more than 200 coastal swimming advisories since 2007. Some beaches are so perpetually polluted, they carry permanent warnings.

Florida has one of the biggest economies in the United States. Two of its most famous industries include tourism and agriculture, which contribute to the state's $1 trillion GDP. Here are 13 surprising facts about Florida's economy.

Governments seeking to help their most vulnerable residents prepare for hurricanes and other disasters should create community-based information campaigns ahead of time, according to a Rutgers study of economically disadvantaged New Jerseyans in the areas hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy.

OKEECHOBEE, Fla. (AP) — Lake Okeechobee is Florida's "Liquid Heart," and people who depend on it for irrigation, drinking water, recreation and their livelihoods are often in conflict on how to take care of it.

Even though the county stands to make money in a project that also adds needed beach parking, there is still some collateral push-back.

Florida - Everyone agrees: Using reuse water is a great thing. Everyone also agrees: Using it incorrectly can harm natural water bodies, including the Indian River Lagoon.

“Rare Manatee Seen in Outer Banks Marina” proclaimed a headline in a June 2018 edition of the Raleigh News & Observer. In recent years, reports of manatee sightings in North Carolina have become particularly notable not because of their rarity, but because of their increasing frequency.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management remains working on seismic airgun testing permits — a key prerequisite to offshore oil and gas drilling — while issues regarding the legality of the Trump administration’s offshore leasing plan work their way through the federal court system.

Florida state Senator Debbie Mayfield weighs in on water resources investment

Gov. Henry McMaster has vetoed a bill that would have given a gated beach community special permission to rebuild a sea wall erected before the state banned them.

South Carolina - Officials in the Town of Pawleys Island say the latest beach renourishment project is on track and that crews should begin placing sand on the beach this fall.

Facing down another summer of crippling algal blooms, ids Florida doing enough?

ORLANDO, Fla., May 14 (UPI) -- Sea level rise is hitting coastal habitats along the south Atlantic Coast faster than scientists previously thought, threatening entire species of birds and whole ecosystems if action isn't taken soon, a Florida researcher says.

Hurricane Michael killed seven people and caused more than $6 billion in damage in Florida in October, a toll compounded by warmer, higher seas and wetter air, the signs of climate change scientists have long warned about.

Scientists are tracking two massive, thousand-pound white sharks lurking in the open Atlantic off the Carolina coast.

DeBordieu Colony, a wealthy, gated beach community, was the benefactor of targeted legislation in the Statehouse this week that would protect a stretch of beachfront houses. That’s if Gov. Henry McMaster signs it into law.

Straw banners have sucked victory from the jaws of defeat.

ST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's southernmost alligators are too skinny and Lake Okeechobee is choking on sediment, but natural springs long dry are bubbling again because of ecosystem repairs highlighted in a new report card on Everglades health.

BOGUE BANKS, BEAUFORT — The summer tourism season is almost here, and several towns in Carteret County are preparing their paid parking programs.

CHARLESTON, SC — In a court filing late Thursday, the federal government said it is “simply evaluating all its options,” when it comes to its drilling plan, appearing to soften previous comments from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt that an Alaska court decision had put on hold the Trump administration’s push to open the Atlantic Ocean and other waters to offshore oil rigs.

EDISTO ISLAND — Two of the coast’s mysterious shell rings — human-made and centuries old — lay buried in the woods on tiny Pockoy Island. For years nobody knew they were there.

Turning the Toxic Tide is a series of editorials published collectively by the six editorial boards of USA TODAY Network-Florida, with the goal of providing an environmental road map for the state's new governor, legislators and congressional delegation. This is the seventh in the series.

Failing septic systems pollute Lowcountry waters with raw sewage and leave some residents with fouled yards and homes, but the cost of modern sewer connections and questions about government mandates have made the problem tricky to solve.

It wasn’t that long ago when the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce and other South Florida business interests worked hard to amend the federal Water Resources Development Act to begin a major dredging and widening project at Port Everglades.

Anyone who’s been to The Point in Cherry Grove has probably looked across Hog Inlet to see a handful of tall trees towering over the rest of the shrubbery on the undeveloped Waties Island.

ISLAMORADA — Dredging barges stood ready to begin work to remove Hurricane Irma sediment from a clogged Lower Matecumbe Key canal last week, but were idled by the lack of a federal permit.

When a 757.8 pound swordfish was caught off the Florida Keys in late March, some wondered: why let it struggle for 8 hours?

Coordinate preparations for ‘environmental, physical and economic impacts of climate change.’

Gov. Brian Kemp signed amendments to the Shore Protection Act into law Friday. H.B. 445, sponsored in the senate by Republican State Sen. Ben Watson (District 1), prescribes new ways to define the scope of the state’s influence on private beach-front property.

Three-quarters of the coastal beaches and marshes from North Carolina to central Florida face a very high risk of erosion by 2030, according to a new study.

Seawalls proliferate, oceanfront construction continues to boom, according to county data

DURHAM, N.C.—Tropical and subtropical fish are taking up residence on shipwrecks and other sunken structures off the North Carolina coast. This pattern may continue or even accelerate in coming years given predictions of warming oceans under climate change, a new study co-led by Duke University scientists suggests.

NEW DATA REFLECT A 30 PERCENT INCREASE IN HIGHLY VULNERABLE AREAS IN THE REGION SINCE 2000