Engineering

But governments struggle to curb illegal sand-mining

On a tucked-away South Shore beach, there once were cool shallows to swim and buried shells to dig up. For those living feet away, there was the sound of the water, the constant, gentle splash on sand.

The tropical Maldives may lose entire islands unless it can quickly access cheap financing to fight the impact of climate change, its foreign minister said.

East Yorkshire councillors bemoan lack of national guidance and funding

Kitty Hawk town council members met on Monday, Jan. 6. Their agenda included an agreement with APTIM regarding a post-hurricane beach profile survey and a discussion of the newly planned library for Southern Shores.

WASHINGTON, DC (WAVY) — Two U.S. senators and one House representative from Virginia are pushing for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to include sea-level rise in its Fiscal Year 2020 Work Plan.

The Coastal Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources invites the public to attend a presentation on coastal resiliency at noon Jan. 28.

Stantec has been picked as lead designer for the Battery coastal resilience project in Lower Manhattan in New York, USA.

The area had damaging flooding from Superstorm Sandy and Tropical Storm Irene, and such storms are expected occur more often, said the report. Sea level over the next 50 years is expected to rise 0.4-3.2 feet in New Haven.

The City Dock Action Committee presented its final report Tuesday to the Annapolis City Council, offering new details on a project that would remake the downtown area and how supporters plan to pay the estimated $50 million price tag.

A six-mile-long barrier would help protect the city from floodwaters during fierce storms like Sandy, but critics say rising seas make the option inadequate.

Over the next six months, four erosion “hot spots” on Miami Beach will be replenished with sand from central Florida. The $16 million federally-funded project started this past week around 64th Street. According to Mayor Dan Gelber, this first phase will run from January through March.

Coming soon to our Manasota Key beaches: The Gulf of Mexico. Like it or not, if we don’t add more sand periodically, our beachfront homes and condos will fall into the Gulf. I’m not talking about any sea level changes or global warming here — just the normal course of shifting sands. I can’t say beach renourishment is good, but I understand it’s necessary because we built on migrating barrier islands. These islands aren’t stable. They never have been. The beaches will always be temporary.

Hampton’s Public Works Department saved taxpayers more than $100,000 by replenishing Buckroe Beach with dredged sand from Indian Creek…but not all were impressed.

The idea is to build a buffer between the condos and the rising seas.

The sand so many Manasota Key beachfront homeowners have been waiting for may be on its way soon.

Recent studies of sediment types and shellfish resources, and preliminary consultations with regulatory agencies, have not dredged up any issues that would stall efforts to improve navigation in Nauset Estuary, a stakeholder group learned Monday.

Anthropogenic climate change and its associated rise in sea levels could prove a significant threat to some of the world’s iconic coastal space launch sites, including Florida’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

EMERALD ISLE — Bogue Banks’ next beach nourishment project is ready to roll, with dredging and pumping of sand set to begin the first week of February, a little earlier than originally planned.

NJDEP Provides $13.5 Million to Address Harmful Algal Blooms

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) announced that they will use an estimated $281.5 million provided in the Construction account to construct two flood and storm damage reduction projects in North Carolina – Surf City and North Topsail Beach, North Carolina, and Carteret County (Bogue Banks).

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will use money from a disaster bill to provide long-awaited federal funding for a pair of North Carolina beach nourishment projects, according to a release from U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis.

Coastal towns braced for the first high tide of the year this past weekend, and many small-business owners say they have adapted to what is becoming the "new norm" of increased flooding during high tides and more frequent extreme weather due to climate change.

What does a pile of construction rubble have to do with fish? When old concrete gets put on the ocean floor, it goes from trash to habitat. Workers did just that to an artificial reef two miles off the coast of Yarmouth last week; they dumped pieces of granite and concrete to expand a reef that was built in the 1970s. WCAI's Kathryn Eident talked with biologist Mark Rousseau of the state's Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF)about how his office manages artificial reefs like this one.

Forty percent of the human population lives within 100 kilometers of a coastline, with one in ten living under ten meters above sea level. As climate change induces more volatile flooding events and long-term sea level rises, it is estimated that coastal flooding could cause as much as $1 trillion of damage per year by 2050. We cannot escape the reality that cities, and their populations, are more vulnerable to flooding than ever.

A project to repair erosion to Georgia’s largest public beach is underway east of Savannah.

DETROIT — Water levels on all of the Great Lakes are higher this month than they started in 2019, the year record levels were set on the waterways, the Army Corps of Engineers announced this week.

Bhubaneswar: Recently a portion of the geo-synthetic tube wall erected at Kendrapara’s Pentha village to combat sea erosion was damaged in a fire. Media reports suggest that 30 gabion boxes of the wall that is made up of water-permeable geo-textile tubes filled with sand slurry were gutted in the mishap.

In December, a coastal geologist, on behalf the Round Dune condominium development in East Quogue, demanded that the Southampton Town Trustees take emergency action to allow his client to install a hardened structure to protect the complex’s four buildings from falling into the ocean.

Council bosses are pushing forward with plans to improve public safety along areas of crumbling coastline in South Shields.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is warning that continued misbehavior on the shoreline east of the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse could result in restricted access to the area and the closing of part of its trail. The BLM reported a wave of misdeeds over the holiday season.

EMERALD ISLE — Bogue Banks’ next beach nourishment project is ready to roll, with dredging and pumping of sand set to begin the first week of February, a little earlier than originally planned.

This is not the first time the homeowners bulldozed part of the dune, but it is the first time they have the blessing of the Department of Environmental Protection.

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. (WMBF) – A multi-million dollar beach renourishment project in Pawleys Island could be entering its second phase soon.

My wife's best friend is in town, and we were going to take her over to Bathtub Beach. It's such a little gem, the kind of place you take guests as a way of showing off where you live.

On Oahu, more than half of the sandy beaches are now subject to chronic erosion, making stretches of coastal roads vulnerable to crumbling and collapse.

In light of the repeated lashing Duluth's waterfront has taken in recent years, it should come as no surprise that Mayor Emily Larson's chief objective in the coming legislative session will be to seek $13.5 million in state bonding funds to shore up the city's coastal infrastructure.

Our planning for rising sea levels must consider vulnerable communities in the Pacific.

Moving away from its early exclusive focus on natural disasters, resilient architecture and design tackles the much tougher challenge of helping ecosystems regenerate.

The first Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition Leadership Summit kicked off Tuesday. Local officials were there, and so was Florida’s new Chief Resilience Officer.

The island nation is looking to update its climate pledge under the Paris Agreement. A bold pledge is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

AN extra foot of seawall and more sand are needed to protect a stretch of coast from flooding

A beach access road has been temporarily closed following a cliff collapse on the north Norfolk coast.

President Trump on Thursday capped a three-year drive to roll back clean air and water protections by proposing stark changes to the nation’s oldest and most established environmental law that could exempt major infrastructure projects from environmental review.

Few residents offered their thoughts on the spending plan for the state’s agency charged with restoring the coast and building storm protection.

Since 2006, Nicholls Farm has become a haven to preserve native trees and other plants that have either disappeared from Louisiana or grow in areas threatened by coastal erosion.

Anna Maria Island’s beaches wouldn’t be so impressive without a little bit of help. The sandy shores people know and love in Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach are the product of a noisy necessity: beach renourishment.

The preparation activities for the Manasota Key Beach Renourishment Project, to be conducted by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD), are currently underway.

Rapid urbanisation has led to forest loss, while groundwater extraction is causing the coastal city to sink as sea levels rise - a dangerous cocktail that is worsening floods

In the early years of the 20th century, leaders across the West had big dreams for growth, all of which were tied to taking water from the Colorado River and moving it across mountains and deserts.

A marine laboratory 85 miles southwest of New Orleans was designed to be a fortress against extreme weather. But it might be defeated by climate change.

"This is an urgent situation along Dune Road affecting our community's small businesses and jobs."

This place might be called the ground zero of climate change.

King tides will once again hit the Oregon Coast this weekend, giving residents a taste of what life could be like in the near future.

Money to push two marsh restoration projects in Lafourche Parish may move forward at the end of the month.

The massive proposed $1.4 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, a few miles downriver from New Orleans, could create or save from erosion as much as 47 square miles of land and wetlands in Barataria Bay over its first 50 years, new computer modeling shows.

Circa-1896 Lake Merced Tunnel is critical to the city’s plumbing—and in danger from climate change

Thanks to a permit delivered Christmas eve, residents of Manasota Key may see equipment for beach renourishment in about two weeks. Charlotte County Project Manager Matt Logan updated the Beaches and Shores Advisory Committee on the massive two-county project Thursday. Construction could begin in mid-February, Logan said.

On the first Saturday afternoon in September, crews were cutting their way through broken pines and restringing the electric lines leading to Dare County Regional Airport on the northern end of Roanoke Island.

Flood waters from a ditch running under FM 1416 in Newton County rush onto an abandoned property in Newton County Friday. Many residents of a Bon Wier neighborhood known as "The Hole" evacuated Thursday as rising waters quickly flooded the area, nearing entry levels at some elevated homes. Heavy rainfall and the opening of the dams at Toledo Bend have swelled the Sabine River, area creeks and ditches and is expected to rise further through the weekend. Photo taken Friday, March 30, 2018 Kim Brent/The Enterprise

The energy industry has overcome many “resiliency” challenges. Climate change is the biggest one yet, the author writes.

Thousands left homeless, highlighting plight of Indonesia’s capital of 30 million as one of fastest-slumping megacities, already 40% below sea level

The United Nations annual climate talks in Madrid, Spain ended with a general call for greater efforts to tackle climate change, but no agreement on concrete steps to reduce global warming. The meetings capped a year in which the effects of climate change became more apparent around the world and the Great Lakes.

As sea levels rise and adverse weather events become more common, vulnerable coastal communities are at increasing risk of devastation from storm surges and tsunamis. The death toll from tsunamis, at 260,000 during the past century, was higher than that from any other natural hazard. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has now compared the effects of man-made and ecosystem protection to propose a hybrid approach including mangroves and coral reefs in coastal protection plans for tropical biodiversity hotspots. The results were published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Tuesday, Dec. 31 is an important deadline in the $144 million beach renourishment project for St. Johns County.

Legislation from two Queens lawmakers aimed at further protecting Jamaica Bay was struck down by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s veto pen on Dec. 27.

Some climate change is now inevitable. Many communities are trying to adapt to the consequences.

What happens in Louisiana doesn’t stay in Louisiana. The state's role in the oil and gas industry impacts both global markets and global climate change. It’s also on the front line of climate change impacts due to sea level rise and is vulnerable to storm systems intensified by global warming. Here is a selection of photos from a decade of my coverage of environmental issues in Louisiana.

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) has released its 2019 Year in Review outlining the agency’s accomplishments in coastal protection and restoration.

The plan will include where to put about 100,000 cubic yards of sediment unsuitable for ocean disposal.

Beach erosion in St. Johns County has been an issue for decades. Made worse by hurricanes, nor’easters and sea level rise, oceanfront homeowners have watched as the once-wide beaches continue to narrow and threaten their homes.

The plan to renourish the highly eroded Lido Key shoreline with sand dredged from Big Pass has faced years of court challenges primarily from opponents on Siesta Key. Now that the plan is slated to finally move forward, Sarasota County is balking at the request to use Ted Sperling on South Lido Key as a staging area for the project.

Now that the Manasota Key Beach renourishment project is split in two, some residents may have to pay a heavier burden of the cost

San Clemente has sent a report of its areas most vulnerable to beach erosion to the California Coastal Commission in hopes of establishing a Local Coastal Program, which would allow the city to begin taking measures such as beach nourishment to combat the rising sea levels affecting its beaches.

SFPUC official: ‘We have critical wastewater infrastructure at risk’

Are you looking to dispose of your Christmas tree in a unique way? The City of Orange Beach is asking residents to place their trees on the curb over the next week. Be sure you remove all of the decorations and lights before you leave it out for pickup.

Crews were expected to start removing more copper mining waste rock known as stamp sands that have built up in an Upper Peninsula waterway and threaten an important fish spawning area, according to state officials.

Mississippi Coast localities and two associations have filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Mississippi River Commission to protect coastal waters from future damage caused by Mississippi River water pouring from the Bonnet Carré Spillway.

Commission worries projects may turn to contaminated sources.

Treasure Island is a man-made polygon of 400 acres constructed by engineers on a shallow reef in the middle of San Francisco Bay.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore has issued a special use permit to Tideland Electric Membership Corporation for a project that will improve the reliability of electric service to Ocracoke Island by replacing an overhead pole line with an underground cable along Pole Road in Hatteras. The project is expected to begin in January 2020.

The researchers cautioned that the fate of 7,000-year-old Tel Hreiz should represent a warning for present-day humans.

The State of North Carolina and FEMA on Wednesday announced more than $30 million total headed to Southeastern North Carolina beach towns from hurricane- and storm-related damage.

“CWPPRA” provided the first regular stream of funding for the state’s wetlands

The Louisiana Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority expects to spend $958 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1, the most of any year in the history of the state’s coastal program, according to the draft spending plan released Wednesday.

The Porter County Commissioners have declared an emergency for the entire Porter County portion of the Lake Michigan shoreline following a sharp increase in erosion activity in Beverly Shores.

The results are for everybody to see. A new beach has formed along the shorelines and the economy there is thriving.

Speaker at Propeller Club meeting says over 600,000 of the state’s residents will be exposed to flooding at the end of the century.

“If you keep adapting without mitigating, what you are doing is compounding the effects on the poor. Adaptation without reduction of carbon emissions is immoral, and it’s stupid.” – Keith Clarke, former Atkins CEO and chairman, Forum for the Future

A new study from the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection projects seas could rise from 2000 levels by up to 1.1 feet by 2030, 2.1 feet by 2050 and 6.3 feet by 2100 in New Jersey, emphasizing the urgency of adaptation work to make the state more resistant to climate change effects. The accompanying report shows New Jersey has already been disproportionately affected by climate change, with sea level rise projections more than two times the global average.

Florida lawmakers are interested in addressing climate change. But they’re not setting any sort of renewable energy goals—which is something democrats have proposed in the past. Instead, the Republican-led majority is focusing on making the state more adaptable to rising sea levels.

Historic cities and towns along the Southeastern U.S. coast have survived wars, hurricanes, disease outbreaks and other calamities, but now that sea levels are creeping up with no sign of stopping, they face a more existential crisis.

A draft plan to spend $958 million in fiscal year 2021 on hurricane flood reduction and coastal restoration projects, with more than half the money coming from settlements related to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill, was presented Wednesday to the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

Typically, once a landowner learns about living shorelines, one of the first questions is “How much does it cost?” Cost is the question that dominates the living shoreline conversation. The answer isn’t all that straightforward.

Thule Air Base in Greenland is the US's northernmost military installation on the planet. Its location and the harsh conditions it faces mean Army engineers there have to use special techniques to keep everything running properly.

Rice-led scientists show grain size, not speed of water, sets silt and sand transport

How Florida‘s coast is being saved with huge dumps of sand: Before and after pics show $11.5million project to move 300,000 tons to save coastal resorts

SUISUN CITY — Ducks Unlimited has received nearly $5.58 million to restore 603 acres of managed seasonal wetlands to tidal wetlands in the Hill Slough Wildlife Area of the Suisun Marsh.

Southampton Town officials are calling for immediate emergency assistance for Dune Road as a man-made sand berm placed in front of the Shinnecock Commercial Fishing Dock by Suffolk County has almost all been washed away.

The Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation (LHCCC) hosted the fourth annual Lake Forum at Beach Street Station last week. Experts, elected officials, representatives from organizations and First Nations gathered to discuss issues and key priorities along the shoreline, including the need for innovative solutions for erosion.