ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Frustrated St. Johns County residents are not happy about a stalled dune restoration project that was intended to help prevent erosion during storms. Nor’easter-like conditions are expected to bring flooding and more dreaded beach erosion this weekend to coastline communities like Summer Haven.
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St. Johns County Emergency Management said in an address to residents that projects such as the Hurricane Ian/Nicole FEMA Dune Enhancement Project have “enhanced the dune system by adding sand at the seaward edge of the existing dune, creating a more uniform front to the dune system along the beaches.”
Residents like John Gamble, however, said the project hasn’t done much for the area that he’s been surfing for more than 50 years.
“It’s kind of hopeless because when they keep dumping sand by Matanzas and keep pumping sand down there. That’s ridiculous,” Gamble said.
He said a lot has changed over the years on Gene Johnson Road, and he is not sure what could be done at this point.
“It’s kind of like they waited too long to do anything,” Gamble said. “The last storm, we lost 20 feet of beach out there. We’ll hope and pray because the big waves are going to hit Sunday.”
Skye Taylor is another resident who expressed her frustrations, but Taylor believes a solution exists.
“I just wish that the federal government, the state government and the county government could get their act together and work together because this is fixable,” she said. “It’s fixable.”
Taylor hopes government agencies can come together to find a solution that makes sense.
“New Jersey has rock barriers that all go out like jetties, so it doesn’t change the beach guts structure, but it changes things from shifting back and forth. Here we just do nothing and we have meetings, and we spend $100,000 on a study. We have meetings and we spend another $100,000 on a study,” Taylor said. “Just do something.”
She also said she thinks many people are missing an important sense of urgency.
“The message is not getting across that this just happens to be a weak link for A1A. If we do not protect A1A, then there is no evacuation route. It cannot move west again because of the ICW,” Taylor said. “They keep on having meetings. They discuss what they can do, and then they do nothing.”
In August, the St. Johns County Board of Commissioners released the results of a nearly $400,000 study that provided three options to address the ongoing erosion:
- Build a 14-foot seawall with pilings 20 feet apart
- Beach renourishment and dune restoration
- Managed retreat, which would cost around $3 million for the county to buy out 20 beach properties
Read the Emergency Mangement’s full statement below:
“Beach dunes are in place to protect homes and structures from coastal flooding. The current Hurricane Ian/Nicole FEMA Dune Enhancement Project has enhanced the dune system by adding sand at the seaward edge of the existing dune, creating a more uniform front to the dune system along the beaches of South Ponte Vedra, Butler Beach and Crescent Beaches.
The planting of sea oats and supporting vegetation is complete in Butler and South Ponte Vedra and is still in progress in Crescent Beach.
The Summer Haven Study and Summer House Erosion protective measure options will be discussed at the December 19 meeting of the County Commissioners. Every storm surge is different. We are hopeful that the County’s recent dune building efforts will sustain the impacts of this weekend’s storm.”