Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Indian Rocks




Our approach to beach nourishment on Puget Sound is really pretty lame. Down here folks know how to do it right. Dredge it, barge it 20 miles, pump it to the beach, repeat. Do it for 9 miles of beach and then a few years later do it again. The project we got to visit is on Sand Key in St. Petersburg, from Clearwater down to Redlington. They weren't pumping today on account of possible bad weather coming in, but we got to see lots of big yellow equipment on the beach and lots of 24" pipe. Just like on Puget Sound, if you build the beach too high or too steep, a scarp develops. Bluff erosion, Florida style. Must be a pain if you're a sea turtle trying to crawl up the beach in the middle of the night with 120 eggs to lay.

More Florida beach photos at my other site (hshipman) - as usual, sometimes it's tough to separate business from personal.

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