Posted on July 19, 2024
ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) – The Isle of Palms is getting $1 million in state budget funding for beach renourishment that leaders say they plan to use to build up Breach Inlet and do shoal work from Dewees Island.
The city applied for $2.5 million estimating the restoration projects forecast for the next 10-15 years, including shoal management and large-scale offshore dredging, will exceed $30 million. The $2.5 million request would cover the construction costs of a shoal and inlet management project and engineering costs for long-term sand sources. The state earmarked $1 million for this year.
“We’re grateful for anything from the state budget standpoint,” Isle of Palms Mayor Phillip Pounds says. “The state doesn’t have a funding mechanism for beach renourishment, so that was part of our reason for asking for the number.”
The city is already anticipating an Army Corps of Engineers renourishment sand dump for Breach Inlet in September 2024.
“The Army Corps will dump that sand on our beach, and it’s about 500,000 cubic yards, or about $10 million of free sand, if you will. Great. Again, we’re grateful for that, and then we’ll spend a half million to shape it,” Pounds says.
Once the Army Corps drops the sand, it will be up to the town to use it to build the beach. Half a million of the incoming state funding will go to cover the beach and dune shaping. The other half a million, Mayor Pounds hopes will go toward some shoal work on the other end of the island. The town is waiting on permit approval for the shoal management project.
“So there’s a huge stand bar coming from Dewees south and moving into the Isle of Palms, so it’s not quite attached yet. It’s relatively close, so we will use that sand, probably another million or so dollar project on its own, once that attaches, we’ll help Mother Nature along and pull some of that sand onto the island and re-shape the dune and re-shape the beach,” Pounds says.
Pounds says the north-end shoal project does depend on permit approval. He hopes to get that project done in late 2024 or 2025. Pounds says these projects are the small versions that carry the island through between large off-shore dredging.
“We have a huge beach renourishment, anticipated project here in 2027 2028 that’s probably in the $20 million time frame. That’s the big ticket item,” Pounds says.
Pounds calls the funding for these projects the literal million-dollar question. He says as a town with an annual budget of $25 million it can be a challenge to manage the beach, and leaders are looking far and wide for funding solutions.
“You have different hot spots over the course of time as cycles ebb and flow, and it’s really about using the shoal management, using the Army Corps project, using the next big renourishment project. I mean it’s a log of pieces that go into managing a seven-mile beach. You really have to be creative in your funding and your timing,” Pounds says.
So far, they are using the Army Corps project, the shoal, and the state funding to their advantage using planning and timing. But without a set state department or bank of funds designated for the beaches, it can be hard to secure.
“We’ve had an ad-hoc committee going, it’s some residents, some council members, for looking at beach preservation specifically, and part of that is coming up with renewable, ongoing funding. And that’s still a work in progress,” Pounds says.
He says the town will continue to ask for what they need from the state, rely on FEMA when it comes to impact from named storms, and pursue grants. They are also looking at a variety of at-home options, like a tax district on the island that could funnel directly into beach returns.
“So we are going to be as aggressive as we can. You know, whether it’s state, federal or other grant funding that’s out there available,” Pounds says.
