Posted on August 13, 2020
The Jupiter Inlet District, a small taxing authority in northern Palm Beach County, dredges the inlet’s sand trap on a near-annual basis, typically in the winter or spring.
JUPITER — During the commotion and economic shutdown over the coronavirus this spring, you might have missed something.
The Jupiter Inlet wasn’t dredged.
The Jupiter Inlet District, a small taxing authority in northern Palm Beach County, dredges the inlet’s sand trap on a near-annual basis, typically in the late winter or early spring. But this year, the district is holding off until the fall.
Why? For one, executive director Joseph Chaison said the district discovered last year that one of its two main dredging permits expired two years earlier.
When district commissioners discussed the matter in January, meeting minutes show there was some question as to whether it was wise or even possible to apply for and obtain a new permit by April 1 — about the time when dredging started last year. By the February commission meeting, the district had reapplied. Last week, Chaison said the district’s application was still in the approval process.
Hired last year, Chaison said he was unsure of how the error happened.
Minutes from the district’s December commission meeting indicate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had not raised any red flags about the expired permit when the district notified it about past dredging. A copy of the permit included in the usual bid process apparently did not include the date, according to the minutes.
The district won’t suffer any penalties from the corps, Chaison said. He’s set up a new workflow to make sure the error doesn’t happen again.
“Following that, we put together a tracking spreadsheet binder with all of the JID permits,” Chaison said.
After the planned fall dredge, he said officials could still decide to clear out the sand trap again in the spring. The sand trap is a man-made lane that collects sediment, keeping the inlet navigable.
By the time commissioners learned of the lapsed permit, meeting minutes show district officials had already discussed whether to hold off on dredging the sand trap this spring.
District officials were concerned about dredging after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ wintertime project to place more than half a million cubic yards of sand in the Jupiter area, starting south of the inlet, Chaison said. That area includes Jupiter Beach Park, where the district usually pumps in the sediment it dredges from the inlet.
“The worry was … there’s no room to place this material,” Chaison said. “That was a real possibility. It was still a concern for the spring. The beach is really full right now.”
Officials also wondered if there was enough in the sand trap to warrant dredging, Chaison said. As of last fall, there were about 29,000 cubic yards of sediment there — less than half of what the district historically dredges, around 60,000 cubic yards.
Since the fall, though, the inlet’s sand trap has beefed up drastically — it contained about 90,000 cubic yards as of the spring, Chaison said. A mariner’s notice with the U.S. Coast Guard warns of possible shoaling and depths as low as 8 feet over the sand trap.
Tom Schwier, who owns Tomcat Fishing Charters at nearby Blowing Rocks Marina, said he’s aware.
“It’s definitely shallow in the middle, where we’ve actually bumped bottom at low tide throttling up to head out,” Schwier said.
He’s talked to other local anglers about it. They suspect the shallowness may have affected the spawning pattern of snook in the area.
A similar situation is afoot at the South Lake Worth Inlet, also known as the Boynton Inlet, which is managed by Palm Beach County.
The county uses a sand transfer plant to keep that inlet clear. Since the start of the county’s budget year last fall, the plant has pumped out about 175,000 cubic yards of sand, said Andy Studt, program supervisor for coastal resources management at the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management. The yearly goal is about half that, 88,000 cubic yards, Studt said.
He and Chaison both said a rougher than average winter swell season could have whipped up more sediment into the inlets. Chaison also wondered if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ beach project had a similar effect. The corps filled Jupiter’s beaches with sand it dredged just northeast of the Jupiter Inlet.
“However it happened, we have a lot of material in the sand trap now,” Chaison said.
Source: palmbeachpost
