Posted on September 18, 2024
Fort Myers Beach resident Ron Fleming attended the Town Council meeting Monday with a box of sand. He wasn’t happy with what he picked up and he let the Town Council know about it. We dug deeper into the sand and here’s what we found out…
During public comment on Monday Fleming told the Town Council the new sand being piped in from the Gulf of Mexico for the big beach renourishment project is filled with rocks, shells and shards. Fleming said, “The sand being delivered is not the sand we were told we were going to get and it’s nowhere near the sand that was trucked in.” He called it spoil. “After a couple of days, this should have been stopped, Fleming added.” He implored Town Council members to go down to the Pink Shell (where the project started) and walk through the sand with their shoes off. “When we become known for having the worst sand on the entire West Coast of Florida, people will stop coming.”
Fort Myers Beach Environmental Projects Manager Chad Chustz told the Town Council everything that we’re getting so far is what’s to be expected. “The shells in the sample are not a concern to our engineer, they are not a concern to me. This is in line with FDEP beach compatible sand and it’s comparable to what was put on the beach back in 2011. There have been no issues with quality control to date.”
Chustz, quoting from a letter written by the town’s beach renourishment consultant engineer said, shells in the new sand are to be expected and it’s possible that occasionally the offshore dredge will encounter a rock. Chustz went on to say that a sample of the dredged in sand was taken and “it’s great material. Quality assurance and quality control on the sand is being done.”
The $22 million dollar beach renourishment project will result in 950,000 cubic yards of sand, dredged from a nearshore borrow area in the Gulf of Mexico, placed onto Fort Myers Beach. The sand was first piped in down by the Pink Shell and is now being dropped onto the beach behind the Best Western. The project began in July and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The schedule was slightly altered when Tropical Storm Deby came through last month.
