Posted on October 6, 2021
JUPITER — Erosion has closed a third beach crossover along State Road A1A, according to a social-media post by the Town of Jupiter and barricades installed at the access point.
The town deemed beach access point No. 45 dangerous on Friday after sand from underneath the stairs disappeared, leaving a 2-foot drop-off onto the beach. The crossover is along State Road A1A just south of Ocean Club Jupiter Condos and about a mile south of Carlin Park.
Officials closed neighboring crossovers No. 46 and 47 in July due to erosion that left more dramatic drop-offs between the stairs and the sand. Beachgoers and their dogs were faced with 9-to-10-foot drop-offs at the end of the wooden staircases that lead to the shore. Crossover No. 46 has since reopened.
The whole span of the beach south of Carlin Park is considered a “local hotspot” for beach erosion, according to Andy Studt, Palm Beach County’s supervisor of coastal resources management.
What causes steep drop offs on Jupiter’s beaches?
Chris Carstens, an environmental analyst for Palm Beach County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management, compares beach erosion to a bank account.
For any given area of the beach, there is always some amount of sand entering, which he calls deposits, and some amount of sand leaving, which he calls withdrawals.
“Every wave that comes in pushes a lot of sand. Multiply that over a large area and a long enough time, and it adds up to a surprising amount moving around,” he said.
As long as the deposits in an area are equal to or greater than the withdrawals, the beach maintains its surface. But as soon as the reverse occurs, there is a deficit, known as beach erosion, he said.
Beach erosion often occurs during strong tide cycles, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Higher winds are thought to speed up erosion, and it is common to see erosion after a hurricane or a strong storm. Palm Beach County experienced strong rip tides over the weekend due to Hurricane Sam, a Category 4 hurricane that passed far off the Atlantic coast of Florida on Friday.
Several recent projects targeted north county beach erosion
Town and Palm Beach County officials need state permits to restore eroded beaches, which the Florida Department of Environmental Protection usually issues after sea turtle nesting season ends in October, so work doesn’t disturb hatchlings.
Carstens said the county is planning for a dune restoration project for the area near beach access No. 45. It is tentatively scheduled for early spring 2022. It will be the latest of several recent government actions to deal with erosion issues along Jupiter’s coast.
This past spring, the Jupiter Inlet District and the Florida Inland Navigation District placed 210,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from the inlet and nearby waterways onto the beaches in Jupiter’s Carlin Park area, Studt told The Palm Beach Post.
The project cost $1.9 million, and was paid for in part by the Inlet District and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Prior to that project, Palm Beach County placed 991,000 cubic yards of sand around Carlin Park last winter. It relocated enough sand to fill 303 Olympic-size pools.
That project cost $14.3 million, with its costs funded mostly through a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency related to Hurricane Irma recovery, Studt said. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Palm Beach County paid a small share of the project cost.
In the winter of 2019, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed a storm-repair project that dredged 508,000 cubic yards of sand just north of the erosion hotspot. That project was part of a $31.7 million effort to nourish beaches from the Jupiter Inlet to Juno Beach, The Palm Beach Post reported. Local governments were responsible for $2.9 million of its cost.
Despite all the intervention, beachgoers should still watch their steps until re-nourishment opens the beach access points.
