Beach Restoration Initiatives along the 30A Corridor
Updated July 2010

The Walton County Tourist Development Council (TDC) continues to pursue a beach restoration project for the beaches in Eastern Walton County along the 30A Corridor. The pursuit of this project began in 2004 after the passage of Hurricane Ivan. The direction of the project initially focused on the pursuit of funding for a state/local project, similar to the project constructed in Western Walton County. While the option still remains, it involves a number of challenges in regards to limited state funding and permitting issues. Since 2002, the TDC has also been working to demonstrate that the restoration of the County's beaches is in the national interest and has been pursuing a federal shore protection project similar to the one constructed in Panama City Beach. If a federal project occurred on Walton County beaches, the opportunity for federal and state cost sharing greatly increases. The following discussion provides a brief discussion of the recent work that has been accomplished, the upcoming steps in the process, and the history of the efforts.

New update and next steps in the restoration of 30-A beaches

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the State of Florida, Walton County and the City of Destin in mid-June. After years of hearings and months of deliberation, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the decision by the Florida Supreme Court thus ending the longstanding lawsuit over the western Walton County/City of Destin project. Furthermore, they released a very narrow ruling that did little to muddy the waters for future beach nourishment projects in Florida. Currently, no negative changes are expected in the federal and state permitting process, which is good news for the restoration of 30-A beaches.

The Federal Shore Protection Feasibility Study continues to move forward in 2010. In the first quarter, the Mobile District of the Corps submitted their revised Feasibility Study report and documentation from the Alternative Formulation Briefing held in December. The report includes all of the engineering and economic justification for the restoration of Walton County beaches. The report was submitted for review by the South Atlantic Division, North Atlantic Division and Headquarters. The District received a number of comments that they addressed in March, April and May. The final package was re-submitted to the South Atlantic Division in mid-June. The Mobile District awaits their response and anticipates making limited changes to the overall package. Once all issues are addressed the package will be released for public comment this summer.

The overall goal is to continue through the many steps it is required to have an approved project ready for authorization in the next Water Resources Development Act. Congress had previously sought to complete a WRDA 2010; however, it is likely to be delayed until 2011. The inclusion of the project in the Water Resources Development Act will allow the project to move from the "study phase" into the "permitting and construction" phase. The study is on schedule to be included in the next WRDA bill.

After Congressional authorization, final design and permitting will occur. This phase should go relatively quickly as the design is over 90% complete, the sand source has been identified, and Walton County's efforts on a state/local project would be used in the coordination of the permitting. We would expect that these efforts would take about a year.

In addition to permitting, Walton County would need to continue to successfully secure federal appropriations. Over the past 8 years, the County has been successful in securing funding every year and is on track to receive $250,000 in the next Energy and Water Appropriations bill. However, the funding need has been less than $1 million per year. To construct the project, we anticipate needing between to $15-20 million in federal funding to combine with $15-20 million in non-federal funding.

History of Walton County's beach restoration efforts for the 30A corridor since 2003

Project Management

The first steps in identifying any beach restoration project is to identify quality sand sources that can be placed along the eroding beach areas, and to determine which areas of the beach need beach restoration. These activities are done simultaneously. The sand source investigation has been completed. There are two locations off the South Walton coast, which have sand that is similar in size and composition to the native sand. The sand color is slightly darker at 7/2 on the color scale (8/1 is the native sand ranking). Greg Stone, LSU professor and consulting geologist, has stated that the sand will bleach to the same color of the natural beach over time.

The engineering analysis of Walton County's 30-A beaches has also been completed and four areas were identified as needing beach restoration. These areas include seven areas that have been deemed critically eroded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. We submitted permits for the four areas to the FDEP and Federal agencies. In February 2009, we received a Notice of Completeness from the state for the project. However, the initial permit would not allow construction in all of the areas in which we were pursuing a permit to be constructed. To date, the permit has not been finalized and we are continuing to dialogue with the FDEP to determine the final approved project areas.

In regards to the federal permit for the state/local project, we have received a letter from the Panama City Field Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stating that the review of our permit was complete and they have drafted their permit conditions. These permit conditions were expected and will not cause any exorbitant measures. As expected, they are ready to issue the permit, but are delaying the issuing of the permit until the state issues their permit for our project.

State funding

The construction of a beach restoration project is an expensive effort. The Western Walton County Project cost about $4 million per mile. While we have received funding for the design and permitting phases of a state/local project, and funding for the Feasibility Study of a Federal Shore Protection Project, we have not received any construction dollars.

Additionally, the state is beginning to prioritize their limited funds even more heavily on those projects with a federal cost share so our involvement in the federal process is critical. In FY 2010, no non-federal beach nourishment projects received state funding. We anticipate federal participation to continue to be a defining criteria in the coming years.

Federal Shore Protection Project and Federal Funding

In 2002, Walton County began pursuing a Federal Shore Protection Project for Walton County Beaches. This was fortuitous as the County was well into the process when the shoreline was impacted in 2004 and 2005 by Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis. However, federal projects take longer due to the process laid out by the federal government to determine not only a technically feasible project, but also one in which the National benefits exceed the cost of the project. While the permitting and construction of a federal project is similar to a state/local project there are significant differences in the feasibility stage that increase time. So why pursue a federal shore protection project?

A federal shore protection project will provide numerous benefits to Walton County that would not be available with a state/local project. First, the federal government will cost share up to 65% based on available access. The remaining 35% would be paid by non-federal sponsors, which in our case would be shared between Walton County and the State of Florida. In a state/local project, the state will pay a maximum of 50% that is based on public access and subject to state funding availability. As mentioned earlier, the state is prioritizing their limited funding to support federal projects so it is unlikely that Walton County would receive any state funding if it was a state/local project. While we do not expect the Federal government to pay the full 65% or the state to pay an equal share of the remaining 35% of a federal project, we believe there would be a significant cost sharing if we have a federally authorized project. In a state/local project, Walton County would likely pay 100% of the cost. The price tag of the project will likely be over $30 million.

Second, once a project is federally authorized, the federal government would be a cost sharing partner for 50 years. Therefore, we would not only realize cost savings on the first restoration project, but also subsequent nourishments. It is anticipated that the project would need to be nourished approximately 6 times in a 50-year span.

We are currently pursuing federal authorization and federal funding for the Walton County Shore Protection Feasibility Study. To date, we have been successful in securing federal appropriations for eight years and elected officials in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate have requested $250,000 for us this year.

The TDC continues to move through the process as effectively and efficiently as possible with a likely start date no earlier than 2011-2012. This start date is contingent on securing a federal shore protection authorization and appropriation in a timely manner, and state support in permitting. The beginning portion of this webpage will be updated frequently as more information becomes available.