Beach Restoration Initiatives along the 30A Corridor
Updated January 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 funding, permitting and legal 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 like was constructed in Panama City Beach.  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

On December 18th, Walton County staff and consultants participated in an Alternative Formulation Briefing with the Mobile District (District), the South Atlantic Division (SAD), the Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction Planning Center of Expertise (PCX), and Headquarters (HQ) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  The purpose of the meeting was to review the engineering and economic analysis of the proposed Walton County Storm Damage Reduction Project.  This review included years of analysis that led to the project identification and justification.  In the review, the review team discussed a number of issues for the District to correct and explain so that the package could be released for federal agency review.  The Mobile District is on schedule to respond to the comments by the end of January.  The following are the next steps in the process:

• The District submits their response package to Division and Headquarters (late January)
• The package is reviewed and submitted to federal agencies for their review (beginning in February)
• Walton County requests federal funding to complete the Feasibility Study (February)

The goal is to continue through the many steps it is required to have an approved project by December 31, 2010.  The small list above is only the upcoming activities in the next 60 days.  The major milestones in the long term schedule include authorization of the project in the Water Resources Development Act of 2010 (WRDA 2010).  This authorization allows the project to move from the “study phase” into the “permitting and construction” phase.  The study is on schedule to be included if Congress passes WRDA 2010. 

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.  The County has been successful in the past; 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.

A final hurdle to any project continues to be the ongoing litigation at the U.S. Supreme Court.  When the western Walton County project was constructed, a group of owners who owned four properties challenged the legality of the project, specifically the establishment of the Erosion Control Line that was required by state law.  Their challenge has progressed to the U.S. Supreme Court over the past four years and the hearing was held the first week of December.  Depending on the ruling by the Supreme Court, future beach nourishment projects in Florida may be impacted with changes to the permitting process.  That ruling is expected prior to July recess; however, a decision can be made at any time.

History of Walton County’s beach restoration efforts for the 30A corridor since 2004

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.  We have submitted an FY2010 request that will include funding for the construction phase of the Phase II project, and await information on whether it will be successful in the coming year.

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 seven years and will be pursuing additional funding 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.