Year after year Upham Beach is in gulfed by the gulf. Erosion has been a problem on at Upham and a lot of Florida Gulf coast beaches. Since the mid 90's the renurishment has cost of 7 million dollars. With never ending process like the Upham beach renurishment project, when is too much. I would think that 7 million dollars would pay for a solution with a permanent fix.
The funding for the renurishment project comes every 5 years and usually just in time. The shoreline will be just inches away from the sea oats, and they will dredge. Well, it has only been 3 years since the last dredging and there is a few inches of beach left. The government will not fund until spring 2004 that is when the next Upham renurishment will take place. It seems that a lot of these residents are getting worried and backing anything they think will work. They have been proposing T-groins. These stupid things will probably ruin Upham more than they have already.
AIREAL VIEW OF
UPHAM BEACH
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GULF Gulfster
On Costa Rica
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 As surfers we know about waves and there energy. It is common sence that when a wave breaks it is releasing energy. So it is obvious that the solution is to have something to break the wave before it hits shore. I know researchers are looking into submerged breakwaters for erosion problems. Similar to the breakwaters of Japan. They will be rock piles placed parallel with the shore, but submerged. This way it will act as a reef, releasing the waves energy before it reaches the shoreline. In my research for this article I came across Robert Dalymple, a civil engineer at the University of Delaware Sea Grant program who briefly talked about the submerged breakwaters and how the details of where to build them have yet to be worked out, and they imagine surfers would despise them. Is he crazy? What does he think Pipeline is? |
| All I know is that if they put a permanent fix that permanently ruins the surf. This will be one pissed off, born and raised St. Pete. resident. Looks like we wont have to worry until 5 more years. Until then the only worrying that will be going on will be the home owners on June 1, when Hurricane season rolls around, you cant mess with mother nature. |