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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20061019BeachTaskForceMinutes.pdfTybee Island Beach Task Force Minutes October 19, 2006. Members Present: Berta Adams, Cecil DeLorme, Amy Lanier, Henry Levy, Mary McCracken, Walter Parker, Freda Rutherford, Lou Off Ex-Officos Present: Burt Moore, Alan Garrett, Lyle Maciejewski, Linda Morrison, ACOE, Paul Wolff, City Council, Jason Buelterman, Mayor, Diane Schleicher, City Manager, Bubba Hughes, City Attorney Members Absent: Helen Downing, Dick Magune, Wick Searcy, William Sprague, John Wiley (E) Visitors: Kevin Haas, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Associate Professor Georgia Institute of Technology, Savannah, Jennifer Drasic, Tybee Resident, Jim Sherry and Brian Adamson, Jekyll Island Lou called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone to the meeting. Due to the delay of the minutes being sent out to the members, it was decided to approve the September minutes at the November meeting. Jim Sherry from Jekyll Island spoke to the BTF members about the beach erosion that is occurring on Jekyll Island. He shared pictures of the problem area. He stated that he would like to learn from the BTF and what Tybee has done to deal with beach erosion. Freda stated that in years back several members of the Tybee Island Beach Task Force tried to establish a coalition of the coastal islands so that we could all stand together on the issue of beach erosion. This was not well received at that time from the St. Simons/Jekyll area and so that idea was disbanded. Lou commented on the problems that Tybee faced years ago prior to the re-nourishment periods. Jim thanked the members for listening and reiterated that he was here to learn and whatever help the BTF could give was much appreciated. ASPBA Lou attended the ASPBA meeting last week in New Jersey and will report on this at the next meeting. Army COE/Tybee Island Meeting Lou took notes at the meeting and added comments from our Mayor and Dan Parrott (see hand out attached). Jason Buelterman stated that he neglected to add this question: Is the 80/20% material from dredging going to be placed near shore and the 88/12 going to be placed on the beach and who makes that determination? He would like to see what each looks like. Alan asked Lyle to explain the procedure. Lyle stated that in 2002 as part of another project the COE sampled the entire length of the channel in 1000 ft increments and from these samples ran the test. The assumption is that the material in a general region stays the same. This is where the data came from for this analysis of the 80/20 and 88/12. This testing is not done every year because of the expense. Jason stated that the whole idea of the HB727 is for material to be placed on the beach and now the idea of that is becoming less of that and more of placing material on the near shore because there is no 88/12. The definition of beach quality sand was established by DNR. HB727/Long Range Maintenance/Savannah Entrance Channel/Impact Study/Re-nourishment The GADNR has verbally given the definition of Beach Quality Sand. They have not yet determined the Channel Limits. The upper channel limit is near Field Cut, but the lower channel has not been defined. According to the definition and the samples that were taken, Beach Quality sand has been found in three areas. Maintenance dredging is schedule for this upcoming December or January. Over the last 10 years the COE has annualize the amount of sediments in these areas, that they have dredge to be approximately 80,000 cubic yards of both sand and silt. This year they estimate it to be average. The Long Range Maintenance Study is to dispose of the material the least costly and environmentally sound way. Currently the estimates are being prepared by the Charleston COE District while part of the work is being done in the Mobile District. Management and contract award will be done from Savannah. Freda asked if the COE was now looking at the cost of the re-nourishment and the cost of maintenance together. Alan stated that they were. Linda stated that they are trying to dredge the best way to get the best results in the long term. Lou stated that one of the key issues is that the material we want on our beach will not be coming from the channel, but from the borrow area. There will be a Tybee summit meeting on November 28th, 1 PM at City Hall with all involved concerning the channel impact to our beaches. All BTF members should attend if possible. Kevin asked if the COE is planning on monitoring the beach to see how the plan works after the material is added to the near shore area. Continued beach monitoring should show this. Lyle continued his presentation on the Savannah Entrance Channel. In the bid process there is an option including the material to be placed near shore on Tybee. Berta stated that Tybee will be included in this dredging process. If the bids come in over budget then the Tybee option may not be considered and it may be easier to bank what material is owed to Tybee. Diane stated that, since the COE has to operate on unfunded mandates and new rules have been established, why they didn’t place the dredging on hold until the money was available for the new requirements. Tybee has to place the re-nourishment on hold until the funds are available. Alan stated that the outcome of the meeting with Col. Held established that the attorney’s felt that there needed to be another study to see if the channel impacted Tybee (The Channel Impact Study) before the HB727 actually implemented. Freda stated that at our last meeting that HB727 became effective last year. Lou stated there is a legal track there. When we talk about this Long Range Maintenance Study, the problem is bigger than dredging the channel and taking care of Tybee, it needs to be done on a regional basis. Before we started spending money on both sides for legal things, we need to get this Long Range Maintenance Study done. We really don’t like the sand from the channel on our beach. It could be better to bank another 80,000 cubic yards of material and getting it somewhere else rather than placing material near shore with the possibility of that material not reaching the beach. Freda asked if HB727’s effective date was last year and were we keeping track of the amount of sand owed to us. Lou stated that it started last year – about 85,000 cubic yards. According to Col. Held last Thursday this is the deal. Linda stated that DNR was okay with not placing the dredged material on Tybee this year. DNR is responsible for the COE compliance. They are still trying to figure out channel limits for this. Diane asked even if they don’t physically place the material near shore this year and they continue to bank the material from this year and last year would they be compliant with the law. Linda stated that we would like to do what is smart and it may be more efficient to deposit a lot of material all at one time that will stay than to do a little bit at a time. Freda stated that from a previous model that was shown a number of years ago that there is a potential that we will do all this and place material near shore and no sand will reach the beach. Jason Buelterman stated he saw the same modeling presentation and that is the reason he is so skeptical of this working. In fact Erik Olsen felt that this might have the potential to worsen the situation because you will create a deeper area between the beach and the deposit area. Jason is in favor in banking and placing material on the beach rather than placing it at the near shore where it may or may not do anything and may have a negative impact. Tybee Channel Impact Study Lou announced that there will be a meeting in the auditorium at City Hall on Tuesday, November 28th, at 1:00 pm. He would like as many people to attend as possible. This meeting will discuss ERDC’s report. Erik Olsen, DNR, COE will be in attendance. All the information that is known will be placed on the table and the strategy for the channel impact will be formed. The completion of this study was promised by Col. Held to be completed before his change of command (this summer). This study is to establish the amount of impact not the final solution. Freda made clear that we were talking about the impact of the current channel as opposed to future impacts of harbor deepening. Tybee Beach Re-nourishment We are waiting funding. Lou stated that he and Jason learned that when it is a shore protection program it must be cost shared. Basically if we get tired of waiting on the federal government that we cannot go somewhere else for the $6 million and do the job without the feds. Diane stated that if the federal government went through a depression and there were no funds then we could never do beach re-nourishment. Tybee could not renew the federal project and Tybee could fund the re-nourishment on its own. Lou stated that we have a shore protection project that looks good to be funded next year. After that we only have 1 more project in the shore protection project for our 50 year authorization. Ship Wake Alan stated that the COE is proceeding with this plan. They are doing the cost estimates in Wilmington now. The Ship Wake Analysis Report is in and it will be released in conjunction with a Bank Erosion Report. The entire North Beach was studied. Alan will send the BTF a copy of the report as soon as it is out. Lou said that in Bill’s study he is showing placing material in the inter-tidal area both to the north and to the south of the North Groin. Why can’t that not be done around the corner to the west as well. Alan said that they worried more about the quality and type of the material that will not stay there. It would just fill up the channel. Sand Management Procedure to the Beach Management Plan It is completed and Janice will send the BTF members the final copy. Janice is to make sure the Mayor and Council receive a copy. Lou will present it to Council on the Oct. 26th meeting. Beach Monitoring We are waiting on a letter from the COE that Georgia Tech has been approved to do the monitoring. Alan will check on this. Dan is away for two weeks. GPA/Tybee Cooperative Agreement No meeting held, Lou and Jason will check on the status of the agreement. Comments from the Floor Freda asked if Bill Farmer was still the Chair of the Beach Erosion Committee (SEG). This needs to be revitalized now there is a final report from the COE. Henry proposed that the BTF recommend to Council to take the $150,000 that the City is placing towards the beach re-nourishment every year and hire lawyers to sue the COE in the highest court possible for malpractice. Not only sue the COE as an entity but each individual engineer that had anything to do with building the dams up the Savannah river that stop the flow of sand to the coast. He further wanted to recommend to council that the COE was more intent on doing repetitive studies and feeding their own principles than completing the task. We need to recommend to the federal government that some entity other than the COE be used for the delivery of federal projects. Lou stated that he didn’t think that was in the COE decision making area and would require a change to the Water Resources Development Act. Lou would like to table that until the COE has a chance to do some of the things that they are moving forward on. Henry made a motion that the BTF recommend to City Council that we make claim against the COE and the individuals in the COE for malpractice. Freda seconded the motion. Discussion – Freda wanted to know the outcome from the law suit o the Mobile verses COE – Dolphin Island case. Bubba is to check on this through Lexis. Freda called for the question. Vote 4 to 1 to call for the question. There was a vote for Henry’s motion. Henry’s motion was voted down 5 to 1. Berta commented that Henry had some good points. We need to recognize that people make mistakes. We are not the only party here. If we go against the COE, we are also going against the Georgia Port Authority. It is in our best interest to try to work this out so that we remain whole and we recover the sand we need and the river stays open for the Georgia Ports Authority. We don’t nee to spend a lot of tax payers’ dollars trying to sue one another. Lou stated that the COE has given us close to 6 million cubic yards of sand since 1975. Before that we have seen the waves breaking up against the sea wall. Lou heard from Col. Held that he has promised to do thing for us. Linda and Lyle have stated that they are placing us in their contract. We may not get it, but we will know cost and quantities. The Colonel has stated that he is banking all the material coming out of the channel for us, about 80-100 thousand cubic yards a year, which equals almost the amount we are losing. We have the Widener, the deepening, etc. The future looks good. Henry stated that in the last 2 or 3 weeks we are losing beach. Alan stated that a concern that was brought up about Lazaretto Creek at the last meeting about the Shrimp boats not being able to get through the end of the South channel. A survey was done last week and there is 10 feet minimum depth all the way through. They modeled the South Beach Channel and the velocity to deepen the harbor does not change at all. Meeting Adjourned.