Port Aransas is Trucking Dune Sand to the Sea



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Port Aransas Beach Maintenance is Trucking huge amounts of sand from the upper beach to the water.  This is contrary to the controlling state regulations which state:  "All sand moved or redistributed due to beach maintance activites shall be returned to the area between the line of vegetation and mean high tide."  This does NOT mean putting the sand back in the edge of the water!


The front end loader is removing sand from the upper beach where it accumulated on the roadway and was then graded up toward the dunes.  This is pure sand and contains zero Sargassum seaweed.





Note the huge quantity of sand that is being removed and placed back in the water where it will be washed away down current and will not be available to build our natural dune seawall stronger.



It takes several loads to full the dump truck.


The dump truck than dumps the sand in a long row of sand piles along the beach at low tide.  This sand will be washed away along the beach when the tide returns.  This is contrary to state regulations that require that sand moved for beach maintenance must be placed between the high tide line and the vegetation line.  It is required that the sand be placed above the high tide line, so that it can blow inland to enhance the natural growth of the dunes, our natural dune seawall.  In fact, the sand is being removed from the very place that it is needed to give Port Aransas protection from hurricane storm surge overwash.  Nearly every other Texas beach community, including South Padre Island, Corpus Christi (at the seawall), Quintana Beach, Surfside Village, West Galveston, and Bolivar peninsula are begging the state and federal government to place sand on their beaches AT THE EXACT SAME LOCATION WHERE WE ARE REMOVING IT FROM OUR BEACH.




This is just the amount of our precious dune sand trucked to the surf in a single morning. Imagine how strong our natural dune seawall could be, if it is allowed to build and vegetate naturally for our protection.  Remember, this natural process which protects our town from hurricane overwash is free to us.  We only have to let nature build our seawall.