Photo by Photo Provided

File photo contributed by the Martin County Commission Preparations for dredging the St. Lucie Inlet were shown this year in an aerial photograph, which began with the contractor assembling the upland pipe that runs from the inlet 15,000 feet to eventually pump sand into the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge area to the south.

MARTIN COUNTY When it comes to beach restoration, no place on the Treasure Coast comes close to the record of the Town of Jupiter Island, where residents have taxed themselves to pay for 11 beach restorations costing $59.5 million during the past 39 years.

"It's a worthwhile investment," Town Manager Gene Rauth said. "It's to protect beaches that the residents want to enjoy."

Since that first Treasure Coast beach restoration in Jupiter Island in 1973, about $181 million in federal, state and local money has been spent in the three counties to replace sand on beaches, according to figures supplied by officials in Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties and Jupiter Island. This spending counts only large-scale beach restoration projects, not the many more instances when local officials truck or bulldoze sand to smaller erosion hot spots.

The positive effects of wide, sandy beaches on tourism and property values come with multimillion-dollar expenses and environmental risks to sea turtles and nearshore underwater habitat.

Martin County Commissioner Doug Smith said there is a twofold need to restore his county's beaches: It protects the roads and utilities on the barrier island; and beaches are a valuable piece of the local economy.

"When you have beautiful beaches, people come to the state and spend the time, money and energy here that they do," Smith said.

A state-sponsored study of the economic impact of Florida's beaches was published in 2005 by the Catanese Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University. It presented no separate data for the Treasure Coast's three counties, but included them in an eight-county "Southeast Beach Region" stretching from Brevard County to Key West.

The study stated 25.3 million tourists visited the region's beaches in 2003, spending $9.1 billion and creating 253,000 jobs.

The rest is here:

Beautiful beaches come with mulitmillion-dollar price tag, other costs, over years in Martin County