Clock ticking on federal funding for beach renourishment

By Sheila Mullane Estrada, Times Correspondent Sheila Mullane EstradaTampa Bay Times In Print: Sunday, October 14, 2012

TREASURE ISLAND

Residents here and in other beach towns have gotten used to the idea that every few years, federal taxpayers will cough up the money to renourish the beaches. It's an understanding between the federal and local governments that may not go on for much longer.

In seven years, Treasure Island's eroding beaches won't get any new sand unless Congress reauthorizes the city's 50-year-old beach renourishment program, set to expire in 2019.

City and county officials are working to make sure that does not happen.

Treasure Island is the second city in the country to be affected by the sunsetting of the federal beach renourishment program that began in the 1960s.

The first beach project, in Carolina Beach, N.C., will run out in 2015 and is expected to be a test case for what could happen in Florida.

Other Pinellas County beaches have more time before their beach renourishment could end.

Funding authorization for renourishment for St. Pete Beach will run out in 2030. Sand Key, encompassing beach cities from Madeira Beach north to Clearwater, will continue to be eligible through 2043.

Treasure Island received its first beach nourishment in 1969 and since then has been renourished 14 times, according to county records.

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Clock ticking on federal funding for beach renourishment

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