BP unleashes ‘Sand Shark' before dredging (VIDEO)

Although he would have liked to have seen emergency sand for Holiday Isle’s critically eroded beaches sooner, Guy Tadlock says that now is better than never.

“We wish that we hadn’t been delayed by the oil spill of course,” said the president of the Holiday Isle Improvement Association. “We are really happy to be getting sand.”

Tadlock said there are about 800 property owners on Holiday Isle, who combined, will pay about 65 percent of the project’s total $1.2-million price tag.

The emergency sand project will allow for 140,000 cubic yards of sand to be dredged and placed on 2,600 feet of beach on Holiday Isle, from the western property boundary of Destin Pointe to the eastern property boundary of Holiday Surf and Racquet Club. The design includes a 30-foot-wide dune crest and an elevation of 10 feet, in addition to a variable width berm.

While the project was initially slated to begin more than a month ago, dredge operator Weeks Marine pulled out of the area in July after completing a beach project on the Eglin Air Force Base property. Rather than continue on to Destin, the contractor opted to build berms in Louisiana as part of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response. At the time, City Manager Greg Kisela said he didn’t expect them to return this year.

But after the Florida Department of Environmental Protection recently flashed a green light for the project, the city is moving full steam ahead and preparing for the sand to hit beaches in the next few weeks.

“We are dotting some I’s and crossing some T’s,” Kisela told The Log Monday. “We are hoping to see them start Sept 7, but that may be optimistic at this point.”

Kisela said the main thing holding up the project at this point is a concern over the amount of sand in the borrow area. As part of the city’s permit, they are required to take the sand from a specified area, and he said Weeks Marine is concerned that the area doesn’t contain the amount of sand needed.

Confident with the amount of sand in the borrow site, Kisela said the city has almost all of the funding from the property owners in the bank, only waiting for about $100,000, which should be in the bank “pretty soon.”

Once Weeks Marine is “comfortable” with the sand, they will sign the contract and begin to deploy the dredge, which will take anywhere between 7 to 10 days.

In addition to the emergency sand, Holiday Isle beaches will also be deep cleaned courtesy of BP and its mechanical beach cleaner the ‘Sand Shark,’ which is a $300,000 sand-sifting device that will be used to lay a clean foundation for the new sand.

According to BP representatives, the Sand Shark digs up to a foot-and-a-half into the sand and lifts the sand onto a conveyor belt, then dumps it through a sifting device. The Shark has already been used on Eglin beaches.

Due to the current rainy conditions, the mechanical cleaning has been delayed, as the machines can only be used on dry sand. But according to an e-mail to city leaders from Florida Branch 2 director Jimmy Zierdt, the cleaning is currently scheduled for the evening of Sept 1.

After a satisfactory cleaning, BP and the Coast Guard will “release” the beach and the dredge can move forward.

With a lifecycle of only 18 to 24 months, the emergency sand project is only a temporary fix for Holiday Isle, but Kisela said the additional sand should give the critically eroded beaches some storm protection for this year and the next. He said the ultimate solution is still the larger beach restoration project, which has been slogged down by legal challenges.

Although most of the summer is gone, and tourists will not get to enjoy the sand from a recreational standpoint, Tadlock said he is pleased with the outcome.

“This is really important to the property owners from a protection stand point,” he said.