Beach contamination in Seagrove

[ecopal]

This is a picture taken today(12Dec05) of dark sand being placed on beach (in front of several homes on Montgomery Street, Seagrove Beach between Greenwood Ave. and Seagrove Villas ). This is taken with a telephoto from the Greenwood Ave. public access.

It shows a contrast between the natural white beach sand and the trucked in dark sand. The darkest sand next to the excavator was brought in today and is much darker because it probably has some moisture content. The dark sand in the foreground has been there over a month. The white sand behind the excavator was the appropriate sand brought in by Seagrove Villas to cover their seawall.

This has been an on going isssue for over a month. The county has been contacted several times yet this dumping of dark sand continues. Once this foreign sand mixes with the natural pure white beach sand the beach is contaminated forever.

Please go take a look for yourself.

 

[TreeFrog]

Who is having the sand trucked in?

 

[Kurt]

What County employee have you talked to?

Has code enforcement approved a sample of the sand in question? If they have not been contacted you need to make sure that they go to the site and sample the sand. They should have been given a sample by the contractor before dumping. You need to make sure that the sample they were given and the actual sand that is dumped are the same.

 

[DBOldford]

The Walton County Commissioner for our district should be contacted about this. She will see that something is done. Her name is Cindy Meadows and she lives in South Walton. You can contact her through the Walton County Board of County Commissioners in DeFuniak Springs. I am seeing Cindy in a little more than a week, when we are at Grayton, and I will mention this to her. It always helps when an elected official has as many contacts as possible and as soon as possible, however.

 

[SoWalSally]

The Walton County Commissioner for our district should be contacted about this. She will see that something is done. Her name is Cindy Meadows and she lives in South Walton. You can contact her through the Walton County Board of County Commissioners in DeFuniak Springs. I am seeing Cindy in a little more than a week, when we are at Grayton, and I will mention this to her. It always helps when an elected official has as many contacts as possible and as soon as possible, however.

I bleieve that Seagrove Beach is Scott Brannon's District one.

 

[Smiling JOe]

I bleieve that Seagrove Beach is Scott Brannon's District one.

I think you are correct. Good luck!

Commissioner Scott Brannon
19367 U.S. Hwy 331 S Freeport, FL 32439

Tel: (850) 835-4860

Fax: (850) 835-4836

E-mail: brascott@co.walton.fl.us

Photos of your Commissioners. (I think they need to hire Kurt to take better photos. These are ridiculously terrible.)

 

[ecopal]

Thanks for your interest.

I have contacted the county several times over the last month. It will obviously take more than calls and emails from just me.

Go take a look and make your own judgement . They have to hear from more concerned citizens.

Below are local news media, and county and state contacts.
I have already contacted most of them plus my county commissioner.

COUNTY

Brad Pickel, TDC Director Of Beach Management,
<bpickel@beachesofsouthwalton.com>, (850) 267-1216.

Pat Blackshear, Director of Planning and Development,
<blapat@co.walton.fl.us>, (850) 267-1955.

Kevin Hargett, Code Enforcement Coordinator, Code Enforcement Office,
<harkevin@co.walton.fl.us>, (850) 622-0564.



STATE AND FEDERAL
Tony McNeal with DEP. <tony.mcneal@dep.state.fl.us> 850-921-7745.

Lorna Patrick, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, <lorna_patrick@fws.gov> 850-769-0552 ext.229.

Jim Martinello, DEP Enforcement & Compliance officer. <James.Martinello@dep.state.fl.us> 850-414-7772.


NEWS MEDIA

Gwen Break, Editor, The Walton Sun, <sunnews@link.freedom.com> (850)267-4555.

Dotty Nist, Reporter, The Beach Breeze, <breeze@dfsi.net>, (850) 231-0918.

Chris Mitchell: 850-832-9830 channel 13 WMBB/ABC Panama City reporter.

 

[lost in sowal]

Although Brad Pickle is helpful on many issues regarding the beach he is only responsible for the County's beach accesses, nourishment, etc. He has no regulatory or enforcement abilities regarding individual actions- those are planning and code enforcement. As Kurt said, Code Enforcement is who needs to be contacted.

 

[ecopal]

Code Enforcement has been contacted and they gave a very interesting summary of the situation.

The county apparently was issuing permits to use the low quality 6.2 grade sand (dark sand) prior to August 1 2005. The owners of the Gulf front property on Montgomery street apparently got approval from the county prior to the August 1 2005 deadline. Since August 1 the requirement is upgraded to a better 7.2 grade sand. In either situation the lower grade sand has to be covered with a three feet layer of the the whiter grade 8.1 sand.

So it is apparently the position of the Montgomery Street Gulf front owners that they can use the poorer grade sand because they are "grandfathered" in before the rule change . This is loosely analogous to the county allowing all of us long time residents to ignore the new HWY 98 stop lights because we were "grandfathered in". Such faulty reasoning would result in harm to others in both situations.

This low grade dark sand will contaminate the natural beach sand forever. Even though it is suppose to be covered with 3 feet of white sand the next time we get a storm it will all be mixed together. This will then contaminate the beach all along the shore-particularly to the west such as Seaside. This is a "dirty" shame because Seaside has been very careful not to contaminate their beach with low quality sand.

We all need to contact the county and tell them this is not acceptable

 

[Smiling JOe]

Code Enforcement has been contacted and they gave a very interesting summary of the situation.

The county apparently was issuing permits to use the low quality 6.2 grade sand (dark sand) prior to August 1 2005. The owners of the Gulf front property on Montgomery street apparently got approval from the county prior to the August 1 2005 deadline. Since August 1 the requirement is upgraded to a better 7.2 grade sand. In either situation the lower grade sand has to be covered with a three feet layer of the the whiter grade 8.1 sand.

So it is apparently the position of the Montgomery Street Gulf front owners that they can use the poorer grade sand because they are "grandfathered" in before the rule change . This is loosely analogous to the county allowing all of us long time residents to ignore the new HWY 98 stop lights because we were "grandfathered in". Such faulty reasoning would result in harm to others in both situations.

This low grade dark sand will contaminate the natural beach sand forever. Even though it is suppose to be covered with 3 feet of white sand the next time we get a storm it will all be mixed together. This will then contaminate the beach all along the shore-particularly to the west such as Seaside. This is a "dirty" shame because Seaside has been very careful not to contaminate their beach with low quality sand.

We all need to contact the county and tell them this is not acceptable

I don't know with whom you spoke, but I think they are incorrect regarding the information they gave you. That is not what I remember the County Commissioners ruling. They said that any new sand brought in would have to meet the new standards of whiteness. They also said that people who had already filled with the darker sand that met the old standards, but not the new, would have to be removed. There was a big debate about this and Commissioner Ro Cuchens was very scared that he would have to pay for it, since he had several jobs which he used the darker sand. The decision, as I remember, was that since the County changed the standards, the County would pay for the removal.

If what you state is true regarding the response from the Code Enforcement, the county commissioners should be contacted. FYI- the commissioner for that district is Chairman Scott Brannon, and he was conveniently absent from that meeting so he may not be as informed as Comm Meadows, or Comm Jones, who actually make the motion which was approved.