Fort Myers Beach resident Ron Fleming attended the Town Council meeting Monday with a box of sand. He wasn’t happy with what he picked up and he let the Town Council know about it. We dug deeper into the sand and here’s what we found out…
During public comment on Monday Fleming told the Town Council the new sand being piped in from the Gulf of Mexico for the big beach renourishment project is filled with rocks, shells and shards. Fleming said, “The sand being delivered is not the sand we were told we were going to get and it’s nowhere near the sand that was trucked in.” He called it spoil. “After a couple of days, this should have been stopped, Fleming added.” He implored Town Council members to go down to the Pink Shell (where the project started) and walk through the sand with their shoes off. “When we become known for having the worst sand on the entire West Coast of Florida, people will stop coming.”
Fort Myers Beach Environmental Projects Manager Chad Chustz told the Town Council everything that we’re getting so far is what’s to be expected. “The shells in the sample are not a concern to our engineer, they are not a concern to me. This is in line with FDEP beach compatible sand and it’s comparable to what was put on the beach back in 2011. There have been no issues with quality control to date.”
Chustz, quoting from a letter written by the town’s beach renourishment consultant engineer said, shells in the new sand are to be expected and it’s possible that occasionally the offshore dredge will encounter a rock. Chustz went on to say that a sample of the dredged in sand was taken and “it’s great material. Quality assurance and quality control on the sand is being done.”
The $22 million dollar beach renourishment project will result in 950,000 cubic yards of sand, dredged from a nearshore borrow area in the Gulf of Mexico, placed onto Fort Myers Beach. The sand was first piped in down by the Pink Shell and is now being dropped onto the beach behind the Best Western. The project began in July and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The schedule was slightly altered when Tropical Storm Deby came through last month.
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Wow! Shells and rocks on a beach. Never saw that before. Maybe in Ohio they don’t have shells and rocks on their beaches.
If you always take the lowest bid on a project, you’ll always get what you paid for.
Where is town council on this? The mayor has been focused on turtle lights and the various sand projects since Ian. Berms, replenishment, is all we have heard about. Now silence? The sand went from soft, snow-white, to dirty, grey/brown with jagged broken shells and stone. People had better speak up and see who approved this company and why this is being allowed. This needs to be corrected ASAP. We HAD white, sugary sand and that is what we want. This is not Daytona.
Not looking forward to replenishment if it’s like the sand we got down by Leonardo Arms a few years ago. Can’t even walk barefoot anymore, and yes, it was like sugar before that.
Agree with your intelligent point.
When is the bottom part of the island getting sand and our part of the beach fixed and replenished? It’s been 2 years and we are still not getting any real answers on a real time-line. The residents down below where Pinchers used to be matter too. We also need to find out when we’re getting our bouy back out in the water. I would greatly appreciate any info on these issues.
Our beach “was” known for sugary soft white sand, that’s a treasure.
If that’s gone – tourists won’t come back and residents might rethink their investment.
Everything else won’t even matter.
Our beach is everything – should be a priority.
If not mistaken, the other contractor that bid on this, brought these issuses up … 🤔
You going to believe Chad or your lying eyes? The dirt being pumped onto our beach is NOT what we are paying for. I was here in 2011, the last time it was done. Go anywhere on our beach, where the spoil isn’t there yet, dig a hole, sift the sand and you will find for yourself the sand is basically shell and shard free. I foresee crying little kids w bloody hands and feet caused by the current situation.
Why would you want to pump in New sand at all in the middle of hurricane season when the odds of another one hitting Estero Island and washing away that $22 million is not a long shot?
Really? I am not completing projects at my resident until after current hurricane season because I am smart. What type of moron are making those stupid decisions? for our beaches?
Wasn’t the other bidder for this project going to be dredging further away? It makes sense that the sand quality from where they are dredging isn’t great – we just had a hurricane that left so much debris, among other things, into the water.. Please let it be known I am not an engineer, not an expert in dredging, just Lee County resident and FMB lover!
The sand on the beach before was like flour. It was super soft. And why would we pipe in sand from the gulf knowing how much debris was washed into the gulf during Ian?