TUBES TOUTED TO PROTECT COASTAL PROPERTY

LEGISLATION WOULD EASE PERMITS BUT SOME ARE SKEPTICAL
By David Fleshler,
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

They are sand-filled tubes that weigh 600 tons and stretch the length of a Boeing 737. When buried on the beach, they can protect coastal buildings from waves -- and interfere with sea turtle nesting. Now an Alabama company hopes to sell more of them in Florida, and bills in the Legislature would help.

Advanced Coastal Technologies LLC, of Dothan, Ala., which sells the tubes under the name ProtecTube, is lobbying the Legislature this year to change the law so it can increase sales to homeowners, condominium associations and other coastal property owners. Under current law, the tubes are classified as beach-armoring, which means they can only be used as a last resort.

Last year, the company contributed $50,000 to the state's Republican Party, which controls both houses of the Legislature. It gave nothing to state Democrats.

State Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-Palm Beach Gardens, has introduced a bill that would relax permit requirements for the tubes, despite the concerns of environmental officials that they erode beaches and harm sea turtles.

"Whenever we make a fundamental change in coastal policy, it should be based on sound science," said Gary Appelson, of the Sea Turtle Survival League. "Special interests should not drive beach management policy."

Atwater said the bill, drafted quickly from a House bill that failed last year, will certainly change as he talks with conservationists and state environmental officials. He said he has no interest in writing legislation that would benefit a particular company at the expense of wildlife, and was unaware of the company's political contribution. The company did not contribute money to his campaign, Atwater said.

He said it was necessary to state in legislation exactly when these devices could be used. "I represent coastal Florida," Atwater said. "I'm not going to go out and push something that's going to hurt marine life or the quality of our beaches for everyone."

While beach-armoring devices -- such as seawalls -- protect what's behind them, they redirect wave energy in such a way as to destroy the beach in front of them. The state allows them to be built only to protect a particular structure. Under Atwater's bill, the tubes would be reclassified as "dune stabilization or restoration structures" and could be used in many situations, not just emergencies. A companion bill in the House would also allow the tubes to be used in cases other than emergencies but would retain stricter standards.

Florida is among the most important regions in the world for nesting loggerhead, green and leatherback turtles, and environmental officials are watching the bills with concern. The proposed legislation, said Steve Higgins, Broward County's beach erosion administrator, "is basically a vehicle for one particular vendor of what amounts to coastal armoring," He called it "an attempt to sidestep the permitting process."

Paul Davis, environmental supervisor for Palm Beach County, said erosion could expose the sand-packed tube and turn it into an obstacle. "It could affect nesting," he said. "I'm not sure anyone has studied these things in sufficient detail to show that a change is warranted."

Ann Marie Lauritsen, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the federal government is involved in a study of five ProtecTube sites in Brevard County, and so far the results aren't good. Although no turtle nests were lost, she said the tubes caused erosion on adjacent beaches, blocked the natural deposit of sand that repairs denuded beaches and led to erosion of sand above turtle nests. "That is our main concern," she said. "They don't retain sand during nesting season."

Rande Kessler, chief executive officer of Advanced Coastal Technologies, said the company's products protect coastal property at a low cost to the environment. Unlike seawalls, which protect beaches by reflecting wave energy back toward the ocean, ProtecTubes are sloped to allow waves to run up and dissipate some of their force, he said. ProtecTubes guard 1,100 feet of beach in front of a condominium south of Jacksonville. When hurricanes Jeanne and Frances swept up the coast in 2004, they tore up all the beaches in Vero Beach except for one location, the Caledon Shore condominium, where a bulwark of ProtecTubes blocked the waves. When storms like these tear the sand off the tubes, he said, it can be easily replaced, in contrast to beaches in front of seawalls, which leave nothing to build on. "The sand doesn't go anywhere, the property doesn't go anywhere," he said. "And it's much easier to put the sand back on top for the turtles."

[Editor's comment: "In this political era, money and corporate influence rewrites science."]