| Florida Today -
A tiny marine bristle worm has stopped dredges from pumping sand along Satellite Beach and Indian Harbour Beach for the past decade, while officials spent almost $68 million bulking up the oceanfront to the north and south.
The towns got a piece of almost $30 million over four years in trucked sand for patching dunes after the hurricanes, but some beachside residents and officials pined for the dredge-and-fill projects that widened other high-profile Brevard County beaches.
The lowly Sabellariid worm and its flat-rock perch stood in the way.
But a new draft plan under review works around the environmental roadblock. It would bring another $30 million in sand -- dredged offshore, then trucked in -- to the stretch called "Mid Reach" as soon as spring 2012.
"It's a very good compromise," Satellite Beach Mayor Joe Ferrante said. "The hurricanes of 2004 showed how vulnerable we were without beach renourishment. We lost all of our beach dune crossovers. . . . We took many, many hits."
The roughly 31,800 truckloads of sand would go on 7.8 miles of beach, from just south of Patrick Air Force Base to just north of Indialantic.
Residents have until Wednesday to voice opinions on the $195 million, 50-year plan, which includes resanding the two beaches about every three years. The plan will require congressional approval.
Dredges would pump almost 575,000 cubic yards of sand from shoals about five miles off Cape Canaveral to the Trident Basin west spoil area, 70 acres owned by the military on the north side of Port Canaveral. Trucks would haul the sand to several beach access points, drive it down the beach, and bulldozers would smooth it.
The dredging would happen about every six years and the trucking every three years, or as needed -- for about $7 million each time.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials say, despite the risks and cost, the project's economics add up. They say that for every $1 spent, it would pump about $3 into the local economy in the form of property protection and tourism.
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