Florida Battles Over Beach Erosion, Costs of Replenishment

By Tamara Rush | March 19, 2012

  • March 19, 2012 at 9:47 am
    Jerry Berne says:
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    Insurers must accept that Florida’s eroding coasts (as well as other coastlines) are the result of bad practices enabled by policies influenced by commercial interests. The most devastating of these practices is almost unrestricted (or seemingly nominally so): dredging. Whether for navigation channels or offshore sand mining (beach “nourishment” is a starvation diet), dredging is a seabed strip-mining process and it is now the major cause of our coastal erosion crisis. Even so, our regulatory agencies as the Corps of Engineers and state offices continue to encourage this process mostly, it appears, for private gain of the industry and coastal consultants.

    Yet, in reality, there is also a private loss with this by the insurance industry and its clients. Billions of coastal property and infrastructure are insured and at risk –along with much of our coastal environmental resources– from current coastal “policies” (pardon the pun). Yet, the insurance industry does not seek to discover alternatives to protect its clients’ properties from bad governmental policies or current practices. By not doing so, it insures its own future losses or retreating from coastal markets.

    There are viable, proven alternatives to protect coastal lands –both real estate and habitats– from this mostly manmade erosion. One of these, Holmberg Technologies (www.erosion.com) has over 30- years’ documentation of its passive, permanent methods being successful, environmentally sound and sustainable. Even so, such methods seem to be a threat to those currently profiting from our outdated and environmentally destructive policies and, consequently, are discourage or prevented outright.

    Unless such an equally powerful industry as insurance advocate for such sustainable alternative to protect its and its clients’ investments, our coastal economic and environmental resources are going to continue to be lost to greed, not erosion.

  • June 20, 2012 at 3:06 pm
    TCBeaches says:
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    Where can you buy beach erosion insurance? I never heard of it. I know you can buy storm, wind, and flood.

    • May 26, 2015 at 8:54 am
      Mary W says:
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      Erosion Insurance? an oxymoran! I
      nsync with Mother Nature is the only path I can recommend.



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