Beach Feedback May 2010 - St Francis Bay Residents Association

Despite high seas on the 10th and 11th of May where wave heights reached 9.5 meters, the beach “weathered the storm” and the May 2010 survey recorded the second largest volume of sand on the beach since the inception of the PEM project. During the storm the steps at Hobie beach were less lucky and were tossed on top of the revetment!! The May survey showed that we have just over 75 thousand cubic meters of sand in the target area.
Some interesting observations:
• That since January 2010 the beach has on average had 17,955 cubic meters more sand on it than the same five month period last year. The survey figures show a very significant trend of sand buildup.
• That the beach now has 50% more sand on it than we had during the 2009 Xmas period.
• That despite the storm the dune at the foot of the golf course was not damaged and neither was the spit. A large amount of reserve sand was “lost” however. Thankfully the foot of our dunes had built up sufficient reserves.
• Since the start of the project 18 months ago, the South end of the beach (Grannies Pool end) has never recorded as much sand reserve as at present.
• There are currently large sand flats building up just below the low water mark. This is significant as this is a great reservoir of sand.
• Since the inception of the project the average height of the beach profile has increased by almost 19 cm.
• Should we have another storm in the near future there appears to be enough sand on the beach to protect it, as the beach is building up very rapidly again.
• Where the dredger is pumping water and sand over the spit the beach is being damaged but hopefully this operation is about to end soon. A coffer dam would be a better solution.
Letter from Neil Brent

People have been interested to know what all the activity is on the beach over the last couple of days. Answer is we are busy installing a complete new PEM filter system, offset by 50 meters from the existing system. When complete the filter bed will cover a full 2.8 kilometres long x 60 meters wide section of beach, with a grid of over 350 filter pipes. It is unfortunate that the installation has been delayed due to late payment of the 2nd lease instalment, and there is now not much time to build a sand buffer against the coming winter storms. As a result there may well be, from time to time, filter pipes exposed both on the beach and in the shallows. Swimmers should be aware of this, and be careful to avoid injury from pipes that may be exposed under water in the surf.
Let us hope that the coming winter storms are few and gentle.
Best regards,
Neil Brent.