In March of 2025, the Town of Hillsboro Beach completed another $5 million nourishment (to replace the $4.4 million nourishment done in April 2023).
Taxpayers were told that 87.5% of the cost was being paid by FEMA and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. That’s true, but what was the real cost to the residents and taxpayers?
In addition to the $625,000 taxpayer sand bill, the town took out a three-year, $5 million loan because the government will not reimburse the town for years. The estimated loan cost is nearly $1 million, bringing the taxpayer cost of the $5 million nourishment to approximately $1.6 million.
The sand placed on Hillsboro Beach was brought in from 100 miles away. Delivering the 64,000 cubic yards of sand required an estimated 4,925 truckloads, or 9,850 trips through town. Those trucks drove over one million miles, burning 205,000 gallons of diesel and creating 195 tons of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and other toxic emissions.
The 30-ton trucks also took a toll on the newly repaved section of State Road A1A. Just one truckload created as much damage to the road as over 7,300 cars. Those 9,850 truck trips caused as much damage as over 37 million cars. In 2023, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) reported the average daily traffic on Hillsboro Mile was 8,100 vehicles/day. At that rate, the sand trucks reduced the service life of the road by over 12 years. The average life of a secondary highway is about 30 years. Those trucks used up over 40% of the road life.
FDOT reports there were 33,000 accidents and 373 fatalities caused by large trucks in 2021. Statistically, the sand trucks may have caused one or two vehicle accidents.
And costs continued after the sand was delivered. An excavator, two bulldozers and three rock trucks were used to spread the sand. All combined, that construction equipment burned another 8,300 gallons of diesel and caused an additional eight tons of toxic emissions. The rock trucks alone drove an estimated 1,300 miles along one mile of beach, and large sections of the beach were closed to the public.
All these costs will be repeated indefinitely every two years. The town is planning on imposing special tax assessments to pay for it.
Fortunately, there is a proven alternative to beach nourishments. In 2008, Hillsboro Beach performed a successful test of Pressure Equalization Module (PEM) technology on the northern mile of beach. PEMs are completely passive and consist of two-inch diameter, slotted plastic tubes installed vertically below the beach to a shallow depth. As they drain water from the beach, sand brought in with the tide builds up twice each day. During the three-year project, the beach width grew over 100 feet and the sand volume increased 70%. The incremental cost of PEMs is only 2/3 of the cost of just one nourishment, and they are only installed once. No sand trucks required.
Hillsboro Beach needs to consider this less expensive, less toxic and less invasive solution before subjecting its residents and taxpayers to another expensive beach nourishment.
John Meyers is a registered professional engineer, resident and property owner of Hillsboro Beach. He has donated hundreds of hours studying solutions to the erosion problem and his work has been reviewed by coastal engineering firms and other scientists.