MIAMI BEACH, Fla., May 16 Officials in Miami Beach, Fla., are looking for foreign sources of new sand after the usual methods of replenishing the beaches dried up.
Community leaders say they have received offers of sand from the Dominican Republic, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Mexico, the Christian Science Monitor reported Wednesday. For example, a fish farm in the Dominican Republic is offering to sell Miami Beach the sand dredged outs while digging new fish ponds.
The search for sand follows an end to the beach's usual offshore sources of sand. Three sensitive coral reefs running parallel to the coastline are threatened by sand pumping and sources in other areas are growing thin. The city tried to make a deal for sand from up the coast in St. Lucie County, Fla., but residents there reacted harshly to the idea of losing their sand.
"If we have one more hurricane we are going to need an external source," Brian Flynn, an administrator in the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management, told the Monitor. "We are the first county that's essentially run out of sand. Broward County to our north is right behind us. They have probably got one more project and they are going to be out."
Copyright 2007 by UPI
