A St. Johns County couple whose oceanfront house stands on eroding sand is suing the Army Corps of Engineers over a beach restoration project.

http://www.news4jax.com/video/22525990/index.html

The suit filed in Jacksonville’s federal court says the agency caused the erosion by dredging too much sand from an offshore shoal and depending on outdated information and forecasts of the project’s effects.

The couple told the corps that erosion in 2007 caused $1.6 million in damage to their property on Florida A1A north of Vilano Beach.

The case could affect plans for rebuilding storm-battered coastlines in Vilano Beach and South Ponte Vedra Beach, and potentially work in others areas.

“It’s not just these homeowners. It’s [about] how they deal with these problems in our area. It’s all up and down our beaches,” said Richard Rumrell, the attorney representing homeowners James and Joanne Zimmerman.

More dredging was scheduled this year at the same shoal outside the St. Augustine inlet, but state officials are asking the corps new questions about effects of that work.

Areas near St. Augustine are among several places in St. Johns and Flagler counties where shoreline loss has threatened both homes and A1A, the sole route into parts of the two counties.

A corps spokesman said the agency wasn’t aware of the lawsuit, which was filed Friday.

“We know some people are unhappy,” spokesman Barry Vorse said. “… We are continuing to work toward the renourishment of St. Augustine Beach and we are studying the effects at this time. That’s all we can say.”

Pushed by U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., federal spending bills included an additional $548,000 last year for studies of how to address erosion issues in St. Johns and Flagler counties.

Mica said Tuesday that he worries several sections of A1A could become unusable if solutions aren’t found.

“The big issue is the loss of your major transportation and evacuation link,” he said.

Aerial photos through the past decade show a progression of land loss at the Zimmerman house, where stairs down a sandy slope vanished over time and a precipice developed.

By 2007, a bulkhead defended the property’s eastern edge. But the ocean had scooped out sand along the side of the single-story building, and the owners hired workers with earth-moving equipment to try to retard the land’s retreat. Concrete reinforcing walls were eventually wrapped around wood retaining walls to help protect the building from erosion.

The Zimmermans’ suit argues that erosion wouldn’t have happened if the corps hadn’t dredged two million cubic yards of sand from the shoal east of St. Augustine’s inlet to rebuild several miles of beaches.

Ocean waves routinely shift sand up and down beaches, so that every shoal or sandbar eventually sends along some material to the shore.

The suit argues that by shrinking the shoal south of the Zimmermans’ home, the corps lowered the amount of sand being carried onto the couple’s beachfront. But because the ocean kept rolling as hard as ever, the suit argues, waves continued to carry sand away from the couple’s property and onto other land, leaving them less and less beach.

Rumrell argued Tuesday that the corps might have avoided the problem by using new research and equipment to recheck projections of the sand movement, but instead used information that was years old.

“Cell phones are outdated in two years. We know how fast technology is outdated,” he said.

He said the suit was mainly designed to get the corps to fix problems in its beach restoration program.

In a December letter, a manager at the state’s Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems said the corps’ plan for new dredging “does not provide adequate engineering data and analysis” to show how the work would affect nearby beaches.

“The changes to the coastal system will eventually determine the shoreline position along the adjacent beaches,” said the letter from Lainie Edwards, whose bureau is part of the Department of Environmental Protection.

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