CEPD approves offshore sand resource investigation
By MEGHAN BRADBURY
mbradbury@breezenewspapers.com
The Captiva Erosion Prevention District approved a review of offshore sand resource investigation during its meeting last week.
The board unanimously approved the beach project, desktop sand resource study to not exceed $41,000.
The district has focused its dredging on two borrow areas over the last 30 years.
According to a memo from APTIM Chief Coastal Engineer Douglas Mann, one borrow area has been used since 2006 and is now functionally depleted. The other borrow area, according to a 2025 survey, has approximately 326,000 of cubic yard of dredgable sand remaining.
Mann said he sent a revised proposal to the board for a not to exceed amount of $41,330 on Friday, Oct. 16. He said he had gone back and relooked at data, and provided recommendations on how to proceed with field operations.
Commissioner Rene Miville asked with equipment changing in the last 20 years, are there any enhanced techniques.
Mann said dredging is under continuous improvement with investments in the millions of dollars being made in new dredges.
The suggested total all in, Mann said, is somewhere in the range from $500,000 for limited investigation to $1 million for larger, or more detailed investigation.
The memo states that two desktop investigations of offshore sand have been completed for the district — 1999 and 2000 services for a total of $372,916. It also states that there was a reference for a preliminary (desktop) investigation that was carried out in 1999 for $48,416.
The second was for the 2019 Redfish Pass Sand Search and Borrow Area Design for $349,932.25. The memo states that the desktop analysis and project planning line item was $21,532.