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T-Groins Cause Groans Along Upham Beach

Tribune photo by KELVIN MA

ST. PETE BEACH -- Jamey Knight, 34, right, and her daughter, Ashley Knight, 13, of Anderson, Ind., relax on Upham Beach on July 3, 2008. The family visits once a year and says they understand why the t- groins are on the beach and why people want them removed, but don't find it enough of an inconvenience to go someplace else.

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By NICOLA M. WHITE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 6, 2008

ST. PETE BEACH - They look like giant hot dog buns jutting into the surf.

They're designed to safeguard Upham Beach from erosion and protect the coastline condos from floods and hurricanes.

But to an increasingly vocal group of critics, the tubes are ugly yellow bean bags that disrupt the pristine vista and make surfing next to impossible at this once-popular surfer spot.

"I actually have some guys who get teary-eyed about it," said Mike Meehan, 54, who has been surfing for most of his life and is chairman of the Suncoast Chapter Surfrider Foundation. The group has spearheaded a petition drive to get rid of the tubes, known as geotextile T-groins.

Among the complaints, besides aesthetics: They disrupt the natural tide, causing an undertow in some places; they become slimy when algae sticks to them, and surfers and swimmers bang into them when they're out in the Gulf.

"We don't like them, that's for sure," Meehan said.

Before you wonder who actually surfs around here, the answer is plenty of people. Upham Beach, just north of Pass-a-Grille and south of Madeira Beach, is known as one of the top wintertime surfing spots on Florida's west coast.

On good days, surfers used to be able to get a 75-yard ride. Since the T-groins were installed in 2006, surfers are now lucky to skid 25 or 30 yards - the distance between two T-groins, Meehan said.

Acting as mammoth sandbags, the groins serve as a doorstopper of sorts to keep sand close to the shoreline instead of letting it slip back into the Gulf.

Meehan's group has no problem with the idea of preventing erosion, but despises the groins. He and others have gathered 1,400 signatures from beachgoers to remove them and have Pinellas County come up with another way to prevent shoreline erosion.

Renourishing Beach Is Expensive

Other ways, though, cost significantly more money than the T-groins.

Before the structures were installed, the beach was protected through renourishment. Big trucks would pump loads of sand out of the Gulf of Mexico and redistribute it across the beach.

County officials would do this every 4 years at a cost of $2 million, of which 60 percent would be paid by the federal government, 20 percent by the state and 20 percent by Pinellas County.

Now with the rising cost of fuel, renourishment would cost close to $6 million, said Nicole Elko, the county's coastal coordinator.

In contrast, the T-groins cost $1.5 million in 2006, when they were installed.

Local condo owners, especially those at Starlight Tower, the oldest complex on the beach and the one that sits closest to the shoreline, are fans of the T-groins.

"It might not look nice, but it helps, it works," said Stanley Bryk, 70, a member of the board of directors of the Starlight Tower condominium association who has lived on the beach for five years.

Bryk has seen the first floor of his condo tower flooded. He and other residents have watched the Gulf creep dangerously close to their front steps. They lobbied the county to do something about it. At the time, the beach was considered the state's fastest-eroding beach.

Meehan and his supporters don't like that taxpayers are helping to foot the bill to essentially protect the property of those who choose to live on the beach.

But Bryk argues that the groins don't just protect the condos but the people who visit the beach too.

"If there were no groins, I tell you, there'd be no beach," Bryk said.

County To Bring In Consultant

Elko, the coastal coordinator, has heard the debate on both sides of the issue. In 2009, the county plans to hire a consultant to figure out a way to best stop beach erosion, she said.

One plan is to replace the T-groins, which are made of tough canvas and filled with sand, and build structures made out of rock. The surfers don't like that idea, either, though, because it would make surfing more hazardous.

The county would take that into consideration, too, Elko said.

"I really believe there's a way to protect the beach and save money and not impact the surf," she said.

On a recent weekday, Upham Beach was packed with swimmers and sun worshippers.

"I know this beach has washed away before," said Joan Robison, 53, who grew up in St. Petersburg and now lives in Brandon. She doesn't mind the yellow T-groins.

"It doesn't really bother me. I'd rather have them do that than spend money on refurbishing the beach," she said.

But the Knight family, tourists from Indiana, noticed the yellow sand bags as soon as they hit the strand.

Mom Jamey Knight, 34, doesn't like the look of them and doesn't like how slimy they feel when you get too close - algae gathers on the sides.

Her daughter, Ashley, 13, summed it up: "They're disgusting," she said.

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