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Water Quality Testing Results

Contact the
Texas Surfrider Foundation

P.O. Box 563

Liberty TX 77575

Lili at Surfside

Does this not look like an imminent collapse and a public hazard?

Surfers Mobilize for Surfside CEPRA Grant
Email Campaign for $2.5 million in Beach Nourishment funds

Surfrider has organized a drive to send email to Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson to support Surfside's application for a CEPRA grant to fund beach nourishment. This is a special grant program -- it does not require matching funds from Surfside. This grant would add as much as 200 more feet of sandy beach to the nourishment program now in progress.

Here's a suggested message you can copy/paste/send to Land Commissioner Patterson, but it would be even better if you personalized it with some your first-hand experience of the erosion problem in Surfside.

I am writing in support of the application submitted by Surfside, Texas for a CEPRA Cycle 3 grant to fund beach nourishment. Surfside is suffering from severe erosion. The dune system there has been decimated, and erosion has stranded numerous houses on the public beach and endangers many more. This erosion has begun to impede access to the public beach, and it threatens to destroy more homes and litter the beach with dangerous debris.

Since this is a competitive grant program, I would also call your attention to the fact that erosion at Surfside poses a greater and more imminent risk to private property, public infrastructure, and the local tax base than at any of the other applicant sites. Moreover, the Bolivar and Galveston sites have a proven ability to raise money for geotextile tubes and have beach stabilization programs in progress, whereas Surfside is in desperate need of assistance.

Address your email message to:

Land Commissioner Patterson (jerry.patterson@glo.state.tx.us)

The award of this grant is expected in early March. Surfrider has already received an acknowledgment from the GLO about the volume of emails this program has already produced. Check back soon for results.

Background

The legislation and funding for this grant were supported by Surfrider Foundation's two Texas chapters. Surfrider Foundation Texas chapter initially proposed such a program in the fall of 1999. The 2003 Legislature finally passed the bill last year.

The law allows the Land Commissioner to choose a project that requires no local match dollars. This is significant because the limited State dollars available for beach nourishment have previously required a local match of 25%, which put much-needed nourishment projects beyond the reach of small towns like Surfside Beach. In fact, since the CEPRA bill was passed in 1999, the majority of the nourishment money has been spent by the more wealthy coastal areas (e.g., Galveston, CC, SPI).

This is the first cycle of the no-match grants. The next cycle will begin in 2005.

Surfrider Foundation Texas Chapter adopted "mile 14" in Surfside Beach in 1998. Our beach is the subject of this grant proposal. This grant would replace and widen the beach between the Jetty Park and the entrance to the pay beach. The dangerous debris we must negotiate to get to the water would be behind the dunes and no longer on public beach.

Applicants for the large scale beach nourishment & dune restoration grant:

Village of Surfside Beach $2,550,000

Town of Quintana $1,550,000

Bolivar Peninsula $2,500,000

Central Galveston Beach $2,500,000

West Galveston Island $2,500,000.