The shoreline along the historic Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse is disappearing at an alarming 7 feet per year.
A project more than 10 years in the making to halt the erosion, however, is threatened by another powerful force: high costs.
The federal government, which owns the land, has lined up $14 million to add wave breaks, terraced walls, a water taxi dock and an 800-foot boardwalk, but it’s not enough money.
Construction bids came in at $16 million.
And if more money can’t be obtained by the end of the year, the project will have to go back out to bid, setting it back for a half-year or more, said Peter DeWitt, site manager for the federal Bureau of Land Management.
“We’re shaking down all of the couches in the government and everywhere else looking for spare change,” DeWitt said.
The lighthouse, which first lit up in 1860, is on the northern shore of the Jupiter Inlet, also called the Loxahatchee River. It is bordered to the east by the Indian River, which is part of the Intracoastal Waterway as it makes its way toward Stuart.
Spanning about 120 acres, it is the centerpiece of a preserve for nearly 800 species of plants, animals and fungi. It draws about 40,000 visitors annually.
Historically, the inlet has shifted. But 50 or 60 years ago, the Coast Guard, which controlled the site, poured concrete to stabilize the shoreline, which is less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean.
Decades later, the concrete has become a problem, slipping to the bottom of the channel, interfering with dredging and restricting navigation.
The project’s first phase, completed in 2022, created a series of limestone riprap barriers along the shore next to the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Museum and showed enough promise to move forward.
The barriers create opportunities for coral to take root and provide habitat for seagrasses and sea life, such as oysters.
The $16 million solution builds on that approach.
Fewer moorings for boaters
The proposal calls for the construction of 21 riprap breakwaters along the inlet side of the Lighthouse park to interrupt wave action. A public boardwalk would be built above the rocks and end in a dock for water taxis and ferries but not recreational boaters.
The approach emphasizes the creation of living shorelines, including 10,000 mangroves, wetland vegetation and 2 acres of salt marsh. Planting native species that thrive in marine environments helps stabilize sediment on the shorelines and provides habitat for many species, DeWitt said.
“If we weren’t filtering the water with those oysters, water quality would decline. That could lead to problems for human health, it would lead to problems with juvenile fisheries,” DeWitt said.
“Nature takes over maintenance for living shorelines, which is a huge help in the long range cost,” he said.
A wall and terrace above the waterline along the east side overlooking the Indian River aims to stabilize the slope and stop plants from collapsing. The sandy stretch across from Jupiter Inlet Colony is popular with boaters mooring for an afternoon of sun, but the project will eliminate all but five mooring spots.
A BLM study found a daily average of 17 boats docked along the shoreline. On holidays, though, that number rises to 60.
Holiday revelers may be in for a surprise.
“(On) days like that, the new shoreline, when implemented, will not support that level (of boat traffic),” DeWitt said. “So that makes it controversial.”
The erosion along the Indian River is occurring at a much faster rate, reaching about 20 feet per year. If that continues, the Florida scrub extending from the river to the lighthouse ultimately will disappear.
To save the sandy scrub, the system of terraced walls designed by Taylor Engineering of Jacksonville will hold the land in place. Stairs at nine locations will provide access for boaters to climb up and trail users to descend without disturbing the landscape.
Congress could still act
The Florida Inland Navigation District, a state agency that focuses on the Intracoastal Waterway and helps local governments maintain and improve waterway access, liked the project so much, it provided $7 million, its largest single grant in the past two years, said Janet Zimmerman, FIND’s executive director.
“BLM did a good job balancing all of the interests in this project with stabilizing the shoreline, allowing public access from the water side as well as from the land side, so that users of many different types can enjoy the Jupiter Lighthouse Property,” Zimmerman said.
Congress pitched in the other $7 million, DeWitt said.
But that’s not enough. Construction bids came in at about $16 million, he said.
DeWitt is counting on another allocation from Congress through the Great American Outdoors Act, with a decision expected by mid-November.
If the money comes through, work begins in January or February. The project is expected to take 20 to 24 months.
But if it doesn’t, DeWitt warned he would cut the project, starting with the dock, which he called a “luxury item.” The dock, which would cost about $1 million, was included in the plan to enhance public access and support future water taxi or ferry use, but it does not directly contribute to erosion control, he said.
2016 trail eroded away
DeWitt, who has overseen the area for more than 11 years, noted that erosion has grown so bad that he once stood in areas that are now underwater.
“Even a bench I used to sit on is gone,” he said. “A trail that we put in in 2016 is gone.”
Erosion is a natural process caused by wind, tides and surface runoff, but it is made much worse when boaters dock along the shore, weakening the coastline. Waves from boats contribute as well.
The combination of these factors has led to the shoreline eroding at an average of 7 feet per year, DeWitt said, citing studies by Florida Atlantic University’s engineering department.
Since 2016, FAU’s engineering team has been using drones to measure the shoreline, tracking its retreat and calculating the amount of erosion.
“When you add the public use to the pressure of sea level rise, high tides, more frequent storms (and) changing rain patterns, you end up with this group of factors that are just accelerating erosion,” DeWitt said. Over the past 50 years, he added, erosion has stripped from the Lighthouse park about 5 acres, lost forever.
BLM’s plan to stop erosion in 2010 failed to take into account recreational boaters and met resistance.
In 2019, DeWitt, working with Taylor Engineering, submitted to Congress a more balanced plan that addressed erosion while preserving public access, especially for recreational boating.
The Marine Industries Association, an opponent of the earlier plan, became a supporter.
“(Boat access areas have) greatly diminished from what it is now, but it’s kind of a tradeoff for the other things the project is achieving, which is protecting the shoreline from further erosion and protecting the shoreline from knuckleheads misbehaving,” said Ray Graziotto, a Jupiter-based marine association board member and longtime marina owner and developer. “We weren’t totally thrilled that the boating access was diminished, but it was a pretty fair compromise between everybody.”
At the same time, even if the BLM secures the money it needs, the project’s erosion control is not permanent.
“The truth is, it’s a 75-year design. So after 75 years, the environment could have changed so much this might no longer be working,” DeWitt said.
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
