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Miami Beach eyes river's sand -- The Miami Herald

Stephen Leatherman, a/k/a "Doctor Beach"

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Long-distance Beach Renourishment

Much of Florida's coastline has seen some sort of beach renourishment, which usually involves pumping sand from just offshore back onto the beach. But Miami Beach has exhausted its offshore supplies of the right kind of available sand, and is considering the unusual move of shipping sand in from hundreds of miles away at Apalachicola. Stephen Leatherman is a coastal geologist...

The clean, white beach-like sand that has to be regularly dredged from the channel at Apalachicola might find a new home: North Miami Beach. Coastal Geologist Stephen Leatherman explains that Miami's need for sand matches well with Apalachicola's need to get rid of it...

Protecting tourism and beachfront property

As Miami Beach considers an unusual effort to move sand from hundreds of miles away to renourish North Miami Beach, proponents say it is being done to protect two important resources: tourism and property values. Coastal Geologist Stephen Leatherman says tourism depends on beaches...

Plenty of Panhandle Sand

South Florida's beaches lose an average of about a foot of sand a year, which is why many coastal areas consider beach renourishment. But the challenge is in finding the right sand to put back on the beach. It's like choosing diamonds: the right size and the right color. Coastal geologist Stephen Leatherman Florida is challenged because it has no real original source of sand...

An offshore sand shortage

A proposed beach renourishment project at Miami Beach would use sand, dredged from a channel at Apalachicola. Coastal geologist Stephen Leatherman says it illustrates the abundance of sand near Florida's panhandle, and a shortage of sand off South Florida...