Congresswoman Lois Frankel, with fellow members of the Florida Congressional delegation, has introduced the Sand Acquisition, Nourishment and Development (SAND) Act.
During the last week, Senator Marco Rubio introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
If passed, the SAND Act will repeal archaic law that does not allow communities to buy sand from the Bahamas and other foreign countries to replenish shorelines.
For counties like Dade and Broward that have depleted their usable sand offshore, this will alleviate the high price of trucking in sand. It will also mitigate potential legal battles over domestic sand sources between northern and southern Florida counties.
“Replenishing our shorelines protects our jobs, our environment and our property,” said Congresswoman Lois Frankel.
“This bill will allow South Florida and coastal communities across the country to renourish America’s beaches in the most cost-effective way, while maintaining our pristine shores,” added Congressman Carlos Curbelo . “Local governments have been asking Washington to end this ineffective and burdensome policy for some time and I’m confident we can build consensus for this common sense proposal.”
Last session, Senator Bill Nelson and Congresswoman Frankel got close to changing the law in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2016 with a provision that required a study be conducted on the impact of allowing the use of non-domestic sand.