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WHAT IS THE The shoreline at the south end of Amelia Island has long been plagued by chronic erosion and seasonal nor’easters. In 1992 a particularly strong, six-day storm left the natural dunes almost completely destroyed and threatened to undermine several buildings along the Amelia Island Plantation shoreline. That near catastrophe prompted the formation in 1993 of the South Amelia Island Shore Stabilization Association (SAISSA),Inc. whose stated purpose is “to protect, preserve, restore and enhance the beach/dune system on the South end of Amelia Island.” Since its formation, SAISSA has worked with its consultants to find solutions to our erosion problems, worked with State and Federal Officials to permit projects targeted at solving these problems and worked with our 2000+ property owners to find ways to finance our stabilization and maintenance efforts of the beach/dune system. Since 1994, these efforts have accomplished three separate beach renourishments and the construction of three structures. The most recent restoration was completed in August of 2011 in partnership with the Florida Park Service and Nassau County, Florida. For more information about the history of our engineered beach and specific details of the projects, click on the appropriate links at the top of this page. This website is the place to come for all the information you want about the preservation and protection of our beautiful beach!
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A view of the Nassau Sound and Amelia Island State
Thanksgiving Day Storm 1984
Fran Wright 1984
1982
Dune Walkover 1990
Geotube protecting the State Park
Dan Nolan inspecting sheet piles and geo-tubing at
Terminal Groin Construction 2004
Heading south...
Renourished Beach 1995
Winsong 1992
Narrowing beach January 2010
5/18/2011 ~ Dredge Pipe Discharge at Amelia Island
5/18/2011 ~ Bulldozer creating Beach Fill Template
6/2/2011 ~ The Hydraulic Cutterhead/pipeline dredg
6/2/2011 ~ The Savannah at work off South Amelia I
6/2/2011 ~ Beach Fill Construction at the Sanctuar
6/24/2011 ~ Photomosaic of Beach Fill Construction
6/30/2011 ~ Bulldozers building Dikes to Control s
6/30/2011 ~ Sand slurry discharge near the Sea Dun
7/12/2011 ~ Beach fill construction near the Winds
7/12/2011 ~ Post-renourishment shoreline condition
7/12/2011 ~ Pipeline landing and Beach Fill constr
7/12/2011 ~ Post-renourishment shoreline condition
7/12/2011 ~ Beach Fill construction near the Winds
8/9/2011 ~ Re-nourishment at Beachside Condominium
8/15/2011 ~ Beach Fill construction near the Ocean
8/15/2011 ~ Beach Fill construction along the Nort
8/15/2011 ~ Post-renourishment Shoreline condition
March/July 2011 ~ Before & After Renourishment con
May/June 2011 ~ Before & After North Beach access
May/June 2011 ~ Before & After South Beach shoreli
1/7/2012 ~ Looking North, Post Renourishment
1/7/2012 ~ Looking South, Post Renourishment
1/7/2012 ~ Looking South, Omni Hotel Construction,
5/9/2012 ~ President - Mary Brannen - Retires
5/9/2012 ~ President - Mary Brannen - Retires, Hon
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02/20/2019 - 02:00 PM
SAISSA - COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING
[more]
03/20/2019 - 03:00 PM
SAISSA Board of Trustees Meeting
[more]
03/20/2019 - 03:00 PM
Board of Trustees Meeting
[more]
05/08/2019 - 03:00 PM
SAISSA Board of Trustees Meeting
[more]
SAISSA BOT Meeting Agenda 11/7/18 (2018 Agendas & Other Docs)
62 views (173 KB) [more]
SAISSA BOCC Briefing 18Jul18 (2018 Agendas & Other Docs)
89 views (2918 KB) [more]
~ PROJECT UPDATES ~ |
February 2019-
- Supplement Environment Assessment (SEA) for the South Amelia Island Re-nourishment Project
December 2018- October, 2018-
October, 2018- FDEP Agreement 19NA1 (click to view) was approved by the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners Acting as the SAISS MSBY Governing Body in September and by the Secretary of the Florida Department of environmental Protection in October, 2018. This Agreement provided State Cost-sharing to the SAISS MSBU to reimburse the District 40.36% of the cost of the Year Eight (FY 2019) Shorebird Monitoring. This grant is up to $4,157. They will also reimburse the District 40.36% of the cost of the Construction Document for the Third Renourishment Project. This grant is up to $97,296. The total Grant will reimburse the District up to $101,453 on total expenditures up to $285,300.
August, 2018- SAISSA’s Coastal Engineer, Dr. Al Browder, estimated the Third Maintenance will cost $20 million. The Probable Cost to Construct (click to view) was presented to the SAISSA Trustees at their August 15, 2018 Board meeting. Having a reasonable cost figure for the Third Renourishment will allow for SAISSA to plan loan amounts, cost sharing contributions, homeowner assessments and contingency plans for the successful completion of the project. A reasoned estimate is especially important given that the project is at least two years from the August Opinion.
July, 2018- The Nassau County Board of County Commissioners acting as the SAISS MSBU Governing Board approved the Local Government Funding Request (LGFR) requested by the SAISSA Trustees, to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for FY 2019-2020 State Cost-sharing program. The Application’s focus with the State Cost Sharing Request for the State’s FY 2019- 2020 Fiscal Year. The request is for $7.643 million. Most of this request is cost-sharing or the Third Renourishment and a small component, $132,000 is for Monitoring reimbursements.
July, 2018- Andrew L. Wallace, SAISSA President, with assistance from Dr. Al Browder, P.E., A.I. Jacobs, Esq., Board Attorney and William R. Moore AICP, Project Manager, updated the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) on July 18, 2018 with the a slide program (click to view). This presentation reinforced the importance of the on-going beach program, identified the variables related to renourishment timing and offered a Preliminary Opinion of Probable Cost for the next nourishment. President Wallace, reported that SAISSA continues to monitor beach conditions but at the earliest the renourishment can’t occur before the spring-summer of 2020 assuming the beach warrants a renourishment and all Federal and State Permits will be available.
February, 2018- SAISSA released its HURRRICANE IRMA (FEMA DR-4337) POST-STORM DESIGN &
January, 2018- FDEP Agreement 17NA1 (click to view) was approved by the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners Acting as the SAISS MSBU Governing Body and by the Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in January, 2018. This Agreement provided State Cost-sharing to the SAISS MSBU to reimburse the District 40.80% of the cost of the Year Five (2016) and Year Seven (2018) Post-Construction Physical Monitoring; and, Year Five (2016), Year Six (2017) and Year Seven (2018) Shorebird Monitoring. The monitoring portion of the grant is up to $132,069.60. This Agreement also will also reimburse the District 39.21% of the cost of Design and Permitting Tasks for the Third Renourishment Project. The Design and Permitting portion of the grant is up to $312,062.40. The total Grant will reimburse the District up to $444,132 on total expenditures up to $1,119,574.50.
· The 1st Application for reimbursement of $104,317.08 was paid in July 2018.
September, 2017- Hurricane Irma impacted the South Amelia Island Shore Stabilization Project between September 9th and September 12th, 2017 with elevated storm surge and damaging storm waves. The storm created significant erosion of the engineered beach nourishment project. Immediately following the storm, the Executive Committee of SAISSA requested and the County Manager agreed to authorize our Coastal Engineering Consultant, Olsen Associates to conduct a preliminary damage assessment. Using pre- and post-Hurricane Irma photographic records from a several sources, our Coastal Engineer estimated that we lost 211, 800 cubic yards of sand from the upper beach of the Project. Based upon the gage data for wave heights and water levels, and observations of wrack debris and sand over wash, the wave and tidal surge conditions combined to produce wave action and wave run-up exceeding 10 to 11 ft. Besides the sand loss, the vegetation and pioneer dune line typically receded 10 to 15 feet. However, the dune recession and erosion were greater (20 to 40 feet) in those areas were foot paths through the dune field are heavily used. The full report PRELIMINARY DAMAGE ASSESSMENT with its photographic evidence can read or downloaded by clicking on “ASSESSMENT”.
The Preliminary Report helps to quantify the dollars losses for the County but in order to qualify for FEMA reimbursements for actual sand losses from the Engineered Beach, SAISSA and the County also authorized full survey of the project. The survey will extend out 1800 to 2000 feet from mean low water into about 25 to 30 feet of water. This work commenced the last week in September. In order to qualify for FEMA Assistance under Category G of post-disaster relief from the FEMA Public Assistance Program, the sand must be fully lost to the project and not just in some off-shore and capable of being washed back on-shore in the subsequent tidal cycles. Our Post-storm Design Survey & Analysis Report actually identified increased losses but each storm has different impacts so we won’t know until the survey is completed and analyzed and we can quantify the losses eligibility for FEMA assistance.
September, 2017- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a project to Nassau County to reimburse the South Amelia Island Shore Stabilization Project for the cost to replace 218,500 cubic yards of sand lost in Hurricane Matthew in October of 2016. The replacement as part of engineered re-nourishment is estimated cost of $2,311,730. This Category “G” reimbursement includes a prorated shared of engineering and permitting costs. The full details of the FEMA Project Worksheet can be read or downloaded by click on “worksheet”. The FEMA Project Worksheet for Hurricane Matthew is support by our Post-storm Design Survey & Analysis Report (April, 2017).
April, 2017 SAISSA has released the just-completed analysis of the impact of Hurricane Matthew on the south Amelia Island & beaches. SAISSA’s coastal engineering consultant found the October 2016 Hurricane removed an estimated 282,900 cubic yards of sand from the project limits. Hurricane Matthew impacted the Amelia Island engineered beach on October 7-8, 2016. The Storm traveled northward just offshore of the Island on October 7th as a Category 2/3 hurricane & Our shoreline was impacted for approximately 12-18 hours and experienced sustained surge levels that peaked to 7.4 feet above the normal mean tide level (and roughly 4.5 ft. above the day’s predicted high tide). Based on observations of wave overwash of sand and wrack debris, wave and tidal surge conditions along the shoreline combined to produce overwash flows exceeding 12 feet above the normal mean tide level. Buoys indicated that storm waves just offshore of the island reached heights of over 20 ft during the storm’s passage. The next step is for FEMA and the State to review the report and develop the Federal and State storm-damage reimbursement for the cost of replacing lost sand at the time of our next re-nourishment project. The Post-storm Design Survey & Analysis Report prepared by Olsen Associates can be viewed and/or downloaded by clicking on the Post-Storm link. Drew Wallace, SAISSA President, Bill Moore, SAISSA Project Manager and Dr. Al Browder, Coastal Engineer presented a talk to the members of the Amelia Island Plantation Community Association on April 27, 2017. A copy of the talk slides may be view or downloaded by clicking on this Link.
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October, 2016- Olsen Associates completed the Year 5 Post- Construction Monitoring Report for the Executive Summary Report
Olsen Associates surveyed the beach damage from Hurricane Matthew. Their Beach Debris Report | Damage Assessment
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May, 2016- Al Browder gave a brief presentation on the Final Report related to the Offshore
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July, 2015- SAISSA Board of
Trustees has recommended the adoption of Maintenance Assess-
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July, 2015- SAISSA Board of
Trustees announces the end of Capital Assessments to pay the
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June, 2015- Olsen Associates
completed the Phase I-Reconnaissance Level- Report on Borrow |
March 2015 - The
2011 Beach Construction Permit requires us to monitor shorebirds with
winter and summer surveys for the life of the project. This includes
marking and roping-off critical shorebird
nesting areas with signs and stakes as well as assisting the Florida
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) educate beach users as
to the need to protect nesting shorebirds. The monitoring component is
contracted to Scheda Ecological Associates of
Tampa, Florida and the protection activities are contracted to Amelia
Naturally. AIPCA, SAISSA and FWC are co- sponsoring a program on
SHARING AMELIA’S BEACHES WITH NESTING SHOREBIRDS. The public is invited
to the 3 PM presentation on March |
February, 2015 - Drew Wallace, President of the SAISSA Board of Trustees, distributed to
property The SAISSA Trustees adopted a Property Owner and Public Information Program at |
January 2015 - |
November, 2014 - Dr. James Houston, Director Emeritus of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Research and Development Center and a prominent coastal engineer, scientist and researcher spoke to an interest audience at Amelia Island Plantation, November 6, 2014. Dr. James Houston has published more than 170 technical reports and papers and won numerous honors and awards. With a career of 38 years with the US Army Corps of Engineers, Dr. Houston talked about “The Value of Florida’s Beaches” and “Sea Level Rise”. Click here to view both of Dr. Houston’s presentations (single PDF). |
September, 2014 - |
May 2014 -
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April 2014 -
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February 2014 -
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November 2013 -
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August 2013 -
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July 2013 -
April 2013 - Click Here to read and review the full report [64-pgs].
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September 2012 - |
April 2012 - Engineered Beach Documentation completed that would allow a timely and favorable determination by FEMA that the SAISS Project is eligible for post-disaster funding for reconstruction should major damage occur to the beach during a federally declared disaster. Click Here for more information. |
October 2011 -
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This site is provided by Amelia Island Management