County, city and engineers launch feasibility study as Singer Island beaches shrink

At a Riviera Beach District 4 town hall, county and city officials on Singer Island announced a county‑led feasibility study aimed at identifying permittable, cost‑effective ways to stabilize the island’s eroding shoreline.

Councilman Glenn Spirtis convened the meeting and said residents should expect the county and city to pursue a range of options to protect property and preserve sea‑turtle habitat. "It's very important — the county and the city are investing in this study," Spirtis said, noting the city has budgeted $1,000,000 this year toward renourishment and a 10‑year cost‑share agreement with the county is in place.

Deb Drum, director of Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management, summarized three decades of work on Singer Island and showed photos that county staff said document a shift from a wide, dune‑backed beach in 2015 to a shoreline where the ocean sits up near many seawalls today. Drum described the study’s six principal tasks: a literature review of past feasibility and permitting efforts, targeted data collection (including two newly deployed offshore wave gauges), development of engineering alternatives, public engagement, performance modelling and cost effectiveness analysis. She said the county will present a final report by July 2027.

Engineers from Foth Olsen Associates described their modelling approach and the alternatives they will test, including beach fill, groin or tee‑head fields, segmented breakwaters and variations on placement and spacing. "We take the measured waves and the data we are currently collecting and put them into process‑based models to see what happens to the seabed and the beach long term," said Steve Howard, one of the firm’s professional engineers.

Speakers warned that each engineered option carries trade‑offs. Models must evaluate whether structures will cause down‑drift erosion or a tombolo (a beach that fuses to a structure) and how burying nearshore rock could affect fish and sea‑turtle habitat. Chris Creed, also an engineer on the team, said impacts to nearshore hard bottom are regulatable resources and any loss would trigger mitigation and long‑term monitoring. County staff estimated mitigation costs could range roughly from $1.5 million to $4 million per acre, a line‑item that would materially affect project economics.

County staff and engineers stressed permitting is a central constraint: federal and state resource agencies have previously disagreed on preferred alternatives and will require detailed impact and mitigation plans. The county said it will use the new data — including sea‑turtle monitoring and local wave records — to make the regulatory case that conditions have changed since earlier attempts.

Officials also addressed funding and access limits. City and county representatives said Singer Island lacks continuous public access by state rule for a central half‑mile of the shore, complicating state cost‑share eligibility; the city said it will continue to lobby Tallahassee about access rules. Staff cautioned that dune restoration alone has become less effective where seawalls or persistent storm impacts leave no dry beach on which to place sand.

The study’s next steps are modelling and public outreach; county staff told residents they will refine alternatives based on modelling results and community input before approaching permitting agencies. The board of county commissioners must then decide whether to pursue an engineered alternative; regulatory review could take multiple years once a design is submitted. The county said it will continue sea‑turtle monitoring in the interim to document ongoing impacts from the current ‘‘no‑action’’ trajectory.

The town hall closed the beach portion with staff pledging additional community briefings as the study progresses.