Jupiter Inlet District reports unusually large sand volume as dredging proceeds

Joe Chase, executive director of the Jupiter Inlet District, briefed the Jupiter Inlet Colony commission on current inlet work and regional projects, saying the district has been dredging the inlet sand trap and placing the material on the down-drift beach at Jupiter Beach.

Chase said the district’s most recent sand-trap survey showed about 126,000 cubic yards of material this year — a substantially higher volume than the district’s bypassing goal of 81,000 cubic yards. He noted that a contemporaneous field figure showed 116,000 cubic yards “as of today,” and explained the awarded contract was for $1,400,000 based on an estimated 100,000 cubic yards, so actual quantities will push final costs above that bid. “This year, we measured a 126,000 cubic yards in our sand trap,” Chase said. “We had moved up our cycle a couple of months earlier, and we were glad for it.”

Chase described the district as an independent special district established by the state legislature in 1921 that levies a small ad valorem tax (most recently reported as 0.0722 mills) to fund operations. He said Atlantic and Gulf Dredging — the firm that won the district’s bid for the third time — is performing the current dredge work. Chase also walked commissioners through related projects the district runs along the Loxahatchee River, including a mangrove-island restoration, Oxbow restorations upriver and a living-shoreline demonstration near the lighthouse completed in 2021.

The commission asked whether the town or other municipalities could seek a revision to the district’s state-approved inlet management plan to shift more placed sand northward. Chase explained that plan revisions require multi-year data, a technical advisory committee that includes adjacent municipalities and state review. He said the district last updated its management plan in 2023 and that any substantive change would follow the state-run technical advisory process.