NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Volusia County is taking a unique approach to restoring its beaches and helping residents recover from the damage left over by 2022 hurricanes Ian and Nicole.

County officials are replicating a sand placement project that was first introduced in 2006, in response to the 2004 hurricanes, to address the “severely eroded” beaches that resulted in “massive property damage.”

Residents are looking at two sand placement projects: one being on the north side of the Ponce de Leon Inlet and another on the south side of Sapphire Road in New Smyrna Beach.

Property owners who have a recorded easement with Volusia County will have sand pumped to their properties as part of the project.

Each eligible property will receive approximately 18 cubic yards of sand per linear foot of their eastern boundary, or the equivalent of one standard dump truck load per linear foot of shoreline.

Debra Folkes has lived in New Smyrna Beach, on the south side of the Ponce de Leon Inlet since 2003. One of the things she loves most about her beachfront property is the natural dune ecosystem that faces her home.

But because of the damage left from hurricanes Ian and Nicole in 2022, the dune was completely washed out.

“Getting the sand back would give us the opportunity to rebuild that portion of the dune that we lost with those plants and get it built up again and expand the size of the dune in front of our property,” Folkes says.

She says she hopes the county can give her a kick start with this new South Sand Placement Project to help restore the damaged ecosystem, which includes plants and several endangered animal species.

Residents on the other side of the Ponce de Leon Inlet can take advantage of the North Sand Placement Project.

In 2022, the county lost more than 6 million cubic yards of sand following hurricanes Ian and Nicole.

To address those needs, it is using $82 million of grant money it received from the state of Florida toward recovery efforts along the coastline.

Volusia County will use $42 million dollars of that money for the establishment of these two sand placement projects that are expected to kick-start in the winters of 2024 and 2025.

The South Sand Placement Project will hydraulically pump more than 500,000 cubic yards of existing beach-compatible sand from Rattle Snake Island onto the shorelines of New Smyrna Beach for a total cost of $12 million.

On the North side, the Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will pump approximately 700,000 cubic yards of beach-quality sand from the Intracoastal Waterway and the Ponce de Leon Inlet onto the beaches north of the inlet.

But there are requirements that residents must meet.

Coastal Director for Volusia County Jessica Fentress says “in order for us to place sand seaward of a private property, we have to have an easement. The easement is a five-year easement, and it allows us to come in and place sand to help provide you a little bit more protection with our shoreline.”

Fentress says that single-family residents and homesteads who spent money to build permitted structures like seawalls and rock revetments are eligible for reimbursements for up to 50%, or $300,000, through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (FDEP) Hurricane Recovery Reimbursement Grant Program.

Condo owners are eligible for a reimbursement of up to $600,000.

Anyone who placed sand on the beach east of their seawall revetment or natural dune is eligible for a full reimbursement, according to Fentress.

“If you qualified for a grant before July 1st and got a reimbursement, you need to ask again for more money because you are now eligible for the increased cap and increased reimbursement,” explains Fentress.

TrapBags installed by the county and the FDEP last year will be removed as part of the sand placement project, at the county’s cost, according to Fentress.

Now, the county still has more than $40 million in grant money that they want to use to help even more residents who lost sand on their beaches.

“We’re doing soil investigations of the shoaling within the inlet and the Intracoastal Waterway, where we can harvest beach quality sand and place it on our beaches to those areas that don’t benefit from these two current projects,” Fentress says.

Among those who don’t feel like they benefit from the project is Bethune Beach resident Scott Johnson, who lost more than 30 feet of sand on his beachfront in 2022.

“There are some long-term solutions and we were hoping this was one of them. Just again a little disappointed that we’re invited to come here, sent paperwork indicating we were involved and then find out we’re not even involved,” Johnson says.

He’s among residents who provided an easement to the county, granting the state permission to conduct work on his property for the next five years.

County officials say it needs to figure out how many people will sign up for easements before it can promise to make it out to further residents like Johnson.

“Once we figure out what we can harvest from the inlet and the Intracoastal way, then we're going to start reaching out to those people who don’t benefit from these two sand projects,” Fentress says.

During Wednesday’s meeting, county officials acknowledged these sand placement projects were “Band-Aid solutions.”

To ensure this doesn’t happen again in the future, Fentress mentioned a feasibility study is currently being done to put together a long-term resiliency project that will identify immediately vulnerable areas and provide additional recovery options.

County officials say residents who have signed up to be a part of the project will be notified in advance as to when construction will take place.

Residents are also being encouraged to sign up for the county’s online newsletter that will provide updates on the two sand placement projects.

There will also be a live website that will track easement acquisition and keep residents in the loop on the project’s progress. It can be found on the Volusia County website.