SB215 Summary

• Establish procedures for depositing dredged material from Alabama navigation inlets, requiring beach-quality sand be placed on adjacent eroding beaches to replicate natural sand drift patterns interrupted by inlets.

• Mandate that construction and maintenance dredging place sand on adjacent eroding beaches unless equivalent quality and quantity sand from an alternate location is placed there instead.

• Require placement of beach-quality sand on adjacent eroding beaches on an average annual basis equal to natural net annual longshore sediment transport, with the department maintaining current sand quantity estimates.

• Exempt certain construction projects waterward of the coastal construction control line in down drift areas within one mile of navigation channels or inlets if the coastal municipality has been granted a permit for beach projects and ensure inlet management activities protect sea turtles, shorebirds, and native vegetation.

• Provide that Alabama State Port Authority ports demonstrate reasonable effort to place beach-quality sand from dredging on adjacent eroding beaches in accordance with approved port master plans and permits, with the Port Authority ensuring federal project dredging sand is disposed on or nearshore of adjacent eroding beaches.