Semaphore Beach sand carting raises beach management questions from Susan Close
Sand carting trucks on Semaphore Beach have sparked renewed calls from the deputy Labor leader for a fresh look at coastal management – but the government says time to talk is over.
West & Beaches
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Piles of sand and noisy trucks rolling over Semaphore Beach has renewed calls from locals and the deputy Labor leader to rethink the long-term management strategy of SA beaches.
Social media has been awash with images of sand carting from Semaphore this week, with locals complaining about the state of their beach.
The sand carting work is being done to replenish the heavily-damaged West Beach.
Deputy Opposition Leader Susan Close this week came out with a three-point plan, which she believes could help with the coast’s environmental issue, while avoiding the social problems caused by sand carting.
Dr Close’s plan involves getting sand from outside the system, rather than beaches like Semaphore, and put it on West Beach.
She also wants to change the law so major sand movement goes through environment, economic and community impact assessment and pause new actions in the Adelaide’s Living Beaches strategy to undertake an international scientific review.
Dr Close would like the review to look into how to manage sand, including building in climate change modelling.
“The situation at the moment pits one coastal community against another coastal community,” Dr Close said.
“I’m 100 per cent behind the government’s plan to add external sand (to West Beach from a location other than the northern beaches) but it’s more than a year since the government said they were going to do that.
“Sand from Port Stanvac looks like it will be the best option but we still haven’t seen the analysis on it.”
It comes after the deputy Labor leader said the week that Environment and Water Minister David Speirs had been ignoring her for a year.
But he said she was asking questions Google can answer.
Mr Speirs told The Messenger it took time to undertake the detailed analysis needed when making these significant decisions.
“Detailed scientific investigations are currently underway on sand from external sources to make sure it will be appropriate for West Beach, as well as looking after our precious marine environment, with results expected shortly,” he said.
Mr Speirs said world-leading research had already been undertaken on coastal management, so there was no point holding up works currently underway.
“There have been countless reviews into South Australia’s sand movement and further studies would just result in further delays and less action,” he said.
“Based on expert advice we have committed nearly $50 million to undertake a mass sand replenishment from an external source at West Beach and the completion of a sand recycling pipeline from Semaphore.
“This project will replicate the pipeline that has been successful in securing our southern beaches, from Glenelg to Kingston Park, and ultimately take trucks off of our beaches in the north.”