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Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Retiree has high hopes for sea wall device
By VIRGINIA SMITH
News-Journal Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH SHORES — As a child, Herb Ackerman had no patience for the drippy mess caused by melting, leaking ice cream cones. While his friends suffered the indignity of sticky hands, Ackerman plugged up the bottom of his cones with marshmallows.
 Herb Ackerman goes over the details of his 12-foot sea wall to prevent beach erosion at his home in Daytona Beach Shores. He´s brought the device to the attention to local and state officials, but has a lot of hoops to jump through before it could ever be used. (Photo: News-Journal/Pam Lockeby) |
As a retiree living on a barrier island, Ackerman turned his problem-solving energies to the more daunting matter of storms. He knew the destructive powers of water from his military years, when his troop ship was caught in a typhoon, and water knocked down its smokestacks.
Finding a way to protect homes and beaches from hurricanes irked him for a “long, long, long time,” he said. “I couldn´t come up with anything practical,” until one night as he slept, “Pop! It came to me.”
He got out of bed and scribbled a bit, and the next morning scribbled some more, until the mechanics of his idea slowly began to resolve themselves. It was a 12-foot sea wall, strong enough to hold up against a storm surge.
But it was no ordinary sea wall -- it could be buried horizontally in the sand anywhere on the beach, and erected before storms with a series of ropes and outriggers and pins. When the storm ended, it could be taken down again.
Because the sea wall could be buried close to the water line, it could protect not just homes, but the dune system, too.
It took Ackerman a few years to work it out completely, and though he has yet to secure a patent, he can explain every facet of his device, and every material it would require. He´s already brought it to the attention of local and state officials, and the way he sees it, “this thing would have stopped a good part of the (Katrina) damage in the Gulf.”
But Ackerman and his “thing” have a lot of hoops to jump through before it could ever be used in Florida.
An affordable device that can prevent massive erosion is a sort of Holy Grail for inventors; the U.S. Patent office lists hundreds of baffles, groins, “sand accretion units,” newfangled sea walls and even dune-grabbing gels. Entrepreneurs pitch their products to local governments, which often respond with enthusiasm.
Joe Nolin, manager of the Ponce de Leon Inlet and Port District, said he´s fielded calls from local, out-of-state and even overseas inventors.
“I believe that a wide range of experimental technologies may have application in certain shorelines,” Nolin said. “I try to keep an open mind, however, with an understanding that the state of Florida puts forth the final say on what is allowed or permitted.”
Yet, getting the state´s permission to use the devices is a tough nut, entrepreneurs say -- and very few of what the state calls “innovative technologies” get a trial run on Florida beaches. Some are rejected because they could interfere with sea turtle nesting; others are presumed ineffective.
The state´s preferred anti-erosion strategy is beach renourishment, the placing of large quantities of dredged sand on beaches, and the Florida Legislature dedicates at least $30 million annually to that task; this year it was $67 million.
Paden Woodruff, an administrator with the Department of Environmental Protection´s beaches department, said the last time money was specifically earmarked for innovative technologies was several years ago, and “we had a hard time finding folks that wanted to use that funding.” For most of the devices that have been tested, “the data is either incomplete or is still being gathered,” Woodruff said.
Jay Tiedeberg, an engineer in Tallahassee, said there´s no shortage of entrepreneurs who would love a shot at protecting Florida beaches. “There are a lot of good ideas out there that need to be tested,” he said.
Tiedeberg is lucky -- his NuShore sand nets have been permitted for experimental use by the state, and shown some promising results on a beach near Panama City. Tiedeburg would like to test them on the Atlantic coast, but has so far not been granted permission.
Even critics of beach renourishment can be harsh on anti-erosion devices; the Duke University Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, which advocates an end to dense coastal development and artificially maintained beaches, blasts some devices on its Web site as “snake oil,” and advises coastal communities to be skeptical of claims.
Flagler County and the city of Flagler Beach are considering one nontraditional solution to their erosion woes -- an “undercurrent stabilizer” designed by a Sarasota entrepreneur Richard Holmberg. The stabilizers, made of concrete poured into textile tubes, are intended to slow down wave energy and build up a beach -- and they´ve worked in Saudia Arabia, Lake Michigan and the Gulf Coast.
If the state gives Flagler the green light, it will be the first time the stabilizers have ever been tried on Atlantic shores. “If the door opens up, it´s gonna be a wonderful thing,” Holmberg said. “We´ll be putting erosion behind us.”
If the state issues a permit for Holmberg´s stabilizers, it bodes well for Ackerman and others. Flagler County asked Ackerman to attend a recent workshop on its erosion problems, and state beach engineers invited him to a January conference in Tallahassee. At that conference, Woodruff said, all kinds of inventors and entrepreneurs will get a chance to pitch their concepts to the state -- and the door could open even wider.
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