Beneficial Use of Dredged Material at South Padre Island, Texas, an Economic,
Environmental, and Partnership Success Story
Ray Newby, P.G.
Texas General Land Office
P.O. Box 12873
Austin, TX 78711
ray.newby@glo.state.tx.us
ph. 512/475-3624 fax 512/475-0680
Abstract
The South Padre Island (SPI) Beach Nourishment / Beneficial Use of Dredged
Material (BUDM) Project is a shining example of a successful cooperative effort between
local, state, and federal partners to address chronic shoreline erosion by using a valuable
resource formerly referred to as “spoil.” The project is a joint effort between the City of
South Padre Island (City of SPI), the Texas General Land Office (GLO), Cameron County,
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps).
The project is located on a combined 4,000 feet of Gulf of Mexico shoreline of Padre
Island at Isla Blanca County Park adjacent to the Brazos-Santiago Pass jetties and about
three miles north of the jetties in the City of SPI. The project beneficially uses beach-quality
sand dredged from Brazos-Santiago Pass by the Corps during maintenance dredging of the
Brownsville Ship Channel. Beach nourishment activities occur between October and March
to allow work to be performed outside of sea turtle nesting season and to avoid tourist
season. Annual surveys are conducted by HDR, Inc. to monitor the beach conditions.
The BUDM project has been conducted eight times since 1997 with the initial project
conducted as collaboration between the Corps and the City of SPI. The GLO became
involved with the BUDM project after the Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Act
(CEPRA) was passed by the Texas Legislature in 1999. Since then, CEPRA and Coastal
Impact Assistance Program funds have been used with City of SPI and County funds to pay
the incremental cost required by the Corps to get the sand to the beach. In 2001, the Corps
and GLO established a BUDM Memorandum of Agreement to streamline the contracting
process for the SPI project and similar projects along the Texas coast.
Projects such as this one highlight the advantages of using dredged material as a
beneficial resource to help restore eroding beaches. State and local entities get sand on the
beach at a much lower cost than the traditional “truck and dump” method of sand placement.
The Corps benefits by being able to use dredged material as a resource instead of the
mandated least cost option of placing the material offshore and out of the littoral system.
The sand placed on the beach not only helps to hold the line against coastal erosion, but
also enhances habitat for endangered sea turtles and piping plovers. Economic analysis of
the SPI BUDM project indicates that the project provides a benefit cost ratio of 9:1 for the
City of SPI beach and 40:1 for the Isla Blanca County Park beach segment.
Ray Newby’s Biography
Ray Newby is a geomorphologist with the Coastal Resources Program of the Texas
General Land Office (GLO) where his primary duties include working as a project manager
with the Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Act (CEPRA) Program and as the GLO’s
coordinator for the beneficial use of dredged material. He is actively involved with several
interagency coordination teams assisting Texas ports and the US Army Corps of Engineers
Galveston District with dredged material disposal issues and regional sediment
management. Prior to working for GLO, Ray was a hydrogeologist with the Texas Natural
Resources Conservation Commission and with an environmental consulting firm.