Dredging underway at Fort Pierce Inlet in St. Lucie County

ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. - Richard Bouchard, a St. Lucie County coastal engineer, has been watching the county's beaches for decades, constantly monitoring the ebb and flow of the sand.

Due to severe erosion this winter, the county had to perform four emergency sand patch jobs at the Fort Pierce Inlet.

"Predominately the sand movement along our shoreline is from north to south and it gets up to the inlet here and it doesn't feed our beaches to the south," Bouchard said.

Now, the county is getting help from the Army Corps of Engineers. A 5-and-a-half million dollar beach renourishment project is underway. 416-thousand cubic yards of sand are being pumped onto 44-hundred feet of beach on the south side of the inlet.

"It should come as no surprise that on a beautiful February afternoon, there's a big crowd of people here at the Ft. Pierce Inlet. But this dredging project has become a full fledged tourist attraction.

"Definitely, somebody oughta be selling tickets here," said Jim Lillis who is visiting from Arkansas. He snapped a number of photos.

Local professional photographers like Tom Baumker find the dredge a fascinating backdrop. "All the machinery and stuff. We like to see things happen."

And even those without a camera couldn't help but be impressed.

Critics have long argued that beach renourishment is a waste of money. Bouchard contends the sand being placed now will naturally migrate to the south. "It's a recreational benefit. It provides storm damage protection. Wide beaches are also needed for sea turtle nesting."

In the future, the county is looking at perhaps placing some sort of trap in the inlet to try and preserve more sand. But even that may not be enough to keep the dredges away. For shutterbugs, that may not be such a bad thing.