Waterfront Erosion Control for Florida Properties

Three Directions Erosion Comes From

The most useful diagnostic question is simple: which direction is the water coming from? Each source leaves different evidence and calls for different controls.

Many sites have more than one source at once. A wall losing soil through its joints often also has runoff concentrating at a low point along the cap, and a bare bank beside a seawall can erode where the wall ends. NOAA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers guidance lists erosion of adjacent unprotected sites among the drawbacks of bulkheads and revetments, which is why the transitions at property lines deserve attention.

Soil Loss Behind Seawalls and Bulkheads

A seawall has to let water drain while holding soil back. Depending on the design, that job falls to tight joints, filter fabric, weep holes or a combination. When joints open, fabric tears or degrades, or the toe is undermined, each tide and rainstorm can carry a little soil through or under the wall. The yard behind settles, and voids can grow out of sight until a sinkhole opens.

Filling the hole does not stop the leak. Effective control usually means finding the escape points, repairing joints or fabric, filling voids, restoring compacted backfill and checking whether the wall, its anchors or its toe also need repair. See soil washout, sinkholes behind seawalls and joint separation.

Eroding Banks and Natural Shorelines

Not every waterfront has a wall. River banks, marsh edges, lakefronts and sloped yards erode when waves, boat wakes and currents remove soil faster than vegetation can hold it. Guidance from NOAA and the Corps notes that boat wakes can also generate waves, and it uses site conditions such as wave energy, fetch, slope and tidal range to match a stabilization method to the shoreline.

Options run from planting alone on quiet, gently sloped shorelines to structural toe protection where wave energy is higher. NOAA notes that living shorelines reduce erosion by absorbing wave energy and stabilizing soil, and that sheltered waters such as estuaries, bays and rivers are good candidates. Our shoreline stabilization page compares the full range of approaches, and riprap revetments covers rock protection.

For small plantings, Florida has a specific exemption. Rule 62-330.051(12)(e), F.A.C., covers restoring an eroding shoreline with native wetland plantings along 500 linear feet or less that extend no farther than 10 feet waterward of the mean or ordinary high water line. Its conditions include using commercially grown native stock, removing invasive species along the shoreline where practicable, and allowing biodegradable natural fiber logs or mats staked in place to support the plants.

Managing Runoff on the Land Side

Water running across a yard toward the waterway can undercut caps, wash out wall ends and carry fertilizer and sediment into the water. UF/IFAS's Florida-Friendly Landscaping program recommends keeping a low-maintenance zone at least 10 feet wide along the water, with no mowing, fertilizing or pesticides in that zone, and creating swales or berms where possible to keep stormwater from entering the water body.

• Redirect downspouts, pool drains and irrigation so they do not discharge at the top of the wall.
• Find the low points along the cap or yard where water concentrates and regrade them.
• Check that drain pipes passing through the wall are intact, so they are not carrying soil out with the water.
• Keep a vegetated strip behind the wall instead of bare soil or sand.
• Follow local codes on buffer requirements for natural waterways.

Erosion and Turbidity Control During Construction

Seawall, riprap and shoreline projects disturb soil right beside the water, and Florida's rules expect that soil to stay out of it. Where an exemption calls for them, the conditions in Rule 62-330.050(9), F.A.C., require turbidity, sedimentation and erosion to be controlled during and after construction, with erosion and sediment control measures installed and maintained to the specifications in the state's erosion and sediment control manuals. In waters accessible to manatees, sea turtles and other listed species, the same conditions require turbidity barriers to be secured and monitored to prevent entanglement, and in-water work to stop if a listed species comes within 50 feet of the work area.

Local requirements can add detail. Cape Coral's residential seawall repair guideline, for example, requires a floating turbidity screen enclosing the work during clearing, excavating, jetting and backfilling. Before work starts, ask how sediment will be contained, where excavated material will go and how disturbed ground will be stabilized when each phase ends.

Permits and Oceanfront Property

Erosion control can fall under several programs at once, depending on the method and location: the state environmental resource permitting rules and their exemptions, authorization to use state-owned submerged lands, federal authorization for work in navigable waters, and local building and land development codes. On sandy beaches fronting the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf and the Straits of Florida, DEP's Coastal Construction Control Line program requires a permit for construction and excavation seaward of the line unless the activity is exempt. See Florida seawall permits for the agencies involved, and confirm with them before work starts.

Who Handles Erosion Control Requests

Erosion problems in Duval, St. Johns, Nassau, Clay, Flagler and Putnam counties are reviewed directly by Barefoot Marine Construction, the company that owns and operates Florida Bulk Head. Erosion work ranges from wall repairs to drainage and planting, so whether your specific scope is performed in-house is confirmed during the estimate. See Northeast Florida service.

In other parts of Florida, requests are welcome while an independent contractor network is being built. No partner contractors are confirmed yet, and any match depends on contractor availability. See how partner referrals work.