Interior's Minerals Management Service announced on Sept. 26  it will provide federal sand to South Carolina’s Grand Strand to help shore up its eroding beaches. MMS will furnish up to 3 million cubic yards of Federal Outer Continental Shelf sand to renourish 25 miles of storm-damaged beaches in North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, Surfside and Garden City in Horry County, South Carolina.

“I am pleased to say this is the second time in a decade that MMS has helped provide Federal OCS sand to renourish these storm damaged Grand Strand beaches,” MMS Director Randall Luthi said. “Helping to restore South Carolina’s Grand Strand is a prime example of government, through MMS serving the citizens of South Carolina and the U.S.”

In 1998 MMS provide federal sand for Surfside and Garden City beaches.

MMS issued three separate noncompetitive lease agreements on Sept. 26 for the use of federal OCS sand for the Myrtle Beach Storm Damage Reduction Project. North Myrtle Beach will receive 703,000 cubic yards of sand from the Little River Borrow Area. Myrtle Beach will receive 1,442,500 cubic yards of sand from the Cane South Borrow Area, and the Surfside and Garden City beaches will receive 778,600 cubic yards of sand from the Surfside Borrow Area. All three borrow sites straddle the state/federal line about 3 nautical miles offshore South Carolina.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District, is partnering with the local and county governments for the design of the project and the removal and placement of sand. The sand will be dredged from the three borrow sites, transported to the project sites, and hydraulically pumped from the dredge ship to the beach nourishment handling areas.

More than a decade ago, MMS and coastal states recognized that sand resources from the OCS are a viable and critical source for protection of the nation’s shores and wetlands. MMS, through partnerships with 14 coastal states, identified more than 2 billion cubic yards of OCS sand resources available for beach nourishment and other coastal restoration uses. To date, MMS has conveyed more than 25 million cubic yards of sand for projects that have restored more than 100 miles of the nation’s shorelines.