Half a million coming to Walton beach restoration

 Congressman Allen Boyd has secured $565,000 in the recent federal appropriations bill to finish a Walton County beach restoration study that could lead to 50 years of restoration funding from the federal government.

"If all goes well, we hope to have a federal project ready to be authorized," Brad Pickel, a consultant to the Beaches of South Walton, told The Log. "In 2010, what would happen is that we would work to have the project included in the Water Resources Development Act."

Pickel said Walton County is seven years into the process of bringing its beaches under the Federal Shore Protection Program. If the Walton County coast is accepted into the program, FSPP would provide money to restore eroded Walton beaches and to repair the beaches again if hurricanes undo the restoration.

Okaloosa County will receive $96,000 for the first step, a federal study of whether the county beaches are worth federal investment. Pickel said Walton has passed that step and is now in the middle of a feasibility study.

The $565,000 will be used to complete the study, which will then go the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for review, first at the Mobile office, then the Atlanta office, then finally Washington. Once the project is authorized, the county can begin hunting for money.

Boyd said in a news release that Florida has classified 14.3 miles of South Walton beach as "critically eroded."