SAND-Rx™–Case Studies

The efficacy of SAND-Rx™ was initially tested in the 1990's when a small test beach in Gloucester, Massachusetts called Light House Beach, which had suffered substantial erosion, was treated with a primitive version of the composition which, through subsequent development has evolved into SAND-Rx™. The beach was chosen because it was a childhood home of the inventor of the SAND-Rx™ technology who personally observed the deterioration of the beach from the 1950s to 1980. To his amazement, for several hundred feet around the application of the composition, the lost sand had moved out of the Annisquam River channel and had re-deposited on the beach. During the ensuing years after the initial treatment, the beach was studied carefully and other sections were treated with evolving improvements in the composition until the entire beach was returned to its original condition. Today the beach remains healthy and productive in spite of the fact that it has not been (or needed to be) retreated since 1997.

The largest application to date is in Loveladies, located on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. The sandy beach faces east towards the open Atlantic Ocean. It has a long history of beach erosion and is directly affected by extreme high wave energy. The beach cannot sustain sand without considerable beach management and nourishment. No living creatures or plants were found on this beach before the treatment.

Previously, between conventional nourishment applications, property owners would regularly harvest sand and push it over the breakwater, where sand had been caught and trapped during a daily tidal event. The sand would then be pushed in front of the failing cliffs and homes.

No additional sand nourishment has been provided since the initial SAND-Rx™ treatment and the resultant beneficial wave action. There has not been a narrowing of the beach during the winter months in three years even after major winter storms.

Over the last three years, the beach has widened from less than a foot of dry sand with collapsing dunes, to over 200 ft. at high tide. There are now only marginal seasonal changes. Instead of the face of the beach dropping off abruptly into a wide and deep trench with dangerous rip tides, a natural slope has returned.

You can now walk long distances offshore without encountering any erratic drop off in slope. Waves break well offshore without any visible sand in their shear crests.

The project has been successful not only from a sand influx point of view, but also from the re-establishment of life forms on the beach.

Another example is an application in Harvey Cedars, NJ. The photos below document the progress of the SAND-Rx™ treatment.

SAND-Rx™ treatment was also used to save a property threatened by the ocean in Nantucket, MA.

The Nantucket Beach Foundation documented the increase in beach height from September 2004 to July 2006. Up to 13 feet of sand was added.