Tybee Island has secured federal funding to replenish its beaches with sand after being denied the money earlier this year. Local officials say the beach renourishment project is critical for a rapidly-eroding beach.

Barrier islands like Tybee should naturally accumulate sand from islands farther north; it’s called the sand-sharing system. But human activity — development on the island, building sea walls and jetties, creating shipping channels — has disrupted that process. As a result, Georgia’s barrier islands are constantly losing sand, and the beaches are constantly being washed away by the relentless tide.

To address the problem, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has, since the 1970s, been dredging up sand and depositing it onto beaches up and down the East Coast. 

Read more at WABE.