ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Perdido Pass will receive its needed maintenance this year, as the city of Orange Beach conducts its routine dredging.

Coastal Resources manager Phillip West said at Tuesday’s council meeting the work must be done.

Coinciding with the need to remove sand from the pass is the need to add sand to the beach.

Damage caused by Hurricane Gustav left the engineered beaches along the coastline in need of repair.

“That sand is gold; it is a finite resource,” West said. “We are pretty low compared to Gulf Shores.”

In an attempt to save money for repairs and speed up progress, West suggested transporting sand removed from the pass to the beach.

He said the sand that will be pumped from the pass is the best match to put along the shore.

West’s plan includes funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which would save taxpayers dollars.

The city only has 60 percent of needed money to do a beach nourishment from scratch.

“We’re not having any luck with FEMA,” West said. “They question the eligibility of the beach projects.”

He believes the trend of refusals from FEMA may lead them to deny helping with engineered beaches.

Usually dredging is conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers, with the city paying a small percentage of the cost. However, the Corps will not transfer it. West said the sand is needed along the three miles west of Perdido Pass.

To make that happen, the city would have to fund moving the sand, with hopes that FEMA would reimburse the work. But the City Council is worried to risk the money and rely on FEMA.

“I think the issue is if we pump the sand down to renourish the beach without FEMA saying ‘Yes you can do that’ we are going to be stuck with a deeper bill,” Mayor Tony Kennon said. “So our decision is, do we do that and hope that FEMA comes in and helps us, or are we willing to spend that extra amount to take the pristine sand and renourish the beach or do we do nothing?”

The council decided to go forth with dredging by the Corps and start beach renourishment as a separate project with the hope that FEMA reimburses for the beach repairs.

Dredging will start soon. West said the beach renourishment will start in March.