OKALOOSA ISLAND — Sand from Panama City Beach has been declared white enough to grace the beach on Okaloosa Island.
Or at least good enough to go under a hotel there.
Panama City-based GAC Contractors, which two weeks ago was asked to stop putting sand on the Air Force property site of a new Holiday Inn Resort, has been given the green light to resume hauling.
Okaloosa County Growth Management Director Elliot Kampert said a Munsell chart soil test has convinced him that sand being brought in from a pit in west of Panama City Beach meets all quality standards.
“They are okayed to proceed,” Kampert said.
GAC Contractors had hauled about 375 truckloads of sand to what was formerly known as the A-5 test site when the work was stopped after complaints were made that the sand was darker than the rest of the island.
GAC Contractors Vice President Derwin White estimated at the time the work was stopped he still had about 1,800 more loads to haul.
Kampert said sand samples were used to determine the imported loads contained only tiny amounts of shell fragments, red clay, yellow clay or sediments.
“It was almost all sand,” he said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.