Work crews at Presque Isle State Park [Pennsylvania] have started drawing on a mound of beach sand that was stockpiled in 2007. They plan to move 6,000 tons to Beach 5 by Monday, said Harry Leslie, the park's operations manager.

"We'll get as much protection as we can out of that," Leslie said.

More sand is coming. The first of three freighters is due at the North Pier on Tuesday. It will bring another 16,000 tons -- a much-needed supplement to the peninsula's eroding shoreline.

That sand will come from a quarry in Canada.

Two more shipments will follow, bringing a total of 42,000 tons to Presque Isle, where the beaches, beaten by a winter of wind and storms, need to be replenished.

U.S. Senate and House lawmakers earmarked $672,000 in federal money for peninsula sand in 2008. The funding was tucked into a $484.7 billion spending bill.

Leslie said the sand will be used to restore Beaches 5, 8 and Stone Jetty, and to improve an area between Beaches 6 and 7.

Each of those beaches has eroded, Leslie said. In some places, the sand has washed into parking lots.

"At Beach 8, we have old remnants of beach protection that we haven't seen since the breakwaters went in," he said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers installed 55 breakwaters in 1989. They scalloped the beaches, holding the sand that lands in front of them.

Presque Isle has imported sand every year since 1975. In recent years, the money has come from congressional earmarks.

Talk in Congress of stopping that process has Leslie and others looking to the future.

"We should be in for an interesting ride next year," he said. "We're just not sure what's going to happen."

ROBB FREDERICK can be reached at 870-1733 or by e-mail.