THE NORRIEGO ‘TIME BOMB': With dredging imminent, city pulls out the stops

With the mouth of Destin’s harbor shrinking more and more with each passing day, city leaders and boat captains know a dredge must be deployed soon.

“Every day we are getting closer to an accident,” said Mike Eller of the Lady Em and the Destin Charter Boat Association. “It’s like a time bomb waiting to happen.”

“We’ve been lucky there have been no accidents, but that’s because Destin has some damn good boat captains,” he added.

Almost lost in the shuffle of Monday night’s discussions about the long-term stabilization of Norriego Point, was the immediacy that’s involved in the city’s latest dredge project, which is expected to happen sooner rather than later. With their current dredging permit expiring March 18, the work has to begin in the next few weeks.

But it could begin in a matter of days after city leaders declared a “coastal emergency” at their Feb. 13 meeting.

If city leaders can agree to push forward with a plan of attack during Tuesday night’s city council meeting, Mayor Sam Seevers said a dredge could be mobilized as soon as Friday.

“Hopefully council will give the go ahead and we can get this going,” she said.

Public Services Director Steve Schmidt said that the mouth of the harbor could be dredged to its full permitted depth of 12 feet, with a 3-1-side slope.

A full and deep harbor opening would be a welcomed sight to Eller, who says that entering and exiting the mouth of the harbor is the “most dangerous” part of his day, as opposed to battling high winds and seas.

“My entire livelihood is at risk every time I go in and out of there,” he said. “We (as boat captains) have to be hyper-aware and hyper-vigilant as to what’s going on around us.”

Much like the last dredging project in October, city leaders are taking a cautious approach due to the delicate balance they have to strike when pulling back the shifting sands. If they dredge too much sand, they risk doing more damage, but if they don’t dredge enough, they risk having to come back and dredge again in about six to seven months.

While it’s widely known that a complete stabilization project for the point is the ultimate solution, Eller says the problem could have been licked many years ago if city leaders had heeded engineer’s warnings and added more protective measures to the point.

“The t-groins are to blame — it’s an incomplete system,” the 30-year boat captain told The Log. “It’s like they (the city) don’t want to admit they made a mistake by not finishing the system. It’s just been a failure all around.”

“Let’s just get back to basics and start over again,” he added.

Back at city hall, Mayor Seevers said the city is doing everything it can to push forward.

As for the t-groins and their place in contributing to the erosion of the point, Seevers told The Log that “from what the engineers told us, that’s a true statement.”

She said the city is in the process of submitting bids and determining the scope of work for the much-needed project.

“We understand that this is critical,” Seevers said.