COLUMN: Delaying dredging is a recipe for disaster

It is very unfortunate that the Sherrys have filed a petition for a hearing on the proposed permit to dredge the East Pass channel and the Destin Harbor channel. At minimum it will probably delay the dredging and could potentially result in the dredging being canceled because the funds ($3 million) may get allocated to another project.

The Unified Team, which supports placing some of the sand scheduled to be dredged on the West Destin beaches, consciously did not file a petition against the proposed permit for these very reasons.  The commercial and recreational fishermen need the pass dredged for safety and economic reasons.  An even bigger reason is the economic impact this has on the tourist economy in our area. Fewer fishermen, fewer families staying at condominiums, fewer families eating out — you get the picture — businesses close and people lose their jobs.  
Then property values decrease, the tax base decreases and the spiral downward continues.

The East Pass directly affects three counties with over 400,000 people. The beaches, the East Pass and the Destin harbor are interlinked and must be maintained in tip-top condition in order for our economy to function.

This is not just a Destin issue.

In order to understand why the Unified Team believes some of the sand dredged can and should be legally placed on Destin beaches a quick review of history is required.  

The proposed permit that is being challenged is based on the technical conclusions contained in the East Pass Inlet Management Plan that was approved in 2000. The prevailing opinion at that time was the currents moved the sand basically from east to west along the beaches; thus the conclusion to place sand dredged from the pass onto the beaches west of the pass to prevent them from eroding.  

The Corps of Engineers calculated that they had dredged an average of 82,000 cubic yards of sand from the pass per year.  

Therefore the Inlet Management Plan calls for the “first priority” to place the 82,000 cubic yards of sand on the west beaches. Scientist call that movement of sand the “sediment budget.”  The plan states “The sediment budget contained in the study report is adopted as an interim measure and shall be formally validated or redefined in subsequent revisions of the plan based on a comprehensive monitoring plan by December 31, 2005.”

In fact, the plan has not been updated since it was approved in 2000.  

The “interim measure” adopted in 2000 has not been updated to reflect the current observations of movement of the sand along our beaches and in the pass.  A Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) was assembled early this year with the objective of preparing a new Inlet Management Plan and is currently studying storm and wave action data.  

It is critically important that the reader understand that the proposed permit is based on 10-year-old data that was supposed to have been updated four years ago. Had the plan been updated after 2005, the technical conclusions, and thus recommendations on where to place the dredged sand today, would probably be different from what is in the current plan.  

The reason is the hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 changed everything. The beaches west of the pass accreted instead of eroding. The Destin beaches eroded instead of accreting.  

The sand bars all along the coast were changed and the weather patterns changed too. In other words, Mother Nature changed, and it’s not such a clear cut decision today on where to place sand dredged from the pass as it was in 2000. There is plenty of data to support placing the sand on the beaches east of the Pass.  

For example, the Technical Memorandum: Preliminary Sediment Budget for East Pass, Destin, Fl, dated March 24, 2009 prepared for the Technical Advisory Committee states on page 17 “Although sediment transport prior to 1996 was from east to west the more recent erosion rates showed that the present sediment transport direction was from west to east.”

Exactly opposite of what is in the 2000 Plan.  

Yet the proposed permit “blindly” follows the recommendations in the 2000 Plan. It is not the Destin beaches fault that the government is four years late in updating a crucially important plan.

Another factor in the Unified Team’s position is the Air Force. As part of a totally separate project, the military is going to dredge over 1.1 million cubic yards of sand from borrow sites in the Gulf of Mexico and place it on Air Force property east and west of where the Sherrys live on Okaloosa Island.  So by default, the Okaloosa Island beaches should gain sand regardless of which way the current moves the sand.

The Sherrys have stated publicly at numerous public meetings that their beaches are wide, beautiful, have sand dunes and sand bars. We are glad they don’t have to build sea walls to protect their property. They have stated they don’t want and don’t need a beach restoration project. We wish we could say the same thing.

Now they tell us their beaches have been starved for years.

The Unified Team does not want to cause harm to the beaches west of Destin but it seems pretty clear from photographs, studies and observations over the last four years that the beaches that are starving are those east of the pass, not west.  

The Destin beaches are not asking for a lot. An emergency berm in front of condominiums and homes and some sand in the water to create a beach is all we are asking for.  Then maybe we can start an accretion process where we actually rebuild the beach to the point the sea turtles return to nest. Let’s make that the goal.

Here is a proposal that should be acceptable to any reasonable person.

The Sherrys should withdraw their petition. I don’t think their issue is the actual dredging of the pass or harbor channel, it’s where the sand is placed after it is dredged that is their issue. So withdraw the petition and let the pass be dredged. Place the sand dredged on spoil sites adjacent to the pass where it can be stored until this issue is resolved.

In the meantime, give the Technical Advisory Committee some time to complete their scientific studies which can be used to determine where the sand should be placed and why. In the interim, the Sherrys and the Unified Team can plead their cases to the FDEP. And the Technical Advisory Committee should be given a deadline.

The process is already four years late. Get it done by Jan. 31, 2010, so we can get the sand in place before the 2010 tourist season.

The beaches are crucial for all of us. We should all be working together to get them renourished if they need renourishing. The economic effects are just as important to the condominiums and businesses on Okaloosa Island as they are in Destin.

We are all one county and we need a solution that helps us both. I guarantee you that causing the dredging of East Pass and the harbor channel to be delayed or canceled is a recipe for disaster.   
 
Larry Hines is a Holiday Isle homeowner and head of the Unified Team, which is trying to find common ground in the beach renourishment battle.