Sarasota County moves ahead with Lido study

Sarasota County will proceed with a third-party review of plans to dredge Big Pass.

"We expect the consulting firm Atkins North America, Inc., to complete the peer review by the end of September 2015,” said Sarasota County Senior Manager of Development Services and Environmental Protection Matt Osterhoudt in a June 4 email to County Administrator Tom Harmer.

The county will spend more than $49,000 for the study, which will analyze the city of Sarasota and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project aimed at pumping more than 1 million cubic yards of sand from the inlet between Lido Key and Siesta Key to shore up Lido Beach.

The Army Corps has asserted in permitting documents that the renourishment would have no significant effect on Siesta, which experts recently challenged during an open house.