Dredge opponents decry seagrass impact

As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues its quest for state permitting to renourish Lido Beach, opponents of dredging Big Pass have found more reasons to be wary of the project.

In a June 9 email to Sarasota County Environmental Manager John Ryan, Army Corps ecologist Aubree Hershorin noted that the project could potentially impact between two and five acres of seagrass beds.

"To mitigate for these impacts, we would like to both relocate the impacted seagrasses and conduct additional mitigation,” Hershorin wrote.

In a follow-up email, Ryan notes that the county has experienced a rebound in seagrass acreage, which is an indicator of healthy bays. Seagrasses protect marine life and clarify waterways through stabilizing sediment and competing with algal blooms for nutrients.

"The location of the seagrass areas were not identified,” said Save Our Siesta Sand Chairman Peter van Roekens in a news release this week.  “But a 2012 seagrass map provided by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) shows that the closest seagrass areas are adjacent to Bird Key, Siesta Key and Lido Key, next to the mangrove tunnels.”

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection asked the Army Corps to provide more information about impacts to seagrass and ways in which they plan to offset them, among other queries in a formal Request for Additional Information filed in April. The Corps will have to satisfy that request before a permit is issued.

Concurrently, the county is spending more than $49,000 for a third-party peer review, which will analyze the project aimed at pumping more than 1 million cubic yards of sand from the inlet between Lido and Siesta to shore up Lido Beach.

In the SOSS2 release, van Roekens said that past efforts to transplant seagrass have been "disappointing."