Big Pass dredge hearing postponement presents project's latest obstacle

The latest legal battle between representatives from Lido Key and Siesta Key over the proposed Big Pass dredging project has been postponed for several months, continuing a fight that has been dividing the adjacent barrier islands for nearly 20 years. 

An administrative hearing was scheduled for later this month but was rescheduled after an attorney for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection underwent surgery, which will require at least two months of recovery. 

"It’s very disappointing, to say the least," said Lido Key Residents Association President Carl Shoffstall. "It’s been dragged out a long time already." 

The project, advocated by the city of Sarasota, would help replenish 1.6 miles of beaches on Lido Key.  Plans call for 1.3 million cubic yards of sand to renourish Lido Key, with a 50-year plan to periodically replenish the Lido shoreline with sand from both Big Pass and New Pass, between Longboat Key and St. Armands Key.

Congress directed the Army Corps of Engineers to construct the Lido Key Project as part of the Sarasota County Hurricane and Storm Reduction Project in 2001. The Corps conducted an environmental assessment in 2002, with a feasibility report in 2004, and followed that with a decade more of research, including a 2015 update of the environmental assessment. A 2014 Corps report found the project will have “zero impact” on Siesta Key.

“The proposed project will cause no change in flood conditions during storm events,” the report said. “It will not cause an increase of storm surge to Siesta Key whatsoever.”

The same report also underscored the importance of replenishing Lido. 

The city of Sarasota and the Corps have both said for years the only plausible, cost-effective way to achieve this is the plan to dredge Big Pass. They say they’re confident the years of engineering projections show little risk to Siesta, and the city has set aside more than $2 million to protect the beach should the dredge damage the key.

That was enough for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to issue a permit to allow the dredge in 2016. It was immediately contested by Siesta Key groups.

A coalition of organizations spearheaded by Save our Siesta Sands 2, the Siesta Key Association and the Florida Wildlife Federation have filed lawsuits to stop the plan. They say dredging Big Pass, which has never occurred before, will jeopardize their barrier island’s renowned beaches.

A document on the SKA web site says the dredge will “devastate Big Pass and endanger people, real estate and natural resources.” 

The Siesta Key groups acknowledge Lido's situation but say there’s ample sand in New Pass, which this summer grew so shallow that the U.S. Coast Guard removed navigational markers from the channel.

SOS2 Chair Peter van Roekens said he fears a Big Pass dredge will result in the same fate as New Pass.

“If the water flow slows down, a river of sand comes in and out on every tide and it will drop to the bottom,” van Roekens said. “It will result in the same thing that happened to New Pass, and the channel will become unnavigable.”

Van Roekens said the Army Corps came up with the project through a ranking formula that tries to satisfy federal funding requirements and doesn’t accurately reflect Lido’s needs. He believes an independent environmental review commissioned by the Siesta Key groups disputes the Corps' findings.

“There’s places in Lido where there is no beach. There’s no other way to do it.”

Along with dismissing environmental concerns brought by the Siesta groups, the city of Sarasota and the Corps say there simply isn’t enough sand in New Pass. The key already gets sand from New Pass once every other year, in an agreement where nearby Longboat Key receives sand in the opposite years, and that hasn’t solved significant beachfront loss.

Shoffstall says the current set up is a short-term fix. “There’s places in Lido where there is no beach,” Shoffstall said. “There’s no other way to do it.”

According to an older Corps report, dredging offshore is not an option because the sand is either incompatible  or expensive to use, as is mined sand.

Sarasota has worked closely with the Corps formulating the plan to create the most cost-effective option that best serves both beaches, said city engineer Alex DavisShaw. “It’s not a cookie cutter. It changes,” DavisShaw said. “There’s a misconception that it will be the same thing for 50 years.”

DavisShaw said the Corps plan, in conjunction with the city, will be monitored. The initial plans, calling for several groins on Lido and the massive dredge for beach nourishment, has been peer reviewed and passed all state and federal environmental concerns.

“Obviously Siesta is a jewel. We would never do anything to harm Siesta,” DavisShaw said. “But we can work to have two jewels.”

Siesta groups have fought the decision in court, and had an administrative hearing scheduled for Aug. 22 before the postponement. Siesta Key Association board member Catherine Luckner said the group has finished deposing all witnesses and is now just waiting for an Aug. 18 meeting between both parties to reschedule the hearing. 

In the meantime, Luckner said she's hoping the DEP and Army Corps can work out a solution. 

"They’re always able, all along this path to do some things different if they want to," Luckner said. "It’s not like you go to court and you have a judge and a jury and one right and one wrong, this is a work in progress."

Assuming the parties can't reach an agreement, Van Roekens said the Siesta groups have assembled four expert witnesses to testify on their behalf in the fields of beach modeling, sand drift, estuarine science and inlet dynamics, which he hopes will persuade a judge to stop the project.

If the court rules against them, van Roekens said the organizations will challenge the dredge at the federal level, which could delay the project for years. In the meantime, the project still doesn’t have a funding source. 

“Obviously Siesta is a jewel. We would never do anything to harm Siesta. But we can work to have two jewels.”

Several months ago, Siesta Key groups argued that the plan should be stopped because it wasn’t consistent with Sarasota County’s comprehensive plan.  Administrative law Judge Bram D.E. Canter said that was not enough to delay hearings on the state permit.

Sarasota County officials have recused themselves from involvement, leaving it up to Sarasota city administrators to work out the issue.

Should the project be permitted, it could still be several years until work begins. As the matter is argued in court, all parties acknowledge Lido beaches remain vulnerable. The beach already suffered a wake-up call with Tropical Storm Emily, and Lido Key representatives said they're meeting in the coming weeks with Sarasota officials to come up with temporary solutions to protect the beach. 

“We can’t afford much more of these storms,” Shoffstall said. “It would be catastrophic.”

Staff writers David Conway and Cassidy Alexander contributed to this report.