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Residents fear that effort to restore wetlands could threaten Hernando Beach

The property owners plan to sell their "mitigation credits" to developers elsewhere whose projects could threaten the environment.
 
Published Feb. 27, 2019

BROOKSVILLE — A property owner of coastal lands north of Hernando Beach wants to establish a so-called mitigation bank, bringing a flood of worries to county officials, members of the Hernando County Port Authority and area residents.

The County Commission on Tuesday voted unanimously to send a letter opposing the proposal to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is reviewing the application.

A mitigation bank is a wetlands area that is restored to its natural state. Under the federal Clean Water Act, land owners who restore wetlands can sell mitigation credits to developers planning a project elsewhere that will hurt an environmentally sensitive area.

In this case, restoring the wetlands includes removing "spoil islands," made up of material dredged out of the canals to form Hernando Beach decades ago.

Removing the spoil islands is key to the concerns.

"The spoil islands have been a part of the Hernando Beach landscape since the late 1960s,'' according to the letter commissioners agreed to send. "This chain of islands protect(sic) the Hernando Beach community from storm surges, while also providing habitat for a variety of wildlife, including threatened species.''

The potential of undoing portions of the expensive channel dredging by allowing sand to wash back in is high on the list of concerns. So is cutting off access to backwater fishing areas, impeding boaters who launch at the Hernando Beach ramp and damaging seagrass beds.

"This is our one and only chance'' to weigh in with those concerns, county aquatic services manager Keith Kolasa told commissioners. The Army Corps' deadline for comments is next week. The county learned about the application through social media at the last minute because it never received the public notice from the agency, officials said.

"Some of it just doesn't make sense,'' said Commissioner John Allocco, because the Army Corps is not usually a fast-moving organization.

Consultant Strategic Environmental Lands, representing property owners Hernando Beach, Inc., and Triton Investments, applied for the mitigation bank for the 181-acre parcel north of Hernando Beach and Minnow Creek on the Hernando County coast. Nearly 90 acres of that is salt marsh, while 49 acres is seagrass and 33 acres is tidal flats, according to the project prospectus.

The property owners are local attorney David Sasser and Ronna Sasser for Hernando Beach, Inc., and David Sasser and Ann Merritt of Little River, South Carolina, for Triton Investments, according to state corporate records.

At last week's meeting of the Port Authority, members and area residents said they were worried about the potential impacts of the proposal. "How can you guarantee the removal of that spoil will not impact our channel?'' Kolasa asked, noting that dredging the channel cost $12 million. "These are not little impacts for the county.''

He questioned the scientific models used to determine the outcomes and urged applicants to leave the spoil islands and focus instead on making sure the seagrass beds are healthy.

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County Commissioner Wayne Dukes, liaison to the Port Authority, said the county spent $1.2 million south of the canal to plant seagrass.

"It's a hell of a price to pay if it all ends up a sand bank again,'' Dukes said.

Hernando Beach resident Jim "Sarge" Dendy was concerned about flooding and "destruction to the residential area'' if the mitigation plan goes through.

Carpenter assured the Port Authority that the land owners would take the spoil islands down only to the water level, leave the lime rock base and plant mangroves to provide "a better long-term solution.''

"It will take five to 10 years before the mangroves will grow,'' said Port Authority member Steve Barton.

Losing even a couple feet of storm surge protection could mean the difference between flooding and not flooding, said Port Authority chairman Frank Santos.

"We're very low here,'' he said.

Other concerns include impacts to bald eagles, horseshoe crabs and turtles seen around the spoils sites, and impacts on people who fish area waters, including Centipede Bay. A motor boat ban is part of the plan, although Carpenter said he would work with area anglers to allow some access.

County commissioners on Tuesday wondered aloud why a project that could have such a profound impact on the county didn't require county review. And they said the plan didn't make sense.

"Isn't the point of mitigation to actually improve something?" Allocco asked. "It's actually making more of a problem.''

Contact Barbara Behrendt at bbehrendt@tampabay.com or (352) 848-1434.