TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Dredge Petitions Could Delay Project For Months

ADVERTISEMENT

By TONY MARRERO

Published: July 27, 2008

HERNANDO BEACH - The start of the long-awaited project to deepen and lengthen the channel here could be delayed for two months or more now that at least one petitioner who opposes the storage site for the dredged material will get a hearing.

The Department of Environmental Protection is in the process of forwarding a request by Ed and Ann Oz of Mangrove Drive on to the state's Division of Administrative Hearings, or DOAH. Once the division receives the request, it will notify the petitioners and ask for dates they are available for a hearing.

Those dates must fall between 30 and 70 days after the petitioner receives the notification from the DOAH.

DOAH had not received the Oz petition from DEP by Friday, a clerk said.

There could be more than one hearing, however.

DEP has also granted a request from four other petitioners who oppose the spoil site on Eagle Nest Drive and who wanted more time to file for a hearing. Their deadline is now Aug. 5.

The residents oppose the county's choice to dump and dewater some 50,000 cubic yards of dredged material, called spoil, on a four-acre tract owned by the Manuel family of Brooksville.

The Oz petition contends that DEP did not properly evaluate the effects that draining the water into a nearby canal will have on water quality. And while the county has changed its plans and will no longer store some of the spoil in wetlands, the petition contends that using the site will still have a negative impact on the ecosystem there.

The petition also notes that the DEP's pending permit for the site does not require the spoil to be tested for contaminants.

Assistant County Engineer Gregg Sutton said Friday he "wouldn't even speculate" on how the hearing might affect the timeline of the project.

Sutton had predicted last month that DEP wouldn't deem the requests sufficient to ask for an administrative law judge and that the permit would become final at the end of the 21-day public comment period. He said then that a permit for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would be forthcoming after that. The county would then seek bids from contractors, and actual dredging could begin by early fall.

Given the deadline for the hearings, that timeline is probably in jeopardy even if a judge dismisses the petition. If the judge finds for the petitioner, it would likely mean many more months of environmental review.

County Commissioner Dave Russell said he's confident that won't be necessary.

"Given the thoroughness of the permitting process, I would say we're probably pretty safe," Russell said. "DEP really put us through a rigorous, expansive process to ensure all environmental impacts were addressed."

Carol Oz disagrees. She is the daughter of Ed and Ann Oz, and is an environmental scientist specializing in water quality biology for the State of California. She wrote the request for a hearing and is representing her parents.

Oz, who grew up in this area and now lives in Sacramento, said she was surprised by some of the questions left unanswered in the permitting process.

"The wildlife is just incredible there, so any pressure they start putting on them is going to have an impact," Oz said. "It just hasn't been that well analyzed."

The state has chipped in $6 million of the $9 million project. Russell said that funding should be safe even if the project faces significant delays.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT