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Hernando Today

County seeks second seagrass site

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By MICHAEL D. BATES

Hernando Today

Published: July 29, 2009

BROOKSVILLE - The state has asked Hernando County to find another place to replant over six acres of seagrass that will be in the way of the Hernando Beach dredging project.
It turns out the protection area south of Hernando Beach that the county originally intended to replant the seagrass is no longer tenable because the existing seagrass there has grown back in the three or four years of permit delays.
The new growth is a good thing, County Engineer Charles Mixson said.
But it forces the county to seek a new site because the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) said the old site no longer qualifies as part of the mitigation process.
Before granting a permit, the DEP mandated the county had to "mitigate" or replant the misplaced seagrass somewhere else.
Mixson told county commissioners on Tuesday he is looking north of the original site, between Bayport and Jenkins Creek where there are several seagrass "scars" present.
Scarring is typically caused when boat propellers tear up the seagrass, leaving large areas completely denuded.
Seagrass stabilizes the bottom sediments and help to absorb excess nutrients from land runoff, according to the DEP.
Propellers can tear up seagrass beds and ruin marine life habitat, creating large barren areas.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in June signed off on the Hernando Beach dredge permit, setting the stage for the next phase of the project: seagrass removal.
The county has spent roughly $7.8 million of the $9 million budgeted for the dredge project. The change of mitigation site will require additional planning and raise the costs, said Mixson, who didn't have a monetary figure yet.
This latest action will not alter the timetable for project completion, he said.
County Administrator David Hamilton said DEP officials understand the timing issue of the project and are "working diligently with us."
Commissioners voted 5-0 to hold a public hearing Aug. 11 to modify its seagrass regeneration protection zone ordinance to add the Bayport site.
That meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at the Hernando County Government Center, 20 North Main St. in downtown Brooksville.

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.

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