More Opposition To Dredge Spoil Site

Opposition to the county's alternate dredge spoil site is growing.
Two more petitions were filed Monday with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection claiming the county's plan to dump 50,000 cubic yards of material dredged from the bottom of the Hernando Beach channel at its former wastewater treatment site on Shoal Line Boulevard would harm nearby Minnow Creek and the surrounding wetlands.
The parties listed on one petition are the Browning family of Brooksville and Perry and Christine Shearhouse of Pensacola. Both families own property on Minnow Creek.
The other is a name familiar to those who have followed the dredge saga: Manuel LLC, the family-owned corporation that owns the county's original pick for a spoil site on Eagle Nest Drive.
Both petitioners are represented by Jake Varn, a Tallahassee attorney, and are virtually identical in their contention that the plan would "violate state water quality standards (and) permit the filling of wetlands without proper mitigation."
Both petitioners have property on Minnow Creek downstream from the Shoal Line site.
The objectors join Neil "Fred" Law III of Brooksville, who filed a petition on the same grounds last month.
All three petitions are currently being reviewed by DEP. If the department finds the requests have merit, the petitions are forwarded to the state to schedule a hearing in front of an administrative law judge.
The Manuel family was already concerned about the county's plan to dump the material at the Shoal Line site because the parcel is adjacent to the headwaters of Minnow Creek, Cliff Manuel, one of the principals in the corporation, said Tuesday.
That ecosystem relies on mostly fresh water, and the roughly 800,000 gallons of salt water draining from the spoil would have upset the balance, Manuel said. Those concerns abated after the county incorporated plans to use a device that would drain the seawater and pump it to a canal in Hernando Beach, he said.
But then test results last month indicated contamination from petroleum protects in the sediment at the bottom of the channel.
"That's what really concerned us," Manuel said.
Because of those results, the county was forced to ask a judge to cancel at the last minute a hearing on a petition from a group of residents who oppose the Manuel site. Those objectors contend Minnow Creek would be adversely impacted and building a berm to hold the spoil could increase the risk of flooding in the area.
The county consultant ordered more tests of the sediment, and DEP is doing its own set evaluation, County Administrator David Hamilton said Tuesday. Results from both sets of tests could be in by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, the legal team hired by the county to get a permit for at least one of the sites is reviewing the three new petitions, Hamilton said.
"We're committed to moving forward," he said.
Manuel pointed out no wetlands will be filled on his family's site and that letting saltwater drain from the spoil there would not harm Minnow Creek because it's closer to the Gulf and more brackish.
"It's saltwater going back to saltwater," he said.
There are machines that remove oil and grease contaminants from spoil. From Manuel's perspective, decontaminating the spoil on his property and pumping the saltwater back to the main canal would be cheaper than doing the same thing on the Shoal Line site because the Manuel property is closer to the main canal.
But Manuel acknowledged those machines make noise, another likely point of contention from neighbors.
"So it probably comes down to noise pollution versus dollars," Manuel said.
County officials are worried the continued delays could cause the Legislature to take back the $6 million in state funding for the $9 million project to lengthen and deepen the channel.
Hamilton informed County Engineer Charles Mixson earlier this month he would be fired if dredging doesn't begin by July 30.