Deceptions kill re-nourishment
To the editor:
On December 7, Lee County Commissioners acknowledged that after 12 years of trying, they simply do not have the easements to implement their re-nourishment project.
Only about 34 percent of needed easements were signed up (including letters of intent) by private beach front owners. The project never was about largely restoring lost sand.
Deceptions were continuous.
County called the project “re-nourishment.” Yet, on page 11 (paragraph g of county’s contract) it says “88 percent of the benefits are for recreation.” In the same paragraph, it says “12 percent of the benefits are for storm protection.” However, at a county publicly recorded workshop, the project manager acknowledged the he “had no scientific data supporting storm protection.”
Still the re-nourishment easement document was titled: “Ten year beach storm damage reduction easement.” It more accurately should be: “Beach recreation easement.”
County called 5.0 miles of our beach “critically eroded”. Pictures were published showing a badly eroded beach home about to fall into the Gulf. That picture was not from our beach.
Three county commissioners, in their offices, were shown poster board size enlarged Army Corps of Engineers maps of the beach high tide lines back to 1927. Then two independent engineering companies reviewed the same Army Corps surveyed high tide line maps. The results were the same: the 4.6 mile beach project area was largely stable or growing from as far back as 1927, with only two modest erosion areas.
Now county is considering a new plan from Bowditch Point to about Crescent Street. This includes a large amount of county owned and voted easements (Bowditch Point and the Pier area). The Pier area is one of the two historic erosion areas.
This past summer, county’s plan to dredge Matanzas Pass was botched causing owners to note immediate erosion in the Bowditch point area. Other county failures include the Lover’s Key State Park re-nourishment as well as Bonita Beach. Then too, the pier erosion area has been ‘re-nourished (from dredging’) eight times in 48 years with Matanzas Pass sand.
All of this says that any new Bowditch area groins or beach sand additions needs competent, independent engineering design. County’s engineering project management competence, or lack of, is noted above in their plans and results.
We need change and new technology for our beach management.
Frank Schilling
Fort Myers Beach