Shoreline Armoring of the
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Indian Riverkeeper files suit to protect the Indi= an River Lagoon from the effects of Shoreline Armoring View the Press Release for the suit against the Federal Highway Administrat= ion Florida Department of Transportation and St. Lucie County
Following the hurricanes of 2004 the Florida Department of
Transportation has embarked upon a project to shore up a threatened roadway.
The plan involves replacing the vegetation along over 13 miles of the
county’s river shore with concrete. The project is under way and will=
be
completed by
The haste in the project is established by the fact that if the project takes longer than 6 months from the passing of hurricane Jeanne, the county will have to contribute 20% of the cost of the remaining part of the projec= t. If the time needed to do proper environmental studies means that one third = of the project remains to be completed after the March 25th deadline, the coun= ty will need to come up with $2 million.
The lagoon is home to multi-million dollar fishing, tourism, agricultural and recreational industries. The annual economic value of recreational fish= ing and shell-fishing alone is estimated at $338.5 million.
The Florida Department of Transportation should not jeopardize the hundr= eds of millions of dollars in income to save the county $2 million. This project should follow the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act by including an analysis of the potential consequences of the total redesign o= f a natural shoreline.
The Florida Department of Transportation/ Federal Highway
Administration plan calls for standard clearing and grubbing and the placem=
ent
of articulated concrete to an elevation of 6 feet above mean high water. The
sections of concrete are around 20 feetlong and will have 5 or 6 feet burie=
d in
the bank above and the beach below.![3D"http://www.indianriverkeeper.org/shoreplan/Web%20update_files/image0=](3D"ShorelineArmoringoftheIndianRiverLagooninSt_files/image002.gif")
Concrete being installed (the tree rema= ins because the homeowner has joined in the suit to protect the private property rights of the land owners, not because the contractor preserved it.)=
The entire stretch of roadway is part of what the county has designated its Scenic Highway (it is a candidate for state designation).&nb= sp; The area has long been the subject of paintings by Florida Artist A. E. Bean Backus and the group of African American Artists known as the “Highwaymen.”
Far beyond its priceless value as the face of St. Lucie Cou= nty is the biological value it has as a part of the Indian River Lagoon. The beaches along the nearly 14 mile stretch catch the various species of algae= and blue-green algae that bloom in the waters in the spring and summer. Having beaches where the algae can dry and oxidize prevents the west shore of the lagoon from having algae blooms like those that struck the eastern shores of the area in August of 2004 (see Indian Riverkeeper Analysis of recent Fi= sh kills in the Indian River Lagoon .
Indian Riverkeeper brought the plan to the public’s attention less than a week before it was scheduled to go before the county commission for approval and the award of contracts following a bid process instituted less than a month after the last hurricane. Indian Riverkeeper h= ad come to the county engineer with a plan for a public/ private partnership in conjunction with the Marine Resources Council. The Indian Riverkeeper plan is based upon the MRC plan for Ais Point in Melbourne. Ind= ian Riverkeeper would coordinate riverbank stabilization along the shore of the Indian River Lagoon in St. Lucie County.
There have been no environmental assessments. There were no hearings during the development of the plan. There was no comment period. T= he permitting agencies gave blanket permits under the emergency repair permits= for hurricane repairs.
We are committed to protecting the Indian River Lagoon from sediment runoff from exposed banks and roadway patches. We want to see the shoreline of the Indian River Lagoon stabilized in such a way as to prevent costly road repairs following future storm events.
We have met preliminary qualification for National Emergency
Grant funding to provide labor for planting, grading and cleanup. Our inten=
t is
to maximize employment for unemployed agricultural laborers while the citrus
industry is recovering. We see this as a way of providing needed employment=
. We
see the project as a means of ensuring that the costly repairs being done a=
long
Our plan is basically to use suitable sand fill, grade it 1= :1, plant native vegetation on the slope and shoreline and to strategically pla= ce coquina rock to hold roots and stabilize the slope.
We are working with
The county has recognized the need for extensive re-vegetation to mitiga= te the damage from the armoring but it has opted for more expensive private involvement and has chosen to do its model replanting on a stretch of river= bank that needed no work at all.
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This oak tree in the Walton Scrub is 30 feet east of the road they say i= s in imminent danger of collapse because of erosion. The contractors have removed all vegetation from below the tree and along the bank. (below)
![3D"http://www.indianriverkeeper.org/shoreplan/Web%20update_files/image0=](3D"ShorelineArmoringoftheIndianRiverLagooninSt_files/image004.jpg")
The tree removal is tragic, stupid, damaging to the wildlife habitat of = the area and completely at odds with the Comprehensive plan of St. Lucie County. But the problem that brings us to the legal challenge is that no requisite environmental studied were completed in the development of the plan. The Federal Highway Administration decision to fund the project without the necessary environmental analysis was arbitrary and capricious. They designa= ted the roadwork as a categorical exemption from National Environmental Policy = Act requirements without even sending their own engineers to do an assessment.<= /p>
Our belief is that the articulated concrete will lead to the los= s of the beach and the interruption of the means by which the lagoon system is a= ble to process the excess nutrients that poison it.
The Indian River Lagoon Plan, a component of the $8,000,000= ,000 Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was designed by the US Army Corps= of Engineers is accepted as vital for the preservation of the area’s environmental, scenic and economic future is a one billion dollar plan to d= eal with nutrient overload in the Southern Indian River Lagoon System.
This shoreline armoring project will very likely compound t= he problems we seek to remedy.
Dr. Grant Gilmore, the foremost authority on Indian River Lagoon fisheries and habitat has written about the project:
“If the western shore of the Indian River Lagoon betw=
een
We are working with attorney Robert Hartsell Esq. of Richard
Grosso’s
The project has been going ahead and we are very frustrated= that it takes so long to build a challenge such as this. Thousands of trees are already gone but we intend to make sure that the beaches along the shoreline will be protected and that there will be a place for fiddler crabs and the = many plants and animals that inhabit that portion of the lagoon ecosystem.
Jim Egan of the Marine Resources Council has informed us th= at if this project were being done in the St. John’s Water Management District there would be a requirement that the material used would be coqui= na rock like that present along the Atlantic Coastal Ridge for millions of yea= rs.
Environmental organizations, homeowner groups and anglers h= ave all joined in support of a plan by the Coastal and Aquatic Managed Areas of= fice of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to make this plan acceptable and less costly to taxpayers. The plan called for the preservati= on of thousands of mature trees that have already been destroyed but the remai= ning components are necessary for the restored health of the Indian River Lagoon= .
Many of the most ghastly pictures of the project are to be found in the = county's first newsletter for the project.
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The barren state of the areas are very apparent in the pictures such as = this from the county newsletter.
See where tons of polluting sediment have gone in= to the Indian River Lagoon in violation of federal law See how th January 23rd= and February 10th
We are in tremendous need of funds for engineering studies,=
a
biological assessment and the lawyers’ work. Please help us in =
our
fight for the trout, snook and redfish that will lose prime habitat if the
state is able to forever ruin the last remaining natural stretch of shoreli=
ne
between