County applies for Blind Pass permit modification
In a proactive measure, the Lee County Division of Natural Resources applied for a permit modification to the Blind Pass project with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Oct. 25.
The permit will enable the County to do some additional dredging in an area outside of the scope of the original project and, hopefully, facilitate a better flow of water through the pass.
“When the County did the six month monitoring of the pass,” said Captiva Erosion Prevention District Administrator Kathy Rooker, “it showed that there is shoaling and sediment going back into the pass, and so the County wants to make a 50 foot sediment basin seaward of the Blind Pass bridge in an area close to the groin.”
The permit modification also requests authorization for maintenance dredging.
Next spring, a dredging project will take place on Fort Myers Beach.
If the permit is approved and, if necessary, Rooker said, once the Fort Myers Beach project is complete, the dredges could do maintenance work on Blind Pass.
“They want to have the permitting in place just in case. This is just a proactive measure,” Rooker said. “If they go ahead and make this basin, it’s going to help improve the flow and they hope it creates a hydraulic channel that will improve the stability of the pass.”
The infilling of the pass is natural, Rooker said, “But we don’t want to wait for it to fill in.”
For more information about Blind Pass and the Captiva Erosion Prevention District, call 472-2472 or go to www.MyCEPD.com.