A permit application for Sebastian’s long-delayed oyster restoration project is heading back to the drawing board, at the behest of the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Sebastian Natural Resources Board fervently hopes this will be the final revision.
Project changes will include using oyster bags, instead of the original oyster mats. With cautious optimism, the NRB’s new chairman, George Millar, says he hopes to see the project in the water by next March-April.
Back in June 2014, the City Council enthusiastically approved the oyster mat project, as part of its pro-active stance on restoring and protecting the endangered Indian River Lagoon. At that time, several other entities had completed such projects, creating areas within the lagoon in which oyster beds would grow and oysters would reproduce, thus carrying on their principal function as a riverine keystone species – efficiently filtering the water so the rest of the ecosystem can thrive.
But the project turned out to be far from the straight-forward undertaking it first appeared to be.
Early on, the Natural Resources Board began collecting and storing oyster shells in a location provided by the City. A local Boy Scout, John Giordano, who had chosen oyster mats as his Eagle Scout project, was approved to lead the effort by the City Council last February, and was eagerly making plans.
But there were long delays in getting the initial permit applications completed and submitted; one of the two permitting agencies, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, through the St. John’s River Water Management District (SJRWMD), required more information; Giordano’s project approval from the Eagle leadership was delayed.
Just as Giordano was, finally, getting the go-ahead from the Eagle Board, the City, this past July, was informed by SJRWMD that, oh, by the way, it preferred that the project use bags instead of mats, an entirely different process. Creating new oyster beds with bags has been shown to be an easier assembly process and offers more stability in the water. While he awaits the starting bell, Giordano is adjusting his project, and compiling a list of classmates and fellow Scouts to help assemble the bags.
Now, a year and a half down the road, the second permitting agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, in an Oct. 20 letter to City Engineer Frank Watanabe, stated it had received “insufficient information to evaluate the proposal,” and listed a number of requirements and revisions which must be made before a permit is forthcoming.
Millar says one of the key hold-ups involves the originally proposed locations in the lagoon. It turns out those sites were not on City property, thus there was no legal access. Not only that, according to the Corps, the water is too deep to allow the oysters to be above the water for a period of time, as the tides ebb and flow; and the proposed locations would “pose a hazard to safe navigation.”
At the Nov. 3 Natural Resources Board meeting, says Millar, the members voted to revise the design and change the project locations, and Millar, Watanabe and Giordano will undertake the task of revising the application, establishing appropriate locations and focusing on bags, rather than mats.
The two new locations, he noted, will be in City-owned waters: south from Mulligans to near the kayak and canoe launch; and near the Main Street boat launch area, placed so as not to interfere with or be disturbed by the boating activities. The total project area can be no more than 10,000 square feet, and both locations together should be a good bit less than that, said Millar.
“We are determined to keep this moving forward!” he stated.