For more than a year, Boy Scout John Giordano has been working on his project that would not only earn him the Eagle Scout rank but would also help clean up the Indian River Lagoon. This week, that project was expected to get a rubber stamp and the green light for moving forward.
“I’m definitely hoping they will,” Giordano said, referring to the St. John’s River Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the permit’s application.
He hasn’t been spinning his wheels while waiting for the various agencies to sign off. Instead, the 15-year-old Giordano has reached out to the City of Sebastian’s Natural Resources Board for help and to other businesses and groups to get the necessary materials.
One company donated the mesh used to create the oyster bags, others have donated the oyster shells. Giordano’s been busy cleaning the shells so they’re ready when he gets the permits in hand.
Though he had initially planned to put the better-known oyster mats in the lagoon, St. John’s River Water Management officials said they wanted to bags used instead.
“It’s actually a lot cooler,” Giordano said, explaining that the bags are filled with oyster shells and lowered into the water to collect oyster larvae. There, the larvae grow into oysters and begin removing impurities from the estuary. Each live oyster that grows on the oyster-bag reef, will filter 50 gallons of lagoon water per day.
Each bag will hold a 5-gallon bucket’s worth of shells. So far, Giordano has collected enough shells to create 80 oyster bags.
The bags will be stacked two tall and run parallel to the shore north of the kayak launch near Riverview Park.
“Pretty much everything has been decided,” Natural Resources Board Chair George Millar reported to his fellow board members last week. The formal application will be presented this week and all that is needed are the required “signatures and rubber stamp.”
City Engineer Frank Watanabe concurred. “I believe they are satisfied,” he said, referring to St. Johns. The meeting this week will be with St. Johns and the Army Corps of Engineers to make sure no changes to the permit application were needed.
Giordano said he hopes to start installing the bags by the end of March or early April. He will be coordinating with his Boy Scout Troop 500 and his mother’s Girl Scout Troop 1353 to construct and fill the bags.
Despite the delay in getting the project approved and finished, Giordano is still eager to do his part to improve the lagoon’s health.
“I didn’t expect all these roadblocks,” he said.
As for advice to other prospective Eagle Scouts, Giordano added, “If you’re really passionate, you won’t mind the roadblocks. You’ll push through them.”
