Roxanne Smith did the neighborly thing and reported a floating cache of debris in the Indian River by her neighbor’s home in Melbourne Beach. The rubble was part of a large amount of trash still left in the waterways from Hurricane Matthew last fall.
“I wasn’t sure of their health so I went ahead and submitted the information on their behalf to the Brevard County Emergency Services,” Smith said.
Late last month, a cleanup crew from the state came by and removed the debris, which included a large portion of pier decking and portions of a couple of boat hulls, Smith said. “The removal crew extracted several of the pilings to get to the decking. And they spent a good amount of time cutting it up in order for the small crane to lift it onto the barge,” she said.
Brevard County officials say it’s not enough and that the state should step up its debris removal program. In a letter to the state, Commission Chair Curt Smith said the county did its part in removing land-based debris, but the Indian and Banana rivers fall under the jurisdiction of the state.
“A great deal of debris, mostly construction materials due to destroyed docks, remains in those waterways,” he wrote.
According to Smith, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection obtained an estimate for the amount of waterway debris and the cost to collect it, which was $40 million. This included Brevard, Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns, Clay, Putnam, Duval and Nassau counties.
“FDEP hired contractors and began the debris collection project approximately one month ago, with a total budget of $10 million,” Smith continued. “As of this week, the waterway debris collection project has almost reached the end of its funding, with only 18 percent of Brevard’s debris collected. FDEP has also stated that they do not have the funding or authority to remove any of the derelict vessels that were caused by Hurricane Matthew, despite the fact that the original scope of services for this work specifically included derelict vessels, and that the hurricane stranded 24 of these vessels in our waterways, with seven of them considered a hazard to navigation.”
In a letter to the county, Anne Cabrera, deputy director of Crowder-Gulf, one of the state contractors, indicated the company reached its limit set by the state. “We will be ceasing operations. I know we are all hopeful the state will come up with the additional funds and we will be starting back at work soon, but all I can do at this point is keep you posted on that.”
Smith asked that sufficient funds be made available, most of which will be refunded to the state by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“The state has to move funds from somewhere to cover the cost, but the Governor’s Emergency Order provides the authority to do so,” said Virginia Barker, director of the county Natural Resource Management Department.
The county did its job on the land after Matthew, completing the bulk of the debris removal work before the end of the year. But unlike prior years, FEMA denied reimbursement of almost $360,000 for collection on private roads, said county Solid Waste Director Euripides Rodriguez.
They planned to file an appeal at the beginning of the month but ran into obstacles. One of the sticking points in the appeal is the requirement for photos of the debris prior to collection.
“The photo requirement is a new one that was never required in the past. As such there is no possibility of obtaining photos. I cannot respond as to how this will relate to the appeal because we have never had to appeal the private roads collection,” Rodriguez said.
He said should the appeal be denied, the cost of providing services to the private roads will be paid through the use of reserves for these events.