1.The Beach
The official position of the EC regarding the beach
is stated in Bob Haviland’s December 8, 2001 Community Voices in the News-Journal,
"Living with the ocean’s terms". He contends that the rising ocean cannot
be held back. The beach is a living, moving entity. Recent storms have
lowered Volusia’s beach by at least two feet, sending high tides 2-10 feet
west of their location before the storms. Development has left the dunes
no place to retreat. They’re our first defense against storms and they’re
gone. Haviland tells us why Volusia’s retaining walls are inadequate to
protect property or the beach, what a true sea wall is, and why lining
the beach even with these costly walls means the demise of the beach, a
situation which exists now in many places at high tide. Beach renourishment
is a bottomless taxpayer funded pit. The only constructive action for property
owners is to try to rebuild the dune. Dune recovery was the purpose of
the Habitat Conservation Zone. It was set at 30 feet to allow development
of a 10-foot high dune, enough to protect against common storms. Cutting
it to 15 feet in developed areas and allowing pedestrian traffic has negated
sand recovery. Haviland describes how a properly located snow-fence can
catch wind blown sand. It must be at least 15 feet in front of dune remnants,
and vertical walls and structures, because they slow the wind and therefore
the sand motion. The fence should not be made with wood treated with preservative
because it is toxic to life, nor should it be made with wire which is hazardous
to animals and people after the wood decays. Jute is good. A dune is fragile
and must be protected by extending walkovers seaward of the dune recovery
zone. It must be planted with beach vegetation that is watered when there
is no rain for a week and lightly fertilized several times a year. Sea
oats should not be planted initially as they will only grow well after
the dune is several feet above the high tide mark. Start with railroad
vine and coast sandspur which helps prevent foot passage. Rebuilding the
dune is no long term solution. A graceful retreat from the shifting sand
is.
2. Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has dropped its plans to develop through
the City of New Smyrna Beach. It just submitted site plans to Volusia County
for development approval. The plan is to annex into the City after construction.
County Development Review Committee will examine the plans on January 16th
to approve, deny or continue. The CC will hear any appeals. In 1989 the
City and County negotiated the Corridor 44 Overlay Zone agreement. Large
retail development is not allowed within the City limits in the COZ, where
green space is a priority to the citizens who live here and who helped
negotiate the agreement. The COZ is to be reserved for businesses small
enough to co-exist with the forested land that comprises SR 44 in New Smyrna
Beach. Mall type development is not permitted since it would displace the
natural resource that is there. The environmental community asks the County
to honor the regulations established for the Corridor 44 Overlay Zone and
not allow Wal-Mart to circumvent them by getting permitted through the
County and then annexing into the City as a non-conforming use. A big box
store does not belong on a forested wetland, which is serving as a major
stormwater retention area for surrounding land on both sides of SR 44.
Flooding is severe in this area.
3.Correction:
Last month my bad math called the two Turnbull era
canals on the site 300+ years old. 2002 – 1767 = 235 years.
4. County Land on River in Edgewater
It is estimated there are 1 million pounds of toxic
chemicals on the Pre-stressed Concrete site. The steel put under stress
was put in a big pit and cleaned with acid to remove rust. Anything else
needing disposal was dumped in the ground too. Is it leaching into the
river? It has been reported to the Environmental Action Committee that
it is. DEP is examining the site.
5. Aquifer and the Environment
St. Johns staff has stated that without alternative
sources of water soon, we can expect the demand for water to exceed sustainable
supplies and result in unacceptable damage to the water system by 2006.
They say that harm will occur to lakes, wetlands, and springs if all the
ground water applications recently received were permitted as currently
proposed. At the Board’s November 14th meeting, staff revealed that in-house
consumptive use permits (CUPs) are already close to 2020 projections. But
no one has stated that the District fully intends to deny any permit applications.
None have been denied even though it is evident that the damage they are
anticipating is already happening. According to the District’s data, withdrawal
from the aquifer in 1998, the most recent year available, exceeds recharge
by 600 MGD, which represents a yearly deficit of 4 inches of rain. The
aquifer has and is being mined. Imagine what that figure is for drought
years 1999 and 2000, with all their additional growth and development.
We have witnessed past and present levels of pumping result in a steady
fall in the aquifer, a drop in lake levels, sink holes forming, wetland
vegetation dying, pines invading cypress wetlands, springflows diminishing
for many years, and fiercest wildfires in the areas of greatest aquifer
drawdown. The Water Management districts are charged with "managing the
water resource in a manner to insure its sustainability; and future growth
and development planning must reflect the limitations of the groundwater
supply." It will be years before disalination or demineralization are available.
To protect the lives of people living here now and stop the damage to the
natural wetland system, it would be right and proper for the district to
place a moratorium on the issuance of new ground water permits. In addition,
the board should direct staff to determine a sustainable aquifer yield
and reduce existing CUPs accordingly.
6. Marine Turtle Permit
Volusia County wants to acquire Marye Marshall’s
Marine Turtle Permit for the area south of Ponce Inlet. However, it is
patently a conflict of interest for the County to hold a turtle permit.
The data collected by turtle monitors could reveal the County’s lack of
total will in enforcing the Endangered Species Act. Volusia County is influenced
by the politics of driving on the beach which is harmful to sea turtles
and shore birds. Politics also interferes with its enforcement of the lighting
ordinance. Because the County is not single minded in its commitment to
endangered sea turtles, it is not suited to be their monitor and protector.
Beth Liebert’s Volusia Turtle Patrol is. Under her uncompromising leadership,
the Turtle Patrol should be allowed to add South Volusia beaches to its
territory, thus ensuring consistent methods of protection and reporting,
as well as saving taxpayers money. The decision is in the hands of Florida
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Governor Jeb Bush.
7. Beach Lighting
The County must develop a method of handling lighting
infractions during turtle nesting season. A big mistake is allowing that
lights cannot be out of compliance out of the nesting season. The solution
is to require that lights stay compliant all year round.
8.FIND
At its December board meeting in NSB, the beach
driving crowd was absent. This audience was mostly concerned with their
beachfront property, badly eroded by the summer’s storms. The board voted
to move 200,000 cyds.of sand between Sapphire and 27th St. to be shared
by property owners who want it. They asked for even more to rebuild dunes.
Owners south of 27th will have to pay for trucking. A million cyds. will
be pumped offshore in 30 feet of water so wave action won’t wash it onto
the beach - and hinder driving. This audience, however, favored pumping
it just offshore so it will build up the beach! It will be about 1500 feet
out. Amazingly, no Environmental Impact Study is required to determine
the effect to life forms buried on the ocean floor. Some on the Board expressed
dismay that a coastal city whose beach is deflated would reject the original
plan to spread from shoreline to dune what they claim is clean compatible
beach sand. The Mayor asked if the one mile demonstration beach south of
27th Street to test driving on the new sand could be put back on track.
An erosion event certainly modified priorities.
RETURN