Residents had continued to call for interim dredging of middle segment of waterway before hurricane season begins
Following a detailed explanation about the effects on water flow in Phillippi Creek as a result of the dredging that is underway — along with the goals of the Phase 2 work — the Sarasota County commissioners this week reaffirmed their direction for staff to continue with planning for Phase 2 as Stormwater Director Ben Quartermaine had proposed in late January.
During an exchange with Commissioner Mark Smith during the board’s regular meeting on March 3, in Venice, Quartermaine said that the modeling performed by both his staff and consultants to the county showed that even during a “massive rain event” such as Tropical Storm Debby in August 2024, the completion of the current dredging initiative should enable “that rainfall to evacuate the creek system efficiently and quickly.”
However, when Smith asked about a scenario mirroring Hurricane Helene’s storm surge of 7 to 8 feet in September 2024, Quartermaine acknowledged that flooding “certainly could be a problem” in the creek, with the water pushed up the waterway from Sarasota Bay.
When Smith sought clarification that, after the completion of Phase 2 — the maximum allowable dredge in the creek — that storm surge still could occur, Quartermaine told him, “Yes.”
Phase 1, Quartermaine pointed out, will restore the creek to the point where the water will move efficiently, “But there’s no assurance that what we’re doing … will eliminate the potential for surge flooding.”
During presentation, Quartermaine explained that all of the modeling for Phase 1 suggested that that work would have “a significant impact on floodplain and flood stage levels in the creek.” Phase 2 will widen the creek for water flow, he continued, but the impact of sediment removal on that flow would be minimal, in the wake of the Phase 1 efforts. He put the figure at 0.01 feet.
“I think that’s really important to understand,” Chair Ron Cutsinger said. “That’s an eighth-of-an-inch?”
“Correct,” Quartermaine replied.
Thus, Cutsinger continued, the “bulk of heavy lifting” is in Phase 1.
“I think it’s important that we understand the different types of scenarios,” Commissioner Joe Neunder said, referring to Commissioner Smith’s exchanges with Quartermaine. “In the state of Florida, hurricanes are going to happen.” Storm surge, Neunder added, will push water up the creek.
Yet, Neunder, too, sought clarification that the Phase 1 work will protect residents.
“Yes,” Quartermaine responded.
Neunder then summarized Quartermaine’s remarks, noting that the dredging the county is pursuing in the creek is not designed to protect against storm surge. “It’s to help attenuate the water that comes from rainfall.”
“Rainfall and [stormwater] runoff,” Quartermaine told him.
During the board’s regular meeting on Feb. 10, in response to Phillippi Creek residents’ renewed pleas for dredging in the middle section of the waterway before the 2026 hurricane season officially begins on June 1, Commissioner Smith made a motion to direct staff to pursue the type of project that the residents were seeking.
(By count of The Sarasota News Leader, seven residents addressed the commissioners on the same issue on March 3, during the Open to the Publiccomment period at the start of the meeting.)
However, after listening to concerns from his board colleagues on Feb. 10, Smith ultimately agreed to change his motion to call first for more discussion of the issues. Therefore, County Administrator Jonathan Lewis scheduled Quartermaine’s March 3 update to the commissioners.
The removal of ‘25 years of sediment’
At the outset of his presentation this week, Quartermaine reported that the Phase 1 dredging of Phillippi Creek from Tuttle Avenue to Beneva Road is “on schedule,” with the work about 50% completed. The dredging should be finished in June, he said, just as he had noted in late January.
Then, turning to Phase 2 — dubbed “the maximum allowable dredge” — Quartermaine acknowledged that that project “has evolved over time.” Initially, the plans were for a 30-foot-wide dredge; later, those were modified to 50 feet of width, “maximizing the amount of material we could dredge from Phillippi Creek.”
“Effectively,” he continued, the project will restore the creek to its status in the early 2000s by “removing 25 years of sediment.”
That sediment buildup resulted in the flooding of some homes on the creek during all three 2024 hurricane season storms, including Milton in October of that year, residents have told the commissioners since January 2025.
Homeowners have provided the board members numerous photos of the damage they suffered — and of the sediment in the creek that they blamed for it.
Phase 2, Quartermaine added on March 3, will restore “the creek habitat and function and [provide] some navigational benefits.”
Moreover, he said, plans call for the deployment of sediment sumps in the waterway, to make removal of sediment easier in the future.
The creek will be dredged to a width of 50 feet, Quartermaine continued, beginning approximately at the upper limits of the dredging that the West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND) is pursuing in the waterway from its mouth to the area of U.S. 41.
The plans call for a 35-foot offset from the shoreline, Quartermaine added, to ensure that equipment stays clear of docks and other structures on the creek, in an effort to prevent damage to them.
Phase 2 also will entail the dredging of two “oxbows” in the Southgate community, he noted. Those are areas where the water used to flow around homes; sediment buildup has made it possible for people to walk on those oxbows, residents and commissioners have indicated.
Further, he said, staff plans to install a primary sediment pump upstream of the dam in the creek in the vicinity of Tuttle Avenue.
County staff will handle the dredging of the third oxbow, Quartermaine pointed out. That initiative is not one that can be undertaken with the type of equipment that will be used “on the creek proper,” he explained.
Further, areas identified as High Spots 1, 2 and 3 — “all downstream of Tuttle” — will be dredged, he noted.
Then Quartermaine stressed, “What’s important here is that the Phase 1 project was done with [county Stormwater Environmental Utility (SEU)] dollars.” The total expense is about $15 million, he added.
The commissioners did vote in April 2025 to dedicate $45 million of the county’s January 2025 grant of nearly $210.1 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on the removal of sediment from Phillippi Creek, Quartermaine continued. (Those funds were awarded to the county so it could respond to unmet needs resulting from the 2024 hurricane season.) However, that federal money was not available in time for it to be used for Phase 1, Quartermaine said.
The SEU funds derive from assessments of property owners countywide, to pay for stormwater maintenance.
The HUD money, distributed through what is called the Resilient SRQ Program, will be used for Phase 2, Quartermaine added.
Moreover, Quartermaine explained, “As we went through the permitting process” for the work in the creek, “it became apparent that there was going to be a longer process with the [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Phase 2].”
Since a 30-foot channel previously had been dredged in the waterway, he pointed out, “We were working on a quasi-exemption though the Corps” to undertake Phase 1. In other words, it was not deemed a new project.
With Phase 2, he continued, the permitting process includes a focus on the ecological functions of the creek, including the presence of seagrasses and oyster beds, along with other habitat — issues that were not part of the Phase 1 initiative.
“That [Phase 2] permitting,” he told the commissioners, “is a six- to nine-month process.” The consultant the staff is using, he added, believes that the permit will be issued by November. The necessary Florida Department of Environmental Protection permit should be in hand by then, as well, he noted.
Thus, Quartermaine said, his plan is to issue a formal request for dredging services later this year that should result in staff’s recommendation of a contract for the board to consider in November or December.
The ‘bifurcation’ consideration
Quartermaine then specifically discussed the residents’ pleas over past weeks for what he called “bifurcating the Phase 2 project.”
Again, he emphasized of Phase 2, “The benefit to the flood stage is minimal.” Moreover, he pointed out, “These [Resilient SRQ] funds … are not infinite.”
If staff were to pursue the 30-foot-wide dredge of the middle section of Phillippi Creek that residents want done as soon as possible, he explained, additional staff and permitting costs would be incurred, which would result in a reduction in the amount of sediment that the county could afford to remove in the future.
The estimate for Phase 2, as planned, is between $24 million and $26 million, Quartermaine said.
“Based on everything that I know,” as well as his discussions with other stormwater experts and even college professors, he said, his recommendation for Phase 2 “is a sound recommendation.”
Nonetheless, Quartermaine told the commissioners, “I understand the urgency; I understand people’s concerns” about the lack of dredging in the middle of the creek before the next hurricane season begins.
Following the discussion, Commissioner Neunder made the motion to reaffirm the board’s support for the Phase 2 as Quartermaine had proposed, and Commissioner Smith seconded it.