Compton contends boaters degrading seagrass habitat and threatening wildlife
At the same time that Sarasota County commissioners have been celebrating the fall hurricanes’ reopening of Midnight Pass on south Siesta Key, the leadership of the nonprofit ManaSota-88 has been criticizing what it says is the public’s degradation of the area in the vicinity of the pass.
In a Nov. 8 letter to the former secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Glenn Compton, chair of ManaSota-88, which is based in Nokomis, wrote that it had come to the attention of the organization that “the significant increase in boating” in the vicinity of Midnight Pass has resulted in propellers degrading “important sea grass habitat,” as well as an increase in “prop scars, hydrocarbon pollution, and wildlife disturbance …”
Compton added, “It appears that the priority in management of the Midnight Pass area by Sarasota County is to establish boat access to the Gulf of Mexico from Little Sarasota Bay, not environmental resource protection.”
Therefore, he continued, ManaSota-88 “strongly recommends the FDEP and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission monitor and enforce [state laws] regarding boating activities in the Midnight Pass area.”
Compton explained that ManaSota-88 “is a public interest conservation and environmental protection organization, which is a Florida not-for-profit corporation and a citizen of the State of Florida. The corporate purposes of ManaSota-88 include the protection and preservation of water quality and wildlife habitat in Manatee and Sarasota Counties.”
As The Sarasota News Leader has reported, on Nov. 6, County Administrator Jonathan Lewis wrote then-FDEP Secretary Shawn Hamilton that the county’s intent is to keep the inlet open, as county staff has determined that the reopened pass meets the definition of an inlet in accord with Section 62B-41.002(10) of the Florida Administrative Code. (Hamilton resigned from the position just a day later, on Nov. 7. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Alexis Lambert, chief of staff of the state’s division of bond finance since 2018, to succeed Hamilton, the Tampa Bay Times reported.)
In his letter to FDEP, Compton of ManaSota-88 pointed out, “Since the closure of Midnight Pass in 1983, the population of Sarasota County has more than doubled from approximately 200,000 residents in 1980 to nearly 465,000 residents today. Mangrove forests, wetlands and pine flatwoods have been modified or eliminated and replaced with an urban [landscape]. An integral part of understanding the health of Little Sarasota Bay (LSB) must also incorporate the functions and values of the existing beach and estuarine habitats.
“Establishing a stable tidal connection (an unlikely outcome) will not solve the pollution problems of Little Sarasota Bay,” he continued. That would result in moving “the pollution to the Gulf of Mexico where ‘unintended consequences’ are likely to occur. The solution to pollution is NOT dilution,” Compton stressed; instead, it is “elimination and reduction.”
Commissioner Joe Neunder of Nokomis, the acting chair of the County Commission, most recently mentioned Midnight Pass during comments following the Nov. 19 presentation to the board of the annual report of the county’s Coastal Advisory Council.
Neunder had championed restoration of a tidal exchange between the Gulf of Mexico and Little Sarasota Bay from the time he joined the commission, following his election in November 2022 to the District 4 seat.
He and his colleagues have characterized the initiative as a means of improving water quality in the bay.
“I think we all agree [the newly established inlet] is a wonderful blessing that came out of some tragedy here,” Neunder told CAC Chair Stacey Roberts on Nov. 19, as the commission met in Venice. “It wouldn’t give me any heartburn if you decided to go ahead and have some comments related to the pass,” he added, referring to the Council members. “We want to protect that resource,” he said, referencing improved water quality that observers have cited since Hurricane Milton restored the inlet after it closed within days of Hurricane Helene’s opening it in late September.
During an Oct. 22 discussion of the waterway, then-Commissioner Neil Rainford, who was holding the District 3 seat, told his colleagues, “Frankly, I think the water’s already getting better [in Little Sarasota Bay],” based on residents’ reports.
Commissioner Mark Smith, who lives on Siesta Key, added that he had been out in the waterway, which appeared to be about 30 yards wide; “maybe a little more.” While he was there, Smith said, he saw the tide coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. “It was wonderful to see that clean Gulf water back in Little Sarasota Bay.”
The News Leader was unsuccessful this week in reaching representatives of FDEP to learn of any responses — or plans for responses — to Compton’s and County Administrator Lewis’ letters.
Stormwater issues and wildlife protection
In his Nov. 8 letter to FDEP, Compton of ManaSota-88 pointed out, “Stormwater runoff is the primary cause of the pollution in [Little Sarasota Bay].”
Sarasota County staff “does not sample stormwater outfall discharges,” he added. “Compliance monitoring, illicit discharge survey information, presumptive criteria and associated hydrologic and water quality model calibration and verification is needed.
“There are hundreds of public and private stormwater outfalls discharging into Little Sarasota Bay,” Compton continued. “A total count of public outfalls and a tally of private outfalls should be identified and monitored,” he wrote.
County staff “estimates the annual pollutant loading for these outfalls by using pollutant loading models,” he noted, characterizing that as “insufficient [to understand] the source, location and amount of pollutants going into Little Sarasota Bay.”
In regard to boating, which he contends has had a severe impact on the seagrass beds in Little Sarasota Bay, Compton wrote that “[m]easurable goals and outcomes for water quality improvements for Little Sarasota Bay” and its watershed should include, but not be limited to the following:
- “Restriction of motorized watercraft in sea grass areas and repair [of] areas of disturbed bay bottom.
- “Elimination or reduction of the adverse cumulative impacts, as well as secondary impacts from boating activities such as: prop scars, hydrocarbon pollution, boat paints, and wildlife disturbance.
- “increased Marine patrol and law enforcement in problem areas.
- “Elimination or reduction of boat-related contaminants adding noxious amounts of undissolved oils and greases to the waters.
- “Elimination or reduction of the negative environmental impacts associated with the seasonal increase in boats.”
Moreover, Compton pointed out, “A productive community including mature mangroves, nesting least terns, and loggerhead sea turtle nests, currently exists or has existed within the proximity of the Midnight Pass area. The habitat … of the Midnight Pass location provides for a variety of important fish species. Midnight Pass is a rich haven for young fish. Due to past development within the Little Sarasota Bay watershed, such fisheries are in short supply.”
He added, “The beach at the Midnight Pass area is a nesting habitat for threatened loggerhead sea turtles, and numerous species of wading birds that frequent the grassy flats of Little Sarasota Bay.”
Compton then called for the protection and enhancement of the following: “habitat values for threatened, rare and endangered species found at the former Midnight Pass area”; the nursery habitat “enjoyed by the fish community” within Little Sarasota Bay; and “the productive Little Sarasota Bay estuarine system.”
He also urged FDEP to ensure that the existing mangroves are maintained and that mangrove acreage in the Little Sarasota Bay watershed be increased. “Mangroves are critical to the formation of estuarine marine food chains, shoreline protection and stabilization, wildlife nurseries, and the natural filtering process of water. Mangrove cutting and trimming result in deleterious ecological effects, [which] include the reduction in standing leaf crop, net primary production export [and] flower and propagule production and reduced fauna habitat utilization,” he wrote.
“Mangrove root systems filter nitrates, phosphates and other pollutants from the water, improving the water quality,” he also pointed out.
The habitats of nesting sea turtles and wading and shorebirds should be protected and increased, as well, Compton wrote, and more protection should be provided for manatees. He added that the area encompassing Midnight Pass “is critical habitat for the endangered West Indian Manatee.”
Moreover, he called for any project planned within the “Outstanding Florida Water of [Little Sarasota Bay] to be clearly in the public interest, as provided for in Section 403.918(2) of the Florida Statutes, noting that Little Sarasota Bay was designated an Outstanding Florida Water on April 29, 1986.