Residents’ group points to 1926 newspaper article to contend that removing sediment from that section of creek should have been considered maintenance dredging by Army Corps
On Aug. 28, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) provided Sarasota County staff a provisional letter of approval saying that the agency is ready to issue a permit for the dredging of the portion of Phillippi Creek from U.S. 41 to Beneva Road, The Sarasota News Leader has learned.
However, a few further steps are necessary, a USACE spokeswoman told the News Leader.
Yet, the News Leader also has learned, members of the Phillippi Creek Coalition — county residents in communities along the creek — believe that they have uncovered information indicating that the permitting process could have been hastened. While Anderson has pointed out that the USACE was dealing with the county’s application on the basis of the belief that the portion of the creek from U.S. 41 to Beneva Road never had been dredged, Coalition members point to a 1926 newspaper article that makes it clear to them that dredging did take place about 100 years ago in that portion of the creek.
Thus, the application that county staff submitted to the USACE in the spring, for the dredging of that northern section of the creek, should have been seen as a request for maintenance work, not a new initiative, Coalition members contend.
In a Sept. 3 email to the News Leader, responding to an inquiry, Peggy Bebb, a public affairs specialist with the USACE at its Jacksonville District Office, wrote that the issuance of the permit is “dependent on verification from the State of Florida [that it will] issue a Coastal Zone Management Consistence Concurrence Certification (CZMCC) and a Water Quality Certification (WQC). Once these items are received, the Corps will be able to issue the permit within 30 days.”
Bebb also noted, “On July 22, 2025, the Corps received concurrence/approval for the dredging proposal after consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). [County staff had warned that the NMFS sign-off could take many months.] At this time,” Babb continued, all consultation with other agencies has been completed. Consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is still required and will be initiated once the Corps receives a water quality certification from the [county]. This consultation includes a minimum 30-day comment period.”
In Bebb’s Sept. 3 email to the News Leader, she explained, “Under 40 CFR [Code of Federal Regulations] Parts 121, 122 and 124, ‘A federal agency may not issue a license or permit to conduct any activity that may result in any discharge into “waters of the United States” unless the state or authorized Tribe where the discharge would originate either issues a CWA [U.S. Clean Water Act] section 401 water quality certification or waives the certification.’ ”
Additionally, Bebb explained, “The Coastal Zone Management Act (1972) requires the State of Florida to develop and implement federally-approved coastal management programs [CMP] and requires the state to ensure that federally permitted activities are consistent with the enforceable policies of the CMP (federal consistency).”
The most recent county Stormwater Department update that the News Leader could find on the county website — covering the period of Aug. 18 through Aug. 24 — said, “On August 20, 2025, USACE notified Stormwater staff that based on an FDEP [Florida Department of Environmental Protection] email, they now require a state permit along with the associated Water Quality and Coastal Zone Management certifications. Neither the USACE [nor the Environmental Protection Agency] will accept FDEP’s Emergency Order [related to recovery from the 2024 hurricanes] as fulfillment of those requirements. Staff are submitting a permit exemption request to FDEP.”
In response to a News Leader request for comment, the county’s Stormwater Department staff confirmed in a Sept. 4 statement that staff has filed with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for a permit or permit exemption “which addresses Water Quality and Coastal Zone Management certifications …” Then, the statement referenced another section of Babb’s email: “Upon receipt of the first item, a USACE initiated consultation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [is necessary].”
Further, the county statement noted, “On August 29, 2025, Sarasota County submitted a Request for Verification of Exemption to FDEP, consistent with F.A.C. 62-330.051(15).” The latter reference is to the Florida Administrative Code. No 15 follows:
Earlier this year, Spencer Anderson, director of what was then the county’s Public Works Department, reported that it likely would be early 2026 before the dredging could take place, given the USACE timeline for the process entailed in issuing the permit.
The latest details of the dredging plans are expected to be discussed on Friday, Sept. 5, during the County Commission’s fourth stormwater workshop of the year. That will be the first such session since Ben Quartermaine was hired in July to serve as director of the new Stormwater Department.
The USACE permit that Babb and the county Stormwater staff were referencing involves the dredging of what staff has called the “High Spots” in Phillippi Creek. Those are areas where significant sedimentation has accumulated over decades. Numerous residents have told the County Commission that they suffered repeated flooding of their homes because of the rainfall from Tropical Storm Debby in August 2024, plus the storm surges associated with Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024, as the water in the creek rose higher than would have been expected as a result of the existence of that sediment.
“These high spots have been identified as having significant sediment buildup and will be dredged 50’ wide x 4’ deep Mean Low Water, along the centerline of the Creek,” the Aug. 18-24 Stormwater Update explains.
“Staff are working expeditiously with [the county] Procurement [office] to finalize bid documents to acquire contractors for the ‘High Spot’ dredging project well in advance of when we expect to receive permit authorizations to begin work late this calendar year,” the Aug. 18-24 report continues. “The bid advertisement was published on July 31, 2025. Our bid documents are intended to acquire two dredge operations so the work can be expedited.”
The bids were opened on Sept. 3, the News Leader learned.
The 1926 dredging information
On Oct. 15, 1926, in what was then the Sarasota Herald, an article with the headline The Value of Phillippi River To Sarasota says, “There has recently arisen a great danger of this beautiful stream being destroyed by the flood waters eroding its banks and destroying the developments and improvements already made or in prospect along its shores and filling its channel with silt.”
The article adds, “Considerable water which has heretofore gone down the Myakka river [sic] is now going through the Fruitville drainage canal into Phillippi river, causing flood conditions and destroying property, bringing down vast amounts of sand and silt that will eventually fill the navigable channels of the river.”
As a result, the article points out, a letter from Lt. Col. Mark Brooke, an engineer at the Jacksonville district office of what has become the USACE — who was in charge of the waterways of the Sarasota-Fruitville District — sent to the supervisors of the Sarasota-Fruitville Drainage District “should be of interest to all those who desire to see the development and future growth of Sarasota continue in all directions …”
The letter, as presented in the article, says that, on March 10, 1926, the secretary of the U.S. War Department “and the Chief of Engineers” issued to the district supervisors “a permit to dredge in the upper section of Phillippi Creek for drainage purposes.”
Moreover, the article notes that a public hearing was conducted on Jan. 12, 1926, in regard to the application for the permit.
Thanks to receipt of that permit, the article continues, the district’s consulting engineer stated, “A second possible benefit should result from the fact that the period and height of flood stage in Phillippi creek [sic] should be materially reduced by the proposed improvements. Below [Bee Ridge Road] the requirements of the district indicate ‘a cross section equalling 480 square feet below elevation. From the Bee Ridge crossing on down stream to Sarasota bay [sic], we contemplate the provision of not less than 580 square feet of cross section.”
The News Leader sent Babb of the USACE a copy of that newspaper article, asking for the agency’s view of the information indicating that dredging did take place in the early part of the 20th century.
Bebb wrote in her Sept. 3 email that the USACE “has reviewed the 1926 article that included information concerning historical permitting and flooding of Phillippi Creek. The permit information referenced in the article pertains to the development of the Fruitville drainage district north of the existing Phillippi Creek 2025 dredging permit review. Additionally, the article references dredging of Phillippi Creek south of Bee Ridge Road, which has been dredged in small areas even in the 2000’s. That area is already included in the existing permit evaluation for the dredging of the areas North of Bee Ridge Road.”
Nadia Bowen, a representative of the Southgate Community Association who is part of the Phillippi Creek Coalition, had provided the 1926 article to the News Leader. When the News Leader forwarded Babb’s response to her, Bowen emphasized that the newspaper report even included the number and issuance date of the USACE permit in 1926.
“This is the ‘smoking gun’ proving the creek was previously permitted and dredged — showing that even 100 years ago, there were already issues with Phillippi Creek,” she wrote.
She had shared the article with county staff, including Stormwater Director Quartermaine, Bowen added. However, she told the News Leader, she thus far has had no luck trying to get a copy of that permit.
Then Bowen underscored details of the Sarasota Herald article.
“The permit was issued to the Fruitville Drainage district. Bee Ridge was the southern boundary of the drainage district. The original 1920 plans show north of Bee Ridge the creek was canalized by the Fruitville Drainage District,” as depicted on a map she attached to her email.
In the article, she continued, residents were said to be complaining about the sediment south of Bee Ridge Road, which was caused by the creation of the canal north of Bee Ridge. The 1926 permit, she added, was not for an area north of the pending county permit, she added; “they overlap.”
