Congressman Steube urges Corps of Engineers to make permanent the restoration of Midnight Pass on Siesta Key, with hurricanes having created new channels

Boat parade planned in pass on Saturday, Oct. 26

This slide shows Midnight Pass after Hurricane Helene reopened it in late September. Image courtesy Sarasota Bay Estuary Program

Amid the devastation that Hurricane Helene’s storm surge produced on Siesta Key in late September, a number of people found one reason to rejoice.

The force of the wind-driven water opened up Midnight Pass on the southern portion of Siesta Key — achieving one of county Commissioner Joe Neunder’s top priorities since his election to the board in November 2022.

As David Tomasko, executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, put it during an Oct. 21 presentation to the Sarasota City Commission, “Midnight Pass opened at a reduced volume after Hurricane Helene …”

He noted that the pass “closed a couple of days later.”

Yet, in spite of its devastation it wrought in so many areas of Sarasota County, Hurricane Milton ended up expanding on Helene’s efforts when it made landfall on Siesta on Oct. 9.

“It’s a much bigger pass with a large volume of water,” Tomasko told the city commissioners. “It looks like [Milton has] recreated a path that is much more like it was in the ’80s,” Tomasko added of Midnight Pass.

“We think it’s a great thing for [Little Sarasota] Bay.”

This is a composite created by Brian Dombrowski of Subsurface Media, used with his permission.

On Oct. 22, a day after Tomasko of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program had his exchange with the Sarasota City Commission, U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, announced, “Today I’m urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters to permanently restore Midnight Pass, which was naturally reopened by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

U.S. Rep. Greg Steube. Image from Wikipedia

“From better water quality and environmental benefits to helping Sarasota’s economy,” Steube added in a news release, “keeping Midnight Pass open is common sense.

“I stand ready to assist however is necessary at the federal level to ensure we keep Midnight Pass open,” he wrote.

Steube’s website provided a link to a letter he had written that day to Lt. Gen. William H. Graham Jr. of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

“Midnight Pass was closed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1984,” Steube pointed out in the letter. “Over the past 40 years, the ecosystem in Little Sarasota Bay has suffered because of this action. The water quality has deteriorated, and marine life has dwindled. It is estimated that nearly 70% of the sea grass beds in Little Sarasota Bay have disappeared. Further, cutting off access to the Gulf decimated the local fishing industry and resulted in less recreational and commercial boating activities.”

Steube continued, “By reopening Midnight Pass, the water quality in Little Sarasota Bay would improve since cleaner water would be able to flow into the Bay. This would improve water circulation, reduce pollution, and foster the development of marine life like oysters and shrimp, which have disappeared since the Pass was closed.”

Then he noted, “Although we are still assessing the damage from Hurricane Milton that made landfall near Midnight Pass, it is very possible that the damage was mitigated due to the Pass being naturally reopened by Hurricane Helene. It is possible that the Pass provided an

outlet for waters to escape from Little Sarasota Bay. Due to the environmental and recreational benefits of opening the Pass permanently, the Army Corps of Engineers should work to restore Midnight Pass expeditiously.”

This is the letter that U.S. Rep. Greg Steube sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ leader. Image from the congressman’s website

In the meantime, supporters of the reopened Midnight Pass have planned a boat parade through the new waterway on Saturday, Oct. 26, as reported on the Restore Midnight Pass Now!! Facebook page.

The event is scheduled to begin at noon.

Image from the Restore Midnight Pass Now!! Facebook page

The Facebook page has an abundance of photos and videos, as well as comments from boaters and people who have been fishing in the area since Milton broke open the sand that had closed in the pass following Hurricane Helene’s passage through the Gulf of Mexico.

On Oct. 16, Brian Dombrowski of Subsurface Media posted on the Restore Midnight Pass Now!! Facebook page a time-lapse video that he had created, showing the tide coming into Midnight Pass. He has given permission to The Sarasota News Leader to provide this link to that video: https://fb.watch/vnM5W6BWIs/

This is a still from Brian Dombrowski’s time-elapse video, used with his permission.

Caution, please, to safeguard the wildlife

Tomasko of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, did make the following plea in an Oct. 22 report on the SBEP website:

“One can be skeptical about prior plans to physically restore the lost historical tidal connection between Little Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico and still be happy to see the re-establishment of that tidal connection by a storm event. But what is concerning to many folks right now is that this connection might be putting wildlife at risk, based on what we’re seeing on social media. There have been, for example, calls for boaters to line up their boats and ‘prop wash’ a larger channel through an area with existing seagrass meadows. That is not only not a good idea for a boat motor’s lower unit, but purposefully destroying seagrass meadows — regardless of intent — remains illegal unless done under a permit. Also, there have been folks who have run the inlet with boats at speeds that exceed the local designation of that portion of Little Sarasota Bay as a ‘slow speed/no wake’ zone.”

Tomasko added, “There are several hundred acres of seagrass meadows in Little Sarasota Bay …” He noted, “[W]e have known for more than 30 years that it is a regional ‘hot spot’ for juvenile stages of recreationally and commercially important species of finfish and shellfish, and the area just inside of the old Midnight Pass is a great place to encounter manatees. The last thing in the world we need is for a boater to carve up a manatee with their propeller while shooting a video of how great it is to have the pass open. And I say that as a boat-owner for over 40 years. Please — treat the area and its wildlife with respect.”

Before Helene and Milton …

During his Oct. 21 presentation to the Sarasota city commissioners, Tomasko reminded them that private homeowners on Siesta Key received a Sarasota County permit to close Midnight Pass in the early 1980s an effort to protect their homes from the beach erosion associated with the shifting waterway between Little Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

The men were supposed to create a new pass at a different location, he noted, but they never did.

An October 2022 report written by Sarasota County Government staff and provided to the County Commission explained that on Oct. 4, 1983, the board members seated at that time approved an ordinance that allowed two property owners to relocate the waterway to its 1950 location. Both of those individuals had homes “threatened by the northern migration” of the pass,” the report added.

Although the two men — renowned artist Syd Solomon and Pasco Carter — “attempted to open [the waterway] farther to the south,” the report said, “all attempts failed.” The longest Midnight Pass remained open “was throughout a few tidal cycles. The cost of reopening soon exceeded the owners’ financial resources,” the report continued, “and they made no further attempts to open it.”

That report also said that if the County Commission wished to move forward with an effort to reopen Midnight Pass, the estimated expense was about $84 million, based on the scope and design of such an initiative in 2009, adjusted for inflation, plus maintenance expenses for nine years.

A Sarasota County diagram from 2006 shows a project proposal suggested at the time for reopening Midnight Pass.

During a Sept. 10 presentation to the County Commission, Mike Jenkins, a professional engineer with the Gainesville-based firm Applied Technology and Management (ATM), explained, “The biggest issue regarding a coastal inlet is regulatory. … The bar is high for new projects in the coastal zone.”

State law, he pointed out, forbids the opening of new inlets.

Further, “Mitigation for resources, particularly seagrass,” he added, “is really, really hard to do … and it’s very expensive.”

Seagrasses generally are destroyed when a new inlet is created, he noted. Yet, Jenkins said, they are “critical habitat” for sea life.

To re-establish Midnight Pass, he continued, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) would have to issue a permit first, and then the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would have to issue a permit.

Jenkins has been working as a consultant to the county as its Public Works Department has been pursuing a phased feasibility study designed to explore how to create a new tidal flow between Little Sarasota Bay and the Gulf.

During that Aug. 27 discussion, Jenkins also explained that, to remain open, inlets rely on the difference in water levels that drive currents. Without sufficient velocity of flow through an inlet, he continued, a reopened Midnight Pass would close.

The velocity/water volume factor is referred to as a “tidal prism,” he added. “The tidal prism that Midnight Pass used to have has been taken up by the adjacent [inlets].” If a new inlet were created, Jenkins said, “It would be taking that tidal prism back from either Venice [Inlet] or Big Sarasota Pass.”

“Most inlets in Southwest Florida are quasi-stable,” he pointed out, except for the really big ones. That means “they tend to want to close,” he said. The primary reason those stay open, he added, is because of action taken to keep them open, such as maintenance dredging or the construction of jetties.

As a result of Jenkins’ remarks that day, the commissioners voted unanimously to direct county administrative staff to work with the county’s legislative lobbyist, community residents, and the members of the Sarasota County Legislative Delegation on the crafting of a change in state law to eliminate the new inlet restriction.

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