A plan backed by Escambia County to place dredging spoils from Pensacola Pass near Perdido Key could fight erosion on the key.
A plan backed by Escambia County leaders would shore up eroded sections of Perdido Key with sand obtained from routine dredging of Pensacola Pass.
The Escambia County Commission agreed to develop a new Pensacola Pass Inlet Management Program earlier this month.
Florida's Department of Environmental Quality must sign off on the local program and agree to provide matching funds before the project can move forward, said Tim Day, environmental programs director for the county.
County Commissioner Doug Underhill, whose district includes Perdido Key, said the program is a priority for the area.
"We will naturally replenish our beaches without having to spend millions of dollars," he said.
In the past, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dumped sand from the dredging process in the deep water instead of strategically placing the sand in areas where it would be carried to beaches west of Pensacola Pass.
The Florida Legislature has encouraged the corps to instead place dredging spoils in areas that replicate natural sand drift whenever possible.
But Underhill said the Pensacola Pass plan is complicated because so many entities are involved including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pensacola Naval Air Station, the National Park Service, the Florida Department of Environmental Quality and the county.
"All of the equity holders have to be on the same sheet of music for how the pass is dredged," he said.
Under the plan approved by the Escambia County Commission, the county would spend $103,000 to study the flow of water and sand through the inlet and figure out how to best use dredging spoils. The state would add $331,000 in matching funds to complete the project.
A large portion of Perdido Key's beaches have been listed as critically eroded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection since Hurricane Ivan slammed the region in 2004.
Unlike Pensacola Beach, Perdido Key beaches are privately owned. According to state law, owners of beachfront property have private property rights to the water line. If the beaches are widened through a replenishment project, the state would own the extra width created by the project.
Some Perdido Key property owners have long resisted efforts to renourish the eroded beach because they do not want to expand public access to their properties. The inlet plan could add sand to the beaches without requiring the beachfront property owners to give up access rights.
Charles Krupnick, president of the Perdido Key Association of area homeowners, said many Perdido Key homeowners are opposed to a renourishment project like the one completed along Pensacola Beach in 2015.
"Those opposed have a number of concerns, such as that the new beachfront would belong to the state of Florida and that eminent domain may need to be used to accomplish the restoration," he said.
Krupnick said using the dredging spoils to benefit Perdido Key's eroded beaches appears to be a good idea.
The county said in its proposal for the project that a healthier beach would help support both tourism and wildlife habitat, including the habitat of the endangered Perdido Key Beach Mouse.
The mouse was listed as endangered in 1985 and government agencies have spent millions on the species' protection — doing everything from creating tunnels under roadways for the mice to safely cross to setting aside dozens of acres for mouse habitat. Under a habit protection plan agreement between the county and the federal government, new development allowed on the key hinges on mouse's continued survival.
"A robust beach mouse population is the key to the continued success of the Perdido Habitat Conservation Plan and the economic development that it enables," the county said in its proposal for the Pensacola Pass Inlet Management Program.