Manatee County and Port Dolphin Energy are negotiating an agreement to remove sand from the company’s proposed natural gas pipeline path in the Gulf and use it in an early beach renourishment, officials have announced.
Port Dolphin is applying for permits to build a natural gas port off Anna Maria Island that would be connected by an underwater pipeline to Port Manatee.
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If the project is approved, the company’s preferred pipeline route, about two miles north of the Island, would make a beach-quality sand deposit inaccessible for future beach renourishment projects due to required buffer zones around the pipeline.
The proposal would save the rare sand deposit while creating business for Port Manatee and a new natural gas supply for southwest Florida, said Charlie Hunsicker, director of Manatee County’s Natural Resources Department.
The proposal moves scheduled beach renourishment in Holmes Beach, Bradenton Beach and Longboat Key up more than two years, with construction beginning in November 2011 and ending in April 2012, he said.
“If we get a beach down in 2012 instead of 2014, won’t we be fortunate when the hurricane of 2013 comes ashore?” he asked. “That may be a benefit that will be incalculable.”
Another benefit of the plan is that the sand borrow area the county has been using for renourishment would have more time to recharge itself with sand shifted by the tides in Tampa Bay, he said.
“We will be allowing our best location to renew itself over a longer period of time and give us a less expensive project in 2023,” he said.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), one of several agencies that must grant a permit before Port Dolphin’s project begins, has given conceptual approval to the sand proposal and has agreed to prioritize the permitting process, Hunsicker said.
Port Dolphin also has been cooperative with the county, he said, informally agreeing to share yet undetermined costs that the county will incur by losing federal funds due to changing the beach renourishment schedule.
“We look forward to working out details,” said Port Dolphin spokesman Wayne Hopkins of Tampa public relations firm Hill and Knowlton, adding that the negotiations are a result of a recent request by Manatee County commissioners for a meeting of the parties – Port Dolphin, Manatee County, DEP and Longboat Key.
But Longboat Key officials said they were unaware of the proposal, which would require the town to contribute funding for the renourishment project.
“We do not know what negotiations Manatee County and Port Dolphin have had,” said Juan Florensa, the town’s public works director. “We’re working with DEP to get to the bottom of this and determine if there is a proposal.”
Town officials have criticized Port Dolphin for being unresponsive to requests for information on the location and quality of underwater sand deposits the company discovered in its engineering studies.
A formal agreement is expected to be presented to Manatee County Commissioners on July 28.
