Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/161733
Sarasota News Leader August 30, 2013 Page 43 mission, the U.S. Environmental Protection ta Key and Casey Key … [which are] barrier Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and islands located between the western side of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Little Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 12 miles south of the city of The plaintiffs originally filed the suit in March Sarasota." 2011 but withdrew it in the fall of 2011 after the determination was made that errors in It further noted that the pass appeared on navthe lawsuit could have hindered its progress igation charts dating to 1883. Even the "imthrough the legal system, Herbert told the proper dumping of approximately 225,000 News Leader in June 2012. cubic yards of dredged material" during the construction of the Intracoastal Waterway The revised lawsuit contended that "acts and in the 1960s did not cause the pass to close omissions of federal, state and local govern- naturally, the lawsuit contended, though that mental officials are keeping Midnight Pass dumping did result in the pass migrating, leadartificially closed, which is causing ongoing ing to erosion of beachfront property. harm to the environment, the Florida manatee, and residents of the Siesta Key area in In 1983, two Siesta Key residents "whose continuing violation of the Clean Water Act homes were threatened by beach erosion arand the Endangered Species Act …" tificially filled Midnight Pass with spoil and sand and closed it," the lawsuit pointed out. The lawsuit pointed out that Midnight Pass "was a natural and navigable channel owned Those private homeowners were Syd Soloby the State of Florida at the juncture of Sies- mon and Pasco Carter Jr. Commissioner Nora Patterson. Photo by Norman Schimmel