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Although the Corps' estimate for the amount of sand it will need for the first renourishment has been cited alternately as 1.3 million and 1.2 million cubic yards of sand, the original plan called for all the material to be dredged from Big Pass for the first initiative to fill in a 1.6-mile stretch of Lido from just north of John Ringling Boulevard to Lido Key Park. Last week, Laird Wreford, coastal resources manager for Sarasota County, told the News Leader the Corps recently had informed him it is looking now at taking perhaps 200,000 cubic yards of sand from New Pass during that first renourishment effort, instead of removing the entire amount from Big Pass. That was a reaction to fears raised by Siesta Key residents and organizations such as the SKA and SKCC, Wreford pointed out. THE HISTORY Bankemper explained that 20 years ago, when the City of Venice and the City of Sarasota eyed sand from Big Pass for renourishment projects, independent scientific analysis showed cause for concern. A report released in January 1994 by David G. Aubrey, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Robert Dolan, a member of the Department of Environmental Sciences faculty at the University of Virginia, said, "Siesta Key's stability and low erosion rates are linked, both directly and indirectly, to the Big Sarasota Pass ebb shoal's capacity to shelter the key from high wave and storm forces, as well as to the sand transport that occurs in conjunction with the shoal, the pass, and the key. If the dredging planned by During the Feb. 4 Siesta Key Village Association meeting, Jeff Madden of Beach Bites (left), Wendall Jacobson of Beach Bazaar (second from right) and architect Mark Smith (right) listen as Maria Bankemper of Best Western Plus-Siesta Key explains the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce's opposition to the dredging of Big Pass. Photo by Rachel Hackney Sarasota News Leader February 7, 2014 Page 61