Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/332945
"The Army Corps of Engineers is not listen- ing," reads a letter the organization plans to send to the Boaters' Coalition and Siesta res- idents. "They were told that there are other sources of sand for the few spots on Lido Key that need to be renourished. They were told that groins on South Lido beach could have a negative impact on Ted Sperling Park. They were told that the first ever dredge of Big Pass could have the same negative impact on navigation that it has had on New Pass and Longboat Pass. They were told that dredging Big Pass could destroy the natural renour- ishment process for the northern Siesta beaches which have never had to be artifi- cially renourished." Van Roekens, the Siesta Key and boating advo- cate, says a third-party review of the Army Corps report would be a good next step. The city has hired coastal engineering con- sultant Cliff Truitt to conduct a peer review. That should be completed in early July, said city Senior Communications Manager Jan Thornburg. But the city's peer review will not cut it, van Roekens said. "Cliff [Truitt] has worked on the original pro- posal that all this is based on," van Roekens pointed out. "So having Cliff review this doesn't make sense." Van Roekens has suggested an outside expert such as an analyst at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "We really want an honest peer review that looks at what are the risks and what was the modeling structure that says this is OK to do," van Roekens added. "If we need to hire one, we will, if we can col- lect enough money to do so," van Roekens said. SOSS2 is collecting contributions with the hope it can fund its own third-party analysis of the Army Corps report. This week, the group started an effort to try to triple the amount of money it has collected thus far, reaching out to the Boaters' Coalition and Siesta residents and business owners. "In a peer review, we don't want to worry about re-running [Army Corps] models," van Roekens told the News Leader. "We want to look at the structure of their models and the relationship of their models and the age of the data that went in. It's all pretty old informa- tion. What data did they feed into the model? "Someone really needs to take a look at that," he continued, "because they are resting their whole case on an unlikely assumption — that this will cause no harm, [that] it will make navigation better, which is preposterous." He believes that a modified, simplified project, such as adding less sand to targeted erosion hot spots on Lido, could solve the problems without creating the potential for negative impacts to the south. But the Army Corps has maintained that the $19 million compre- hensive project is the only option. "Take it or leave it," van Roekens said of the Army Corps' view. Will all of this come down to a legal challenge? "We hope not," van Roekens responded. "But if it does, that is what it will be." To read the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' report on the Lido Renourishment Project, visit the Sarasota County website. % Sarasota News Leader June 20, 2014 Page 24