BLIND PASS RESTORATION		  
     
 

Status Report November 22nd   

The Blind Pass DEP permit was issued on Friday, December 9. The federal permit is expected within 60 days. The County is investigating the option of maintenance dredgining Blind Pass in the Spring of 2012

For a copy of the permit please click here.

  
Bayous Preservation Feb 2011

Blind Pass Post Construction 6 Month Monitoring Report
Blind Pass 1 Year Monitoring Report 

Blind Pass Physical Monitoring Plan
 


The project consists of maintenance dredging the closed Pass and creating a channel from the Gulf of Mexico to Wulfert and Roosevelt Channels, between Captiva and Sanibel Islands. The excavation of approximately 140,000 cubic yards of material would be placed along the shoreline of Sanibel Island with 10,000 cubic yard being disposed in an upland facility.

The project limits are within a critically eroded area, as designated by the FDEP, between reference monuments R-108 and R-114. The maintenance dredging will restore a fluid connection between Wulfert Channel and the Gulf of Mexico. The project is an element of the long term management of the pass and surrounding ecosystem. As a secondary benefit, the maintenance connection, in conjunction with a culvert installation connecting Clam and Dinkins Bayou (not included in this Budget Plan submittal), will improve the water condition and flushing within Clam Bayou. This will enhance the more than 200-acre mangrove estuary, and improve the fishery and wildlife habitat existing in the eco-system. In addition, the project will provide improvements to the adjacent shoreline for recreational benefits.

Local concerns have been raised about the recent infilling of Blind Pass, interrupting tidal exchange and flushing in the Blind Pass/Dinkins Bayou/Pine Island Sound system, and causing degradation of the eco-zone environment. The Blind Pass Restoration Project is designed to remove sand that has deposited in the pass since 1989 and place it on the beaches of Sanibel Island, as recommended in the Blind Pass Inlet Management Plan (CP&E, 1993).

A feasibility study conducted for the City of Sanibel, Captiva Erosion Prevention District (CEPD), and Lee County, in September 2003 recommends the project to provide a stable tidal connection between Clam Bayou and the Gulf of Mexico