A gorgeous, highly productive, two-mile stretch of beach and adjacent reefs could get smothered by a dredge-and-fill operation if the City of Boca Raton gets their way.

The 67-acre Red Reef Park, home of the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Education Center in Boca Raton, Florida, is historically a good place to jump in and grab lobsters right off the beach. Surfers love the place, and fishing is encouraged in the park. Sneak down there before dawn in the summer and early fall when the baitfish are in, and you’ll probably find a nice snook lurking around the reefs.

The area is also a favorite among bluewater hunters. In late winter and early spring, the Gulf gang of kingfish takes over the 10- to 30-foot reefs and pinnacles off North Boca. Indeed, there are a lot of the reasons to love this stretch of coast, including coral reefs, and as many or more reasons to steward it carefully.

But the City of Boca Raton seems a lot more concerned about creating a berm between the Gulf Stream and the condos perched precariously atop dunes, than about the beach-going public and the resources that draw the public to the area. This winter, the City plans to “re-nourish” the beaches updrift of Red Reef Park, even though many veteran divers say that the last dredging project partially buried the Park’s reefs. And through their consultant, Coastal Planning & Engineering (CP&E), the City has asked the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for a variance to the state’s turbidity regulations that govern these massive dredge-and-fill operations.

Typically, the state sets a limit of 29 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTUs). But independent scientists maintain that levels as low as 20 NTUs are enough to kill some coral species or permanently retard their growth. The issue has been addressed at several Coral Reef Task Force meetings and conferences that were attended by CP&E employees. However, CP&E’s variance request asks for a “mixing zone variance” that would allow a turbidity plume to stretch as far as 300 meters offshore and within 3,050 meters from the “point of discharge.”

A turbidity plume of that length and breadth would cover many acres of nearshore hardbottom and extend out over coral reefs.

“In our opinion, this significant deviation from existing guidelines is unwarranted and will result in the irreparable harm to the nearshore coral environment,” said Ed Tichenor, Director of Palm Beach Reef Rescue. “Further, the petitioner does not provide defendable justification for the variance, which appears to be designed to avoid sand-compatibility requirements and turbidity standards.”

Area dive clubs and the Surfrider Foundation also point to the contractor’s poor track record. Complaints about CP&E’s construction practices and project performances come from as far away as North Carolina. And CP&E’s geologists apparently gave the compatibility stamp to more 200,000 yards of clay, silt and rock that were trucked onto St. Lucie beaches--North America’s second or third most important turtle nesting beaches--after the 2004 hurricanes. State and federal agencies eventually forced St. Lucie County to remove the fill, but not until after a poor turtle nesting season and not before more than half the material had washed onto the extensive nearshore reefs.

More recently, CP&E designed and oversaw a Town of Palm Beach project, at “Reach 7,” between Phipps Park and Kruesler Park. The state is blaming the hurricanes for the layer of silt now smothering the coral reefs adjacent to the dredging site. But video transects conducted by scientists from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute show that the reefs were clean between Hurricane Wilma and when the dredging commenced. Leaders in the dive community suspect that the Town of Palm Beach is using its political clout to suppress the facts.

“This project was a crime. It violated the public trust, and should not be tolerated. I am requesting an investigation and a response to these issues,” wrote Connie Gasque, a celebrated artist and a matriarchal figure in the Palm Beach County diving community.

The Phipps project purported to restore turtle nesting habitat and recreation on this reef-rich stretch of coast. However, data shows that the project may have been unwarranted. The beach has been largely stable since 1917, and turtle nesting success was historically relatively high along Reach 7. But in early June, FS staff and representatives from the National Wildlife Federation toured Phipps. The new fake beach is now very hard, possibly because the materials that were used for the project cemented together.

Dr. Hal Wanless, Chair of Geological Sciences at the University of Miami says the material has never been on a beach.

As of June 10, six-foot-high cliffs called “escarpments” effectively create a turtle barrier, and a huge pond has formed courtesy of a large swale about half way up the berm. Such “ponding” can impede turtle nesting, drown existing nests and confuse juveniles.

Further, families came to the beach because of the little “kiddy pools” created behind the nearshore reefs, and it was a phenomenal surf fishing and snorkeling spot until the project buried the reefs. And the sediment used for the project was only slightly larger than silt, so the University of Miami geologists who analyzed the material expect it to erode rapidly, in an area where three subsequent reef tracts are in close proximity to the shoreline.

“We often pay twice for these projects—first with our tax dollars, and again with the loss of public trust resources, including our reefs,” said Ericka D’Avanzo, Florida Manager for the Surfrider Foundation. “Phipps, and now the proposed Boca project, are prime examples of how it is unfair to jeopardize or destroy irreplaceable resources so that a few beachfront residents can have a short-lived and often false sense of security about living in harms way.”

Palm Beach Reef Rescue, the Surfrider Foundation, and several dive organizations have requested an extension of the public comment period and a public hearing. You can send comments regarding the North Boca turbidity variance to FDEP’s Bernard Appleman; Bernard.Appleman@dep.state.fl.us. You should also copy Lizbeth Childs; Lizbeth.childs@dep.state.fl.us.