Friday, August 28, 2009
Gary,
Attached is my petition that you requested. Also, following are a few items that I am sending to you again related to the renourishment issue. As you know, renourishment itself is not the main concern as much as the related issues about riparian rights that are being violated by a practice that establishes arbitrary erosion control lines (ECL's) that amounts to the taking of deeded private properties. Of course there are many other related concerns such as: (1) contrived multiple tiers of high taxation in five 8 year increments totaling 40 years; (2) a plan that calls for placing sand over the very rocks that induced the erosion in the first place; (3) the known short life of renourishment projects; (4) plans to renourish and tax a 1mile gap of non-eroded beach; (5) the known negative effects of dredging and sand placement on wildlife habitat and the ecology in general; (6) the lack of scientific justification and/or participation; and (7) the lack of considering other viable alternatives: (a) removing the rocks and letting natural beach dynamics heal the beach as it always did before rock-induced erosion; (b) re-routing the highway inland and away from the beach front.
FYI: If you click on http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1353048331&ref=name and go to my Facebook site, there is a photo album on "Alligator Point Beach Erosion" showing before and after pictures of rock-induced erosion. I haven't had a chance yet to place the photos in chronological order but the effects can be seen.
Bill
************************************************************
Alligator Point Beach Renourishment A Mistake
The Times Apalachicola & Carrabelle
February 28, 2008
Alligator Point Beach Renourishment A Mistake
To the Editor
Thanks Bill Haughton! One would have to have more dollars than sense to vote for the proposed Alligator Point beach restoration project. Franklin County has a long history of inept and abusive management resulting in induced-erosion that has destroyed and blighted our community, environment, and safety. Now, the County proposes to assess us for 3 contrived tiers of taxes for 8 years, renewable 5 times, for a total of 40 years of payments, all to repair the damage that they caused. The County also refuses to contribute to any of it or to use taxes that have already been collected over the years. The proposed restoration project predictably will be short-lasting and is rife with serious flaws regarding the biological impacts of dredging and pumping sand, land grabbing erosion control lines, highway safety, citizen affordability, etc.
Many of us will be burdened by a taxation that may force us to default or sell at low prices. Alligator Point is our home. We don't want to leave it but may have to because of uncaring leadership that is attempting to railroad the community into an unaffordable and bad project. Franklin County has never done anything right on Alligator Point and the proposed restoration project is just another wrongful action in their ongoing cycle of mistakes.
Dr. Bill Wargo, Director
Alligator Point Sea Turtle Patrol, Inc.
Alligator Point
****************************************************************
Just Say No to Beach Renourishment
The Times Apalachicola & Carrabelle
February 21, 2008
Just Say No to Beach Renourishment
To the Editor:
Alligator Point property owners are now receiving a "survey" in the mail. It is a ballot that asks them to vote for or against a beach renourishment project for Alligator Point. The Franklin County Commission is proposing to pump 1.7 million cubic yards of sand over a 2.9-mile stretch of beach. Franklin County hired consultants to manage this project. They came up with an estimate that this project would cost about $8.9 million. Maybe the marine dredging contractors who bid on this project were thinking about a different beach because their lowest bid was $11.4 million. With the economy in a downturn, with the housing market on Alligator Point in a slump and with Franklin County already the highest per capita taxed county in Florida, one wonders why the Franklin County Commission seems hell-bent on rushing this costly project through at this time.The great majority of city planners agree that beach renourishment is economically feasible only in highly urbanized areas. When Walton County completed its beach renourishment project in 2007, it did not cost the property owners of Walton County one penny, since $3 million came from the Tourist Development Council. Franklin County raised less than $500,000 last year from the TDC. Certainly, Alligator Point falls far short of being classified as a highly urbanized area. There are only about 750 property owners who will have to shoulder the cost of beach restoration. The Franklin County Commission appears to be oblivious to this fact. The state of Florida is defraying a portion of the cost but the balance is being paid with assessments levied against Alligator Point Property owners. The calculation of assessments was based on the estimated $8.9 million cost. That estimate is $2.5 million less than the lowest bid. Where is that $2.5 million coming from? Adding to this financial shortfall, about $1.6 million of the state's contribution is not guaranteed. Franklin County has a letter committing the state but the state will not sign a contract guaranteeing that this money will be there when it is needed. If Charlie Crist and his budget-crunching legislature decide not to release that money, Franklin County will have no recourse. Where will that money come from? A property owner should be concerned!Franklin County officials have chosen to do this project during the height of the hurricane and the turtle nesting season, which might not be so bad if it weren't for a killer clause in the dredging contract that has not been given much publicity. The dredging contract will impose a $3,500 per hour charge for standby time. What does this mean? Simply this - if the contractor's workers are not allowed to work six hours per day because of a work stoppage, Franklin County will be billed $3,500 per hour until work begins again. If a hurricane occurs, if a nesting turtle stops work, the clock starts regardless. If there is a legal challenge to this project (which is likely), it's $3,500 per hour while the workers sit around doing nothing while the lawyers fight it out.A restored beach tends to erode faster than natural beaches. Once a beach is restored with dredged sand, it almost always is necessary to dredge again at five-to-eight year intervals. Hurricane Dennis hit Alligator Point on July 10, 2005. It not only destroyed Alligator Drive, but it badly eroded our beach in one area. Had our beach been renourished at that time, Dennis in a few hours would have removed a good portion of the sand that cost Alligator Point property owners millions in assessments. . Dr. Joseph Donohue of the FSU Department of Geology, an expert on coastal erosion, summed it up this way, "That's the dirty little secret about renourishment they don't tell you. It won't last very long. They basically last till the first big storm."Incidentally, the Franklin County Commission has chosen to leave Alligator Drive in a state of disrepair since it was destroyed by Dennis in 2005. I would urge property owners on Alligator Point to vote "NO" on this renourishment project. If you find it difficult to sell your house on Alligator Point, how much more difficult will it be with a large assessment added to the price? Vote "NO"!
Bill Haughton
Alligator Point
***************************************************************
Fallacies of Taxation Proposal, Calculations, and Plans for the Proposed Beach Re-nourishment Project for Alligator Point, FL
Bill Wargo, April 3, 2007
1. Invalid community survey
2. Aesthetics benefit added without notice
3. Logic of quantifying aesthetics is flawed
4. Research concerning safety and evacuation benefits flawed
5. Calculation of trip generation is wrong
6. There is no discussion or data about the short re-nourishment project option
7. Proposal calls for taxing in November for a plan not yet complete or approved
8. Owners of multiple properties get only 1 vote but taxed multiple times
9. Taxation without representation by commissioners who dont represent us
10. No accountability for the historical causes of erosion induced by Franklin County
11. Exact locations of County Park, R-212 to R-214 not clearly marked
12. Public access and parking between Pelican St. and Gulf Shore Blvd. not identified
13. Taxation calculations and burdens grossly unfair to several residents
14. Taxation is property-based, not people-based, not based on true benefits received
15. Scientific research shows that beach re-nourishment is not long-lasting, often for only a year.
16. The plan calls for leaving rocks in place and placing sand over them. The cause of the erosion in the first place was induced by those rocks.
17. Offshore dredging and pumping of sand would destroy countless sea-life nurseries and feeding areas as well as ruining beach habitat, vegetation, and sea turtle nesting grounds.
**********************************************************************
Tallahassee Democrat article published Apr 29, 2007
Learn from our coastal mistakes
By Jack Rudloe MY VIEW
I have always maintained that the primary purpose of Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory is to corrupt young minds. We do it by stimulating children's natural curiosity about life, by giving them a chance to use all their senses, by touching, feeling, seeing, hearing and sometimes even tasting the vast array of living creatures that live in the waters of Apalachee Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
Hence we are opening its' unique "Monsters of the Deep" exhibit that will display a smither of tremendous diversity of eerie life forms that exist off the edge of the continental shelf in 200 fathoms. Kids can view giant sea roaches, stalked barnacles, deep sea squids in jars back lit by spooky lights, and make them revolve by turning hand cranks. They will learn about the fragile life that exists in the Desoto Canyon, a hundred miles off Pensacola.
Some would call this exhibit educational, environmental or scientific. Although each of our instructors and teachers at the Panacea lab have different styles and messages, when I lecture to children I tell them that when they take charge, they will have the unpleasant task of undoing the mess that my generation, their grandparents and parents, have left them.
Someday when they take the reins of leadership, they will hear the worn-out petitions of developers who want to fill wetlands, cut down the trees and destroy the habitat to make a fast buck. And I tell that kids that if they want seafood, recreation and drinking water, they will have to say no.
That's right, no permit, no exceptions, no political back-slapping, arm-twisting and play along to get along - just say no!
It is not our mission to hold the hands of the large corporations while they steal our public access and destroy the precious resources with their belligerent attacks on the landscape. If they want their children to grow up catching frogs in the pond and turning over rocks to catch crawfish, they have to take a stand.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just took a stand against the enormously destructive proposed Magnolia Bay development in Taylor County. The Corps did something unheard of - it said no!
The agency did so because there were 1,100 letters and an impressive battery of environmental groups protesting the dredge and fill permit that would have destroyed large areas of sea-grass beds and wetlands. All the environmental agencies, state, federal and private conservation groups united to oppose this development because it would have set a terrible precedent.
I'm hoping that conservationists will unite to oppose other bad developments, like the ones being planned for Alligator Point, St. Teresa and Ochlockonee Bay. I'm hoping that environmental agencies will say no to the handful of property owners that are storming ahead to pump sand on the beaches of Alligator Point. They are expecting the public, and other Alligator Point residents who don't live on the beaches, to pay for their dredging.
It's a bad project and a bad idea. It will damage one of the best sand-dollar beaches in the world and could destroy a good shrimping bottom. If they succeeding in sucking up sand from south shoals, they will destroy habitat for white and pink shrimp, not to mention blue crabs and a great number of other marine life forms that gather there.
It doesn't matter to them that sea turtles will be ground into turtle burger by the dredges. It's been shown over and over again that nesting turtles rarely nest in dredged up sand with its rearranged grain structure. And in the end, after doing great damage, it will wash away in a few years.
My fondest hope is that one day there will be a new generation of leaders who appreciate the rich wonders of the sea. I'm hoping that, through environmental education, the children will be able to sift through the wreckage their parents left behind. No doubt they will have to deal with water shortages, pollution, rampaging diseases and wars over resources, but the human spirit is strong and we will likely survive.
My hope is that when wasteful projects like the Alligator Point Beach Renourishment Plan or damaging proposals from companies like St. Joe come before them to build condos and subdivisions in fragile coastal wetlands they will say no - just like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did to the Magnolia Bay proposal.
******************************************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: Gary Appelson
To: wargobill@earthlink.net
Sent: 8/27/2009 2:55:05 PM
Subject: RE: US Supreme Court Beach Renourishment Case
Bill, the links are not hot- can you send me your case or something that explains it. A lot of folks were very surprised the SC was willing to hear the SBR case.
Thanks
g
Gary Appelson
Caribbean Conservation Corporation
and Sea Turtle Survival League
4424 NW 13th St., Suite B-11
Gainesville, Fl. 32609
352-373-6441
************************************************************
From: William Wargo [mailto:wargobill@earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 1:30 PMTo: Selected RecipientsSubject: FYI: US Supreme Court Beach Renourishment Case
The case Walton County v. Stop Beach Renourishment, Inc., has been accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court and will be heard in December, 2010. My related case, Wargo v. DEP and Franklin County Alligator Point Beach Restoration, which also deals with ECI's and Riparian Rights will be in abeyance until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules. My attorney will be the one arguing the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attached is my petition that you requested. Also, following are a few items that I am sending to you again related to the renourishment issue. As you know, renourishment itself is not the main concern as much as the related issues about riparian rights that are being violated by a practice that establishes arbitrary erosion control lines (ECL's) that amounts to the taking of deeded private properties. Of course there are many other related concerns such as: (1) contrived multiple tiers of high taxation in five 8 year increments totaling 40 years; (2) a plan that calls for placing sand over the very rocks that induced the erosion in the first place; (3) the known short life of renourishment projects; (4) plans to renourish and tax a 1mile gap of non-eroded beach; (5) the known negative effects of dredging and sand placement on wildlife habitat and the ecology in general; (6) the lack of scientific justification and/or participation; and (7) the lack of considering other viable alternatives: (a) removing the rocks and letting natural beach dynamics heal the beach as it always did before rock-induced erosion; (b) re-routing the highway inland and away from the beach front.
FYI: If you click on http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1353048331&ref=name and go to my Facebook site, there is a photo album on "Alligator Point Beach Erosion" showing before and after pictures of rock-induced erosion. I haven't had a chance yet to place the photos in chronological order but the effects can be seen.
Bill
************************************************************
Alligator Point Beach Renourishment A Mistake
The Times Apalachicola & Carrabelle
February 28, 2008
Alligator Point Beach Renourishment A Mistake
To the Editor
Thanks Bill Haughton! One would have to have more dollars than sense to vote for the proposed Alligator Point beach restoration project. Franklin County has a long history of inept and abusive management resulting in induced-erosion that has destroyed and blighted our community, environment, and safety. Now, the County proposes to assess us for 3 contrived tiers of taxes for 8 years, renewable 5 times, for a total of 40 years of payments, all to repair the damage that they caused. The County also refuses to contribute to any of it or to use taxes that have already been collected over the years. The proposed restoration project predictably will be short-lasting and is rife with serious flaws regarding the biological impacts of dredging and pumping sand, land grabbing erosion control lines, highway safety, citizen affordability, etc.
Many of us will be burdened by a taxation that may force us to default or sell at low prices. Alligator Point is our home. We don't want to leave it but may have to because of uncaring leadership that is attempting to railroad the community into an unaffordable and bad project. Franklin County has never done anything right on Alligator Point and the proposed restoration project is just another wrongful action in their ongoing cycle of mistakes.
Dr. Bill Wargo, Director
Alligator Point Sea Turtle Patrol, Inc.
Alligator Point
****************************************************************
Just Say No to Beach Renourishment
The Times Apalachicola & Carrabelle
February 21, 2008
Just Say No to Beach Renourishment
To the Editor:
Alligator Point property owners are now receiving a "survey" in the mail. It is a ballot that asks them to vote for or against a beach renourishment project for Alligator Point. The Franklin County Commission is proposing to pump 1.7 million cubic yards of sand over a 2.9-mile stretch of beach. Franklin County hired consultants to manage this project. They came up with an estimate that this project would cost about $8.9 million. Maybe the marine dredging contractors who bid on this project were thinking about a different beach because their lowest bid was $11.4 million. With the economy in a downturn, with the housing market on Alligator Point in a slump and with Franklin County already the highest per capita taxed county in Florida, one wonders why the Franklin County Commission seems hell-bent on rushing this costly project through at this time.The great majority of city planners agree that beach renourishment is economically feasible only in highly urbanized areas. When Walton County completed its beach renourishment project in 2007, it did not cost the property owners of Walton County one penny, since $3 million came from the Tourist Development Council. Franklin County raised less than $500,000 last year from the TDC. Certainly, Alligator Point falls far short of being classified as a highly urbanized area. There are only about 750 property owners who will have to shoulder the cost of beach restoration. The Franklin County Commission appears to be oblivious to this fact. The state of Florida is defraying a portion of the cost but the balance is being paid with assessments levied against Alligator Point Property owners. The calculation of assessments was based on the estimated $8.9 million cost. That estimate is $2.5 million less than the lowest bid. Where is that $2.5 million coming from? Adding to this financial shortfall, about $1.6 million of the state's contribution is not guaranteed. Franklin County has a letter committing the state but the state will not sign a contract guaranteeing that this money will be there when it is needed. If Charlie Crist and his budget-crunching legislature decide not to release that money, Franklin County will have no recourse. Where will that money come from? A property owner should be concerned!Franklin County officials have chosen to do this project during the height of the hurricane and the turtle nesting season, which might not be so bad if it weren't for a killer clause in the dredging contract that has not been given much publicity. The dredging contract will impose a $3,500 per hour charge for standby time. What does this mean? Simply this - if the contractor's workers are not allowed to work six hours per day because of a work stoppage, Franklin County will be billed $3,500 per hour until work begins again. If a hurricane occurs, if a nesting turtle stops work, the clock starts regardless. If there is a legal challenge to this project (which is likely), it's $3,500 per hour while the workers sit around doing nothing while the lawyers fight it out.A restored beach tends to erode faster than natural beaches. Once a beach is restored with dredged sand, it almost always is necessary to dredge again at five-to-eight year intervals. Hurricane Dennis hit Alligator Point on July 10, 2005. It not only destroyed Alligator Drive, but it badly eroded our beach in one area. Had our beach been renourished at that time, Dennis in a few hours would have removed a good portion of the sand that cost Alligator Point property owners millions in assessments. . Dr. Joseph Donohue of the FSU Department of Geology, an expert on coastal erosion, summed it up this way, "That's the dirty little secret about renourishment they don't tell you. It won't last very long. They basically last till the first big storm."Incidentally, the Franklin County Commission has chosen to leave Alligator Drive in a state of disrepair since it was destroyed by Dennis in 2005. I would urge property owners on Alligator Point to vote "NO" on this renourishment project. If you find it difficult to sell your house on Alligator Point, how much more difficult will it be with a large assessment added to the price? Vote "NO"!
Bill Haughton
Alligator Point
***************************************************************
Fallacies of Taxation Proposal, Calculations, and Plans for the Proposed Beach Re-nourishment Project for Alligator Point, FL
Bill Wargo, April 3, 2007
1. Invalid community survey
2. Aesthetics benefit added without notice
3. Logic of quantifying aesthetics is flawed
4. Research concerning safety and evacuation benefits flawed
5. Calculation of trip generation is wrong
6. There is no discussion or data about the short re-nourishment project option
7. Proposal calls for taxing in November for a plan not yet complete or approved
8. Owners of multiple properties get only 1 vote but taxed multiple times
9. Taxation without representation by commissioners who dont represent us
10. No accountability for the historical causes of erosion induced by Franklin County
11. Exact locations of County Park, R-212 to R-214 not clearly marked
12. Public access and parking between Pelican St. and Gulf Shore Blvd. not identified
13. Taxation calculations and burdens grossly unfair to several residents
14. Taxation is property-based, not people-based, not based on true benefits received
15. Scientific research shows that beach re-nourishment is not long-lasting, often for only a year.
16. The plan calls for leaving rocks in place and placing sand over them. The cause of the erosion in the first place was induced by those rocks.
17. Offshore dredging and pumping of sand would destroy countless sea-life nurseries and feeding areas as well as ruining beach habitat, vegetation, and sea turtle nesting grounds.
**********************************************************************
Tallahassee Democrat article published Apr 29, 2007
Learn from our coastal mistakes
By Jack Rudloe MY VIEW
I have always maintained that the primary purpose of Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory is to corrupt young minds. We do it by stimulating children's natural curiosity about life, by giving them a chance to use all their senses, by touching, feeling, seeing, hearing and sometimes even tasting the vast array of living creatures that live in the waters of Apalachee Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
Hence we are opening its' unique "Monsters of the Deep" exhibit that will display a smither of tremendous diversity of eerie life forms that exist off the edge of the continental shelf in 200 fathoms. Kids can view giant sea roaches, stalked barnacles, deep sea squids in jars back lit by spooky lights, and make them revolve by turning hand cranks. They will learn about the fragile life that exists in the Desoto Canyon, a hundred miles off Pensacola.
Some would call this exhibit educational, environmental or scientific. Although each of our instructors and teachers at the Panacea lab have different styles and messages, when I lecture to children I tell them that when they take charge, they will have the unpleasant task of undoing the mess that my generation, their grandparents and parents, have left them.
Someday when they take the reins of leadership, they will hear the worn-out petitions of developers who want to fill wetlands, cut down the trees and destroy the habitat to make a fast buck. And I tell that kids that if they want seafood, recreation and drinking water, they will have to say no.
That's right, no permit, no exceptions, no political back-slapping, arm-twisting and play along to get along - just say no!
It is not our mission to hold the hands of the large corporations while they steal our public access and destroy the precious resources with their belligerent attacks on the landscape. If they want their children to grow up catching frogs in the pond and turning over rocks to catch crawfish, they have to take a stand.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just took a stand against the enormously destructive proposed Magnolia Bay development in Taylor County. The Corps did something unheard of - it said no!
The agency did so because there were 1,100 letters and an impressive battery of environmental groups protesting the dredge and fill permit that would have destroyed large areas of sea-grass beds and wetlands. All the environmental agencies, state, federal and private conservation groups united to oppose this development because it would have set a terrible precedent.
I'm hoping that conservationists will unite to oppose other bad developments, like the ones being planned for Alligator Point, St. Teresa and Ochlockonee Bay. I'm hoping that environmental agencies will say no to the handful of property owners that are storming ahead to pump sand on the beaches of Alligator Point. They are expecting the public, and other Alligator Point residents who don't live on the beaches, to pay for their dredging.
It's a bad project and a bad idea. It will damage one of the best sand-dollar beaches in the world and could destroy a good shrimping bottom. If they succeeding in sucking up sand from south shoals, they will destroy habitat for white and pink shrimp, not to mention blue crabs and a great number of other marine life forms that gather there.
It doesn't matter to them that sea turtles will be ground into turtle burger by the dredges. It's been shown over and over again that nesting turtles rarely nest in dredged up sand with its rearranged grain structure. And in the end, after doing great damage, it will wash away in a few years.
My fondest hope is that one day there will be a new generation of leaders who appreciate the rich wonders of the sea. I'm hoping that, through environmental education, the children will be able to sift through the wreckage their parents left behind. No doubt they will have to deal with water shortages, pollution, rampaging diseases and wars over resources, but the human spirit is strong and we will likely survive.
My hope is that when wasteful projects like the Alligator Point Beach Renourishment Plan or damaging proposals from companies like St. Joe come before them to build condos and subdivisions in fragile coastal wetlands they will say no - just like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did to the Magnolia Bay proposal.
******************************************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: Gary Appelson
To: wargobill@earthlink.net
Sent: 8/27/2009 2:55:05 PM
Subject: RE: US Supreme Court Beach Renourishment Case
Bill, the links are not hot- can you send me your case or something that explains it. A lot of folks were very surprised the SC was willing to hear the SBR case.
Thanks
g
Gary Appelson
Caribbean Conservation Corporation
and Sea Turtle Survival League
4424 NW 13th St., Suite B-11
Gainesville, Fl. 32609
352-373-6441
************************************************************
From: William Wargo [mailto:wargobill@earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 1:30 PMTo: Selected RecipientsSubject: FYI: US Supreme Court Beach Renourishment Case
The case Walton County v. Stop Beach Renourishment, Inc., has been accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court and will be heard in December, 2010. My related case, Wargo v. DEP and Franklin County Alligator Point Beach Restoration, which also deals with ECI's and Riparian Rights will be in abeyance until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules. My attorney will be the one arguing the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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