Resolution 139-1979
I'
"...
RESOLUTION # 139-79
WHEREAS, the BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS of MONROE County,
Florida, approved for Boyd Hamilton, on April 18, 1978, the
construction of 90 linear ft. of rip-rap Seawall and,
WHEREAS, the Department of Environmental Regulation pursuant
to Section 253.124, Florida Statutes, requires that before a State
Permit can be issued that a Biological Assessment made by DER
be read into the Minutes of the County Commission.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the following Biological
Assessment be read into the Minutes of the County Commission and
approved by that same body.
The applicant proposes to place approximately 90 linear feet of
rip-rap below MHW and across the north of a pocket of wetlands
that is debris filled. The rip-rap will extend from a point on
the main shoreline about 90 linear feet and about 10' below MHW.
It will terminate at a point about 30' out from the main shoreline
MHW along a finger-fill that projects out into the bay-bottom.
This is as revised on 5/24/79. The outer limits of the rip-rap
are to be within these dimensions and should be aligned with a series
of metal poles in place and agreed to with the applicant.
The area behind the rip-rap includes stressed baybottom and the
debris filled mangrove pocket. As revised, the total area to be
filled is about 50' x 120'. The applicant estimates that about
3500 cubic yards of clean backfill is to be placed but this is
though to be excessive and to fill the entire area 3' deep would
require about 700 cubic yards of fill.
The project site is on the east side of Stock Island, an area of
heavy residential and commercial development and much altered
shoreline. To the north of the project side are several large
finger-fill areas which have formed isolated areas as has U.S. #1
which is also the north of the site. The shoreline for about 1,000'
immediately to the North of the site is part of the campground with
some natural mangrove shoreline remaining although much of this is
debris-filled through years of accumulation. Immediately to the
south of the site is a fill projection of about 100' which isolates
the site from southerly winds and results in an entrapment basin
with no longshore currents. Peripheral artificial channels exist
further to the south with trailer park development along the shore-
line.
Inland, residential and commercial development is about 100%.
Offshore waters are relatively shallow with soft sediments and
seagrasses.
Some of the baybottom is of adequate depth for navigation and the
area is heavily traveled by boats due to the shoreline development
(campgrourd and marinas) .
The project site is oriented to the NE and embayed by the fingerfill
and culverted dock to the south and a mangrove fringe immediately
to the north. The wetland, mangrove pocket proposed to be filled,
BOOK
~" .~Il
~-\, -'\~
PAGE 0'-\ '5
APP-ROVED ON
lo3
has red (Rhizothora mangle), black (Avicennia germinans) and some
white (Laguncu aria racemosa) mangroves with Borrichia Spa in the
upper reaches of the pocket. The functioning value of these mangroves
as detritus producers and runoff filterers has been lost by the
almost totally debris-filled condition of this pocket. Many years
accumulation of large debris in the tidal area (metals, fiberglass,
wood, concrete, plastics, etc.) and rubble and old fill material
in the transitional and upper wetlands have totally altered the
area. Sedimets are anoxic with silt and debris several feet deep
with no significant productive value as determined by cursory
sampling (other than filamentous algae characteristic of stressed
conditions). This bottom condition of debris and silt exists out
to the line determined and revised as the outer limits of the rip-
rap. Beyond this, the sedimets are less soft and less organic and
support healthy growths of shoal grass (Diplanthera wri~htii) and
epiphytic algae. Benthos here is expected to include s~gnificant
populations of polychaetes, small crustaceans and molluscs
characteristic of shoal-grass bottom.
The shorelines above MLW are eroded rock rubble with little or no
attached vegetation and no transitional zone exists due to the
erosion of upland fill that forms the existing shoreline.
Due to the degraded condition of the area proposed to be filled,
there will be little adverse impact on local biological resources.
An area of anoxic sedimets and debris will be eliminated removing
their smooth the shoreline removing entrapment areas without impacting
outlying seagrasses.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, by the Board of County Commissioners
of Monroe County, Florida, that said Board hereby gives its approval
for the construction of the above mentioned project.
RESOLVED this
17th
day of Ju1 y
1979, at a Regularly
scheduled Meeting.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
MONROE County, Florida
ATTEST~----- I By
~4~b--
~
/l&~
.. rman
LDL\