Will port get 585 acres for $1?
A lawmaker leads the push for Port Manatee.
By CRAIG PITTMAN
Published April 5, 2007
For eight years, Port Manatee has been tied up in a long, expensive fight over a state permit to expand its facilities at the mouth of Tampa Bay.
Now a state lawmaker has proposed simply giving the port the 585 acres of state-owned submerged land that surround it.
What do the state's taxpayers get in return? $1.
Handing over the state land to the port will make it easier and cheaper for port officials to work on expansions, state Rep. Ron Reagan, R-Bradenton, explained Wednesday. A port official said the change would also enhance the port's security as well as improve its ability to be an environmental steward.
But HB 847 may be unconstitutional, according to a House committee staff analysis. The state Constitution says all the submerged land around Florida is "held by the state ... in trust for all the people," and only a vote by the governor and Cabinet can transfer it to someone else.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is opposing the bill. "We prefer that state-owned lands remain in the ownership of the state of Florida," explained DEP spokeswoman Sarah Williams.
But so far Reagan's bill has passed two committees without any dissenting votes, debates or discussion. After one more committee stop it will be headed for a House vote.
Both Reagan and port special projects director Steve Tyndal say giving the port control over the submerged land is not intended to exempt the port from environmental regulations over dredging. The bill, however, says the port alone would have "the right to regulate the improvement of any and all submerged lands" it controlled.
The port's location between two environmentally sensitive aquatic preserves, Cockroach Bay and Terra Ceia, makes expansion difficult. In the mid 1990s, port officials estimated they were losing $3-million a year because they could not accommodate larger ships.
In 1998, port officials proposed launching the biggest dredging project to hit Tampa Bay in three decades. They wanted to add a 40-foot-deep turning basin to the 400-foot-wide channel connected to the bay's main shipping channel. They also wanted to widen the spot where the channels connect and create two berths for big ships.
Dredging 88 acres of bay bottom would wipe out about 12 acres of sea grass. So port officials hired sea grass expert Roy "Robin" Lewis to oversee scooping up the sea grass beds and transplanting them.
State scientists questioned whether the transplanting would work, but DEP officials said they were won over by the port's promise to make sure the transplanting succeeded before using the new berths.
In 2002, despite obvious problems with the transplanting, port officials wrote a glowing report that made it sound like a success. Lewis resigned in protest and became a critic of the port. Another DEP consultant concluded the report was "faith-based, i.e., the reader just has to have faith" that it was accurate.
Meanwhile, the dredging contractor accidentally dumped clay and silt over 7 acres of bay bottom, wiping out another 2 acres of sea grass.
Port officials have lobbied to change their permit so they no longer have to wait to use the new berths. Last year the DEP announced it would modify the permit. Lewis and an environmental group, ManaSota-88, sued.
Two months ago a judge found that "the evidence established that the upfront transplantation ... failed and had not been remediated." So now the DEP is requiring the port to submit a "remedial action plan" for fixing the problems with the transplanting before it can use the new berths.
Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.