"With public sentiment, nothing can fail;  without it nothing can succeed." -- Abraham Lincoln

 

• 09 May 07  Egan's Creek Greenway comments  Opinion Page   

 

• 01 May 07  Editorial Response to a "one man" salt marsh 'Greyway' plan

          Amelia Island’s Egans Creek Greenway – a 238-acre passive park in the island’s heart – is embroiled in controversy with environmentalists and homeowners on one side, and special interests on the other.

          The short story: the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) persuaded the City of Fernandina Beach to permit it to turn some 100 acres of the freshwater Greenway into salt marsh as mitigation for wetlands it destroyed in Duval County.  Faulty engineering caused the entire fresh water ecosystem to become inundated with salt water.  FDOT admits its mistake and, responding to a virtually unanimous outcry from the public, and an unequivocal demand from the city commission, has begun to correct the error.  But one individual, Clinch Kavanaugh, has thrown a wrench into the works with a complaint to the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJWMD) that was about to issue a permit for the FDOT fix-it plan thus delaying the work while salt water continues to destroy trees in the Greenway and threaten homes along its borders.

          Egans Creek’s headwaters lie in the center of the island.  It originally was a meandering stream that wound northward, widening into a delta that opened onto the Amelia River not far from the St. Mary’s River.  Salt water flowed on tides south into the Egans Creek basin, mixing with fresh water coursing from the island’s interior. Beaver dams stabilized the basin into a three-part ecosystem:  salt, brackish and fresh.  While Amelia’s historic stands of maritime forest were reduced by development, they flourished in the Egans Creek basin.

Seventy years ago decisions were made that permanently altered the nature of the basin to accommodate it for development.  Fernandina installed floodgates under the Atlantic Avenue bridge near the north end of the basin to stop the intrusion of saltwater under the roadway.  The creek was also channelized – turned from a meandering stream to a straight north-south canal.  In a failed effort to deal with mosquitoes, the city dug east-west trenches throughout the basin, and dug a secondary channel.  Gradually fresh water vegetation took over the entire basin south of Atlantic and the Greenway was established as a protected park.  Homes were built along both sides of the Greenway.  Otters, raccoons, deer, bobcats, alligators, many ducks and other bird species thrived in the fresh water ecosystem. 

In 2003, FDOT restored the flow of salt water from the north side of Atlantic Avenue to the south with a new system of flood gates to mitigate the destruction of four and one half acres of wetlands in two Duval County projects.

The original mitigation involved only 30 acres, but FDOT enlarged the acreage in the permitting process to include the 106 acres between Atlantic Avenue and Jasmine Street.  At a heated meeting in June of ‘03, citizens requested local officials keep the mitigation to the original 30 acres, but to no avail.   There was also concern that salt water would extend below Jasmine into the southern portion of the basin. FDOT engineers promised that wouldn’t happen and the area below Jasmine would remain a fresh water ecosystem.

The north end of the Greenway now shows significant tidal changes and a succession to a salt marsh system.  However, salt water has flowed under Jasmine and entered the southern Greenway. A 50-acre grove of red maple trees has died, and the destruction to the fresh water ecosystem is spreading.  Further, the water level both above and below Jasmine has increased by about 18 inches and backyards of adjacent homes are being eaten away. 

In response to the ensuing outcry, FDOT held a “town hall” meeting on the issue in March.  Some 80 people who attended were unanimous in their comments that the salt-water intrusion below Jasmine should be stopped immediately.  There was general agreement that there should be studies made – at FDOT expense – to determine what to do next, but preventing further salt water damage was an urgent priority. 

FDOT engineers accepted responsibility and told city commissioners they will fix the damaged Greenway south of Jasmine.

"We have damaged property we didn't have any legal right to, and we will have to remedy that somehow," FDOT Environmental Management Engineer Don Dankert said.

An emergency gravity gate at Jasmine to stop the flow of salt water southward, but permit fresh water to flow north to prevent flooding, is the proposed solution to maintain the status quo until studies can determine the next steps.

The Fernandina City Commission passed an unequivocal resolution to require FDOT to stop salt-water intrusion now and issued a permit to the agency to begin work immediately.

          Despite all this the project has been put on hold because of a formal complaint filed by one man, Kavanaugh.   As a result, further destruction will be allowed to continue until June when the SJWMD board will review the proposed permit.  (SJWMD staff would have issued the permit by now if it wasn’t for the lone objection.)

Kavanaugh’s position is that Egans Creek should be restored to its so-called "natural state” shown on a map he has dated 1769.  That is a very strange position for Kavanaugh, who has represented developers against environmental interests, to take because most of the changes to his map are the result of residential, commercial and industrial development. Amelia Island is far from its "natural state" anywhere.  Egans Creek has been so changed and reengineered by development, that the question of "restoration" is moot. 

Nature does not allow us to go back and replicate a select portion of the past without taking into consideration that the entire past would have to be replicated.  The mitigation destroyed a present day ecosystem, not a 200-year-old environment.  All the homes that line the Greenway are not going to be removed to conform to a 1769 map.  The mosquito control drainage trenches and the canal are not going to be filled to restore the original meandering creek.

          Nassau Sierra Group met with environmental engineers who say "restoration" is not relevant.  What needs to be done, the experts say, is to determine what the community wants the Greenway to be and then determine how best to make it so.  FDOT has agreed to conduct such a study with aid from a state engineering program.  The city is creating a committee to compile a Greenway management plan. Nassau Sierra has helped form a separate citizens committee and has been awarded a grant to conduct its own research.  This is the way it should be done; the public has been heard and action is being taken.

          Once the salt water intrusion south of Jasmine is stopped we must focus on an ecological perspective of the Greenway, including the desires and needs of its recreational human users -- and the animals that they cherish.

Amelia Island and Nassau County have many salt marshes and many creatures that thrive there such as wood storks, roseate spoonbills, herons and egrets.  But we need ecologic diversity and without a fresh water ecosystem in the southern Greenway, we will not have it.

          With a freshwater habitat in the Greenway, birdwatchers will continue to travel here to expand their life list of freshwater bird species; photographers will continue to come for rare shots of otters and bobcats.  Hikers, joggers, bikers and dog-walkers will retain the variety of sightings that this freshwater habitat has long afforded them. Freshwater fishermen on our island value the fish they catch here. If we lose it to salt-marsh the loss is insurmountable for many residents and visitors.

The "let nature take its course" path of continuing to allow conversion of this habitat to salt marsh is the wrong course.

 

Robert M. Weintraub , Fernandina Beach

“EGANS CREEK GREENWAY WORKSHOP” 

Public Meeting , March 15th

Doors open 4:30 for exhibit viewing and discussion

FDOT presentation at 6:00

MLK Center Auditorium

1200 Elm Street

Florida Dept of Transportation (FDOT) will be sharing their findings and recommendations with the public.   The topic will be the intrusion of salt water to the south and its effect on the Greenway and whether or not the area should be protected as a fresh water or salt water system. 

FDOT has published a “Preliminary Engineering Report-Evaluation of Jasmine St. Tide Barrier Alternatives, Egans Creek Nassau County Florida.”  This report was created by Taylor Engineering, the company that was responsible for the original project. The report evaluates the alternatives for correcting the problems and it finds some approaches feasible. 

 To read the report  Click here

 To be depressed by the photos  Click here