One of the reasons Sarasota County officials have waited so long to dredge Phillippi Creek, they say, is because they need a federal permit. The Army Corps of Engineers has said such a permit is required because the area has never been dredged before.
But a resolute group of local residents, some of whom saw their homes flood repeatedly during last year’s hurricanes, discovered that is not the case.
By searching newspaper archives at a public library, Nadia Bowen, a documentary producer and Sarasota resident who is part of the South Gate Community Association, found a century-old newspaper article that not only describes buildup of sediment in Phillippi Creek, it mentions a permit number regarding a dredging operation in 1926 and warns of future floods.
“I wanted to do some homework and see what has happened in the creek historically in terms of dredging. And basically, I found the Holy Grail,” said Bowen.
The author “was actually somebody from the Army Corps saying, ‘You need to deal with the rest of the creek past this canalization because there's major flooding.' And it turns out there was a hurricane in 1926 that flooded basically a lot of the Phillippi Creek area,” she said.
The piece in the Sarasota Herald has the headline, “The Value of Phillippi River to Sarasota.” It contains a letter, prefaced by an editorial, addressed to the supervisors of the Sarasota Fruitville Drainage District, and is signed by Lt. Col. Mark Brooke, of the Army Corps of Engineers in Jacksonville.
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“If the effects of the storm of September 19 are to be taken as an indication of future conditions,” he wrote, in the newspaper edition dated Friday, October 15, 1926, “it is evident that during each period of heavy rainfall the lower reaches of Phillippi Creek will be flooded causing damage to property owners, and that this creek will eventually be filled up with silt to an extent which will render navigation impossible.”
He mentioned water in the creek 8 to 10 feet above normal from Sept. 19 to 21, despite rainfall during the storm that “was not excessive,” indicating a buildup of sediment was to blame.
Brooke also noted in his letter that local officials seemed to be reluctant to dredge south of Bee Ridge Road, and references the permit’s Paragraph 6, “which the secretary of war has the authority to require you to remove the obstructing shoals.”
No need for federal permit?
Bowen and other residents contend that the letter and 1926 permit — which they are trying to obtain — show Sarasota County’s current application for a permit overlaps the same area and may be evidence that a federal permit is unnecessary.
"And you can see how the creek was dredged between 1926 and 1946 in aerial photographs," Bowen added. "I mean, the creek has been dredged a lot. It's just, dredging kind of stopped in the '80s."
In July, a public affairs specialist with the Army Corps of Engineers told WUSF in an email that the county could not get around the need for a new permit.
“The proposed area to dredge is new work. The area has never been previously dredged, and it cannot be considered a maintenance dredge scenario,” Peggy Bebb said.
Asked for comment on the newspaper article that Bowen uncovered, Bebb said on Friday the agency “received and has reviewed” it.
“The permit information referenced in the article pertain to the development of the Fruitville Drainage District north of the existing Phillippi Creek 2025 dredging permit review,” Bebb said.
Residents who are closely involved with the process say that answer doesn’t add up, because the Fruitville Drainage District includes the same area as that for which the county is seeking a permit to dredge, an area north of Bee Ridge to Bahia Vista Street.
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In any case, Bebb said that the “federal review of the County’s 2025 dredging request has been completed. A provisional letter of approval was (sent) to the County on August 28, 2025.”
That means “a permit decision has been reached, and a permit is ready to be issued, dependent on verification from the State of Florida to issue a Coastal Zone Management Consistence Concurrence Certification (CZMCC) and a Water Quality Certification (WQC).”
Once those are received, “the Corps will be able to issue the permit within 30 days,” Bebb said.
However, those certifications could be weeks, or even months away.
Dredging delays "beyond frustrating"
County officials have said they believed they could likely get an exemption from water quality and environmental requirements to dredge.
But a series of internal emails between Sarasota County and Florida Department of Environmental Protection show that as of July 23, no paperwork had been submitted to address 11 “high spot” areas of the creek where the storms last year caused significant sediment buildup.
Then, on Aug. 15, the DEP notified Sarasota County Public Works that it does not qualify for an exemption and needs an Environmental Resource Permit.
“Specifically, looking at aerials dating back just prior to Hurricane Debby (April 2024) and as early as 1977, it appears that the area of Phillippi Creek just west of S. Tuttle Ave. has historically contained significant amount of sedimentation with no defined channel. Since Sarasota County is proposing to dredge a 50-foot-wide channel to a depth of –4 MLW within Phillippi Creek, an Environmental Resource Permit (ERP) would be required from the Department for this proposed project,” said the letter from Ryan Snyder at the DEP.
For residents like Kristy Molyneaux, whose home along Phillippi Creek flooded in hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton last year, the delays are even more evidence that the county has bungled its response.
“The FDEP requirements should have been addressed concurrently with the USACE requirements,” Molyneaux said.
“As it stands now the county will need to get a standard FDEP permit. This will add several months of delay. It is my understanding that the new stormwater director is trying to see what can be done. The delays caused by county mistakes is beyond frustrating.”
A Sarasota County stormwater workshop is scheduled for Friday, and slides released ahead of time include a mention of “FDEP Exemption filed 8/26/25.”
WUSF has reached out to Sarasota County for comment.
