A federal permit has finally arrived that will allow dredging of Phillippi Creek, a major waterway that has filled with sediment due to storms and lack of maintenance over the years, according to an email from a Sarasota County official.
“I have some great news to share! The (U.S. Army) Corps (of Engineers) came through and late yesterday afternoon, issued our permit,” Sarasota County Watershed planning manager John Morgan wrote in the email sent to residents on Thursday and shared with WUSF.
Morgan wrote to a group of residents who have met regularly with county officials to push for work to improve stormwater drainage in communities adjacent to Phillippi Creek, highlighting the extent of damage caused by build up of dirt and sand in the 7-mile-long waterway.
ALSO READ: A newspaper article described flooding and dredging of Phillippi Creek. That was in 1926
Phillippi Creek was inundated with floodwater during Tropical Storm Debby, which passed west of Sarasota in August 2024 before making landfall as a hurricane in Florida's Big Bend. Within 10 weeks, many homes also flooded along Phillippi Creek during hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Residents grew frustrated with the county's slow response and regularly spoke out at public meetings about opportunities to move the process faster and ways to seek exemptions from various permits, even showing evidence that Sarasota County should be able to proceed since the creek had been dredged before.
The Army Corps insisted that the county could not get around the need for a permit since the "proposed area to dredge is new work" and could not be considered a "maintenance dredge scenario."
When can it start?
In a subsequent email, a resident asked when the dredging could begin. Morgan said a start date is not clear but that dredging is a "priority" and "we share that same eagerness" as residents who want to prevent future floods.
First, contracts need to be finalized with a company that does the work, with county officials set to meet on that issue Oct. 21, he wrote.
Also, disposal sites must be agreed upon in writing as well as surveys completed for staging locations so that workers can show they are restoring properties to their original conditions.
"My hope is a couple of months, if not a little sooner, and sediment will actually be coming out of the creek," said resident Kristy Molyneaux, who lives on the banks of Phillippi Creek.
Her home flooded three times in 2024’s trio of hurricanes.
"Our whole group is very excited about the permits coming in," Molyneaux added. "It is, of course, hard to celebrate when it hasn't actually started yet."
Sarasota County did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
“As to the timing, I think the county is as anxious as we are to get the work started – and will start as soon as they possibly can,” said Nadia Bowen of the South Gate Community Association.
She credited the county's stormwater director, Ben Quartermaine, for expediting the permit process once he took the job in September.
“My only concern is that this permit doesn't include the oxbows, or the canals, that create the three islands in South Gate (Mineola, River Ridge, Seclusion). We had been told in the past that they would be added onto the permit, but we will see if they hold to their word,” Bowen said.
