Newspaper: Atwater, Klein pushing Singer Island ‘breakwater’ despite potential harm to turtles
by Bob King | June 30th, 2009A proposed “breakwater” aimed at preventing beach erosion on Singer Island, already controversial locally because of disputes about who should pay for the work, faces a new wrinkle: According to the St. Petersburg Times, local political powerhouses Jeff Atwater and Ron Klein are pushing state and federal agencies to approve the project — despite the potential harm to nesting sea turtles.
The Times reports:
… Two prominent Florida politicians — state Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton — have been prodding state and federal officials to approve a $30-million taxpayer-funded project to build 11 rock walls about 200 feet off Singer Island’s beach.
The walls, known as a breakwater, will not stop the erosion, only slow it down, according to Palm Beach County officials sponsoring the project. But biologists fear the breakwater would stop something else: nesting by endangered sea turtles.
… However, political considerations may outweigh the environmental impact, according to internal e-mails from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission obtained by the St. Petersburg Times.
In one March e-mail, a state biologist warned a colleague that “there is extreme pressure being put on to get this permit approved ASAP despite considerable concern” over turtle nesting.
… Atwater, now running for state chief financial officer, and Klein did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
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June 30th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Here it is, the entire article from yesterday’s St. Pete Times, scooping our local media and written by award-winning investigative reporter Craig Pittman:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/article1014073.ece
Federal officials have serious problems with the design of the breakwaters, AND the Town of Palm Beach is very concerned about having their normal source of sand impounded by the breakwaters. Miami Beach has such a project that has starved sand from, and caused extra erosion in front of the Fountainbleau Hotel.