Editor: Thank you for Sunday's lead story that shows the public what is happening to the Matanzas Inlet watershed in south St. Johns County. We are watching the not-so-slow death of a large estuarine ecosystem as a cascading result of a simple wash over of the Atlantic Ocean into the Summer Haven River during Tropical Storm Fay in August of 2008.
All prior washovers have plugged themselves fairly quickly, but Fay was followed by five weeks of northeasters that cut a real breach into the river and began loading the River with beach sand. A Summer Haven resident offered at his own expense to bring equipment to return the sand to the beach and plug the breach. The Department of Environmental Protection refused to allow this emergency action without first undertaking studies of the situation. To my knowledge, those studies have still not been done.
Now, with the Summer Haven River completely blocked, the Matanzas Inlet dramatically shrunken and water flow significantly reduced, with stagnant waters in the flats and up Pellicer Creek, and with salt-dependent plant, fish, and shellfish species dying and disappearing, the DEP feels that this isn't their problem.
The costs of the loss of this ecosystem to the public are incalculable, but it's a safe bet they will be huge!
The St. Augustine Port Authority is seeking to address this mounting disaster by starting the permitting process to reopen the Summer Haven River in hopes that the Matanzas Inlet will reopen naturally if the incoming tides have room to spread out again. Residents of St Johns and Flagler counties should support this effort to restore the Matanzas estuary.
Davron King Cardenas
Jacksonville
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