Martin County officials say St. Lucie Inlet has become dangerously shallow

STUART — Shoaling in the St. Lucie Inlet has made navigation so dangerous Martin County officials declared a "state of local emergency" and are concerned a major storm could render the waterway impassable to most boats.

"If we have a large storm, in my opinion, it would be unsafe for boaters to come in and out of the St. Lucie Inlet," County Engineer Don Donaldson said. "Some of the larger boats are blocked from going in and out. And only the most experienced captains running the sport (fishing boats) can navigate in and out."

Two-way boat traffic at the inlet is so perilous Martin County Administrator Taryn Kryzda declared a state of local emergency on July 6, county records show. The measure enabled county officials to ask the state and federal governments to hasten the process for providing money and considering permit requests for an $8.25 million inlet dredging project.

The inlet is crucial to the county's marine industries and recreational boaters, which pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy, county records show.

The county's first option is to dredge the inlet this winter and pump the sand onto the beach on Jupiter Island, county records show. The second option is to dredge the inlet this winter and take the sand by barge down the Intracoastal Waterway to Jupiter Island and pump it across the island to the beach.

The third option is to dredge the inlet this summer and take the sand by barge to an offshore disposal site near Jupiter Island, county records show.

Dredging 300,000 cubic yards of sand — enough to fill about 16,667 dump trucks — from the inlet is expected to keep the navigation channel open for up to two years, county records show.

The Coast Guard has notified mariners the inlet currently has a minimum depth of about 5 feet deep from one side to the other, county records show.

Stuart City Commissioner Mike Mortell, who has been boating in and out of the inlet for four decades, said the inlet is particularly dangerous during low tides if high winds churn up large waves. And large boats and commercial vessels are the most at risk, Mortell said.

"If you have a boat that runs aground or gets into distress in that inlet, the likelihood of something really bad happening is so much greater when the water is shallow," Mortell said. "If a boat were to capsize, because of the narrow channel and because the inlet is really not that big in the first place, if that boat is blocking any of that channel or being swept through the inlet any other boats in the vicinity are likely to collide with it."

However, the inlet is safer during high tides when the seas are calm, Mortell said.

Martin County intends to put up $4 million for the project. The county is seeking $3 million from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and $1.25 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The first seven-day state of local emergency declaration was no longer in effect by Friday, but several more are expected to be issued by the time the inlet is dredged, Donaldson said. The county notified the state DEP about the first declaration Wednesday.

"It doesn't remove buoys or close the inlet," Donaldson said. "It was really to put the state on notice and to allow staff, should we need it — we did not right away — to utilize any emergency procurement methods should the need arise."

The declaration enables county officials to bypass normal bidding procedures on contracts to survey the inlet or gather other information that might be needed by the Army Corps or other governmental agencies to facilitate the dredging project, Donaldson said.

Complaints by local boat captains helped persuade county officials to declare the local state of emergency, Donaldson said.

"Talking to them, what's problematic for them is one boat can get in and out of there, but if two boats are coming together — one going out and one coming in — it's especially problematic because (the channel) is not straight," Donaldson said. "They have to make very hairpin turns. For each captain to know what they're doing and pass each other under that maneuver takes skill and knowledge. A knowledgeable boater coming in and knowledgeable boater going out still creates a problem. We are at a state of emergency in that sense."