HURRICANE MILTON CREATED NEW NAVIGABLE PASS

HURRICANE MILTON CREATED NEW NAVIGABLE PASS

"Nature Bats Last" usually harkens images of nature taking over in ways that override human construction and development.  In this case, however, Hurricane Milton re-opened a navigable pass on the Southwest Florida coast that has been closed for 41 years and many locals are thrilled.  This new pass goes by the name Midnight Pass, as it was before, or Milton Pass, as some are calling it now.  While this pass has been closed in with sand and silt since 1983, the two hurricanes to sweep across Florida's Southwest coast recently changed that.  The channel is navigable 'for now' and cuts through Siesta Key giving boaters another way to transit between the ocean and Little Sarasota Bay.

Michael Harris reports in the local Observer:

What Milton did is more than open a wide lane for boats to go from the bay to the Gulf, it's more about filtering out the muck of Little Sarasota Bay and "breathing" clean water into it from the gulf.

The water of the bay had been trapped with no outflow for a stretch of nearly 15 miles. Over the years, it was brown from various pollutants, algae and at times gave off an unwelcome odor.... It was a relatively lifeless strip of sand that acted as a barrier between lovely, clear pristine waters of the Gulf on one side, and the tea-colored, cloudy bay.

(Now)

It's beautiful.

It's welcoming.

It's clean.

Interestingly, as with most stories, as one digs deeper the plot thickens.  While todays environmental regulations and project costs make opening and closing passes of this nature difficult to impossible, 41 years ago the pass was closed through the successful permitting of two households to actually fill it in and close it.  According to Michael Harris the channel had been free flowing prior to 1983 but would shift due to shoaling on one side or the other.  The two households thought they put a stop to this by getting permits and closing the Pass.  Now Milton has come along and opened the Pass up again.

The question many locals are now asking is "how can we keep it open?"  While the Sarasota County has issued a statement acknowledging that they are not permitted to maintain any openings that result from Hurricanes, U.S. Rep. Greg Stuebe is cutting to the chase seeking help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep Midnight Pass open permanently.  It remains to be seen how the Pass will fare naturally over time or if this new Pass will get the financial and physical support it may need to stay where it is.

Only one thing is certain, for better or worse: Nature Bats Last

by EDITOR