Dredging in Naples Royal Harbor

Dredging Royal Harbor

Last month the taxing district was talking about dredging costs and spoil. One of the ideas was to take the spoil and increase the volume of material in the shallowest areas of the bay and form islands in Naples Bay. These were to provide habitat and help with the water quality of the Bay. It was also to be somewhat cheaper than trucking away the spoil.

Now I hear some people are concerned this spoil is contaminated. I also see in the Naples Daily News that some bay front residents are concerned with these islands spoiling their view of the water. At all the meetings I attended, contamination was not a concern since we were told the canals were surveyed for not only depth but contaminates. As to the view, well, I suppose to some an island may not be as attractive as the water without one. No one can speak for another’s preferences. It does appear that there will be some opposition to the islands.

Doesn’t this seem like another reason for Royal Harbor to do their own dredging project separate from Golden Shores and Oyster Bay? From the data I have seen, Royal Harbor will not have the bulk of the spoil or rock. Most of it will come from the canals on the north end of the bay. All but one of the proposed spoil islands will also be located in that area north of the No Wake zone. The only proposed area affecting Royal Harbor residents would be looking south at the southern end of Royal Harbor and that is already an island during low tide. This would mean the Royal Harbor dredging could be done under the existing permit, would make less spoil, thus might not need to form islands and would be able to be done in a reasonable time frame.

The taxing district meeting scheduled for this month was postponed, so there is no news from that.