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CAC Minutes 09/14/2023 DRAFT8.A.3 September 14, 2023 MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY COASTAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING Naples, Florida, September 14, 2023 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, the Collier County Coastal Advisory Committee, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 1 P.M. in REGULAR SESSION at Administrative Building F, 3rd Floor, Collier County Government Complex, Naples, Florida, with the following members present: ALSO PRESENT: CHAIRMAN: Joseph Burke VICE CHAIRMAN: David Trecker Councilor Erik Brechnitz (absent) Jim Burke Councilman Raymond Christman Dr. Judith Hushon Steve Koziar (via Zoom) Robert Raymond Robert Roth (via Zoom) Andy Miller, Director, Coastal Zone Jeffrey Klatzkow, County Attorney Packet Pg. 260 8.A.3 September 14, 2023 Anyone in need of a verbatim record of the meeting may request a copy of the video from the Communications, Government & Public Affairs Division or view it online. I. Call to Order Chairman Burke called the meeting to order at 1 p.m. II. Pledge of Allegiance The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. III. Roll Call Roll call was taken and a quorum of six was established in the board room. Vice Chairman Trecker moved to allow Mr. Koziar and Mr. Roth to participate remotely due to extraordinary circumstances. Second by Mr. Raymond. The motion passed unanimously, 6-0. IV. Changes and Approval of Agenda Mr. Burke moved to approve the agenda. Second by Mr. Raymond. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. V. Public Comments (None) oo N r- N VI. Approval of CAC Minutes August 10, 2023 w Vice Chairman Trecker said the signature line should say Joseph Burke. Chairman Burke said there were two sets of emails sent out and that was corrected already. Vice Chairman Trecker said under "New Business, New Officer Voting, the third paragraph down, it should read, "Mr. Trecker said he would serve as vice chair for no more than 12 meetings." He doesn't intend to drop off the committee after that but will serve as vice chair during a transition period. Dr. Hushon said on page 3, under "Dr. Hushon said, "This is different ...," instead of fibrosis, it should say Vibrio vulnificus." That's the flesh -eating bacteria. And on page 5, under Councilman Christman, about halfway down on the second line, where it says "The markers are used on the beaches yearly," there's an extra word, "year," in that sentence. And on the last page, second bullet, it should say, "They can raise houses on piles." It says do raise. Dr. Hushon moved to approve the August 10, 2023, meeting minutes, as amended Second by Vice Chair Trecker. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. VII. Staff Reports Extended Revenue Report "FY23 TDT Collections Revenue Report" dated July 31, 2023. 2 Packet Pg. 261 8.A.3 September 14, 2023 Mr. Miller told the CAC that these are the July 3 1 " numbers the CAC saw last month. We're doing them again because we get these reports at the last minute, literally a day or so before this meeting, and have to scramble to get everybody up to date, so we're going to revert back to the way we used to do it and report the numbers as they were last month. He has the new numbers and they're still good and are up by about a percent. You'll see those numbers next month and they'll be good. VIII. New Business (None) VIII. Old Business 1. Update - USACE Collier CSRM Chris Mason, Director - Community Planning & Resiliency Division Mr. Mason detailed a PowerPoint presentation and reported that: • He first met with the CAC in early April and said they'd see him more due to status reports for this project. • This project was conceived before 2018, but we're using 2018 as the beginning th process, when the Army Corps started to engage Collier County. That's when the county became the non-federal sponsor. a • In 2021, the feasibility study was paused to wait for the approval for the Time and N Funding Exemption Request. 0 • In August 2022, the feasibility study was reinitiated for an additional three years. • In April 2023, public meetings were hosted by Collier County and the Army N Corps and planning charettes were conducted with community stakeholders and jurisdictional partners.LU o • In 2023, the Feasibility Study Advisory Committee was created and it has met > once. o • Currently, the county and partnering jurisdictions are broken into five planning areas: the Wiggins Pass estuarine area, Cocohatchee River system and Vanderbilt Lagoon; Clam Pass State Park and outer Clam Bay; Doctors Pass and Venetian Bay; Naples Beach and Naples Bay; upper Gordon River and Rock Creek; and Marco Island-Goodland. • The Army Corps advised us that the planning areas will probably change based on the outcomes of planning charettes and public comment. The changes will involve different measures to abate storm risk. • We're going from five planning areas to four that will focus on beaches and "environmental justice communities." All structural measures were screened out. • The analysis will be focused on beach renourishment, critical infrastructure, non- structural measures and possible natural and nature -based features. • There will be no analysis within Coastal -Barrier Resource systems, which are governed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Flood Insurance Rate Map. • Under our current alternatives, green shows what will move forward. Red/pink is what's no longer on the table. All structural measures were removed. We're left with flood -proofing for commercial buildings; shoring up critical infrastructure, which can be anything from lift stations to roadways, etc.; and elevating homes, which probably factors into Environmental Justice Communities. • We're also looking at beach berms, vegetative dune nourishment and mangrove 3 Packet Pg. 262 8.A.3 September 14, 2023 restoration, and they recommend that state and local governments update building code ordinances. • Collier follows the Florida Building Code, an international code, so we're bound to that. The county has an option of creating higher regulatory standards, such as requiring higher elevation for new construction. That's what the Army Corps means when it refers to updating the Building Code of Ordinances. • Coastal Barrier Resource Systems were started in 1983 under the Coastal Barrier Resources Act. • In 1991, an initiative from the federal National Flood Insurance Program stated that barrier islands are ever -changing. The deposition of sand and shape of the island is constantly changing due to longshore currents. • They identified certain areas nationwide, including the Great Lakes, where you have a living shoreline that's always moving. • If you're constructing anything after 1983 or 1991, when they had an update, and it's on a barrier island, it's considered a very high -risk coastal area. They will not offer flood insurance for those properties. If your property was constructed before that, you could be grandfathered in. • An example of a Coastal Barrier Resource System in Collier County is Keewaydin Island. Everything there is located in a CBRA (pronounced cobra) Zone/Coastal Barrier Resource Area. • For any construction after 1983 or 1991, there is no federal funding for flood insurance. • How does that play into the Coastal Storm Risk Management Program? Based on r the Code of Federal Regulations, carrying out any project to prevent erosion or to N stabilize any inlet shoreline or in -shore area, except that such assistance and N expenditures may be made available on units designated to Section 4 on this °w product map. The federal government is saying they will not fund federal dollars o in CBRA zones. W • Marco Island residents know some of the story. They had two areas they were looking into for beach renourishment and another area they were considering putting a breakwater in. Those areas were located in Coastal Barrier Resource Areas. After much discussion between the Army Corps and Marco staff, the Army Corps said they were not going to fund projects in these areas because the Code of Federal Regulations didn't allow it. • Currently, the approved budget is for three years at $2.97 million and there will be no funds over that. • The path forward most likely will analyze solutions that will lead to a completable chief's report within an approved time and funding. This will likely look at non- structural, nature -based features, including elevations of homes, etc. • The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) 8106, which is about compound flooding, won't be incorporated because it would exceed the study's time and budget. • If the City of Naples, Collier County and Marco Island were interested in that, we would have to fund that ourselves. • The USACE chief s report is developed when a water -resources project requires congressional authorization or a change to an existing project authorization. After the final feasibility report is submitted, a chief s report is developed and it's one of the key pieces. • What the Corps anticipates is having a signed chief s report and feasibility study 4 Packet Pg. 263 8.A.3 September 14, 2023 by August 2025. On our timeline, the Tentatively Selected Plan Milestone would be moving forward in spring 2024. • From this period on, we'd be in a "holding pattern" while the Army Corps begins its analysis and modeling. We probably won't get the modeling results until spring 2024. • In summer 2024, the Draft Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement would be released. Communities then have a 45-day comment period. • In fall 2024, we'd come to an Agency Decision Milestone between Collier, the other participating communities and the Army Corps. • The Final Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement will be released in early 2025, when communities will have a 30-day comment period. • In August 2025, the Corps would issue the chief s report based on the communities' decision on whether to accept or reject the plan. A discussion ensued and the following points were made: • The Army Corps is forecasting that the EIS will be done by summer 2024. • That's the draft and the final would be released in early 2025. • The 45-day comment period with so many stakeholders is very short for a document that will be about 1,000 pages. • We should do some self-analysis to prepare for that. • Nothing is set in stone. T Mr. Mason provided an update on the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee: • In May, the ad hoc Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study Advisory Committee was formed. c • It met once in late July and no other meetings are currently scheduled. • This isn't a monthly advisory committee. It meets based on new information released by the Army Corps. We'd call a meeting for them to review it and comment. • We'll probably have another meeting by the end of the year. We're waiting for new data. • We have the monthly Army Corps call that's open to the public on the fourth Thursday of each month. The Army Corps answers questions from the public and the public also can ask staff questions. • Ad Hoc committee members also are on that call to get updates. Dr. Hushon asked if he could provide his PowerPoint presentation to CAC members. He didn't go over the red and green chart to detail what was coming in and what was going out. People have been asking her about that. Mr. Mason said that anything structural, such as flood walls and flood gates, has been taken off the table. The only thing that is not structural would be oyster reefs. Acquisitions and road relocations also were removed. Councilman Christman asked if he'd work with Andy to send his PowerPoint presentation to the CAC members. Mr. Mason said he would. A discussion ensued and the following points were made: • A cost -benefit analysis is occurring and will be part of the modeling. • The county hasn't had any discussions about that yet. Packet Pg. 264 September 14, 2023 8•A.3 • The Army Corps is two months into the process. • Mr. Mason provided GIS data to the Army Corps so they could start working on it. • The tentatively selected plan will include that. • A criticism many area communities had was that the financial cost -benefit analysis of housing structures and property values wasn't accurately considered. Residents of Naples, Marco Island and Pelican Bay said decisions were made without good numbers. They didn't know where the numbers came from, but they weren't from the tax rolls. • The numbers for Naples Cay proved that and showed that land values weren't considered. The numbers bore no resemblance to tax rolls and were very undervalued. • The Army Corps hasn't shared its cost -benefit analysis with the county. • The U.S. government has software, such as for Environmental Justice Communities, that looks at Census tract data and delineates areas they consider not to be high -end communities that have lower real estate values. • We can look at tax rolls, but they're using separate software. • During the charette, they had a map of Section 5 and labeled the entire tract an c Environmental Justice Community. In every case that wasn't true. Dr. Hushon told them c� it wasn't true and only a small portion was an Environmental Justice Community. 0 • Dr. Hushon told the Army Corps that they needed to do a more careful analysis because it was deceiving the way it was being presented and would upset people who live in a $2 a million home in that census tract, which was suddenly declared an Environmental Justice Community. • The tracts included homes at $2 million and $100,000 and they weren't considering that c i so they need to go block -by -block and do it correctly. r • The Army Corps will be adjusting that. The planning areas will change. This is only a oo preliminary look at Environmental Justice Communities. But they've asked the county N not to share that now because it's subject to change. ,° • They will have a better grasp on that, and that area has shrunk. • As soon as the county is allowed to make it public, we will update the website to apprise everyone of the updates. • We're about 60 days away from the Army Corps announcing the new planning areas. • Some of the Environmental Justice Communities have trailers, which are moveable. They can easily be moved to an alternate piece of land that's higher and drier at a lower cost than other alternatives. • Relocation makes sense because trailers can be put onto flatbeds, taken to another location and placed on concrete pads or blocks. • There are some areas with trailer and mobile homes that are flooding regularly, and many are no longer mobile, but they're much easier to move than houses. • Is the old planning area at Pelican Bay still in play? • To qualify for federal funding, three project criteria must be met: environmentally acceptable engineering, it's feasible and cost -benefit effective. • This will be 65-35 split, with 65% federally funded and 35% locally funded. • The Army Corps will consider all the input and provide its own document. • Certain measures on Marco Island were taken out due to the Code of Federal Regulations, but the island was not excluded. • There is still some beach nourishment at Tiger Tail that will be included. Flood walls or flood gates at Collier Creek, or a breakwater at Caxambas Pass and some beach- renourishment projects at the north end of Tiger Tail were scratched because they were located in the Coastal Barrier Resource Act area. • At the charette, the Army Corps had valued many houses on Marco at about $500,000. 6 Packet Pg. 265 8.A.3 September 14, 2023 Mr. Roth pointed out to the Corps that many were in the $5 million range and FEMA said they would correct that. • $515,000 may just be a house value, not including land. • There are few homes on Marco valued that low, so we hope FEMA will seek more input from stakeholders and not use bad data. • Antiquated laws from 1982 shouldn't be germane for what FEMA is doing. • Saying you can't do anything doesn't make sense. These issues didn't occur in 1982. • Army Corps modeling used pre -hurricane data sets for property values. • Mr. Mason said property values could be lower after Hurricane Ian, but they're trying to look at it from an optimum real estate standpoint and that's why they're included, so that would change the numbers greatly. Based on storm surge, they can model and show how many potential billions of dollars in the real estate market will be lost based on pre -storm conditions. • Participation in the Army Corps calls has greatly decreased and they haven't been sending out monthly reminders about the calls since the initial notice. c • It seems like there's a rush to complete this based upon $2,97 million in funding and that 0 seems to be driving everything in terms of whittling things down and not considering c what stakeholders brought up. • It would be helpful to know why areas were excluded, whether it was due to a environmental, technical or cost reasons. Were there categories within each that prompted the decision? R • We need to understand where they are raising structures and who's paying for that ci because if you eliminate the structure at Doctors Pass, why do anything in that area? You r haven't helped because it will flood again, go through the pass and flood the area. ti • All homes in the Doctors Pass area would need to be raised. v • Are they doing a NEPA document as part of the NEIS? • In the NEPA document, they should do a street -by -street Environmental Justice look at each structure and historic homes and wrap that into the NEPA and not into the DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) and if areas are being excluded, they should state the reason, such as it was because of the CBRA. • Even though the CAC doesn't have direct responsibility anymore, we're still a very important stakeholder and our views, based on experience, are relevant and may be helpful. • It would be appropriate for the committee to take a position if we can reach a majority opinion, but that timing would come after we see more clarity on what the recommendations are. • The monthly USACE calls are a good way to get a regular update and to ask questions, either on Zoom or through a chatroom. • But comments and questions during the Zoom call are not part of the public record. Mr. Mason said he'd be in touch with the CAC and provide a copy of his presentation. If they need anything else, they can let him know. Action Item: The CAC would like Chris Mason to send CAC members a copy of his presentation. Action Item: The CAC would like Chris Mason to ask the Army Corps to send out reminders about its monthly Zoom calls. Packet Pg. 266 8.A.3 September 14, 2023 Action Item: The CAC would like Chris Mason to ask the Army Corps on the Zoom call to detail why certain areas were excluded, such as for CBRA, technical or cost reasons, and to bring that information back to the CAC. 2. Update - 2023 Collier County Beaches and Inlets Annual Monitoring Brett Moore, P.E., D.CE, President - Humiston & Moore Engineers Mr. Miller said we show the committee our annual monitoring report results every year and go through findings and recommendations. This year, he wanted to provide them early and to bring our engineering consultant, Brett Moore, to describe the methodology and answer questions about his recommendations. 2023 Collier Beaches Monitoring Report Mr. Moore detailed a PowerPoint presentation and told the CAC. • These are excerpts from the report so they can understand why recommendations were made. • He added additional slides at the end to address some questions that came up during CAC ?% meetings after Hurricane Ian. One member asked why we're not recommending beach nourishment if we just got hit with the biggest storm ever. • The first exhibit lays out the overall area of the monitoring for beaches and defines the a different segments from Vanderbilt down through the south end of Naples. R • The report details four primary segments, the Vanderbilt Beach area, Pelican Bay, the L) Park Shore area going down to Doctors Pass, south of Doctors Pass and Naples. r • This is a good resource document and tallies up everything that has been put on the co beach, whether it's sand from an inlet or a truck -haul nourishment project, which hasn't v been done in a year. o • We're looking at shoreline change and volume change and need to understand what's o behind the volume changes and why an area is doing so well. That's because it just W received another 23,000 cubic yards of sand from the dredging of Doctors Pass. a • If we know it's a short-term or long-term trend, that's what we monitor. , • It's important that monitoring is not a knee-jerk reaction and that we understand r comprehensively what's going on so we can make a good recommendation. c • The report includes illustrations that help us see the sand that's been put on beaches and where it came from. _ • Beach profile data show factors we need to consider in the 2023 data set. We had the regular monitoring data from 2022 early and then a post -Hurricane Ian data set in November 2022 and another brief set. We want to consider all those in our analysis to see how well the beach is performing. • It determines how well the beach is performing in terms of its overall design intent, in terms of widths of 100 feet or 85 feet for different segments, whether we're achieving those. • We look at all monuments in each area and shading areas where we have nourishment areas so we know what's going on in the areas that haven't been nourished, and as sand is falling off the end of the table next to where we're putting it, and what's going on. • We also compare the project to the post large-scale project completed in 2006. Then we do the same thing volumetrically throughout the year. • One controlling factor for determining whether we should be spot treating with the truck - haul project is looking at how well an area is performing relative to the design width that's been established for the different segments. 8 Packet Pg. 267 September 14, 2023 • If an area is dropping below the design width, is that one spot bordered by an area that's much wider? Is nature going to smooth that area out or is it, from one year to the next, an area that's growing to the point where it's growing in terms of being insufficient? We have to address it by adding more sand. Mr. Moore detailed the Vanderbilt Beach area: • We look at the last monitoring data collected in early 2022 and after the storm hits, where did the sand go? • The areas in red are erosion areas and green is where sand accumulated. • Where did the sand go? A lot accumulated on the offshore bar and just beyond. That's why, when there is an approach to FEMA to get funding to help restore the project, the sand is still within the active system, it's still within the depth of closure we're seeing is affected by waves and can move on. • Through the FEMA process and the counties effort, they went for an emergency berm rather than Category G, which is when sand is lost from the profile system to the point that it warrants sufficient funds to bring sand back to the system. • The county did the emergency berm. The profile shows how that has offset what happened on the upland side. • From the November 2022 post -Ian survey and the one in May after the placement of the sand fill and the emergency berm, there was some natural recovery, but a lot of the upland has been restored, but not to 100% at Vanderbilt. Mr. Moore detailed the Pelican Bay area: r • There were dunes in Pelican Bay after the storm and throughout the county that didn't N extend all the way back to the edge of the vegetation where there were dunes before. • There was a limited amount with the sand, but it still offset quite a bit of the loss. Mr. Moore detailed the Park Shore area: • We work for several property owners in Park Shore at the promenade, which is just south of here. That went from 46 to 50. They had a plus 12-foot dune that was built in 1970 with a rock core. • Throughout much of that area, about 4,000 feet was wiped out and was substantially impacted. That was an extreme event for that area. The property owners worked together and trucked in almost 20,000 tons of sand to restore their dune under emergency permits and planned it. • When you have that, plus the emergency berm, restoring the beachfront merged well to restore a profile that was deflated and hammered. It was a significant amount of dune erosion. • But this is all still in that area. Before the storm and after the storm, there was a significant amount of dune erosion. The emergency berm tied into the dune area. There wasn't a lot of private participation in the upland, but there was in other areas, so it ended up being an extremely well -restored profile. • It hasn't been that much altered. Most of the alterations occurred on the upland area. Mr. Moore detailed the Naples Beach area: • We had upland losses, sand moved, a bar moved farther offshore from the higher wave energy and some of the material on upland washed into the near shore and some was lost to upland overwash. 9 Packet Pg. 268 8.A.3 September 14, 2023 • The emergency berm worked well in starting that recovery. • If you flew over and took aerial photos, you'd see the beach doesn't look bad, but you can't see it's much lower from the air. • After the overwash, when the storm left, it also pulled sand seaward and that's why you saw it build up in some of the near shores. • We had a flat lower system that has a limited amount of recovery. • Upland property owners adding sand and the comprehensive county plan worked well in that effort. Councilman Christman thanked him for the helpful presentation and said he was the one who called it "kind of counterintuitive." You explained some of the hydrologic factors that account for this. He wanted to move to the next point on the agenda because it's relevant here. He requested an addition to the agenda, an update on Hurricane Idalia two weeks ago, and whether that has any impact on beach nourishment this year or if it changed our conclusions on Naples beaches. Although the hurricane missed us, the wind and rain had some impact in flattening the beach. Is there a reason for a relook at our beaches given what happened? Do you have any other observations on that? Mr. Miller said he put together a brief presentation on that and we should let Mr. Moore finish a his presentation. Councilman Christman said he only raised that subject because he thought Mr. Moore might U) have data or an opinion. G c.� Mr. Miller said he's welcome to render his opinion, but he does have slides to show on that. T oo N Mr. Moore told the CAC about his observations after Hurricane Idalia: N • He's witnessed a lot of storms over the last three or four decades that have overwashed the beach. • On Labor Day, he walked a section of Park Shore because the berm was much more evident before. It got washed away. He saw the berm getting overwashed and it was redistributed in the system. • The sand put there as an emergency berm wasn't a berm added as a large protective dune. It was there to add sand to the system and that's what he watched it do. • Before Idalia hit, it rose up on the beach and afterward, it was overwashed and merged into the profile, so it wasn't lost. It did what FEMA intended, as well as providing protection from flooding during a high -frequency event. • We can't be overly reactive to that level of event because we get them frequently. • It's important to monitor how the system bounces back. • If the system doesn't bounce back, then we have to do something. • We collect a lot of drone shots in the areas that we're working in because right after an event, it doesn't look good, and we go there and try to be fair and determine where the sand went. • We see it recover in about six weeks, with sand rolling back in. A discussion ensued and the following points were made: • The Port Royal emergency berm project is planned for end of November or early December, most likely December. • The project will go from R-79, around 21" Avenue South, down to Gordon Pass. • By the time Port Royal gets its sand, the tonnage will have exceeded 400,000. • The county came close to meeting its target there. 10 Packet Pg. 269 September 14, 2023 8•A.3 • The diagrams and cross -sections helped us visualize where we had erosion and accumulation, but it's a distorted, exaggerated scale. • If Humiston Moore doesn't exaggerate the vertical scale relative to the horizontal scale, all the lines would look like they're the same, so it purposely exaggerates the vertical scale almost 10 to 1. • The depth of the deposit offshore is about 2-3 feet. It's within an active area where it would feel the effects of wave activity and be able to work its way on shore naturally. That's what we've seen in the past. • Offshore, in the horizontal scale, it's about 400 feet, a little longer than a football field. • They've historically used a depth of closure of -11.3 since the monitoring started years ago for consistency. • We go beyond that in measuring changes because sometimes a storm pushes sand farther To capture that budget of sand, we make sure we go to where the profile closes. • How far we go is based on an effective depth of the wave energy being felt on the bottom. It's a function of depth and its bearing offshore based on the profile. • In relation to the 400-foot dimension, the hard -bottom monitoring varies along the lateral edge of the beach. It could be 250-1,200 feet out and wiggles all over. • They're out in the boat now measuring and surveying the hard bottoms, so we'll have a new data set soon. • One of the closest areas is south of Doctors Pass. • The berm -crest elevation is plus 6 feet pretty consistently. Action Item: The CAC would like Andy to provide them with a copy of Mr. Moore's r oo report. 04 N 2023 Wiggins Pass Monitoring Report • Through some dredging in 2022, that dredged about 66,000 yards and 23,000 were placed to the south. The rest was placed to the north. • The general scope of the area is shown. Yellow is the inland alignment and the two authorized disposal areas north and south. • When an inlet alignment is determined, it's based on the general configurations of the actual at that time. 2013 was when most permitting was done for the current configuration and channel design. Soon after 2013, the initial formation changed substantially and drifted more from the southwest alignment and started going more to the northwest alignment. • You only have one alignment that you're allowed to dredge, so that may not always be effective. We submitted a request to the state to allow this big triangle. Based on monitoring and performance, the next time the triangle area is dredged, it may be more appropriate to adjust that alignment. You want the alignment of a channel to have the bordering shoals on each side to help stabilize the alignment with all the shoals on one side of that inlet and you dredge it. • It's going to fill in quickly and move down to the south side or the weaker side. That also has a direct impact on the stability of the adjacent coastline. • Years ago, the inlet on the south side, the south beach, was wide. A few years later, it was gone. Those things change and we wanted to make sure that the inlet dredging can make those adjustments for optimum performance. Those changes were approved by the FDEP and are currently being reviewed by the Corps. Dr. Hushon asked if the general sand movement was north to south. Packet Pg. 270 September 14, 2023 Mr. Moore said yes and noted that it's based on wave energy and direction. On average, there's more wave energy out of the northwest. As waves come down, they refract and bend around and fuel the shoal. They slow down in the deeper water beyond it and continue to go faster. They'll bend and in the vicinity of an inlet, you get reversals. They get pushed back in the opposite direction, so there are lots of dynamics around the inlet. Mr. Moore continued his presentation on Wiggins Pass: N • The purpose of this exhibit also shows all the stationing where we collect our data to N evaluate deployments of the dredging operation. • Throughout the project area, there are varying depths. There's -12 and as you get inside L M the inlet, the depths of dredging drop off. E • The purpose is to show that when they finish the dredging in 2022, you can't get all the z sand, so throughout the entire system there were 7,000-7,500 cubic yards within that d dredge template. • After Ian, we measured how much was in that template and we determined there was E E 27,000, so we know the inlet channel shoaled about 20,000 yards due to Hurricane Ian. C U • Relative contour maps show pre- and post -dredging and different inlet conditions. �% • The left-hand side map shows the contours of change before and after Ian and where sand accumulated, the light -tan shaded area. Most of it accumulated within the channel, as Q well as adjacent shoals. The storm washed in the inlets, and then it scoured out, so it had some beneficial effects, but it was limited. • It took a lot of that sand buildup on the adjacent shorelines, the dynamic areas, to wash C U that material out into the ebb shoals. That's why you also see a large accumulation of T sand on the south side, out into the near shore, near the inlet. N • You can see a depth of -4. Within the inlet, you can see the shallowness of the ebb shoals v on each side, a good indication for the alignment. o • We also track beach changes because when you dredge, the point of maintaining the inlet o properly, it's not just the inlet, there are areas affected by the inlet, and we have to treat it W as a whole system. It's a sediment -budget scenario. a • One year you put the sand on one side of the inlet and we put it where it's needed the most and monitor long-term inlet trends. • The inlet management plan for Wiggins Pass calls for putting two-thirds of the sand to the north and one-third to the south. Overall, they weren't that far off over the last 20 years. We had about 54% to the north and about 30% to the south, and then some sand was put in the ebb shoal to help stabilize the channel. • Another slide shows relative quantities that have been dredged per event. • Dredging events at Wiggins are much larger than 20,000 cubic yards. They're about 40,000-60,000 and at one time it was 100,000 cubic yards. This means we have to monitor it to see how well it performs to make sure we don't have navigation issues. • We keep track of all the changes that occurred in the inlet and how much has been dredged over time. It's a good resource for us. 2023 Doctors Pass Monitoring Report • We have the area of dredging, and two disposal areas, one adjacent to the inlet on the south side, and another farther to the south, at Lowdermilk Park. • In the pre- and post -dredging post -Hurricane Ian, some of the areas were scoured out, but the dredging volumes in this inlet are trickier because there's quite a bit of rock in the settling basin outside the inlet and that would be your normal ebb shoal area. 12 Packet Pg. 271 September 14, 2023 • It's hard to hydraulically dredge down to rock because it can be very damaging and an environmental problem. We don't want rock shards all over. • Historically, we've taken the best data composite, as far as seeing how low and close to the rock we're able to get. We use that to estimate how much rock is in that settling -basin area. If there are 20,000-24,000 cubic yards not dredged in the settling basin, that's not alarming because that's as close as we've been able to get over the last 20 years. • If we measure from that, we're not losing track of available sand. From Ian, we measured about 12,000 yards that have filled in within the inlet dredge channel. • The area shoaled in, which is not uncommon. It's similar to Wiggins and is sand coming down the system, suspended, traveling predominantly north to south, and it crosses the settling basin. • We keep track of the shoreline and volume changes. This is important because we had an area south of Doctors Pass that was probably one of the highest eroding areas that challenged Collier County. The amount of emergency truck - haul operations, the dredging, could not keep up with it and that's why over time, the solution involved erosion -control structures. • We took the soft approach and put sand there. It could not maintain anything A close to that design width. The area starved. It has jetties, sand does not come a down the beach and crawl around the outside and tuck inside the jetties and go right to the beach. It bypasses, so the only way that area could be addressed historically is through the mechanical placement of sand, dredging it, or truck- G hauling sand there. • The permits were modified to include this area as a disposal location. oo N Historically, it had always been placed in Lowdermilk Park. Depending upon the v need of the companion item, the nourishment project, maybe it's more cost °w effective to put the sand at Lowdermilk Park. But we also have to track what's o going on to the south. W • The erosion -control structures to the south have helped reduce that stress, and a. erosion -control structures help as a time release, so when sand is put there, it , won't wash out right away. a • Historically, this inlet over the last 20 years has had about 9,000 cubic yards accumulate per year. It had very regular scheduled dredging, about every four years. If we have storms and it shoals in, sometimes it's three years, but typically it's every four years, with about 35,000-40,000 yards, so we just put in 12,500. • We'll keep tracking it and be able to project, but it may be a couple years out for dredging. Q 3. Hurricane Idalia Update Mr. Miller detailed a PowerPoint presentation: • Immediately after the storm hit, we were curious about how it affected the berm we put in place a few months ago, so he drove to several beaches and did a quick visual walk. • Visually, it appeared that the berm did a really good job, but he wanted hard data, so he met with the County Surveyors Office and they took measurements. • At Naples Beach, the elevation after the storm was 5.7. We put 6.0 on the beach, so it changed by three -tenths of a foot, which may or may not have been caused by this storm. The wind over time can take that much sand off. • When you go northward to 5th Avenue, it's 5.8, almost 5.9, and to the north, it's 13 Packet Pg. 272 September 14, 2023 still 5.3. • Closer to Doctor's Pass and the south end of Park Shore, it was 5.9 and 5.4. • We didn't lose much width, so it performed as designed. We're pleased with what remains. • In Park Shore, it was 5.4 or 5.9, mostly 6.Os and a couple of dips, 4.5s. • The worst was surrounded by 6.Os and was a scour point. We're going to wait and give it some time for these 6.Os to fill in the 2.Os or 3.0s. • Brett Moore and his crews will do their annual survey in January, so they'll provide some updates. • It was above 6.0 all the way up to the north end of Seagate. • Park Shore and Pelican Bay were 5.9, 6.3, 7.0, 7.5 and there wasn't much loss or significant loss of width. All the sand is still there. • On Barefoot Beach, where Idalia's intensity was a bit stronger as it traveled north, we were concerned that Barefoot would be hit more significantly. There was some overwash that pushed some sand landward, but it's still elevation 7.4 and 6.0s. It's all 6.Os and 7.0s, so we're pleased. Dr. Hushon asked what the red line is. Mr. Miller said the red lines that are inland are property lines. Dr. Hushon asked why they stop. Mr. Miller said the data set was so large, it took so long to refresh the screen so it chopped off a little when he took the shot. T Mr. Miller continued with his presentation: oo • After Ian hit between 5th Avenue South and 4th Avenue South, he didn't know a sea wall was there because there was a dune and vegetation, and the entire length °w of sea wall was invisible to anyone walking on the beach. o • Immediately after Ian, after we placed our emergency berm there, the top of the a sea wall was at elevation 6.3 or 6.5. We filled it to the top of the sea wall. a • Right after Idalia, the sand was exactly where we put it and a lot of the emergency berm's width remains. • At the southern end of the emergency berm, around 21St Avenue South, we stopped the project because everything else to the south is private, we couldn't get easements and the turtles were coming. [He showed before and after photos.] Idalia hit during high tide and the wave action was easily contained by the berm for almost the entire length of the beach. • No sections of Naples Beach were breached. • With no berm, the water has the ability to go back into the property if it gets bad. A discussion ensued and the following points were made: • That's the area that will be landscaped next year. It's in design and we had our second stakeholder meeting with the Botanical Garden and other stakeholders who are interested in what we're planting, how much we're planting and where we're planting. The emergency berm width will probably be 50-60 feet, but we probably won't be planting out to 50-60 feet because it would rob people of usable beach. The designer will tell us, but it will probably be 15-20 feet of berm plantings, dune grasses and other native species suitable for the Southwest Florida coastal environment. 14 Packet Pg. 273 8.A.3 September 14, 2023 • That will provide more resilience. • Hurricane repair work was divided into three sections, the beach cleanup; leveling, emergency berm work and plantings; and general beach buildup and was based on measurements surveyors and engineers took right after the storm. • Category G renourishment is permanent work and is eligible for FEMA reimbursement if there's any real sand loss from the system. • Mr. Moore's slides showed the sand was lost from the uplands, but it traveled out into the near shore with the ability to work its way back, so the net loss was essentially 0. • We're going to go back to our annual monitoring and, based on the engineer's findings and recommendations, renourish and continue our typical four- to five- year renourishment. It's always based on what they survey in the field. • The county committed about $900,000 to Tiger Tail beach renourishment, and there were little, if any, impacts to the emergency berm, according to aerial photos and emails. There was a lot of erosion that occurred on Marco Island. • It appears there was some breaching of the system near the new construction. Marco and Hideaway Beach residents are looking at that. There was a request from an engineer to bring mechanical equipment there to address some erosion near term. • There was going to be some emergency work for about $48,000, but they won't be able to do a lot. • There has been no update from the Hideaway Beach Tax District, but there were v no issues involving Idalia. " • The front toe of the berm was about elevation 3.0 and from photos, there wasn't CO ti any place along Naples Beach where it encroached, even halfway up the berms. Estimates prior to the storm were 0-4, but it's probably closer to 2.0. w • Some old sea walls were breached, but they also are overtopped, sometimes on a o big king tide (high tide during a full moon), so it wasn't anything like Ian. a • There was some roadway flooding in Naples and along Gulf Shore Boulevard, a a several intersections and the dock, but that was probably due to the inundation and king tide — and it also occurs during a rainstorm. w 4. Answering Action Items and Questions from the August Meeting [Andy Miller] Mr. Miller thanked Chris D'Arco and Farron Turner for filling in for him last month. Action Item Question: Explain what methodology the county could use to survey metals and other debris underwater to protect beach covers. Mr. Miller: We're making some quick Google searches and asking some of our survey consultants, in addition to Brett's crew because he uses a surveyor, Sea Diversified Inc., to do the survey work and we're looking at the practicality and feasibility of doing something along those lines. We can discuss it further next month. Dr. Hushon said snorkelers told her they could see beach furniture and other things under the surface of the water, so that's a concern because that's metal and you don't want to come in contact with it. Mr. Miller agreed and reported that: • Hard -bottom monitoring is going on now and they're out scuba diving and are seeing things like that. As every cold front comes through in winter, things will 15 Packet Pg. 274 8.A.3 September 14, 2023 move around. • We've got our phone lines open when we've given out our e-mail address to the press to ensure everyone knows who and where to call or who to e-mail, if they see something. • They need to provide a good location so our crews, if we can manage it, can retrieve it. • We just retrieved a big sliding glass door from offshore this past week, so we're reacting, but unless we go out there, it's going to be tough to keep track of 15 miles of usable beach until they do the survey. Dr. Hushon asked if they'd have a retrieval vessel to pick up objects underwater. Mr. Miller said they have a boat at the surface, but they also have a buoy on a tether hooked to the diver, so they know exactly where he is as he swings around. Dr. Hushon said if he sees a chair, is there someone who could pull it up in real time? Mr. Miller said not as part of that effort because this effort involves a scope of services for the consultant, and we don't want to slow the consultant down with recovery activities while they're trying to get survey work done. Action Item Question: Staff asked to further explain the typical sections of the report. Mr. Miller said Brett did a great job of explaining that, but if you have further questions, he can answer them. Action Item Question: The CAC requested further answers about the numbers in the N report. N Mr. Miller said he has a copy of the 10-year plan, which is a planning document. The c numbers change yearly, but they're closer to being a reality in FY24. Those are just w planning figures we come up with to anticipate expenditures over the 10-year period, but if 0 you have any questions specific to any given project, he can put that together. a. Chairman Burke said the question about the variation in the cost revolved around how some years it was 200,000, then it would be 40,000 or 50,000. Mr. Miller replied that: • When talking about beach renourishment and dredging projects, we'll have a major renourishment project every four to five years, so we budget accordingly. • Intermediate to that, we may have monitoring efforts or intermediate renourishment and the same thing applies with the dredge. • A typical dredge project for an inlet, such as Doctors Pass and Wiggins Pass, is about $2.5 million. • The next dredge project will probably be an interim dredge, which will be a lot or a bit lower. • In the meantime, we'll do monitoring. Those are lower, $25,000-$40,000. Councilman Christman told Mr. Miller: • He asked to have a discussion on the Water Quality Subcommittee and where we're going with that. • We could jump-start the committee and get some ideas going. • Maybe at a future meeting, we could invite representatives of major community environmental organizations, such as The Conservancy, Audubon of the Western 16 Packet Pg. 275 September 14, 2023 Everglades, Captains for Clean Water, the Collier Waterkeeper and others. • We could ask them to bring their ideas on the three most important things Collier County could do to improve coastal water quality. • We could get their input and ideas and give them advance notice so they can think about it. • The public could comment and we could invite other groups. • We could structure it in a way try to gather input and ideas and that could be the basis for the Subcommittee on Water Quality to meet again and have some specific ideas to discuss and potentially pursue. Dr. Hushon said something that could be useful is to know where the county is now in terms of eliminating septic systems. The city has eliminated its septic systems and the county has done some, but not all, at least not even all in the coastal zone. It would be interesting to hear what the county has done and what the projected completion date is. Vice Chairman Trecker said we went through a similar exercise three or four years ago, so maybe it's time to get an update on that. We want to do this in conjunction with a review of where things stand on past subcommittee recommendations that haven't been acted upon. [The discussion continues under XI, Committee Discussion, per the chairman.] X. Announcements N Mr. Miller said he received an email this morning about the Annual International Coastal Cleanup, which is related to our discussion. It's at 8 a.m. Saturday, September 161h and is all volunteers. It's a c worthy effort. Dr. Hushon said the next meeting of the Blue -Green Algae Task Force is at 9 a.m. September 20th and the information is at: bit. ly/B1ueGreenAlgaeTaskForce XI. Committee Member Discussion [Moved from VIII. S above.] A discussion ensued and the following points were made: • The Blue -Green Algae Task Force put out its list of recommendations four or five years ago, and they were clear. • The state has acted on about one-third or less, but we have been acting on some of the local recommendations and the city has done some. • Since nutrient pollution boosts the growth of blue-green algae, it would be good to know what the trend is, how fast we can expect it to be coming down and which areas they're targeting for when. • Rather than inviting groups to talk to us, we should first review where things stand now. Some subcommittee proposals were good, they were accepted, but never acted upon. We should follow up on them as a starting point. • Getting input is a great idea. • Three years ago, the Board of County Commissioners wasn't keen on the CAC getting involved in water quality and we barely got the subcommittee going. It was a lukewarm reception. • Lee County has taken the lead by incorporating advanced water treatment. They saw the need for it and they're doing it. 17 Packet Pg. 276 September 14, 2023 8•A.3 • The three subcommittee recommendations were: fertilizer regulation; promoting compliance through the landscape training program; upgrading the wastewater plants to the advanced wastewater treatment level to remove nitrogen and phosphorous. • The county doesn't go after those nutrients, which are the sources of our pollution. Operating data from county plants is still not up to an advanced waste water treatment level like Lee County has recognized. • It's important to reduce irrigation, which is how the county disposes of its treated effluent. It's sprayed on the ground every day, 365 days a year, so it gets into the water. • We can ask Jamie French for an update because he'd know if any employee under him is doing something about it. • The subcommittee seems to be going round in a loop. County staff clearly said they had limited time and resources to support us on developing new ideas. This isn't the first time we've heard that the previous recommendations prepared several years ago were submitted to county commissioners and ended up on the back burner. • Our full CAC has said several times it didn't want to disband the Water Quality Subcommittee or drop our focus on it. • We need to find a way to stimulate new thinking and new ideas to make a contribution, but don't know how. • The Gulf pollutants, the nutrient pollution in the Gulf, increases after a v hurricane or major storm when the water comes off the land, down streams andoo r into the gulf. That's when our interest is piqued. That doesn't happen unless a C4 certain amount of other sources are looked at and addressed. • We're concerned once it hits the coast, but it does hit the coast, so what can we do to keep it from hitting the coast? • Stimulating new ideas by bringing new people to the table may be what we need to motivate people and to understand the problem more. It's within our jurisdiction because this either promotes tourism or doesn't. • We need to understand from state, regional and local people how much of our water quality is a local issue, how much is a regional issue and how much is a state issue. They could bring that to the table, with the solutions. • This all ties into the South Florida Water Management District, so it goes well beyond us, but we can only control our problem. • We could frame the questions to them and determine where we can impact things locally. The CAC and staff also can think about it, come back and have another discussion to gain a consensus on how to move forward. • If we understand our 30-50% is coming from treated water and if we're at a tipping point and the county is going to grow 100% over the next 20 years, they'd better start planning for advanced water treatment. • It's on the radar in Lee County, but not Collier. Have they made a full 100% commitment? Any new wastewater plants will be advanced. • An area around Alico Road is getting developed as the standard for advanced wastewater treatment. • The standards Florida follows are 40 years old, but we probably can't change the state. • We need to get county staff involved and people who aren't usually engaged with us. 18 Packet Pg. 277 8.A.3 September 14, 2023 • There is significant grant money available from the state to do some of these things and it's been available for three or four years. • To have a lucid and useful discussion, it requires more county staff in the room. • Maybe we can have a discussion with the county manager. + Collier County pollution control deals with environmental quality, but that's for fresh -water bodies only. No one is looking at the estuary level of water quality where fresh water meets salt water. Those are the people we want to interact with because that's where the water quality, as it pertains to what the CAC does with the beaches, comes into play. • There is no environmental department in the county, just pollution control, public works and wastewater. • We could get the subcommittee together, go through some of this and come up with specific proposals. • We need to put something together, go to the county and say here's what the data is telling us, here's what outside people are telling us, and this is your percent of the impact. • For planning purposes, the TDC needs to understand this could affect fixture revenue. • The county manager could tell them from the top down because we've tried the a bottom up. • As a committee, we aren't qualified to determine if it's 30% or 20%. We need a c consultant, which we don't have access to, to tell us. v • We need to bring in outside environmental people who may be able to give us CO input and fresh ideas and tell us what they're hearing or seeing. N XiI. Next Meeting November 9, 2023, 1 p.m. XIII. Adjournment There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chairman at 3:20 p.m. Collier County Coa al Advisory Committee Jose urke, Chairman These minutes were approved by the Committee on ALy, 1 (check one) as presented, or as amended—°' 19 Packet Pg. 278