TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. — People who live and work in Tarpon Springs celebrated after they found out a multi-million dollar dredging project that had been put on hold is back on again.
Word spread quickly about the $3.3 million dredging project. It had been put on hold to pay for emergency hurricane relief elsewhere.
“Thank you,” Donnie Sawyer, a commercial fishing boat operator said. “Whoever did it, thank you.”
Over the past 25 years, silt and sand have been building up in the Anclote River, making it nearly impossible for bigger boats to safely make port in Tarpon Springs.
“The river should be 11 feet deep, and right now the depth is only about 4 feet,” Tarpon Springs Mayor Chris Alahouzos said. “So, it’s very difficult and very dangerous for the boats to navigate.”
Instead of dozens of fishing, sponge and shrimping vessels filling the docks, there are now only a handful.
More than half of the Tampa Bay area's seafood comes through the affected area.
“This place used to have 30, 35, maybe up to 70 shrimp boats when I was a kid,” commercial fisherman Sean O’Keefe said. “Now, maybe there’s 45. Maybe. That’s it.”
U.S. Representative Gus Bilirakis said he questioned whether some procedural rules were broken when the dredging project money was first re-allocated.
“The money is in the account and we will start the dredging soon,” Bilirakis said.
Dredging the channel is also good news for people who live in flood-prone neighborhoods up-river.
Bilirakis said the Army Corps of Engineers told him that the Anclote’s increased capacity should help a lot of flood water move downstream more efficiently.
While they were waiting to secure the money, officials said they were not sitting idle, they were working on dredging plans.
Now that they’ve got the money in hand, they said they’ll be moving forward within the next couple of months.
The dredging project itself could take about a year.
Mayor Alahouzos said once the work is almost finished, they will launch a public awareness campaign to let those in the industry know at Tarpon Springs can once again handle those larger vessels.
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