Sarasota County OKs sharing costs for New Pass study

A partnership with WCIND will examine shoaling in preparation for a possible dredging project.

Sarasota County commissioners last week agreed to move ahead on their end of a potential agreement with the West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND) to begin looking at silt accumulations in New Pass.

The agreement paves the way for cooperative funding between the county and WCIND to perform a study on the boating channel that links Sarasota Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Since 2018, boaters and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have said the channel is becoming increasingly shallow because of the silt and sediment, to the point of affecting navigation.

Sarasota County plans to contribute no more than $25,000, with $60,000 coming from WCIND.

Once data from the study is developed, a project to dredge the channel to acceptable depths could kick off by 2024.