ENGLEWOOD, FL — The company that embedded six textile tubes in the sand at Stump Pass Beach will begin removing them by the end of this month, under orders from state environmental regulators.  The experimental erosion control project was deemed a failure by the Department of Environmental Protection this year, after the agency realized it was causing the wildlife habitat south of the project to erode.  Although the company that installed the tubes agreed to the DEP's order, its president, Marie Horgan Garrett, insists that the project was not a failure and that removing it will do more harm than good.

"I still stand behind the project 100 percent," Garrett said. She is president of Beach Restoration Inc. of Texas.  Garrett said the project's goal was to slow the drifting of sand into Stump Pass, while also stabilizing the beach.  Those goals were met, she said, adding that the tubes held back enough sand from Stump Pass for the county to delay dredging for one year.  The county spends roughly $4 million each time it dredges the pass, which is the only boat access to the Gulf of Mexico between Placida Harbor near Cape Haze and Roberts Bay in Nokomis.  The experimental project cost the county approximately $1.2 million, half of which was funded by a DEP grant.  Removing the tubes will cost between $35,000 and $50,000, said Garrett, whose company will pay the bill.

In the spring of 2007, roughly a year after all six tubes were installed, Garrett informed the DEP that her engineers had not buried three of the tubes deep enough in the sand.  Garrett asked the DEP for permission to correct the problem, but was denied. Regulators pointed to heightened erosion south of tubes and ruled that lowering them would not significantly halt the loss of shoreline.  Only removing the tubes would allow the beach to restore itself, regulators said.  The DEP wanted the project removed before May 1, the beginning of sea turtle nesting season.  But the agency granted a 30-day extension after consulting with wildlife managers to make sure it would not harm nesting birds or sea turtles, said DEP spokeswoman Sarah Williams.  Permanent erosion control blankets have been used in leiu of the tubes to much success in other counties.

Garrett and members of the county's Beaches and Shores Advisory Committee believe that removing the tubes will cause more sand to spill into Stump Pass, costing the county.  "Everyone realizes it is going to cause impounded sand to drift into the pass," said Robert Pierce, chairman of the committee. But he said the severe erosion south of the project is not good either.