Huguenot Debris to be cleaned up by May??

Huguenot debris cleanup could start, finish before May
A stretch at Huguenot was closed when scraps were found in the sand.

By Steve Patterson
on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010
for Jacksonville.com

A stretch of Jacksonville beachfront that closed last year because of sharp metal debris could be cleaned and open before big crowds - or sea turtles - return this spring.

The City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on approving an agreement among city, state and federal agencies to remove debris at Huguenot Memorial Park by May 1. Three committees have approved it already.

"This for us is the best kind of possible scenario under the circumstances," said Nathan Rezeau, a division chief in the city's recreation department who oversees the park.

Cleanup work at the park off Heckscher Drive could start next month, Rezeau said.

The finish date was picked to get machinery off the beach before nesting season starts for sea turtles, which are federally protected as a threatened or endangered species.

But it also would free up beach space during warm holiday weekends such as Memorial Day and Independence Day, when visitor traffic peaks.

An oceanfront area a few hundred feet north of the St. Johns River jetties has been closed since summer because visitors kept stepping on pieces of half-buried metal.

Those turned out to be military scrap including pipes, knives, shell casings, dog tags and cigarette lighters marked with names of Navy ships that were at Mayport Naval Station in the 1950s and '60s.

It's not clear how the items reached the park, which is on the opposite side the river from Mayport, base spokesman Bill Austin said.

The city and Navy would both pay for the cleanup, budgeted at just under $80,000.

The work would target an area about 400 feet long and 200 feet wide, with contractors scooping up the top 4 feet of sand and spreading it on the shore to dry.

After workers pulled out any big pieces of metal, a machine for sifting sand would sort through the pile and the cleaned sand would be spread back where it was excavated. Metal would be dumped in big containers and held until it can be recycled or hauled to a landfill.

Workers will sort about 4,400 cubic yards of sand, which is expected to take about 13 days.

Besides handling the metal recycling and disposal, the Navy is supposed to reimburse the city for up to $20,000 of the cleanup costs.

The rest of the cost, nearly $60,000, falls on the city. But the work plan, which was negotiated partly with Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, lets the city use money it was already obligated to pay as a penalty for an environmental violation at the city's Trail Ridge landfill. That arrangement, called an "in-kind" payment, represented 50 percent more than the original landfill fine but was still a savings to the city, said Mike Fitzsimmons, a state environmental protection manager.

steve.patterson@jacksonville. com, (904) 359-4263

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-02-07/story/huguenot_debris_cleanup_could_start_finish_before_may