White Island once had thriving ecosystem. Living shoreline plan seeks return to glory days

PENSACOLA — White Island, once a robust spit of sugar sand, home to sand pines, scrub oak and sea oats and popular with area residents, has become a shadow of its old self. And the abundant life it once supported has suffered as a result. 

There is now hope, however, that the island can be restored to its former glory, as the Escambia County Commission voted last week to free up $7.9 million in grant funding to cover the cost of rehabilitating White Island, which sits at the mouth of Bayou Grande.

The living shoreline grant comes from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with the money made available through the RESTORE Act, which provided reimbursement from BP for damages Gulf Coast counties like Escambia and Santa Rosa suffered as a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Related:$2 million EPA grant will create Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program

Becoming a reality:How a $9 million grant will help a 'living shoreline' come to life near NAS Pensacola

The White Island Habitat Restoration Project is phase one of a larger, three-pronged effort to improve Pensacola Bay in the vicinity of NAS Pensacola. Chips Kirschenfeld, the county's Natural Resources Management Department director, said about 90% of the grant funding needed to complete the entire project has now been approved.

A scope of work provided to commissioners prior to their vote last week called for construction on the White Island Habitat Restoration Project to get underway Nov. 1, but Kirschenfeld said that time frame is not realistic. 

"Someone was being very optimistic. I don't think we will get permitting for the project until the end of the year," he said. "I would not anticipate construction until next summer."

The outstanding permits are being reviewed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Kirschenfeld said it has not yet even been decided whether the county will solicit bids to proceed solely with the White Island phase of the project or enter an agreement to have all three phases of the Pensacola Bay work done by a single contractor.

 "We should know which way we'll go in the spring when we start the solicitation process," he said. "Then we'll have to define a scope of work." 

The White Island project plans call for installing 4,200 linear feet of reef breakwaters to act as an offshore living shoreline and creating approximately 45 acres of emergent marsh habitat. The scope of work estimated 23,000 tons of material would be needed to construct five emergent structures and five submerged structures.

"The project will recover important coastal habitats historically found within the system, including submerged aquatic vegetation, saltmarsh, oyster reefs, coastal grasslands, dunes and sandy shoreline," a project outline said. "Habitat improvements will directly benefit finfish, mollusks, crustaceans and coastal bird species."

The breakwaters will go in during the initial stages of construction, to minimize the loss of sand as the project moves forward.  

Plans call for placing 340,000 cubic yards of sand on the island, which about five years ago reached a critical destabilizing point due to erosion and loss of habitat and shrank to half the size it was in 2006.

The sand required for the White Island project will be recovered "within the White Island Project Area."

"This is the lowest risk, most cost effective sand borrow source available," plans for the project said.

Project managers also plan to reintroduce 10 acres of submerged aquatic vegetation, which it is estimated had decreased by over 90% in Pensacola Bay since 1960, according to the scope of work document. Native upland vegetation, which had all but vanished on the greatly diminished White Island, will also be brought in to replace lost habitat and help prevent future erosion. 

Keith Wilkins, who from 1999 until 2015 helped administer natural resources programs for Escambia County, was among those who helped get plans for the Pensacola Bay living shoreline project off the ground in 2012 following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. 

"I am a huge proponent of the concept. I am an advocate for White Island," he said. 

Wilkins said that in addition to the intended habitat restoration benefits the project will bring, a vibrant White Island will protect about 100 homes built on Bayou Grande and Davenport Bayou. As the island has deteriorated it has largely failed as a buffer to incoming tides, and homes on the bayou have become increasingly vulnerable to damaging "wave energy," said Wilkins, who lives off Davenport Bayou. 

"This is a good project that's been a long time in the making. It took a lot of coordination between the Navy, the county and the citizens," he said. "That was not easy."

White Island, which became an island when a channel was cut through its midsection, remains popular as a destination for recreation, the scope of work said. Birding, fishing, swimming, snorkeling and paddle craft operation were all listed as "typical recreational activities." 

"The project will create a passive recreation managed access area within (its) boundaries to limit human impacts to the surrounding habitat enhancement activities," while the White Island restoration is being done, the document said. 

 The complete, three-phase Pensacola Bay project will also create living shorelines at Sherman Inlet and Magazine Point off NAS Pensacola.

The overall goal is to create 71 acres of emergent marsh, establish 16 acres of rock/oyster reef break waters, provide a favorable environment for up to 50 acres of submerged aquatic vegetation and develop 34 acres of new sandy shoreline, a project analysis, also included in the county commissioners' agenda packet, said. The project will "directly combat losses in historic coastal habitats caused by urbanization, shoreline hardening and sea level rise."

"Each of the three sites has experienced significant shoreline retreat," it said, adding "shoreline retreat at Magazine Point and Sherman Inlet has put critical naval infrastructure at risk."

The NFWF grant was provided with the caveat that Escambia County provide a $2 million match of its own. FDEP, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council have either provided funds or pledged to provide funds to meet the match.