Estuary program wins city support for marine-debris traps, murals and seagrass reuse testing at Carl Gray Park

Jessica Graham, executive director of the St. Andrew/St. Joseph Bays Estuary Program, presented a multi-city project to install stormwater catch-basin litter traps, murals and an education campaign to reduce marine debris. The program partners include Panama City, Panama City Beach, Lynn Haven and Parker; the group plans to install up to about 42 litter traps across the partner cities and has currently identified four candidate locations in Panama City.

Graham said the project includes an outreach and mural component; the partners will follow each city's public-art and permitting processes for mural sites and produce brochures and online tools for residents. Staff welcomed the partnership and noted the program has been collaborative and responsive during coordination.

Graham also briefed commissioners on a separate but related effort tied to Carl Gray Park dredging: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has been replanting seagrass in an area where prior plantings did not take because the elevation of fill material was inadequate. The estuary program proposed using about 30 cubic yards of the material dredged from Carl Gray (if testing shows it meets permit and contamination standards) to help raise sediment elevation at the seagrass site. Graham said FWC is arranging laboratory testing and the program will work with Public Works point-of-contact Clint to move forward if tests allow reuse.

Staff described the effort as a productive reuse of dredged material that otherwise might have been taken to landfill and thanked the estuary program for the cooperative problem solving.