Highland Beach officials review long-running beach-raker practice; manager to press companies and DEP for clarifications

The Natural Resources Preservation Advisory Board and town staff spent most of their Feb. 5 meeting reviewing the long-running dispute over private beach rakers in Highland Beach, with Town Manager Marshall Labady summarizing 15 years of consultations, permits and resident complaints and telling the board staff will send a letter to the raking companies and copy the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Labady, the town manager, told the board that ‘‘they are permitted by the state of Florida to bury the seaweed and the wet sand’’ under current DEP permits and that the state grants wet-sand burial in part because removing large volumes of sargassum could cost “$3 to $4 million” to truck off beaches during a heavy season. He described the recurring cycle: neighborhood complaints about ruts and buried trash, DEP permitting that allows wet-sand burial, and limits on the town’s ability to regulate activity on private beachfront property.

The town manager framed the issue historically: Highland Beach considered a special-assessment district and multiple ordinances in the 2010–2019 period, consulted scientists and nonprofit experts, and repeatedly sought DEP guidance about where rakers may operate relative to the high-water mark. Labady said the town has generally deferred to DEP enforcement but maintains regular communications and forwards resident complaints to the agency.

Why this matters: raking affects sea-turtle nesting season, dune integrity and residents’ private beach areas. Residents and volunteer turtle teams have said rakers sometimes bury debris or leave ruts that damage dune vegetation or private entrances; beach-raker companies say they remove as much large debris as practical but cannot collect every small fragment mixed into sargassum.

Board members and several residents described differing experiences. One resident said beach-raker drivers sometimes do not leave their trucks to collect large items and at times drive above the wet-sand line, leaving visible ruts. Labady acknowledged drivers and driver turnover as enforcement challenges and said staff regularly reminds companies about tire pressures, permitted operating zones and turtle-season limits. He told the board he will prepare a formal letter for the Natural Resources Advisory Board to sign, and he said he will ask DEP for its view on ‘‘customary use’’ and on how king tides affect the permitted high-water operating zone.

Labady also repeated that Highland Beach’s narrow, largely private beachfront — unlike larger public beaches to the north and south — limits the town’s options for large-scale removal or truck-haul disposal of sargassum. He said DEP permits allow wet-sand burial because moving every ton offsite would be prohibitively expensive in heavy sargassum years.

The board discussed possible nonregulatory steps as well: an annual reminder letter or ‘‘harsh’’ reminder from the manager’s office to raker firms about expectations for pulling off trucks and removing large trash, closer coordination during turtle season, and copying the state on complaints. Labady said he would prepare a written letter and share it with the board.

The meeting did not adopt any new local ordinance or ban; the board recorded the discussion and asked staff to pursue the letter and additional DEP clarification as a staff action.

Ending: Board members asked staff to circulate the manager’s draft letter to the raker companies and to DEP before the next meeting so the board can follow up and assign outreach tasks if needed.