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Sarasota officials outline monitoring, emergency triggers to keep Midnight Pass open
Summary
County engineers and consultants told commissioners that the storm‑created Midnight Pass has remained open for nearly a year, is showing signs of stabilizing, and will be monitored weekly; staff described emergency triggers and said long‑term inlet management would require years of permitting.
Sarasota County officials said Wednesday that the storm‑created Midnight Pass has remained open since October and that monitoring and modeling so far show a generally favorable trend, but they outlined specific triggers that would prompt emergency action if the inlet begins to close.
The county’s hydrodynamics consultant, Dr. Mike Jenkins of ATM Geosyntec, told the Sarasota Board of County Commissioners that the inlet “has remained open post Milton and is exhibiting behavior consistent with an evolving, unstabilized coastal inlet.” Jenkins said weekly surveys and recent current measurements show the inlet’s cross‑section and tidal flows have generally increased since a January low and that peak flows measured in August reached roughly 120 cubic meters per second.
County staff and consultants said the monitoring program is focused on whether the inlet will remain open, and on providing data to regional models and to state regulators.…
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