Commissioner urges action to clean North Fork of New River as Coast Guard flags federal navigability

Commissioner Pam Beasley Pitman told the Marine Advisory Board on June 4 that the North Fork of the New River requires urgent, coordinated attention from the city and other agencies to restore navigation and address water-quality hazards.

"I need you to do a communications to the commission," Commissioner Pam Beasley Pitman said, asking the board to compile a list of specific actions and to call all responsible entities to the table. She said residents report high bacterial counts, that shoreline signage is lacking and that families in the area deserve safer, cleaner water.

The Coast Guard’s Sector Miami prevention chief, Commander Crestman, told the board the New River is listed as a navigable waterway by federal authorities, a designation that gives the Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers roles in permitting and navigational oversight. "Congratulations. You guys have a navigable waterway," Commander Crestman said, adding that federal jurisdiction affects permits for structures and could influence decisions about navigation aids and enforcement.

Those federal designations, speakers said, do not automatically make the federal government responsible for routine cleanup or channel maintenance. Crestman and other federal representatives noted that dredging responsibility depends on whether a section is classified as a federal channel; the Army Corps and the Coast Guard both play parts in those determinations.

Local board members described long-standing sediment problems and incomplete historic remediation. One member summarized a 1980s survey that found about five feet of sludge in parts of the channel and said a lack of money and multiagency coordination have blocked follow-up work. "We have done nothing, absolutely nothing, but contaminated it," a participant said during the discussion.

Board members and the Coast Guard also discussed operational constraints: an FPL contact told the group a transformer move that affects navigation was not expected to happen for at least two years, a timeline that will influence how wide navigation channels must remain in the near term. The group discussed existing local monitoring efforts such as microbial-source tracking and work by local waterkeeper groups to identify bacterial sources.

Participants urged several follow-up steps: prepare a written communication to the City Commission that lists needed actions and stakeholders; ask the city attorney to identify legal or jurisdictional steps; request data from Florida Power & Light about infrastructure needs and timing; and consider a vessel-traffic or navigation study to establish safe channel widths and possible no-wake or speed-restriction zones.

Commissioner Beasley Pitman asked the board to assemble a short packet of items for the chair and staff to transmit. Chair Whitten and staff agreed to return a draft communication to the board at the next meeting for approval. "We can have these conversations in this space, but we need to be willing to take it to the next level," the commissioner said.

What happens next: Board members asked staff to collect the technical slides and local bathymetric work cited at the meeting, including a site mapping resource available at newrivernavigation.com, and to prepare a draft communication to the City Commission for the board’s next scheduled meeting on July 1.

Sources and attribution: Quotes and attributions in this article come from participants at the Marine Advisory Board meeting on June 4, including Commissioner Pam Beasley Pitman and Commander Crestman of Coast Guard Sector Miami. Matters described as received from agencies (FPL timing, Army Corps’ role) were discussed on the record at the meeting; the article does not infer responsibilities beyond what speakers stated.