Posted on February 11, 2026
In an update Jan. 27, the county said the dredging of high spots began in December and is going well, but the next stage could be delayed until the end of this year as it seeks more environmental permits.
In December, a long-awaited project began to dredge parts of Phillippi Creek, a major waterway in Sarasota that has filled up with sand and sediment over the years.
But the county stormwater director said last month that work on the middle section must wait until more permits are obtained for a wider dredging of the creek, pushing the work on that entire area back to December 2026.
“We’ve got two phases,” stormwater director Ben Quartermaine told county commissioners at a meeting on Jan. 27.
“The high spot dredge, that what’s going on now, has the biggest impact in terms of hydraulic function impact to the floodplain. Phase two, this next phase, really is more creek restoration, ecological environmental restoration,” Quartermaine said.
Ben Quartermaine was named stormwater director in Sarasota County in 2025.
Work is currently underway to dig out sedimentation from the mouth of Phillippi Creek to approximately a quarter-mile east of U.S. 41, according to the county. This work on the lower creek will carve a channel 30 feet wide by four feet deep.
The next phase, called “maximum allowable dredge,” tackles the middle section, where the current work ends, up to Beneva Road, and would dredge 50 feet wide along the center of the creek.
Quartermaine acknowledged that he “initially” aimed for that work to begin in “early spring,” but that he’s learned a lot since taking on the role of stormwater director, especially regarding the complicated permitting process.
“The reality is, the maximum allowable dredge, how we’re proposing it, potentially impacts sea grasses and oysters, and that permitting is a six to nine-month permitting (process). But I recommend we do that, and so that means that we wouldn’t have a contract for phase two until the end of the year,” Quartermaine said.
Quartermaine downplayed concerns about the potential for flooding in the middle parts of the creek that have not yet been dredged, but Phillippi Creek resident Kristy Molyneaux, whose home flooded three times in 2024’s trio of powerful storms, is concerned.
“I know Ben has a degree behind his name, but I have real-life experience, living on the creek, and what actually happened. And it was bad,” Molyneaux said.
Sand and sediment have accumulated in the center of the creek, and she wonders what will happen when the newly dredged parts of the creek allow water to move quickly through.
A view from Kristy Molyneaux’s house during Debby, which was a tropical storm when it swept by Sarasota in August 2024.
“There’s going to be higher volume, higher flow, higher velocity, that is going to come rushing down to the middle section of the creek. And the middle section is still full of sediment,” she said.
Molyneaux and several others spoke during the public comment period at Tuesday’s county commission meeting, showing pictures of their flooded properties and asking for a motion requiring the stormwater department to act faster.
They wanted the county to use the permit it currently has to dredge a narrow channel all the way through the creek.
However, county commissioners only passed a motion to bring the matter up again for discussion at a future meeting.
Hurricane season runs June 1 to Nov. 30.
