Hurricane cleanup on spoil island yields more than two and a half tons of debris

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. - Coastal areas along the Tampa Bay Area's northern counties caught the storm surge from three hurricanes in 2024. 

As many of those areas are still in recovery, local officials have been working with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to clean up the coastlines.

The backstory:

In Hernando County, the Hernando County Waterways Aquatic Services Department began working with the Florida DEP to clean the spoil islands off of the Hernando Beach Channel.

The islands lie along the north side of the channel and help to provide a buffer for the Weeki Wachee area and the wildlife management area lying inland from there. 

Each island becomes a filter of all things floodwaters grab and flush into and out of the surrounding waterways.

Hernando County spoil island cleanup 

The construction debris, trash and other things accumulated along the islands required almost a month of work for county and DEP workers to remove. 

At the end, the result was 5420 pounds of debris cleared from those spoil islands. That's 2.7 tons of trash taken out of public lands. 

The trash removal project was completed this week, but boaters in the area may still come across work boats that are in the area of the spoil islands, making sure that each site is safe for recreational boater use once again.

What's next:

The Hernando County Waterways Aquatic Services Department asks people who experience waterway debris or other hurricane damage left on Hernando County islands to contact the county offices to report it at (352) 754-4742.