Volusia County Artificial Reef Permit Renewal & New Artificial Reef Sites
Taylor Engineering assisted Volusia County with renewal of its artificial reef permit. Work involved review of 11 existing reef system sites, use of a GIS platform to update and correct existing site information, a pre-application meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineering (the permittee), compilation of the permit package, and responses to requests for additional information.
Taylor Engineering will also help Volusia County apply for a new Offshore Continental Shelf (OCS) Artificial Reef Site permit. The application employs a conceptual permit approach, where the permit approves the potential use of the OCS off Volusia County between the federal OCS boundary (three nautical miles offshore) and the Grouper-Snapper Complex fishing exclusion zone (at the 100-foot depth). The permit would require the county to produce site-specific information required only when it is prepared to construct a reef or a set of reefs. This arrangement will allow the USACE to approve quickly a specific site within the conceptual permit boundaries. Typical sites will hold three to four reefs located about 500 feet from one another and no less than 500 feet from any other natural or artificial hardbottom habitat.
Photo courtesy of Volusia County Marine Wildlife and Artificial Fishing Reef Program