The proposed Magnolia Bay Marina and Resort is an epitome of a tourism development project that would seriously damage the very natural resources that draw folks to an area. A development firm, Secret Promise Ltd., and Dr. J. Crayton Pruitt want to excavate 26 acres of the salt marsh, fill in almost 9 acres for a marina, and dredge a two-mile long channel offshore through the seagrasses that are protected by the Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve.

“It’s sort of ironic that they’ve proposed a development that would seriously threaten the scallop population, but they’re using access to the scallops as justification for it,” said Bill Arnold of the state Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, to the St. Petersburg Times.

The project has faced intense opposition from local anglers and scallopers, the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, 1,000 Friends of Florida, the Clean Water Network, Help for our Polluted Environment and Taylor (County) Residents United for the Environment.

Both federal and state agencies clearly aren’t thrilled by the project, as proposed. In fact, the Florida Department of Community Affairs told Taylor County officials that a land-use agreement with the developers is illegal, shuts out public participation and blocks state oversight. The department warned it will sue "to prevent the violation or circumvention of state law." The National Marine Fisheries Service has advised the Army Corps of Engineers that such a project would be subject to all National Environmental Policy Act consultation. And, the Corps acknowledges that more than 1,000 comments in opposition to the project have been submitted to them. Now, the EPA says the proposed Magnolia Bay Marina and Resort near Dekle Beach threatens what it considers to be an "aquatic resource of national importance."

The EPA has authority under the federal Clean Water Act to block a project, but hasn’t stopped a project since the early ‘90s. Still, the agency said the applicants haven't shown how the project avoids or minimizes environmental harm, which they are required to do.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the developers claim that the EPA’s comments came before Secret Promise submitted a plan for managing and protection sea grass in the area. But activists say the developers did submit documents pertaining to seagrassses within the allotted timeframe, and that the proposals were “ludicrous.”

“It’s laughable to say that you can dig up seagrasses and move them, and move them into dead zone caused by the pollution discharges that come down the Fenholloway River,” said local activist Joy Towles Ezell. “The water is so polluted where they want to “transplant” the seagrasses that no seagrass can grow there.”