Glynn, feds disagree about ditching pests

They caught up, buzzed through an open window and made for the arms and faces of the occupants.

Green spray cans of repellent filled one of the door pockets of the truck like ammo in a magazine -- a sure sign that mosquitoes are part of life on the privately owned resort island.

Glynn County officials say they believe they can lower the number of the voracious, salt-marsh mosquitos by reopening ditches in marshes where the mosquitos breed. Ditches dug in the 1980s allowed tidewater to flush mosquito larvae and eggs into the deeper water of the island's Sancho Panza Creek, where small predator fish ate them.

The county tried to resume that work two years ago, but was halted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over permitting issues.

That's where the standoff remains, with the corps saying the county must apply for a new permit and Glynn County insisting its old one -- and its accompanying conditions -- are still good.

Harris, an environmental consultant, agrees the county should be allowed to continue what it started in the 1980s. That's when John Carter, who was then in charge of Glynn mosquito control, carried out a plan to dig a network of ditches through the marshes of Little St. Simons Island.

Carter and retired Georgia Department of Natural Resources official Fred Marland both agree the ditches performed well. Marland reviewed the work for the DNR and said it actually improved marshes where dikes and causeways had interrupted the natural flow of water. The balloon-tired machine the county used was a side cast ditcher, which scattered the marsh mud out to the side in a long arc that eliminated piles of mud along the ditches.

Spartina grass is lush along the sides of a marsh irrigation ditch, but sparse away from it. Environmental consultant Dwayne Harris says the ditches also control the mosquito population by washing eggs toward hungry fish. TERRY DICKSON/The Times-Union

The machine used then has worn out, and county officials are willing to spend $250,000 on a new one -- but only with the assurance they will be allowed to use it.

County officials say the terms of the old permit not only allow the county to ditch, it requires the county to maintain those ditches.

"Our position is still, no new permit is necessary," County Attorney Gary Moore said.

Federal officials are insisting on the permit because they want the county to adopt a new style of ditching, "and we don't want to do that," Moore said.

Instead of a network of straight-line ditches, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants the county to use what is called open marsh water management, a system of serpentine ditches connecting to small ponds. Those ponds would serve as low-tide habitat for small mosquito-eating fish.

Carter has said he tried to install those ponds on Little St. Simons, but they were quickly blown out. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service holds up New Jersey as a model of how well the ponds work.

For now, Glynn County has hired a consultant to work out the differences and come up with a plan suitable to the corps, said Public Works Director Joe Pereles, who oversees mosquito control.

Several organizations side with the corps viewpoint. They oppose simply letting Glynn County take up where it left off. Among those groups is the Glynn Environmental Coalition.

"All they've [the corps] asked is for Glynn County to submit a plan. Ditching is a tool, not a plan," said Daniel Parshley, projects manager for the grass-roots coalition. "It can be part of a plan, but it is not a plan."

That plan should include ways to restore the ecological balance between the predator fish and mosquitos, Parshley said.

Part of the plan should include the small ponds like those that occur naturally in the marshes, he said.

"The ditching proponents, what they want is a big flush," Parshley said.

Dave Kyler of the Center for a Sustainable Coast said he has no doubt that the ditches from the 1980s were effective, but he still wants Glynn County to consider new methods.

"More is being learned all the time about managing these areas," Kyler said. "The state of the art has changed."

Corps spokesman Billy Birdwell said the corps is subject to some pretty stringent regulations.

"When we issue a permit, the law requires we base the issuing on sound science," he said.

Thus far, the corps' "regulatory people say there's no scientific evidence" Glynn County's proposed method will be effective, Birdwell said. "We have to make sure it will be effective and have the least impact on the marsh."