Coastal Dune Lakes Advisory Board - Sep 30 2026

The Coastal Dune Lakes Advisory Board of Walton County met September 29, 2026. The board approved the prior meeting minutes and renewed officers’ roles; these votes involved no spending. Members reviewed the 2026 activity matrix and planned Coastal Dune Lake Week events and 2027 education topics. Staff noted a delay in ordering embossed seals because a vendor had not been found, but county TDC operations staff used county equipment to make them; no contract award or purchase amount was reported. The county has also finalized its purchase of property adjacent to the Oyster Lake outfall, with no price stated. A joint coastal permit for Oyster Lake is awaiting Army Corps of Engineers issuance, and the board was invited to provide feedback on the county’s land development code rewrite survey.

The main presentation was the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance Estuary Program’s annual water-quality monitoring update, covering 2025 data from 15 named dune lakes. It highlighted persistently low dissolved oxygen in part of Western Lake and increasing phosphorus and chlorophyll trends in Allen Lake, and discussed monitoring, restoration, buffers, fertilizer practices, septic conversions, and stormwater infrastructure. No procurement approvals, contract awards, bids, or budget allocations were identified.