Clearwater Pass (Clearwater, Florida)

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Clearwater Pass - Separates Clearwater Beach Island from Sand Key; connects Clearwater Harbor and the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) with the Gulf of Mexico.

Originally named Little Pass, Clearwater Pass was opened by natural processes in 1848. It separated Hog Island (Clearwater Beach I.) from Sand Key. The original orientation of the pass was northeast to Southwest. A reinforcing hurricane during Oct. 25, 1921 opened Hurricane Pass, and widened Clearwater Pass slightly. The Clearwater Harbor "Million Dollar Causeway circa 1928 was built across St. Joseph Sound to replace the 1917 wooden bridge (Seminole St. across Island estates to Papaya St.) damaged by the 1921 Hurricane. Meanwhile dredging appropriated by Congress in 1910 for navigation purposes, had also altered the tidal currents and flushing patterns in Little Pass (Clearwater), Big Pass (Dunedin), and Hurricane Pass. From the 30s to the 70s, Clearwater Pass was manually dredged and significantly widened.

From 1957-1958 Island Estates was dredged and filled where a smaller, mangrove island used to be located. A large portion of what is now the city of Ozona was created. Most large-scale dredging in Clearwater Harbor was carried out throughout the 1950s. Together, all these man-made forces have contributed to the current state of Clearwater Pass.

The "tidal prisms" (a quadralateral flushing area behind the barrier islands) of both Clearwater Pass and Hurricane Pass had gradually infringed and overtook that of Dunedin Pass (Big Pass), causing the pass to become geologically unstable. The channel of Dunedin Pass then realigned, shoaled-in, closed to navigation, and eventually completely capped-off between the 1970s through the early 1990s, leaving only Hurricane Pass and Clearwater Pass to flush Clearwater Harbor.

Between 1973 and 1976, a stone jetty, currently the largest on Florida's West Coast, was constructed on the southern side of the pass, altering the rounded, northern tip of Sand Key, and adding stability to the sands around the pass.

During the 1990s, the Army Corps of Engineers, Pinellas County, and other agencies studied the feasibility of re-opening and stabilizing neighboring Old Dunedin Pass, and permission for the maintenance of the pass was granted. However, the hydro-geological effects, both positive and negative, are still under debate.

On Friday, Mar. 30, 2007, the first annual Clearwater Harbor/St. Joseph Sound symposium was held in Clearwater, FL. City, County, and State government, marine and environmental scientists, and urban planners discussed the management of this portion of the Pinellas County Aquatic Preserve. Though no grandiose changes are forseen, the water quality, ecological health, and historical development of the area around Clearwater Pass and other inlets have been the focus of attention. The meeting had shown that both the natural and man-made systems around Clearwater Pass lay solidly in the considerate minds of regional development, preservation, economy, and quality of life in Pinellas County.