Environmental testing at the disputed Fisherman's Wharf waterfront property in Fort Pierce, Florida, found arsenic in some soil samples, but not at levels that appear to support the city's earlier argument that contamination could erase developer Chris Shelli's damages claim.
The outcome matters beyond the courtroom because the fight could determine whether a long-promised waterfront redevelopment moves forward or remains tied up in legal and financial uncertainty.
Here's what to know
Records reviewed by WPTV show the Florida Department of Environmental Protection flagged two soil samples — from land the city sold to Shelli — for arsenic above Florida's residential cleanup benchmark.
Each result was under double the state's residential standard.
Jordon Beckler, a research professor at FAU's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, said the development-site results did not stand out as especially troubling.
"I don't think it's necessarily something to be too concerned with," he said.
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Before that testing was finished, the city's lawyer wrote in 2025 that the property was "likely contaminated" and that cleanup expenses could largely cancel out any damages Shelli seeks in his breach-of-contract case against Fort Pierce.
More significant arsenic readings turned up nearby. Samples collected at a former citrus packing house property included multiple elevated results, with one measuring about 148 times Florida's residential cleanup target. That location was not part of the property Shelli bought.
More background
At the center of the lawsuit is roughly 3.2 acres near Fisherman's Wharf that Shelli purchased for a redevelopment project.
Another problem emerged involving a state right-of-reverter restriction on about half of the site. Selling that portion for private development could trigger the land's return to the state.
Mike Jenkins, whose family owns the property beneath the 12A Buoy restaurant, said he worries about the effect.
"You throw a word out like that — contaminated — that's going to scare everybody, scare all the landowners," he said.
What's being done?
FDEP has identified remediation plans for five parcels tied to the former citrus packing house property.
FDEP did not identify a remediation plan for the waterfront development property sold to Shelli.
Glen Torcivia, a government law attorney not involved in the case, said the dispute is likely to continue over what the city knew and what due diligence Shelli should have performed before buying the property.
Fort Pierce commissioners received a $6 million settlement offer from Shelli. During a public meeting, the city attorney warned that rejecting the offer could leave the city owing attorney's fees and other costs under Florida's proposal-for-settlement rules if Shelli later recovered at least $7.5 million.
Commissioners took no action, so the offer was treated as rejected.
Torcivia said mediation could still provide a path forward.
"The vast majority of those samples, while, yes, they were above that residential standard, they weren't that high above it," Beckler said.
Where can I learn more?
Similar fights have played out elsewhere when contamination findings turned into legal and public-health disputes.
• In the Everglades, a lawsuit over diesel pollution is targeting Florida's detention center.
• In Brooklyn, New York, the Gowanus Canal lawsuit details years of alleged waterfront contamination.
• In Dalton, Georgia, families say catastrophic levels of toxic chemicals left them without answers.
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