Port Everglades long-awaited channel-dredging project went from wishful thinking to an anticipated 2017 completion date.
The US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Marine Fisheries Service reached a deal to remove the major environmental roadblock that has stymied efforts by Broward's business and political leaders to keep the port competitive in luring traffic from the widened Panama Canal, reported South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The plan calls for the construction of an artificial reef that would house more than 100,000 corals grown in onshore nurseries. The new coral would replace existing coral that will be damaged during the dredging of the port's entrance, the sticking point that's been holding up the project.
Area scientists already are growing corals in laboratory tanks and shallow waters close to shore. Some coral already have been successfully transplanted, a good sign for the mammoth project that ultimately will place coral on limestone boulders near the natural reef just offshore.
The cost ranges from US$20 million to $25 million, but the benefits to Port Everglades, the surrounding communities and the state of Florida are well worth it. The plan is a victory for both the region's economy and environment. "Win-win" is a fitting description.
"We're all working together in good faith to really achieve that good balance between promoting an economically important project -port expansion -while at the same time doing it with good, sound environmental safeguards," said Miles Croom, deputy
To handle the larger vessels already arriving from Europe, Latin America and the Mediterranean, the port must dredge and deepen its navigation channels and turning basins- from 42 ft to a depth between 48 and 55 ft.
Unlike Florida's other ports, however, the waters engulfing Port Everglades are home to massive beds of coral reef, part of the world's third-largest barrier reef that extends from near Stuart to the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico.
The work at Port Everglades will affect between 15 and 21 acres of coral reef and four to eight acres of seagrass. The value of these natural resources is indisputable.
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