|
| |
Comments on Fort Lauderdale Beach
dredge-fill dumping project impact on coral reefs.
June 1 2012
Eric Myers
Environmental Protection and Growth Management Department
Natural Resources Planning and Management Division
115 South Andrews Avenue, Room #329H
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Dear Mr. Myers,
The Global Coral Reef Alliance is hereby responding to your letter to us
requesting comments on the Broward County Segment II Shore Protection/Beach
Nourishment Project Environmental Assessment Scoping Meeting.
The only acceptable option listed in your letter is alternative 1) no action.
There are many reasons for this:
1) The beach in Segment II is not eroding, therefore it does not need
dredge-fill dumping.
2) Such dredge-fill dumping would kill the largest population of the protected
Endangered Species Acropora cervicornis (staghorn) and smaller populations of
the protected Endangered Species Acropora palmata (elkhorn) that are growing
directly offshore from Segment II, and violate the Endangered Species Act.
3) It would severely threaten some of the largest and oldest known corals in
Florida, also growing on the First Reef directly offshore from Segment II.
4) These coral reefs were unknown to scientific researchers until we were the
first to document them:
http://globalcoral.org/reef_protection_in_broward_count.htm
5) These unique reefs are the last ones left in southeast Florida because all
the rest were killed by sediment dumped on beaches in previous dredge-fill
dumping projects, and this is the only part of South East Florida left where
there has been no dredge-fill dumping and where the offshore reefs have not
already been killed.
6) The corals on this reef have the highest live coral cover left in Florida and
largely consist of highly sediment-sensitive species that require the strongest
possible protection from the turbidity that would be caused by dredge-fill
dumping on the beach.
7) The ecosystem services of these reefs are worth more than one billion dollars
a year to Broward County.
8) It would be unforgiveable in the extreme to destroy such a valuable resource
for a few million dollars of profit to dredging companies and the highly paid
consultants who have falsely denied the environmental damages that would be
caused by this irresponsible project.
9) The Lauderdale By The Sea Coral Reef Fish Habitat Restoration Project would
be damaged, if not destroyed, by the sediment plumes this project would cause.
10) It was our understanding that sand dredge-fill dumping on Segment II would
only be permitted if there were shown to be no negative impacts from the
dredge-fill dumping on Segment III in Dania and Hollywood.
11) That project was a failure: the dredge-fill dumped material caused
tremendous turbidity plumes in near shore waters and the sand was immediately
eroded from the beach, smothering and burying adjacent hard ground communities
that are Essential Fish Habitat as defined under the Magnuson Act.
12) Segment III had almost no reef resources worth protecting because they had
been killed by several previous failed beach dredge-fill dumping projects, but
Segment II has the only high quality coral reef resources left in SE Florida.
13) Please save the best coral reef left in Florida by choosing the only
responsible alternative, Option 1) no action.
Sincerely yours,
Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance
| |
|
