Environmental Intersection by George Lindemann

The deal struck by Miami-Dade County and state and federal agencies with environmentalists to proceed with the “Deep Dredge” project — instrumental for PortMiami’s growth and this area’s economic future — is a victory for Biscayne Bay’s sea life and every resident and visitor to our area.

It allows the port to keep to the dredge schedule so that it will be ready by 2014 to receive new super-sized cargo ships coming through the Panama Canal that need 50-feet deep waters to dock in Miami. How the agreement was reached was not ideal, however.

Environmentalists’ appeals were rushed within a 30-day deadline imposed by Tallahassee legislators and supported by county officials. Tropical Audobon Society, commercial fishermen and other groups concerned that the drilling blasts would destroy coral, kill sea life and muck up the bay’s pristine turquoise waters agreed to drop an administrative challenge if the county provided $2.3 million more than previously budgeted for restoration and monitoring projects that will save or restore corals, sea grass beds and other sealife.

As Laura Reynolds, executive director of the Tropical Audubon Society, noted, the deal “raised the bar” for environmental protection.

The Army Corps of Engineers, meanwhile, has experience in the bay, having successfully dredged there before. That bodes well for Biscayne Bay’s marine life, including turtles, dolphin and snook as the agreement limits the time frame of the blasts to better protect fish during times of day (dawn and dusk) when they become more active. It also bans blasting along the northern jetty of Government Cut during snook spawning season.

About eight acres of sea grass beds and seven acres of reefs (most at the entrance of the channel) will be lost to the dredge, which includes widening the port’s offshore entrance to the main channel by some 300 feet and deepening the port to 50 or 52 feet from the current 42 feet of depth.

Under the settlement reached during mediation with the state Department of Environmental Protection, the county and the Corps, two more acres of new sea grass areas will be added for mitigation, resulting in 16.6 acres. Small corals would also be moved to a new artificial reef or brought to other natural ones in the bay not affected by the blasting. Also, money will be spent to restore coastal dunes on north Virginia Key and two mangrove and wetlands projects at Oleta River State Park in North Miami.

The Miami-Dade County Commission likely will approve the settlement next week. But that still leaves one big environmental issue unresolved: an old and potentially defective sewer pipe that runs under the shipping channel and must be replaced. It carries 25 million gallons of raw sewage a day from Bal Harbour, Miami Beach and other beach towns to the county sewage treatment plant on Virginia Key.

The county is working on a fix, which will require burying a new pipe deep enough to be safe from the blasting for the dredge. There is no room for error. Residents and beach-goers’ health and safety are at stake.

With the deeper port, thousands of new good-paying jobs will result, combined with a new rail system that will move cargo directly from the port, saving time and local roadways from heavy truck traffic. Port Director Bill Johnson says the deeper channel could double the port’s container shipping business. That’s why reaching an agreement was so important to South Florida’s future.

 

The “Deep Dredge” project, a critical and controversial key to PortMiami’s ambitious $2 billion expansion plan, is back on schedule after a legal settlement announced on Wednesday.

Environmentalists, who had argued that two years of blasting and digging in the port’s main channel would leave long-lasting scars in Biscayne Bay, agreed to drop an administrative challenge that threatened to delay the work for months or longer.

In exchange, Miami-Dade County has agreed to an additional $2.3 million in restoration and monitoring projects and other tweaks, such as a narrower daily blasting window, intended to enhance protection for corals, sea grass beds and other marine life.

“This is a win-win for the entire community,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a release. “The agreement provides additional funding for important environmental projects while at the same time allowing for the timely completion of the dredge project.”

Laura Reynolds, executive director of the Tropical Audubon Society, said the settlement didn’t address all of environmentalists’ concerns but had “raised the bar’’ on protecting the bay’s surrounding, fish-rich waters.

“What we’ve been able to do is make the permit a lot stronger,” said Reynolds, whose organization joined with Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper and local fishing captain Dan Kipnis last November in filing a legal challenge to a Florida Department of Environmental Protection permit issued for the project.

The deal, expected to be approved by the Miami-Dade County Commission on May 1, clears the way for work to begin as early as this summer.

For port managers, keeping to that schedule is important. With a truck tunnel under Government Cut in the works and a new freight rail system also coming on line, the plan was to complete the dredging in 2014, putting Miami in position to lure a new class of mega-size cargo ships at the same time an overhaul is completed at the Panama Canal. Port Director Bill Johnson has projected the deeper channel could double the seaport’s container shipping business and spawn thousands of jobs in coming years.

The work — widening the port’s offshore entrance to the main channel by some 300 feet and deepening much of the port to 52 feet by scooping out about eight feet of rock, sand and rubble — would also consume some eight acres of sea grass beds and seven acres of reefs, including about five acres of previously undisturbed reef at the channel’s mouth.

Environmentalists had argued that the DEP and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn’t include enough “mitigation” to offset the loss of reefs and sea grass beds or set strict enough water quality standards to minimize silting damage to surrounding areas. They also warned that blasting during the two-year-long project could harm or kill marine life from snook to dolphin.

Port managers, backed by state and federal agencies, insisted most impacts will be minimal and short-lived, pointing out a smaller dredging project a few years ago that left no lingering scars to surrounding areas.

Under the terms of the settlement, reached after three days of mediation involving environmental groups, the county, the DEP and the Corps, the seaport will transfer $1.3 million into a Miami-Dade trust fund for environmental enhancement projects.