Home > News > Expansion Of Port Everglades Assailed By State, U.S. Agencies

Expansion Of Port Everglades Assailed By State, U.S. Agencies

By Matt J. Weiss, April 3, 2008 @ 02:00 AM (EST)

Editors Note-
This could be potentially be a devestating blow to a great natural resource. Though its uncommon to see underwater photographs of the florida mangroves, many of us enjoy the reefs they protect. Withouth proper mitigation, this expansion could seriously harm those reefs.

With the widening of the Panama Canal scheduled to be completed in 2014, Port Everglades and other East Coast harbors have drawn up expansion plans to accommodate the huge freighters expected to arrive from China and other Asian countries.

But the Port Everglades project, which would destroy mangroves and part of a coral reef, faces serious obstacles. An initial draft of an environmental impact statement by the Army Corps of Engineers, obtained by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, has been savaged by state and federal environmental agencies, which say it dramatically understates the likely harm to corals, seagrass and endangered species.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and National Marine Fisheries Service have both threatened to withdraw as cooperating agencies in the environmental review unless they receive a more complete mapping of the reef and detailed plans to mitigate the damage.

The wildlife conservation commission sharply disputed the Corps' assertion that the expansion won't harm manatees. The port, which includes the warm-water discharge of the Florida Power & Light plant, is a "very important habitat for the Atlantic manatee population," the commission said. The sea mammals would lose habitat through the destruction of seagrass and mangroves, and construction work and arrival of larger ships would "increase the risk of injury and death."

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