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Cry of the Water
& Global Coral Reef Alliance We request the US Coral Reef Task Force to instruct the US Army Corps of Engineers to re-assess and reject permits for the Broward County beach fill project, based on new data showing that the materials used would damage or destroy the last nearshore coral reefs in SE Florida. We base this request based on two new lines of evidence showing that permanent damage to coral reefs would occur, which were not considered by the US Army Corps of Engineers before giving permission for the dredge-filling of beaches next to the last living nearshore reefs in Broward County. The first is data in a study by Dr. Harold Wanless, distinguished geologist and the leading expert on South Florida beaches and coasts (Wanless, 2004, Evaluation of proposed beach nourishment sands from offshore borrow areas of Broward County, appended). He found that the sand to be used for the project has highly unsatisfactory quality and should be rejected. The sand is too low in round hard sand grains, too high in low quality fine-grained mud and silt, and far too rich in fragile shells that are quickly ground into a fine powder. Much of this beach fill material would quickly break down, wash away, and be lethal to the highly sediment-intolerant staghorn coral reef just offshore. The second is the results of this year's beach dredge dumping at Boca Raton Beach. The sand lasted only a few months before it had entirely washed away, smothering coral reefs more than 30 feet deep. This happened BEFORE any of the hurricanes hit the area. If this has already happened in Boca Raton without a hurricane, it would inevitably happen in Fort Lauderdale too. Yet the Permit made by the Corps claims that no damage from sand burial could possibly occur beyond a shallow depth. These claims result from use of models which are based on assumptions that the sand is coarse grained and of good quality, not full of fine-grained mud like that that will be used, and the models do not include hurricanes or winter storms! What happened this year shows that this model is wrong, leads to false conclusions, and should not be used in Broward County environmental impact assessment and planning. The poor quality of this sand will result in the beach that is un-durable and un-stainable that will quickly be washed out onto the reefs as we have seen in with the Boca beach project (Back up data by Vone Research Appended). The material will continue to break down, migrating out onto the reef burying 10’s of thousands of coral. It’s estimated that this project will bury over 25 thousand corals if the sand performs as the models predict. Because of the pool quality of the sand the number of corals buried will be much higher. Because of the size of this project (app.12 mile in length) reefs will be impacted along most of the Broward’s coastline. Miles more of reef will be impacted adjacent to the borrow sites. Many of these reefs are already being impacted by poor water quality and algae blooms. The chronic silt sediment and turbidity will have a cumulative impact on these already stressed reefs. Leading to higher mortality rates of corals. These reefs are essential fish habitat and crucial to our local economy and must not be allowed to be destroyed by a bad dredging project. Therefore we ask the Task Force to issue a resolution requiring that the US Army Corps of Engineers take into account this new information and re-examine and reject the claims made by the permit that there would be no harm to the coral reef. These conclusions are based on false claims that the sand is of satisfactory quality for Broward County, and that damage could not take place to shallow reef corals because the sand fill could not move that far. The Corps of Engineers must recognize the beach fill project is an immediate threat to the adjacent reef and prevent this damage by not allowing this project to go forward Dan Clark, President, Cry of the Water P.O. Box 8143, Coral Springs, FL 33075 Thomas J. Goreau, PhD, President, Global Coral Reef Alliance 37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139 |
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