Reef at Risk - Florida Weekly

A reef-impacting dredging history is shaping a legal fight ahead of planned work at Port Everglades, near Fort Lauderdale, according to Miami Waterkeeper and partner groups. The nonprofit’s Rachel Silverstein, who returned to lead the organization after studies at the University of Miami and policy work in Washington, said Port of Miami dredging involved a Great Lakes company contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She alleges that while federal protections exist, rules were ignored beginning in 2013 and 2014, with sediment underestimated and then spreading widely. By 2015, dredging created a deep-water channel through the middle of a coral reef, effectively destroying it. Silverstein warns the same pattern could recur at Port Everglades, where staghorn coral remains “functionally extinct” for most of Florida but survives near the inlet. The groups plan to sue to force renewed consultation under the Endangered Species Act, arguing the Corps must re-consult NOAA if project requirements are not followed.