By William E. Gibson, Washington Bureau

 

WASHINGTON — Federal scientists have concluded that a plan to expand Port Everglades would not jeopardize endangered species or their habitat because it would replace and enhance thousands of corals and mangroves disrupted by dredging.

 

The "Biological Opinion" clears a key hurdle for the project, a Broward County priority 17 years in the making.

 

The project is expected to bring a burst of shipping business and create 11,000 jobs by deepening the port's waterways to accommodate gigantic cargo ships that will sail through a widened Panama Canal.

 

But it also will damage the environment near the entrance to the port, one of several obstacles that have snagged attempts to secure federal funding.

 

The dredging and widening will destroy 22 acres of coral reef habitat and may indirectly disturb another 118 acres of the delicate ecosystem, according to fishery officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

 

But they concluded that the damage will be more than offset by a plan to build artificial reefs of boulders farther out to sea and up the coast, filling them with transplanted corals. The mitigation plan calls for moving 11,500 corals from the port entrance and adding another 35,000 to 50,000 that are grown in nurseries onshore.

 

This "innovative approach" will address "the unprecedented amount of impacts to coral reef and hard-bottom habitat and help allow the expansion of a major port," Robert Moller, deputy director of legislative affairs at NOAA, told Florida members of Congress.

 

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, called the conclusion a "very positive step forward. This means we can have a port that meets the 21st-century needs of the global economy without jeopardizing the diverse sea life we cherish in South Florida, which is also vital to our local economy."

 

One big step remains: completion of an Army Corps of Engineers final report on the cost effectiveness and environmental impact of the dredging plan. It's expected this fall.

 

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, is meeting with fellow House members and senators to iron out a compromise water bill that would unleash federal funds to help pay for the project once the Army Corps clears it for construction. "We must strike a careful balance between protecting our natural resources and expanding Port Everglades, because both are drivers of South Florida's economy," Frankel said.

 

Boosters say the plan will expand opportunities for boating and diving.

 

"It would create more and additional resources for areas that may not now have quite as much underwater tourism," Broward Commissioner Chip LaMarca said Wednesday.

 

But some environmentalists remain skeptical that the plan would help the environment or the economy, noting that the port will have to compete with others.

 

"It's like removing endangered species and saying, 'We'll put them someplace else.' It's not that simple," said Ina Oost Topper, chairwoman of the Broward Sierra Club. "You can try to replace something, but that may not work. That's very presumptuous."

 

But South Florida leaders are determined to move ahead, convinced that a bigger port, supplemented by new rail links, will turn the region into a major shipment center for goods imported from abroad and distributed along the Eastern seaboard.

 

All of Florida's 15 seaports are lobbying collectively for the dredging money in the belief that expansion of one port will bring spillover business to others. But the Biological Opinion applies only to Port Everglades, not to Port Canaveral, the Port of Palm Beach or others along the coastline.

 

Eager to start, Broward commissioners have agreed to pay $4 million for the initial consulting and design work. They expect eventually to get reimbursed by federal funds.

 

The work will begin with planting 70,000 mangroves this spring on 16.5 acres of wetlands within the port to compensate for those that will be destroyed by construction.

 

The total cost is expected to reach $315 million, with 60 percent paid by the federal government and 40 percent by the port.

 

Port officials hope to complete the dredging in 2017, two years after the giant cargo ships start to pass through a widened Panama Canal.

 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-port-expansion-clears-hurdle-20140312,0,3107920.story