BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — A dredging project near Port Everglades is drawing criticism from environmental groups and dive operators, who say it could threaten some of Florida’s last remaining endangered corals.

Conservation groups have filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Marine Fisheries Service, alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act related to the Port Everglades Inlet Sand Bypassing Project.

Dr. Rachel Silverstein, CEO of Miami Waterkeeper, said concerns grew after reports of large sediment plumes caused by recent dredging operations.

“Once the project started, we started getting reports of massive plumes of sediment being kicked up by the dredging project,” Silverstein said.

The Broward County project involves digging a 10.8-acre pit offshore.

“The idea is to dig a 10.8 acre pit just off of the beach, and the pit will eventually, over time, trap sand on its journey, and the sand will then be dredged out of the pit on a two to four year cycle, and used for beach renourishment south of the channel on a beach that needs sand there,” Silverstein said.

Miami Waterkeeper joined Earthjustice, the Florida Wildlife Federation and DEMA in filing the legal action. The groups argue that thousands of critically endangered staghorn corals have already been put at risk.

“We know from our experience at the Port of Miami deepening and widening project that this can be extremely harmful and actually bury the reef,” Silverstein said.

In 2013, a Port Miami dredging project damaged 278 acres of coral reef, which environmentalists say were smothered by sediment stirred up during construction.

“We saw what happened in Port Miami when these projects go wrong,” Silverstein said. “Millions of corals are killed and still never been fixed, and potentially a massive disease outbreak was sparked by that dredging project.”

Miami Waterkeeper previously sued the Army Corps of Engineers to stop the proposed $1.35 billion expansion of Port Everglades, arguing the project would destroy millions of nearby endangered corals. In April, after a petition with more than 35,000 signatures called for the project to be halted, the Army Corps withdrew its permit application and placed the expansion on indefinite hold.

Environmental groups say the current sand bypass project still threatens staghorn coral populations.

“It used to be the dominant coral blanketing the Florida reef tract for miles and miles and miles, creating really important habitat for fish and other wildlife,” Silverstein said.

Over the past four decades, climate change, heat stress, disease and pollution have devastated Florida’s staghorn coral populations.

“In 2006 it became one of the first two corals listed on the Endangered Species Act,” Silverstein said. “98 percent of it was gone, and since then it’s continued to decline.”

The summer of 2023 brought a severe marine heat wave that wiped out much of the remaining staghorn coral south of Miami.

“A study just came out in the fall that this coral is functionally extinct in the state of Florida now, and one of the last places you can still find it in any significant numbers is right around Port Everglades,” Silverstein said.

Conservation and dive groups say protecting those remaining corals is critical.

“For this reason we’re extremely concerned about sediment plumes having a repeat of the Port Miami project, where reef habitat and corals are being buried,” Silverstein said.

Environmentalists also warn that queen conch populations could be affected.

“There’s also a really significant population of queen conch, another endangered species, right in that area,” Silverstein said. “There’s a breeding aggregation of tens of thousands of them that’s really important for the recovery of that species.”

The groups say queen conch are highly sensitive to sediment and want the Army Corps to conduct additional consultations before dredging continues.

“Come back to the agency, do an analysis again, make sure you’re not going to make any species go extinct in this project, and they give them a set of protections that have to be followed,” Silverstein said.

“We feel really urgent about the timing because the longer we wait, the more risk there is that harm could come to them,” she added.

Local 10 News contacted both Broward County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding the sediment plumes. The Army Corps referred questions to the Department of Justice, which declined to comment but provided a progress report outlining consultations related to the project.

Broward County’s chief resilience officer said the project is operating in compliance with all permits. The county said it uses an independent monitoring team that can halt operations when sediment plumes exceed permitted zones. County officials also said their data shows no sedimentation has occurred.

Additional information and environmental documents related to the Sand Bypass Project are available through Broward County.

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