Port Everglades Dredging Project Construction Delayed until April 2021

On October 1, 2019, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) announced that construction for the Port Everglades Dredging Project Construction will now be delayed until April 2021.

Photo: Google Earth

To protect coral reefs near Port Everglades from the devastation that occurred in the PortMiami dredging project, Miami Waterkeeper filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps in 2016 under the citizen suit provisions for the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act alongside co-plaintiffs the Center for Biological Diversity, the Dive Equipment Manufacturer's Association, and the Florida Wildlife Federation. 

In that litigation, MWK alleges that by ignoring the unexpected harm that occurred to the reef at PortMiami, the Corps failed to use “best available science,” in their Port Everglades environmental analyses. In response to MWK’s claims, the Corps acknowledged that its current environmental analysis is neither appropriate nor sufficient. Because of our litigation, the Corps has agreed to go back to square one and conduct new environmental studies before starting its planned dredging project to expand Port Everglades. This most recent status report reveals that this project, which was supposed to commence in 2017, has now been delayed until 2021 at the earliest. 

You can read the full status report HERE. 

Key takeaways include:

• Updated timelines for pre-engineering and design phases of the project -- estimated completion July 2020
• Updated timelines on environmental documents -- estimated completion June 2020
• Updated timelines for construction work -- estimated commencement April 2021 

You can learn more about our work to better our coral reefs during dredging at https://www.miamiwaterkeeper.org/dredging_in_port_everglades

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