A Florida-based ocean engineer with 35 years of experience in port and beach dredging said yesterday that photos of the dredging operation off North Bimini show proper steps are not being taken to prevent silt from killing off marine life and some of the world's best-known coral reefs.
Ronald J. Coddington, of the firm Civil Construction Technologies, is the latest of a number of experts to add his voice to the growing chorus of those calling for a halt to what has been labelled environmentally "devastating" dredging that could have immediate and long-term consequences.
Resorts World Bimini commissioned the dredging as part of its plan to build a 1,000-foot pier and turning basin to accommodate cruise ships delivering up to 500,000 guests a year to its casino and hotel on the tiny island in the northern Bahamas.
Bimini currently has a population of less than 2,000, and residents are worried that the transient population explosion will overrun the island and forever alter its way of life, built in part on the pride of being surrounded by crystal clear, turquoise seas that are home to 14 of the most treasured and valuable coral reefs in the world.
Those reefs attract divers from all over the world, pumping a reported $80 million a year into the local economy. Resorts World Bimini, owned by Malaysia-based Genting, has said its investment will add jobs for Biminites, but many have expressed fears of what else it will bring that the small island may not be able to handle. In recent days, the dive industry has issued strong warnings about the impact of the dredging and urged that it be halted before it is too late.
A 450-foot suction cutter called the Niccolo Machiavelli continues to dredge the seabed, despite what Coddington said is inadequate and detached screening to contain the silt that is being turned up. Had that screening been installed adequately and completely surrounded the plume with the bottoms of the curtains weighted down, it could have mitigated against some of the turbidity caused by the stirring up of the waters that will kill reefs and the fish that depend on them for life.
"To me, it is hard to understand what the dredge company is attempting to accomplish with the discontinuous pieces of turbidity curtain, except maybe just show they have some on the site," said Coddington. "The turbidity control devices are not installed in accordance with best management practices for erosion and sediment control. This is not an environmentally compatible operation in pristine waters like [those that] exist on the Bimini coast. It puts large amounts of sediment and silt into suspension without producing any fill excavation."
According to Coddington, turbidity curtains must be
deployed as a circumference around the point source of the plume. However, photographs show a discontinuous piece of floating curtain, which he said "is absolutely worthless in its current state as it has no ability to contain the turbid water until settlement takes place".
Steel piling should have been driven into the ocean floor to hold the curtains in place, he said, buoyed by bottom anchors or weights to keep the bottom of the curtain from being swept or pushed by currents.
"In none of the photos is there any indication that turbidity curtains are being deployed to actually attempt to mitigate and contain turbidity," he said.
On Wednesday, the Bahamas National Trust called for a stop to the dredging until such time as it is clear that it is being done with necessary environmental safeguards in place.

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