Mark Woods: How much money is the St. Johns River worth?

[thelakelander]

http://www.dredgemag.com/January-February-2015/Coral-Relocation-Completed-for-Miami-Harbor-Deepening-Project-in-the-Final-Stretch/

I had those figures in my head when I saw the latest story about the Port of Miami: the $205 million dredging project there is smothering coral in silt.

This was one of the concerns raised repeatedly before the dredging. The Army Corps of Engineers and dredging advocates insisted repeatedly that it wouldn't be an issue. They had detailed plans, reliable models. After some of those plans went awry, a Corps spokeswoman said, "We're a learning organization. We take the lessons learned and apply them, not only projects under execution, but to our future planning for projects."

Which brings us to North Florida, future planning and a question rarely asked in the debate about dredging: What is the economic impact — not of the port, but of the St. Johns River itself?

There was a town hall meeting Monday night at UNF about plans to dredge to 47 feet. It drew a standing-room only crowd full of a wide range of viewpoints. Port officials reiterated that we need to dredge deeper to stay competitive, and a representative from the Army Corps of Engineers repeated that it will have minimal effect on the river. When one of the citizens who got up to speak asked what if the models are wrong and there are unintended consequences, the Corps' Eric Bush responded: "Look, I don't expect to convince all of you that the Corps of Engineers is perfect in what we do and how we do it. We don't have the greatest track record. But we do have an excellent analysis of the Jacksonville project."

Of course, it's worth noting that not too long ago the same thing was being said about dredging the Port of Miami. Bush added that if they are wrong here, if there are unexpected consequences, there also will be mechanisms to fix the problem.

"Congress is your best tool for accountability," he said.

This didn't seem to make people feel better. There were murmurs and laughter, even from some of those there to support dredging.

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/business/columnists/2015-03-10/story/mark-woods-how-much-money-st-johns-river-worth

[mbwright]

Is congress going to save the coral in Miami?  Yes, the Army Corp of Engineers has a horrible track record.  They sure did a great job protecting New Orleans with the levies and pumps. 

There was a program on creating a water feature at the Duval county extension office.  There were folks from DEP, EPA, Zoning, and others.  Nobody had a definition of a pond, and what the threshold (size, volume, surface area) of when it became large enough to engage these departments.  Something as basic as this stumped them.  They said a borrow pit would be much bigger than something with gold fish in it.  I asked this publicly, and said something to the affect of their calculations in New Orleans created more than a fish pond.

[Josh]

"Look, I don't expect to convince all of you that the Corps of Engineers is perfect in what we do and how we do it. We don't have the greatest track record. But we do have an excellent analysis of the Jacksonville project."

It's good to see the Corps is confident there are mechanisms to fix problems that they aren't even aware of............... *sigh*