Cabinet approves dredging project that would damage marine park: Cayman News Service

(CNS): The Cayman Islands government has approved a subdivided private developer to dredge a canal through a marine reserve and mangrove buffer zone, with the Department of Environmental Protection warning it would cause severe damage to large tracts of important and unique marine habitat.

Despite clear advice from DOE scientists, Cabinet agreed to issue a coastal works permit to Harrylin Bodden and Newlands Bay Development Ltd. simply to allow easier access to the sea for the few large ship owners who might buy land there.

The coastal engineering report conducted in September 2022 detailed a series of factors that would cause environmental damage to an area far beyond the project’s footprint, which is 3.8 acres. The 100-foot-wide, 1,626-foot-long, 5-foot-deep canal is for the benefit of a few people so they don’t have to haul their boats. The dredging project plans to remove about 67,885 cubic yards from the sea, which the developer plans to use as fill for the subdivision.

The Department of Energy Coastal Engineering Review noted that the project is located within a marine protected area, the primary purpose of which is to protect breeding and nursery areas for marine organisms. The proposed dredging would adversely affect the seagrass beds and coastal mangroves on which these breeding areas depend.

The project threatens some very healthy and increasingly rare seagrass beds, which are home to colonies of seagrasses, sponges and occasional corals, supporting a diverse community of benthic animals, invertebrates and fish. Seagrass beds in the area are often referred to as “transitional habitats” and they complement the surrounding mangroves, providing a healthy ecosystem for marine life and helping to protect and stabilize the coastline.

Seagrass habitats are widely recognised as one of the most valuable and vulnerable ecosystems, providing food and shelter for many marine organisms at different stages of their life cycle. The habitats along the Newlands coast are even more valuable because they are linked to the adjacent mangroves. Seagrasses also play an important role in helping the Cayman Islands meet the challenges of rising sea levels.

Listing a host of important ecological services provided by this unique marine park, the DOE said: “With predicted climate change in the region, including increased temperatures, rising sea levels and increased intensity of storm events such as storm surges, another beneficial function of seagrass beds is that they can reduce flooding and wave erosion, helping to protect the coast, particularly along beaches and in shallow waters.”

The U.S. Department of Energy noted that the region is important as a nutrient sink, buffering and filtering nutrients and chemicals entering the marine environment, helping to improve water quality. The scientific community also generally believes that coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrass meadows and tidal marshes can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and ocean, thereby mitigating climate change, with a much higher absorption rate per unit area than terrestrial forests, and the disappearance of seagrass will lead to carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

The loss of the mangrove buffer zone will have similar negative consequences, compounding the overall problems with the proposal, which is why the Ministry of Environment is urging the government to reject the application.

The review also details the damage the project will cause to the entire marine area and the dangers to a large number of marine life considering the dredging plan proposed by the developer. The Department of Energy said that there are almost no mitigation measures to prevent the damage caused by sediment and turbidity, as past experience has shown that silt screens simply do not work.

“It is impossible to eliminate the impact of the sediment plume created during dredging.
By using silt screens, projects of this size can be achieved, especially when the sediment contains high
The US Department of Energy warns that “the high proportion of silty fines is typical of coastal sediments in the Northern Straits.”

The Department of Energy also proposed a number of alternative solutions to the problem of large vessels being unable to enter the waters, which was the sole reason given by the applicant for the project. The report provides a specific scientific detail of the proposed project and states that the project will cause significant harm to very few beneficiaries, while the Cayman Islands as a whole will suffer significant losses as a result.

Yet, despite the government’s claims to govern the country in a sustainable manner, the inner circle of the government issued the permits despite the fact that previous governments had not claimed to be particularly “sustainable” and had decided to follow a policy of not allowing private development in marine reserves.

However, this recent poor environmental decision by the current UPM government is just one of many it has made that threaten Cayman’s dwindling marine and terrestrial habitats. From the options for the East-West Trunk Road extension and the proposal to dredge a commercial cargo port at the Breakers to building a new airport at Little Cayman and extending the runway at Owen Roberts to North Sound, this government has proven to be a poor steward of the country’s vital and precious natural resources.

It is unclear why the government decided to allow a relatively small subdivision developer to cause so much damage that affected the entire country. CNS has contacted the minister responsible for sustainable development and climate change and we are awaiting a response.

See the full article in Coastal Engineering Review CNS Library.