Stop run-away expansion

As you may or may not know, the Broward County Commission, The Port Everglades Management team, the FLL Management team, the Broward Alliance and the Broward Workshop are pushing for the dual expansions of Fort Lauderdale International Airport and Port Everglades that will essentially combine the facilities.

The effects on those who live in or plan to visit the Fort Lauderdale area for diving, snorkeling, fishing, bird-watching or just plain sight seeing, as well as the businesses that support these activities, will be eternal and irreparable.

The Florida coastal reef system is the only reef system on the east coast of the US, and when it is damaged by a ship grounding, the shipping company is charged thousands of dollars in fines for a couple hundred feet of damage, but these forward thinking people, who fought for and who levy these charges, plan to decimate 15 to 26 acres of this already threatened ecosystem, depending on the chosen option, in the deepening and widening of the port entrance. There is no mitigation for damage that extensive. Once it is gone, it is gone forever.

The last remaining wetlands in the north Dania Beach area lie between the airport and the Intracoastal Waterway, but with the combined expansions, the whole wetland ecosystem will be obliterated, and cannot be mitigated. In the alteration of the course of a FPL cooling channel, manatee habitat will be directly affected, as will be the tidal flushing of the remaining mangrove swamp, which will begin the demise of the entire ecosystem. These mangroves are already a threatened species, but in some peoples minds, they are standing in the way of progress.

There has been no plausible argument advanced to justify this expansion. It is fueled by greed and the desire of the proponents to satisfy personal goals. They attribute this desire to progress in order to cover their underlying motives.

Progress is not necessarily a bad thing, but when it comes at so great a cost to the environment, there must be a line drawn to separate the good from the evil. If such a line were to be drawn here, the evil far outweighs the good.

On the good side we have:

• Increased trade capabilities
• Increased leisure travel capabilities
• Increased profits for a select few whose pockets are already over-stuffed.
  
  

On the evil side, there are innumerable arguments, but a few of the more important are:

• Eradication of 11 acres of  protected mangroves, some of which are Essential Fish Habitat
• Loss of hatching and nursery habitat for numerous aquatic, terrestrial and avian species
• Destruction of Manatee habitat
• Decimation of 15 or more acres of our coral reef system in the deepening and widening of the port entry channel
• Loss to the economy of fishing, diving, snorkeling, sightseeing and tourism industries
• Harmful increases in pollutants in an atmosphere that is already in the 94th percentile of the most polluted in Florida counties
• Increased traffic on a roadway system that is outmoded
• Increased risk of terrorism
• Increased noise pollution
• Loss of mobile home parks that cannot be mitigated for noise with no replacement housing for the affected families
• Impossibility of mitigating noise impacts on open areas such as parks, nature centers, public greenways, blue ways, residential yards and patios
• Detrimental effects from noise pollution on wildlife in the nature centers and wildlife habitat in general with absolutely no mitigation efforts even being considered
• Tremendous expense for expansions that haven't been proven necessary. The combined expansions will exceed $2 billion
• Probable damage to the potable water supply from leaching of toxins from dredged fill during dewatering and compaction processes

These are just a few of the negative effects of this so called "progress" which are of absolutely no consequence to the people behind the push for the dual projects.

It is time that we who care about the environment voice our objections to the callous disregard with which the detrimental effects of the project are being treated by the proponents, just for the sake of adding a few more dollars into some already well-stuffed pockets. This is colossal and unforgivable.

Please sign this petition to let the Port Everglades?FLL Management know that you care about our environment and write to the Broward County Commissioners and the Florida State representatives as well as the controlling agencies, and ask them to intervene.

The following are email addresses for the Broward County Commissioners and the Florida State reps:

ilieberman@broward.org;kjacobs@broward.org;sritter@broward.org;kkeechl@broward.org;lwexler@broward.org;

sgunzburger@broward.org;jrodstrom@broward.org;dwassermanrubin@broward.org;jeggelletion@broward.org

mailto:atwater.jeffrey.web@flsenate.gov;dawson.mandy.web@flsenate.gov;deutch.ted.web@flsenate.gov ;mailto:geller.steven.web@flsenate.gov rich.nan.web@flsenate.gov;margolis.gwen.web@flsenate.gov;bullard.larcenia.web@flsenate.gov

For more on this outrage please visit my blog: Citizensagainstrunwayexpansion

Thank you in advance for your consideration and for any support you can provide for this cause. I know that as a group we can help to protect the environment, and we south Floridians need your help now.

Grant Campbell 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   2321 SW 44 St                                                                                                                                                                                                              Dania Beach, FL                                                                                                                                                                                                          33312    954-989-4921                                                                  

campbell5017@bellsouth.net