Design mitigation is preferred option
Tube Sponge on Balboa Reef (Photo by Courtney Platt)
(CNS): Environment Minister Wayne Panton remains hopeful that a new design for the proposed cruise port project would significantly reduce the likely damage to marine life in the George Town harbour and prove more effective than any mitigation attempts to protect reefs during construction or costly efforts to try and relocate coral from the dredging area. A redesign would be more costly in the short term, he said, but if the piers can be constructed in deeper water, it would reduce the damage to marine life and cut the need for very costly and risky relocation.
Since very little can be done to save the marine habitat with the current plans, it is better to focus mitigation efforts and investment on the design before the project starts, he said. Trying to relocate the coral — a move likely to be beset with myriad problems without any guarantee of success — would prove much more expensive, he added.
Although the minister still has significant concerns about the environmental impact, he is only one of seven members of Cabinet, which has collectively agreed to support moving ahead with the plan, and is bound by collective responsibility.
Nevertheless, Panton has made it clear he will ensure that the environmental issues remain front and centre during the process and he plans to do all he can to limit the damage that the project will cause to George Town harbour’s unique marine habitat. He told CNS that discussions regarding the revised plans could reduce the damage by at least 30%.
While Premier Alden McLaughlin has recently stated that he will not allow special interest to derail the port project, Panton, one of the first politicians to hold responsibility for environmental issues that is a diver and keen conservationist, is still championing the need to conserve Cayman’s marine environment.
While the premier and Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell are the loudest champions of the project on the government’s front bench, there is still a long way to go before the project gets the green light. Talks regarding the financing of the costly project only began late last year and Panton said that government wants to minimise its exposure to the financial risk, so there are many things along the road that could prevent the project from moving forward.
“The reality is that there could be many issues which arise that would preclude any deal,” he said, adding that it would be some time before any related work began.
Once government settles on a financing deal, it will still need to be approved by the UK. While Britain has pressed its territories to move on environmental protection, Panton said it has not placed any pressure or made any representations to the Cayman Islands about the environmental damage this project would inevitably cause.
Panton may not be Cabinet’s most enthusiastic supporter of the project because of the environmental threats but he said people should not be surprised that government is engaging in the process towards the project because this has been a major proposal for more than three administrations and the PPM campaigned to move towards building a cruise berthing project via an open and transparent process. He said no previous government has ever undertaken as much assessment and research as the current PPM administration.
Criticisms that have been laid against Deputy Premier Kirkconnell and his family connections to those that are likely to benefit are unfair, Panton said, because he, too, is only one member of Cabinet and cannot drive this thing alone.
With the public consultation coming down against the project, however, he acknowledged the divisions in the community that the proposal is causing.
“I know it is an issue on which there are very divided views,” Panton said, noting that there was an argument for the facility because of the possible economic boost and job creation.
However, as the project moves forward, Cayman’s environment minister promises use all of the influence he has to get the best deal possible for the marine environment and protect the unique habitat that is under threat.
Category: Marine Environment, Politics, Science & Nature
From the birth of civilization, mankind has used its gift for intelligence for nothing but progress, and now, today, we have either reached or gone over the tipping point.
Eventually, all will collapse, leaving nothing behind and returning the state of civilization back to ground zero
Comment from a blogger on a Viewcpoint submission see belo:
Structurally, as the PEIA and EIA have pointed out: we don’t even know if the cavernous and highly porous limestone under the hardpan will support the load of the concrete pilings that are being proposed and supposed enthusiastically by school-leavers in the LA. The pilings will be subjected to decades of ferocious bluewater hydrology that few marine projects have ever experienced outside of oil rigs in the North Sea, plus each pier will be torqued by 360 Gross Tons of windblown steel 250 ft high. There is a reason there are no bluewater port developments like this on the planet. We seem to be in a race to show the planet how ill-advised it can be.
Can the Miniater or any of what. They are being called Kirkbots?, answer this?
Hope this works.
#whydoesAlhategays?
KirkBots are back on the attack to win the thumb wars. ROFLOL
The tender bots are busy as well.
just let dart do it…..the thought of our poorly educated politicians and civil servants running this project is terrifying….
DART had his opportunity when the UDP handed it to him under their sham of a tender of interest for the project however greed prevailed with Dart wanting a 99 year deal and to charge the country 33% more ($100m) for the project than its true estimated cost. And you want to put the port in Dart’s hands again.
Why not put a Dock Station similar to this:
https://www.google.com/search?q=cayman+cable+car&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL2t_Yh6XKAhUIQ5AKHbSACycQ_AUICCgC&biw=1024&bih=489#imgrc=mZPdCG-TmwmxAM%3A
Then have a Retractable Pier designed for our specific needs, similar to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7JKz7tV-Ck
One Nor’Wester and kiss it goodbye, that’s why not.
It’s plain an clear that this project will go through and for the betterment of Cayman as a whole. The better the design and the less the environmental impact the the best it will be on all fronts for Caymanians. Glad to see Wayne having an influence and making sure the project is done in the best way possible. I think this is what everyone on all sides wants anyway.
Amen
How can any one that have never been in the water to really see the beauty of the unwater environment , have any respect or knowledge to what it means to the Islands and the economy. Mr Panton please do your job and protect it and keep it like how mother nature gave it to us..
I think that looking at an alternative design that is less damaging to the very assets most cruise ship visitors come to see is the right way forward on this project. Well done sir.
Speaking of mitigation – if you do not like cable cars to prevent having to destroy reefs, dredge, and build enormous structures that serve no purpose other than a footpath to where the ships are, then what about a monrail system. Disney moves millions of people on them and they have a cruise line. It would save the environment, possibly save money, and certainly look cool! Anyone willing to at least “float” the idea past Disney to see if it is feasible. Imagine the kudos, Disney and the Cayman Islands save the reefs!
An you think the structure needed to support monorails would be less than for walking passengers?
Yes. What is designed now is acres and acres of concrete. A monorail would be raised up on individual columns ever couple of hundred feet, with boats and currents and fish able to pass freely beneath.
Interesting conversations with someone associated with RCCL and what it takes to dock the OASIS class of ship. Nothing on the drawing board right now comes close to being able to support docking that ship. Be ready for a new EIA when they get the facts of what it really takes.
Also, when will CIG tell the taxi drivers that they will have to pay an extra fee to pick up at the new Cruise Berthing Facility if the cruise line is going to pay for the facility?
I’m sure that whatever final designs are made will ensure that they are up to standard to support the Oasis ships. Especially in Royal Caribbean is investing in the project.
RCL was ready to tender their Oasis class in 2010 thru 2012 – the email chains between then-Premier and Port are a Google search away. RCL didn’t want to pay the full tendering costs – the Port agreed to eat a portion of the fee it couldn’t sustain longterm. This is why the Port looses money every year. That’s the real reason these guys want to end tendering and build a port – it is the only way they can weasel out of the bad deal they entered years ago.
The irony is that if passengers ever arrive on the scale this gov’t wants, the mega ships will require fleets of buses and pre-arranged transport and leave all the local taxi drivers out in the dust, as they have in EVERY other port they currently serve.
Note: the taxi drivers and local merchants always get burned:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20121014/business/business8.html
That was actually just a proposal from the tender owners trying to get the business. Not RCCL deciding tendering was ok. Obviously Royal decided it did not make sense otherwise the Oasis ships wouldn’t be passing us by still seven years later.
To be honest, when it comes to local taxi drivers, it is about time.
It blows my mind how my fellow Caymanians sit idly whilst this monstrosity gains momentum by our Leaders. How 15 people can determine the future of these Islands is effing scary, it should be decided by the People, not Alden (who would leave his head at home if it wasn’t screwed onto his head, nor Moses who has had a direct conflict of interest in this project from day 1).
Playing this game with the very product that brings our visitors to these Islands makes no sense whatsoever, nor does the return that they keep throwing out there (as any prudent business person would have thrown this plan in the garbage the moment it arrive don their desk).
If they continue with this “fire, ready, aim” mentality and the very real risks associated with this come to fruition, Cayman will be destroyed forever and there will be no comeback.
I still cannot fathom the attraction for “sangwich eatas” over stay-over tourism, makes no sense whatsoever.
That all depends on how many “Sangwiches” they eat bobo!!!
2 million people coming to CI is a LOT of “sangwiches”
Even Minister Wayne Panton has now capitulated to this white elephant project. SMH
Two piers is greed. They will sit empty 80% of the time. Build one and call it a day.
Hey Mr. Wheelie, they shouldn’t build ANY dock and use the $300,000,000 to get Mt. Trashmore removed!
I don’t disagree. Building one fulfils a campaign promise however, as does not having a dump in Bodden Town(we all knew they never really had an alternative plan), which is really what this is all about.
This is not a bargain and it certainly won’t be a deal.