[CPEO-BIF] "Port construction projects can unearth a range of environmental challenges"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

New problems or old?
Greenfield or brownfield, port construction projects can unearth a  
range of environmental challenges.

Felicity Landon
Port Strategy
April 12, 2012

From coral reefs to mangroves, protection of sensitive environmental  
areas is an accepted priority in port construction projects - but  
it's not only greenfield projects that raise environmental issues.

Those embarking on port construction or expansion projects on  
brownfield or previously industrialised sites can literally find  
themselves dredging up the sins of our forefathers, as the less than  
pristine legacy of previous generations come back to haunt us.

"In more industrialised areas, you can have centuries of industrial  
waste that has been in the river, settled into the bottom and in some  
cases been stabilised and covered up by later sediment - but when you  
dredge, you disturb that stable situation," says Ben Lieberman,  
senior planner at US-based consultant Louis Berger. "Nineteenth  
century stuff is OK until you send a grab bucket down there to deepen  
the channel and disturb it, spreading out potential contaminants."



...

For the entire article, see
http://www.portstrategy.com/features101/port-operations/port-services/ 
dredging/new-problems-or-old

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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