Comments on: Saltwater Invasion http://www.scienceline.org/2007/06/22/env_webster_salt-water-global-warming/ The Shortest Distance Between You and Science Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:16:34 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: jerry berne http://www.scienceline.org/2007/06/22/env_webster_salt-water-global-warming/comment-page-1/#comment-928 jerry berne Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:26:20 +0000 http://scienceline.org/2007/06/22/env_webster_salt-water-global-warming/#comment-928 One of the major contributors not cited by these reports to saltwater intrusion into coastal fresh water sources is the unrelenting dredging being done along our coastlines. The ever deeper and unnatural, canyon-like navigational channels being dredged to accommodate massive container ships are driving salt water far inland. This dredging is even breaking into coastal aquifer containment layers directly polluting these sources. Even smaller inlet are now dredged deeper for ever larger recreational craft. This dredging, along with offshore sand mining, are the major manmade causes of coastal erosion which, in turn, further threatens our coastal water supplies. Unfortunately, much of this activity is based on greed, not need. We must design our vessels to our environments, maybe even building offshore ports as transfer facilities for smaller coastal vessels (back to the future). We must also adopt more sustainable, environmentally sound methods of mitigating the damage done by this dredging to protect our coastlines (beach nourishment is, in reality, a starvation diet). Jerry Berne Sustainable Shorelines, Inc. (www.sustainableshorelines.org) Sustainable Shorelines is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to documenting current environmental events on our shorelines, identifying and seeking to change those coastal policies and practices which are harmful and advocating protecting our coastal habitats and the ecosystems these support with methods proven to be environmentally sound and sustainable. One of the major contributors not cited by these reports to saltwater intrusion into coastal fresh water sources is the unrelenting dredging being done along our coastlines. The ever deeper and unnatural, canyon-like navigational channels being dredged to accommodate massive container ships are driving salt water far inland. This dredging is even breaking into coastal aquifer containment layers directly polluting these sources. Even smaller inlet are now dredged deeper for ever larger recreational craft. This dredging, along with offshore sand mining, are the major manmade causes of coastal erosion which, in turn, further threatens our coastal water supplies. Unfortunately, much of this activity is based on greed, not need. We must design our vessels to our environments, maybe even building offshore ports as transfer facilities for smaller coastal vessels (back to the future). We must also adopt more sustainable, environmentally sound methods of mitigating the damage done by this dredging to protect our coastlines (beach nourishment is, in reality, a starvation diet).

Jerry Berne
Sustainable Shorelines, Inc. (www.sustainableshorelines.org)

Sustainable Shorelines is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to documenting current environmental events on our shorelines, identifying and seeking to change those coastal policies and practices which are harmful and advocating protecting our coastal habitats and the ecosystems these support with methods proven to be environmentally sound and sustainable.

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