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JU’s Quinton White to participate in Riverkeeper forum on controversial river dredging proposal

JU Marine Science Research Institute Executive Director Quinton White

Quinton White, Jacksonville University’s Marine Science Research Institute executive director, will be among the panelists at a July 23 public forum on the proposed Jacksonville Harbor Deepening Project, the Florida Times-Union reported in its Tuesday, July 9 edition.

Hosted by the St. Johns Riverkeeper, a nonprofit advocacy group, the forum is at 6 p.m. at the Wyndham Jacksonville Riverwalk Hotel, 1515 Prudential Drive.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering deepening the St. Johns River’s 40-foot channel to 47 feet from its mouth to just west of the Dames Point Bridge, making way for increases in international shipping. Environmentalists say the dredging’s impact on nearby creeks and marshes need to be determined before a decision is made on the project.

Here is the July 9 Times-Union report.

Here is the Jacksonville Business Journal report on the Riverkeeper forum.

In comments written to the Corps of Engineers and published July 5 as an editorial in the Jacksonville Business Journal (click here to view it), White said a Corps environmental study — details of which were recently revealed in a draft report — fails to answer key questions about the harbor-deepening project’s impact. White says he supports “having a meaningful community dialogue about the economic benefits versus the environmental impacts associated with the harbor deepening project.”

Also on the river dredging issue, White was quoted in a June 28 Florida Times-Union report as saying that he disagrees with the Corps of Engineers assessment that the Rodman dam should not be removed for environmental mitigation. Indeed, proposals in the Corps of Engineers’ draft report are “practically non-existent” in their benefits, White told the Times-Union.

“I’m extremely disappointed in the scope and depth of the study,” he said.

Click here to view the June 28 Times-Union article.