The Government and environmental agencies plan to meet with Bimini Bay developer Geraldo Capo this month to discuss the stalled project and environmental damage to the island.
“I hope to get all the government agencies involved so that we can discuss the whole issue, including the BEST (Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology) Commission and whatever other government agency would have an interest in this matter,” Minister of Public Works and Utilities Bradley Roberts told The Guardian Sunday.
The $100-million development sanctioned in July, 1997, calls for a hotel of not less than 200 rooms, a residential subdivision, a marina capable of handling more than 150 boats, an 18-hole golf course, a commercial centre, gourmet restaurants, a boutique, a health spa, a marine shop, tennis courts, children’s play area, and a 10,000-square-foot casino. No building has yet been constructed.
“I know about the environmental concerns they have down there and it touches on my ministry, but it is really an issue for the BEST Commission. They are responsible for environmental matters,” Minister Roberts said.
“My ministry has the power under the law to deal with any transgressions of the law and that is why we are getting involved,” he said.
After more than five years of “on-again off-again” work at the site, island residents and environmentalist groups, are calling on the Progressive Liberal Party government to immediately decide the fate of the project.
They claim the project has caused serious environmental and ecological damage to the island and some local fisherman believe dredging for the project is causing a serious decline in conch, lobster and crawfish.
According to a report released by American professor of marine science, Samuel H. Gruber, there is evidence the conditions in North Sound and Bimini lagoon have seriously deteriorated over the past 24 months, especially during the past six months.
The report says this deterioration is related to a massive excavation of the lagoon substrata causing greatly increased sedimentation rates, increase in nutrient levels and possibly release of heavy metals.
“Control of the release of sediments has been ignored and thus sediment loading and deposition all over the western lagoon and the fringing coral reefs continues unabated. The reason for such excavation appears to be collection of cheap fill for building up land levels and creating new islands. We believe that the value of damage to the lagoon far exceeds the cost of imported fill and it seems inappropriate to impact the most important resource of the Biminis to obtain cheap fill,” the report says.
Last year, Minister Roberts told the Guardian that his technical team was investigating the site and was to list reasons why the Government ought not to revoke the approval granted to Mr. Capo, president of RAV Bahamas, a Miami-based corporation.
The Biminis are a group of sub-tropical island and quays located in the Northwest Bahamas on the edge of the Great Bahama Bank, 48 nautical miles east of Miami.
The main economy is centred on tourism, primarily fishing and diving.
Gruber, who is also the director and owner of the Bimini Biological Field Station, has charged that the developments have already damaged both the economic and ecological base of the charming and previously pristine islands.
“After five years of on-again-off-again scarification, removal of trees and mining of the lagoon bottom, not a single building has been constructed.”
By Keva Lightbourne, The Nassau Guardian
