There are dozens of valid reasons for opposing the dredging required for the Emerald Sound Development. My concern involves the difference in owning a boat on a canal that opens onto South Sound compared to North Sound. There are so many problems that the developer will soon want to expand the dredging and the channel and the cut. Even if he signed a document promising not to ask for more, we know that money talks, (on this Island lately, money yells) and soon every South Sound development, (who will also want canals) will all want channels to the cut and the South Sound will die.
Why will they want more channels dredged? South Sound is not fit for boating. I use my private boat on occasion for photo student charters. This sometimes requires that I load at the South Sound Dock. Many areas in South Sound are too shallow for my boat and I have run aground even as I tie up to the dock.
In North sound, if a boat owner wants to go boating on Sunday, he can zoom out of his canal and if the weather is bad he can enjoy boating in North Sound. He can go to Stingray City, or snorkel inside the barrier reef and the family can enjoy a lovely outing.
Picture 80 boat owners in Emerald Sound. It is a normal summer breezy day and waves are crashing at the cut. Boaters cannot stay in South Sound. They must get through that one opening or don’t go boating at all. They have no choice. During Nor’westers, when the south is the calm side of the Island, it is windy and chilly and then most people don’t want to go boating.
Those of us who have to take our tourists diving regardless of a Nor’wester, take advantage of the relatively calm side on the south and dozens of boats moor in South Sound to service their guests.
I am not saying that the cut is bad for most boat operators, but remember that these rich folks are often going to have large boats and little experience.
My point is this: There will be massive pressure to extend the dredging and expand the cut. Make the developer sign an iron-clad promise that he will not apply for further dredging for his complaining home buyer/boat owners. But we all know that money rules this Island. We need to nip this in the bud and oppose the whole thing, because we have lost trust in our Government’s promises to do the right thing. The developer could make a lot of promises, but we know that they may not be kept.
We also know that when the door is opened to canals on South Sound, as more land is developed with canals, South Sound will now be subject to even more environmental degradation, more leaching of effluent into the South Sound. Many of us remember when South Sound was full of life and fish, far more than we see today. But it is not yet dead. It will be soon if we keep up this destruction.
Cathy Church
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