"Again" -- because this "replenishment" of Miami Beach has been done several times over the years. So many times that there is no more nearby sand to replenish the beach.

The Miami ecosystem has serious problems, and in order to keep patching up Miami the Corps wants to destroy an existing healthy one. Where is the logic in destroying a healthy environment in order to prop up a sick one?

The giant underwater sand shoal, situated about three-to-five miles offshore from the St. Lucie Hutchinson Island Nuclear Power Plant, is the target for this project. The Corps plans to mine more than a million cubic yards of this sand to move it one hundred miles south to Miami. This is the same sand that only a few years ago stopped similar mining because it contained an endangered species of bryzoans.

This giant shoal is not an opportunity for exploitation! It is already performing the extremely vital function of protecting the St. Lucie coastline from damaging, larger wave action that could ultimately ruin the local beaches.

According to USACE Biologist Terri Jordan, the proposal is in the early stages of review for cost and environmental impacts -- contrary to the fact that as of today, May 22, 2006 the research was done by Mineral Management Service and will be used as a basis for additional study as per email from Jordan. Digging is at least six months away? Carlos Espinosa, Director of Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management claims: "Essentially, we have run out of sources here and all nearshore sand has already been depleted".