Resorts World’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) admits that Bimini’s existing dive tourism model is potentially being placed “at risk for nothing”, a leading environmental attorney warned yesterday.
Romauld Ferreira likened both the developer’s and the Government’s determination to proceed with the $10-$15 million terminal/jetty project to “madness”, given that their own EIA conceded that the sustainability of Resorts World’s Miami cruise ship service was questionable.
Fresh from studying the EIA, Mr Ferreira said the document revealed that dredging necessary to create the 4.5 acre cruise terminal island would impact 25 acres of seabed – an area that contained most of Bimini’s prime dive sites.
Describing the process followed by Resorts World and the Christie administration as “ass backwards”, Mr Ferreira added that the admissions contained in the EIA showed why the Government and its agencies had adopted such a “fortress mentality” to transparency and public consultation.
