Enhancing Military Training with Real-World Coastal Projects

Broward County Offshore Waste Tire Removal Project Broward County, Florida

Broward County is located on the southeast coast of Florida. Its larger cities include Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach and Hollywood. The coastal waters offshore Broward County are characterized by a narrow continental shelf upon which exists three or more shore parallel reef tracts. These reefs are colonized by organisms typical of Caribbean coral reefs and, in addition to their environmental value, are utilized heavily by divers and fishers.

PROJECT AREA The project area (Figure 1) is centered at N26 08.4440'; W80 04.8586' and covers an area of approximately 31.4 acres offshore Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with water depths of approximately 70 feet. The waste tire field lies on sandy bottom between the outer and inner reef tracts, although numerous loose tires have migrated onto the forereef slope of the middle reef and, to a lesser extent, onto the outer reef.

In June 2003 a towed video survey was completed in order to 1) map the extents of the field of tires, 2) estimate tire densities, 3) determine qualitative impacts to the adjacent reefs, and 4) aid in developing a prioritization of areas to clean. Figure 2 is a map of the tire field and shows cleanup priority areas, with 1 being the highest priority. A video of the survey is available upon request.

PROJECT NEEDS AND OBJECTIVES: A large field of waste tires exists between two reef tracts offshore of Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Broward County). Many of these tires become mobilized in high wave and current energy conditions and some move onto the forereef slope of the middle reef tract. Video evidence suggests that during extreme conditions, i.e., hurricane with resulting storm surge, tires move in an offshore direction onto the outer reef tract. If the tires remain on the reef, existing organisms are killed and reef surfaces can not be colonized, resulting in a dead zone on the toe of the forereef slope. This project aims to remove tires from the reef dead zone and from areas between the reef where tires appear to be mobile. Stony corals have a very slow growth rate and only survive on stationary surfaces so their presence can be used to judge the mobility of the tires. Tires are deemed mobile if there is no significant colonization on the tire by stony corals. Tires with larger coral colonies are likely immobile, except in the severest conditions. Areas of tires were prioritized such that those most likely to impact the reef would be removed first.

BACKGROUND In the early 1970's a large number (estimates range between 1 and 2 million) of waste tires were dumped offshore Broward County for fishery enhancement purposes. This was done under the auspices of permits issued by the state of Florida and the US Army Corps of Engineers to enhance fish habitat. Most of the tires were bundled with nylon strapping to provide some structure to the reef. Many, however, were placed singly on the bottom. Over time the strapping has failed so most tires are presently loose on the bottom. It was quickly realized by creators of this reef site that tires were not suitable as artificial reef and the project was suspended. However the legacy of the decision to place tires there in the 1970s remains with us today. High wave and current conditions over the past 30 years has resulted in dispersal of many of these tires on to valuable reef areas, significantly impacting these resources. Most of the reef epibiota on the middle reef face has been killed and the original intent of the tire reef as substrate has not been realized because of poor colonization onto the tires by reef organisms. It has thus become obvious that these tires need to be removed. One small scale project to remove tires was undertaken in this area in 2002. This was a NOAA Community Based Restoration Program grant-funded program to utilize volunteer divers to bundle tires together with polypropylene rope for subsequent removal by commercial dive operators. This demonstration project resulted in the removal of a few thousand tires tires, a very small proportion of the tires present. The true solution for the cleanup of the tires lines in a large marine salvage operation. The funding for such an operation has, and still remains, out of the range for Broward County. Accordingly we are seeking project partners for the salvage project.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION A number of strategies to remove tires have been considered. Because of the potential for harm to adjacent reef communities by turbidity, sedimentation or mechanical damage large equipment removal, such as clam shell dredging or trawling have been ruled out. The safest method appears to be bundling of the tires by divers. This bundling can take the form of stringing the tires together with ropes or cable or placing them on steel hooks for subsequent lifting from the bottom by lift bags or crane. Alternatively, the tires can be 'bundled' by placing them in large steel baskets on the bottom. When full, the basket is lifted by lift bags or crane. This method has been used for reef rubble cleanup and disposal following ship groundings. Other methods being considered include constructing a tire handling hook conveyor, similar to devices used on land to move tires at recycling centers. The viability of all of the recovery options needs to be examined by an experienced salvage team. The method used for cleanup from the seafloor will depend on the scale of project intended. Once on the surface the tires will be brought to shore by barge or LC for proper disposal.

Cost effective strategies for land-side disposal of tires is currently being evaluated by a joint technical team including Broward County, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FLDEP), the USEPA and USDOT/FHA. This evaluation must consider the impacts of residual salt and biological encrustations on the tires on disposal equipment. Methods for consideration include, but are not limited to, incineration and shredding for recycling.

A unique aspect of this project is the fact that some of the tires are encrusted with stony corals colonies. It will be necessary to remove the larger colonies (size to be determined by state and federal permit conditions) and re-attach with Portland cement to the adjacent reef. Techniques for this are well developed and generally result in success rates greater than 90%. As a part of the training exercise, skills to transplant of the living corals can be pasted from Broward County and/or NOAA into the Navy. This skill set can be of value when responding to accidental groundings of vessels in the future. These corals and the recovery of the tire-impacted reef will be monitored for an extended period of time by other governmental (non-DOD) entities depending on requirements of permits.

Proposed roles:
Navy: MDSU TWO: Dive salvage operations. Overall project logistics for the on-the-water side of the project.
Army Reserves: on-site working platforms (barges) and transportation of cargo to shore (potentially by LCs). LCs potentially also utilized for dive platforms.
Army or Navy: Tugs as needed for barge transportation
Broward County: overall project management, all permits, tire disposal once the tires make it to land (a joint technical being developed with Broward County, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the USEPA and DOT/FHA).
NOAA: technical oversight of coral transplants.

Recognizing the appeal at DOD for joint training operations, this project proposes a joint Navy MDSU /Army Reserves operation.

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