4 December 2017 Currents
same location for 19 years •“ s. FL’ s finest & friendliest PGA / LPGA instruction right in your back yard”.
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After Irma, Florida reps. are pushing anew to allow Florida counties to buy sand from the Bahamas. Sen. Marco Rubio actually introduced the SAND Act( Sand Acquisition, Nourishment, and Development) at the start of 2017, shortly after a different federal law permitted the study of sand imports. Every member of Congress from South Florida is a co-sponsor. They also have the support of Sandy Cay Development, a Bahamian company that mines sand and aragonite, a calcium carbonate that’ s already dropped off at the Port of Miami to make cement and glass in the U. S.
Sand Mafias
The profits of this easy-to-get, hard-to-regulate material, whose trade is valued at $ 70 billion annually, have lured organized crime. In India and Bangladesh,“ sand mafias” have been implicated in the murder of hundreds of people in recent years. In Indonesia, more than 20 islands have vanished since 2005 because of illegal sand mining for developments in Singapore. Illegal sand mining in Sri Lanka is thought to have worsened the effects of the 2004 tsunami. In addition to coastal erosion, sand mining is also fueling habitat destruction, water scarcity, and crop failures.
Gene Suppell Editor & Publisher