Work on a massive sand trap near Port Everglades to help restore Broward County beaches will stop after the U.S. Army Corps found damage to nearby endangered coral had met or exceeded what a permit allowed.
The decision comes less than a week after environmentalists and divers asked a judge to halt the project, arguing the ongoing dredge churned up plumes of damaging silt.
In a joint motion filed this week in federal court, a U.S. Justice Department attorney said the Army Corps will temporarily suspend the permit for the work while it asks federal wildlife officials to reconsider potential damage to wildlife.
In the lawsuit, environmentalists argued two earlier reports issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2020 and last year failed to include new findings about nearby staghorn and conchs, including that staghorn near the project may represent the largest remaining stand of of the endangered coral mostly wiped out by a 2023 marine heat wave.
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The Justice Department and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Broward County, which is overseeing the work, said the county was in talks with the Corps about the pause.
"It should be noted that our project was already paused for the coral spawning season in July 2026 through October 2026 consistent with our previous agreement with the Corps and state and federal permit conditions," spokesman Greg Meyer said. "In the meantime, the project dredging sits at 94% complete."
Under its permit, the Corps estimated that just 125 colonies of endangered staghorn could be killed by the work. But in July, according to a statement submitted with the court motion, the National Marine Fisheries Service provided results from a dive survey that showed damage had met or exceeded that amount. More than a year ago, the Fisheries Service had also warned the Corps that work was damaging the coral and asked them to re-evaluate damage.
Based on the July letter, and four days after environmentalists sued, the Corps ordered Broward County to halt work while it reassessed potential damage.
"After months of ignoring the need for improved protections for these corals, the agencies have finally acknowledged that the alarm bells we raised were justified," Waterkeeper Rachel Silverstein said in a statement. "The speed with which the Army Corps capitulated after we filed our legal action, agreeing to halt the dredging and revisit environmental assumptions almost immediately, shows just how blatant the project's threats really are."
For decades, Broward County has wrestled with how to help rebuild eroding beaches south of Port Everglades, where jetties cut off the natural flow of sand from the north. In recent years, as sand hauled from western mines or shipped from the Bahamas ran out, the county turned to its own sand as a solution. The sand bypass project creates a giant trap, dredging more than 16 acres to catch sand to be stored offshore then used to restore shrinking beaches.
But as with past ocean dredge work, plumes of sediment stirred up by excavators can threaten wildlife. A decade ago, a massive dredge to deepen Port Miami to accommodate new mega freighters coming through the Panama Canal buried nearly 300 acres of reef that still have not been repaired. The Army Corps had initially estimated that only seven acres would be damaged. Port Everglades was scheduled to undergo a similar dredge, but was put on hold by the Army Corps after it withdrew a permit while it said it re-evaluated the scope of work.
While far smaller, the sand bypass project drew criticism from environmentalists and divers, who said plumes of sediment clouded popular dive sites and had begun stressing sponges and coral. Nearby residents also complained bitterly about noise and fumes from the massive excavators.
Under the motion filed this week, work will remain on pause until a new look at potential impacts is finished and at least until November.
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