DEP cleanup lifts 56 tons of hurricane debris from Biscayne Bay spoil islands

Thirteen spoil islands in Biscayne Bay are now cleaner thanks to a recent effort by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Miami-Dade County, the cities of Miami and North Miami Beach and Deerfield Beach-based disaster relief contractor Ashbritt Environmental.

Over 46 days, government and contract workers cleared the man-made islands of 56 tons of marine debris, much of it from Hurricane Irma, Florida’s costliest hurricane ever.

A $100,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funded the project using money earmarked in the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act.

The work was the first of its kind in decades, DEP said.

– Jesse Scheckner, Florida Politics