Jacksonville Port Deepening Raises Environmental Concerns

At 310 miles long, the St. Johns is the longest river in Florida. It’s flat and slow, flowing at less than half a mile per hour, but the St. Johns is the state’s most important river for commerce and recreation. Its significance runs deep, but for some, a stretch of the river needs to run deeper.

"Identifying the deepening as a necessity to grow the port happened several years ago," said Nancy Rubin, Director of Communications for the Jacksonville Port Authority. JAXPORT wants to deepen 13 miles of the St. Johns at the mouth of the river from 40 feet to 47 feet.