OUC just donated roughly 400 tons, or 800,000 pounds, of concrete to a conservation effort off of the Volusia County coast.
OUC donated the material from its St. Cloud Operations and Maintenance Center, which is currently undergoing construction, and transported it via barge 2.75 miles offshore of Lighthouse Point Park in Ponce Inlet. Coordinates for the new reef are: approx. 29° 07.276’N, 80° 53.316’W.
The concrete was dumped at Volusia County’s newly permitted reef site on Saturday, August 20, and is the second reef created with concrete from the construction site. Artificial reefs are manmade structures that mimic some of the characteristics of a natural reef by providing tactile surfaces for reef organisms like stony corals to affix to and shelter for fish to live among them.