Highly contaminated brownfield sites along shorelines and their proximate seabeds are a ubiquitous legacy of industrial development around the world , especially those with industrial harbours, and Bermuda is no exception.

Although shorelines should constitute the most valuable real estate in any jurisdiction, industrial contamination can render waterfronts and their proximate seabeds relatively worthless because of their related health and safety issues.

However, jurisdictions that suffer from both shoreline brownfield sites and from an acute land scarcity crisis have a unique opportunity.

It is possible to address both of those distinct environmental and demographic imperatives under a single redevelopment project. Abundant case studies around the world demonstrate that combined land remediation and reclamation projects can address both problems.

For example, Cardiff, New York’s Battery Park, Singapore, Toronto, Bahrain, Cayman Islands, Dubai, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Osaka, Montreal (Notre Dame Island) and Monaco have all undertaken projects to both remediate heavily contaminated shorelines while also addressing seabed contamination to increase their landmass.

In Baltimore, for example, crews are currently filling in shoreline waterways, which have highly contaminated seabeds, with 100,000 tonnes of sand and stone to both encase and stop the leaching of those contaminants and to build out an additional 50 acres of shoreline for added parkland and to rehabilitate natural wetlands.

So why not in Bermuda? Certainly we have some seriously contaminated shoreline brownfields and the island critically needs more land.

As a hypothetical example only, and without passing comment on any previous or current redevelopment projects, consider the reported contamination of Morgan’s Point and its proximate seabeds.

Widely considered a very challenging brownfield site after the exit of the US Navy in 1995, that peninsula (including nearby Bassett’s Cave ) and its proximate seabeds were left with extensive pollution, including untold gallons of waste oil, sewage, solvents, jet fuel, heavy metals and asbestos from decades of military use and aviation operations.

That location is not alone in Bermuda. Other industrial land and proximate seabeds in Bermuda, including boatyards and harbours, are generally thought to have high levels of contaminated industrial sediments, perhaps including PCBs.

However, it is important to note, as Michael Fahy did in his published September 2025 statement concerning Morgan’s Point, the price tag for such remediation and land reclamation projects are not for the fiscally faint of heart. They can be very expensive and out of reach for most public purses.

In that statement, Mr Fahy pointed out that in 2013, “after a technical survey of [Morgan’s Point], it was determined that this [remediating the entire Morgan’s Point] would be extremely costly, and in any case, it was impossible to remediate Bassett’s Cave into which waste petroleum products and sewage had been pumped by the US Navy for decades.”

In recent years, the redevelopment of parts of Morgan’s Point has faced some continuing and very public challenges.

However, using other jurisdictions as our guide, the remediation of shoreline brownfields might best be financially structured to address both existing brownfield remediation requirements and our imperative landmass needs as part of an integrated commercial project.

Once land remediation and land reclamation objectives are consolidated into a unified redevelopment project, it might then be able to viably sustain third-party financing through a public and private sector partnership (PPP).

If structured well, such PPP land remediation and reclamation projects can attract substantial amounts of foreign investment to entirely pay for their successful completion, as well as pay for the development costs to permit social and commercial uses for that remediated and reclaimed land as directed by the Government.

Certainly, previous Bermuda governments have used variations of that PPP model to successfully redevelop the Bermuda hospital, and to both entirely replace the LF Wade International Airport's terminal and to pay the ongoing costs of its operation for decades to come.

Simply stated, in exchange for a reputable developer (selected perhaps through a competitive tendering process) agreeing to undertake the work to remediate and reclaim the subject land at the developer’s expense and according to the Government's mandated standards, the Government would then allow the PPP developer to commercially manage that redeveloped land for a period of time to permit the profitable recoupment of the redevelopment costs without the Government ever relinquishing either the ownership of that land or the contractual oversight of its management.

Land reclamation projects are never without the need for rigorous environmental scrutiny. However, highly contaminated seabeds often present toxin-induced chemical stresses that can render those seabeds anoxic areas, or “dead zones” , where aquatic life cannot survive.

There are likely a few locations in Bermuda where such PPP remediation and reclamation projects would be well considered, especially when we critically require more green space for social, residential and commercially diversified uses.

Bermuda would certainly not be inventing any wheels, or introducing any radical concepts, if it embarked on a PPP strategy to finance, remediate and reclaim any of its contaminated land and anoxic seabeds.

• Duncan Card is the CEO of The Advisory Group in Bermuda, www.advisory.bm, which advises on technology, AI, resilience and privacy compliance. He also served as the chief legal advisor to the Bermuda Government on its PPP project to design, build, finance and operation LF Wade National Airport. This article is not intended as advice