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CONSERVATION ARCHIVE
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Baggs State Park Dadeland Sprawl/Urban Sprawl Deep Well Injection Everglades |
Freshwater Lake Belt Plan Homestead Air Base |
Offshore
Drilling Port of Miami Violations Virginia Key |
Everglades Defense Council
(December 7, 2001) With the release today of a memorandum from the Secretary of the Air Force, James Roche, to the Secretary of Defense, plans to build a commercial airport at the former Homestead AFB, adjacent to America's threatened national parks, appear dead, securing a victory for environmentalists who waged a multi-year campaign to protect nearby national parks from the likely impacts of commercial aviation at the former military base adjacent to Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park.
The Roche memorandum states, "I have completed a review of the process used by the Air Force in issuing its Second Supplemental Record of Decision (ROD) for Disposal of Portions of the Former Homestead AFB, Florida. In the course of my review, nothing came to my attention to persuade me that the Air Force did not comply with applicable laws, regulations or established policy or procedures related to the disposition of the excess and surplus property at the former Homestead AFB." Secretary Roche, in an accompanying letter to Mayor Alex Penelas, stated, "I thought you would also want to know that during my review I did not come across sufficiently convincing issues to suggest that the decision would be different if it were reopened."
The Air Force announcement appears on the heels of a decision, yesterday, when Miami Dade county commissioners voted to withdraw its lawsuit against the Air Force, challenging the January 16, 2001 Record of Decision (ROD) prohibiting the commercial airport sought by the county for the former Homestead AFB.
HABDI (Homestead Air Base Developers, Inc. whose majority shareholder is the family of the late Jorge Mas Canosa and controlling interests in Mastec, Inc.) had significantly relied on the cooperation of the county in its fight to compel the Bush administration to reverse the Air Force decision.
With a December 12th deadline for submittal of documents required by the Air Force to transfer the 717 acres of surplus property at the air base, county commissioners had attempted and failed on four separate votes to agree on whether to submit the application along with a "reservation of rights to litigate". Finally, following an intense discussion, a majority of commissioners decided that it would be impossible to move the redevelopment of the air base forward so long as its litigation continued. Environmentalists had called withdrawing the litigation "the minimum threshold of credibility" for the county's redevelopment proposal.
Hurricane Andrew destroyed the Homestead AFB in 1992. In 1994, Congress decided to close the air base. In 1996 local county commissioners--ignoring massive citizen opposition--voted to award a group politically connected insiders development rights to build the air base as a privatized commercial airport, without competitive bidding and before the Air Force had decided how to transfer the property.
The plan to wedge a major commercial airport between two of America's most threatened national parks, Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park, galvanized activists and environmentalists around the nation. Environmentalists persuaded the federal government to conduct new studies showing the likely damaging effects of the airport so close to threatened national parks and successfully battled in court preemptive efforts by the county to obtain necessary state permits for its airport scheme.
In yesterday's vote, county commissioners approved moving forward under the terms of the ROD calling for a mixed use development and not commercial aviation at the former air base. While questions about the development and its implementation remain, the decision by the county to abandon the lawsuit against the Air Force is definitive. The long-awaited review by the Department of Defense is now complete. This significant event closes a chapter on the controversial air base reuse.
The change in fortunes for HABDI is remarkable. Its first shareholders were board members of the powerful Latin Builders Association; one of the most potent group of contributors to political campaigns in Florida.
Later, Mas family interests purchased majority ownership, giving the company deep financial resources, influence and experience in Washington. HABDI's lease agreement with the county is contingent on reversal of the Air Force ROD and it may not have legal standing to continue its fight.
What
Works
Editorial by Alan Farago
In early January, the annual meeting of the Everglades Coalition convened in Stuart, Florida. The members of the Coalition, more than 40 local, state, and national conservation groups, were joined by hundreds of senior policy members and scientists affiliated with government agencies. The weekend slate of seminars and break-out sessions comprised topics from science to policy related to restoration of the Everglades. This year, there was considerable relief and hope attached to the recent passage of the Everglades Restoration Bill in Congress, a bipartisan effort that crowned the last session of Congress and was signed into law by President Clinton.
The highlight, though, was the decision, then pending, by President Clinton on the Homestead Air Force Base.
For nearly six years, Sierra Club has lead the charge on the battle to stop a major commercial airport, supported by Miami Dade mayor Alex Penelas and HABDI, at the former Homestead Air Force Base. Initially, airport proponents dismissed Sierra Club as a small group of "fringe" environmentalists; the standard line of attack by antagonists. What the Everglades Coalition meeting made perfectly clear was that the Homestead issue has become, in the waning days of the Clinton Administration, exactly the litmus test issue we always claimed it to be.
At the luncheon and dinner events, and in the hallways of the conference center, the "no airport" buttons and t shirts were visible and inescapable. Guests of honor, including Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and US Senator Bill Nelson, were seated at tables where every other person wore a "no airport" button. Governor Jeb Bush and US Senator Bob Smith, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, both acknowledged the importance of the Homestead issue. Senators Nelson and Smith voiced strong opposition to the commercial airport plan. Secretary Babbitt has been a long-standing critic of the airport plan.
During the conference, Sierra Club coordinated a press event on Homestead. Speakers included the World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation, Florida Wildlife Federation, Audubon Society, Center for Marine Conservation, National Parks and Conservation Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, Izaac Walton League, Friends of the Everglades, and a dozen more conservation groups. In total, the speakers represented millions of Americans who treasure our national parks. To paraphrase one speaker's comments: there is no margin for error in Everglades restoration and that is why the possible construction of a billion dollar polluting airport in its midst is intolerable.
It is so very clear
that airport boosters designed a strategy to slide their project through
the permitting process out of sight and "under the radar" of citizens. The
midnight HABDI deal, a no bid contract approved by a majority of county
commissioners lead by Alex Penelas, was only part of a stealth effort to
garner the momentum of government agency officials charged with water and
sewer, roadway, aviation, and the use of government funds, our tax
dollars, and move the airport plans quickly
past the environmental
hurdles. One HABDI lobbyist had the temerity to suggest that the real
problem was that the national parks are situated too close to population
centers.
But millions of Americans joined their voice in outrage and opposition to the Homestead airport plan. Sierra Club national staff, including executive director Carl Pope in San Francisco, lent strong support, fully aware that a major airport at Homestead would set a devastating precedent for the national park system. Other groups a national leaders with broad membership went to work on the Homestead issue, with mass mailings, telephone banking, and email communication to activists.
Six Florida newspapers and the New York Times raised a ruckus over the possible construction of a commercial airport between America's most threatened national parks. In Miami, the Herald spoke loudly and often on the issue. Local television stations joined the chorus.
What is clear today
may become legendary in the future; that the Homestead Air Base
controversy proves only federal authority can protect the public interest
from attacks by private land use speculators who control local government.
The enormous conflict between local privateers
and the imperative to
protect what belongs to us all cannot be solved by simplistic reduction of
federal authority; indeed, the Homestead Air Base controversy shows that
even state agencies, whose fingers are held to the wind to detect shifts
in the political currents, cannot substitute for strong federal laws
protecting our environment.
Many citizens grasped the danger inherent in the conveyance of the air base to be a polluting airport. Every phone call, every letter, every conversation with a friend to broaden the circle, helped to shine what became over the years a very bright light on politicians who chronically fial the responsibilities of their offices and favored private interests at the expense of clean air, clean water, and those natural resources we hold in trust for our families and our future.
Special mention is
deserved first for county commissioner Katy Sorenson. Her grace and
steadfast support for the mixed use development alternative for the air
base, instead of the airport, is remarkable and noteworthy. She has earned
great respect from all segments of our
diverse community. The second
credit belongs to the print media in Miami, the Herald for its strong
reporting and editorial support and the Miami New Times. Jim Defede,
editorial and feature writer for New Times, was the first to report on the
Homestead Air Force Base and the horrendous political machinations
surrounding the HABDI deal. Truly, if not for the print media in Miami and
Mr. Defede's work in particular, the done-deal that power brokers expected
would be done today.
In the end, the voice of Sierra Club was joined and then overpowered by hundreds of thousands and millions of people who cared for our National Parks. That is so very gratifying.
Alan Farago
Miami
Sierra Conservation Chair
Air Base Development Update
Mixed-Use Plan Proposed
Since the beginning of
the year, Sierra Club has successfully raised national awareness about the
controversial plan to develop a polluting airport in the midst of our
national parks.
In February, the annual meeting of the national board
of Sierra Club was held in Miami. The highlight of the weekend was a
protest rally at Biscayne National Park, lead by local activists and Carl
Pope, president of Sierra Club, and hundreds of volunteer activists. A few
days later, a Harris poll revealed that the Sierra Club position is
supported by a large number of people in South Dade. A mixed use
development is preferred by a two-to-one margin over an airport.
Shortly after the release of the poll, Sierra Club Miami Group
officially endorsed the alternative described in the SEIS; a partnership
of the Collier and Hoover interests that would create nearly the same
number of jobs and payroll in the first ten years as would the commercial
airport. The Collier/Hoover partnership proposes a mixed use development
on the former air base, and, our support is conditioned by assurances that
the long-term impacts from the development will not harm our national
parks.
Whether or not the Air Force will agree to revise the
findings of the draft SEIS in the final version (to be released in the
early summer) based on new input from Sierra Club and other environmental
organizations remains to be seen. Much depends on members of the Florida
Congressional delegation, lead by Senators Mack and Graham and
Congresswoman Carrie Meek.
The South Florida Water Management District
has submitted an argument that the man-made system of filtration marshes
planned by Miami Dade county will attract wading birds, flying in the face
of regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration that prohibit water
management systems which offer habitat to birds that could threaten
aircraft safety.
We have always said that Miami Dade Mayor Alex
Penelas, in his support of the commercial airport, has declared war on our
national parks. The alternative, to provide jobs that do not harm our
national parks, is common sense. That is the message you can help us
deliver to our public officials, and especially to Senator Bob Graham.
by Alan Farago, Conservation Chair
THE HOMESTEAD AIRPORT: A FACTSHEET
Proposed Airport The Air Force proposes to transfer most of the Homestead Air Reserve Base ("HARB") to Metro-Dade County for development of a commercial airport. Metro-Dade County awarded a long-term lease to a private developer, with no competitive bidding for the airport's development with Homestead Air Base Developers, Inc. ("HABDI"), a politically well-connected corporation without previous aviation experience. Dade County and HABDI propose to develop a reliever airport for Miami International with approximately 250,000 annual operations (equivalent to the San Diego airport) š and that is before the planned second runway is constructed.
History 1992: Hurricane Andrew destroys most HARB facilities and the federal authorities recommend that the base be closed. Dade County requests HARB for development of commercial airport. February, 1994: The Air Force completes its Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") for the proposed "reuse" on a record-breaking schedule. June, 1996: Dade County awards the HARB lease to HABDI without bidding. December, 1997: The Air Force grants environmental groups' request for a Supplemental EIS ("SEIS"), after the groups pointed out, among other things, that the anticipated number of passenger and cargo operations had doubled from that considered in 1994 EIS and that significant new information on environmental impacts had become available. May, 1997: Environmental groups file a legal challenge in state court to the stormwater permit application for the proposed airport. December, 1998: Acting on another legal challenge by environmental groups, Florida's Third District Court of Appeal rejects Metro-Dade County's reuse plan and remands it back to the County for revision December, 1999: The Air Force releases draft SEIS for public comment.
Future Timetable: The Air Force will receive written comment concerning the draft SEIS until March 7, 2000.
A final SEIS will be issued following closure of the comment period. The Air Force will then issue a Record of Decision ("ROD") containing its formal decision on the transfer. The FAA must also concurrently act on Dade County's pending airport application. The pending application contains two runways, not just the one that is already there.
Following the final SEIS' issuance, Dade County must amend its reuse plan to incorporate information from the SEIS. Proceedings for Sierra Club's stormwater permit challenge may also recommence now that the draft SEIS has been issued.
Environmental Concerns Noise: Just 1.5 miles from Biscayne National Park and 8.5 miles from Everglades National Park, the proposed airport will not comply with the National Park System's standards for airplane noise in national parks. With one flight overhead almost every minute, there will no longer be a significant "natural quiet" resource left in the two parks.
Water: EPA has concluded that HARB's stormwater discharge canal, which leads into Biscayne Bay, is significantly contaminated with heavy metals (e.g. lead) and radioactive contaminants. Polluted runoff into the Bay, a designated Outstanding Florida Water, from development spurred by the proposed airport will increase. Finally, increased air pollution and aerial fuel dumping from the aircraft will double aerial pollutant loadings in parts of the Bay.
Air: According to the draft SEIS, the proposed airport will increase local air pollution, including by resulting in emissions of 7 tons of toxic air pollutants, like nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, every day. Secondary Impacts: The Air Force estimates that thousands of acres of agricultural land and wildlife habitat will be lost to development associated with the airport. Pollution and congestion will increase as the landscape is increasingly paved over and people and industry move in.
Mitigation Measures: Commercial airports pose particular problems for environmental mitigation, as laws make airport growth difficult to control and many regulatory decisions are controlled by aviation safety concerns. Other Althernatives: In the draft SEIS, the Air Force concluded that a mixed use alternative, combining commercial and residential uses, posed less environmental impacts than the proposed airport but generated almost as many jobs.
Influencing the Decision In addition to the Air Force, you should contact your elected representatives and the White House. The address for the White House is: President William J. Clinton, White House , 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20500, President@whitehouse.gov, 202-456-1414
Contacts at Sierra Club Barbara Lange, 305-447-1729, blange@bellsouth.net. Jon Ullman, 305-476-9898, jonathan.ullman@sierraclub.org
May 2000
Results of
Impact Study are In
Anyone who wants the Homestead AFB reuse SEIS report may request it by writing or calling or e mail to: MJ Jadick AFBCA/EX Homestead AFB SEIS 1700 N. Moore St., Suite 2300 Arlington, VA 22209-2802 888-842-4749 hafb_seis@afbda1.hq.af.mil
Protect the Parks
The Air Force‰s long-awaited supplemental environmental impact statementÖto no one‰s surpriseÖdoesn‰t choose a redevelopment plan for Homestead Air Force Base. It does provide a sound checklist for what must still be done to protect Biscayne and Everglades National Parks, Biscayne Bay and Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge: Establish a protective buffer between the base and Biscayne National Park. Enact a county plan for managing land use in the South Dade watershed. Limit noise by curbing the number of commercial flights, setting flight corridors, prohibiting new residential development in high-noise areas and relocating or soundproofing homes in impacted areas. Clean up Military Canal or block its discharge into Biscayne Bay.
None of these requirementsÖadditions to already required water and wildlife management plansÖcomes as a surprise. They‰re minimal requirements if a commercial airport is to be planted between two national parks. But add all these up and the argument against putting a commercial airport between the two parks remains overwhelming. The only justification for an airport is a perceived need to replace 6,753 jobs lost after Hurricane Andrew wrecked Homestead Air Force Base and displaced 100,000 South Dade residents. Short of reopening the baseÖwhich the Pentagon says won‰t happenÖthose jobs can‰t be immediately replaced. Experts have about two months to pick at the report, but who gets the surplus 1,632 acres is still an Air Force and White House decision. Let it be a green one. The Herald continues to urge that the land be swapped for oil and gas rights owned by Collier Resources Company in the Big Cypress National Preserve. Collier, in turn, proposes to build a golf-oriented business park and hotel-resort. That‰s compatible with the parks, continued military and light-commercial use of existing runways and the community‰s agricultural base and tourism aspirations. Collier projects its development would produce 6,800 jobs. While that‰s half the number Miami-Dade County‰s partner Homestead Air Base Development Inc. projects, it is nonetheless a healthy growth that replaces the jobs lost. The redevelopment of Homestead and South Dade is important. Equally important is the protection of national parks and refuges. The Collier proposal satisfys both.
- Alan Farago, Miami Group Chair
Air
Base Developments
Editorial by Alan
Farago
Note: This is actually an excerpt from a letter to the editors' of South Dade papers concerning Mayor Steve Shriver.
Recently, Steve Shriver used the authority of the Mayor's office to lobby Congress in the hope of changing the Defense Appropriations Bill, to get direct conveyance of property on the Homestead Air Base. Last week, Mayor Shiver admitted this ploy and that his trip was paid for by a HABDI partner, Mastec, whose no-bid rights to develop the air base are worthless unless the Air Force conveys the property as a commercial airport.
We are shocked that members of the city council were not apprised of Mayor Shiver's role as a consultant to private industry on an issue that has divided the community so sharply. Mayor Shiver's manoever in Washington is consistent with other efforts like signing a petition to claim that delays in the air base redevelopment violate environmental justice. He also led an effort to persuade the late Governor Lawton Chiles and his Cabinet to vote for expedited permitting he claimed was urgently needed. What it was, was illegal and an enormous waste of taxpayer dollars.
Mayor Shiver is angry.
All "developments" on the air base that he has championed have turned out
to be bad developments, inappropriate developments, even foolish ones. We
are flabbergasted at his calling Sierra Club "terrorists". In our view,
the commercial airport planned by HABDI and Miami Dade county will not
pass tests of the law. Does it make us "terrorists" for saying so? No, it
makes us realists.
- Alan Farago, Chair
Airport Advocates Take a Shot and Fail
Editorial by Alan Farago
October 1999: South Florida is living up to its reputation as the nation's most controversial military base closure. In October, U.S. Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, and Bill McCollum, R-Orlando attempted to slip in a last-minute Congressional rider in the Defense Appropriations bill, in order to please powerful South Florida campaign contributors who are banking on plans for a commercial airport at the former military base.
What happened? Sierra Club volunteers from around the nation went to the telephones, calling their members of Congress, and helped halt the measure in its tracks. The rider would have eliminated the NEPA testing that is mandated when transferring military facilities. The measure was stopped by a bipartisan team of Congressional leaders including Peter Deutch D-Ft. Lauderdale, Mark Foley R-West Palm Beach and Porter Goss of R-Sanibel, and by an outpouring of calls from Sierra Club, environmental allies, and by angered citizens.
Ros-Lehtinen‰s involvement reflects the drama of special interests who are pulling every imaginable scheme to vest their rights to a commercial airport. Hurricane Andrew in 1992 devastated the air base. The base remains federal property. This fact did not deter Miami Dade county commissioners from giving away exclusive rights to redevelop the base to HABDI Inc. in a no-bid deal in 1996. HABDI principals are board members of the Latin Builders Association. Environmental advocates have insisted on cleanup of existing problems at the base and an environmental impact study before a huge commercial airport is built between Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park. This has delayed the transfer.
Frustrated by the law, HABDI turned to the powerful Washington, DC law firm of Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand. According to an article in the Miami Herald, the firm shopped around the rider in the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen proposed the measure, hoping to aid the US Senate bid of Congressman McCollum. Politicians claim to be primarily concerned with creating jobs in south Dade, but the opportunity to exploit the former military base is proving an equal opportunity for both parties. In fact, the latest Republican miscalculation echoes an earlier miscue by Democrats.
In 1998 Insurance Commissioner Bill Nelson - the Democrat likely to compete against McCollum for the seat being vacated by US Senator Connie Mack - insulted environmentalists when he, at the insistence of Miami Dade mayor Alex Penelas, rammed a decision past the Governor and Cabinet for a permit approval expediting the airport development. This measure forced Sierra Club and Tropical Audubon Society to file suit against Miami Dade county and the State of Florida; a suit we won in 3rd District Court of Appeals.
HABDI lobbyists have filed a petition with Attorney General Janet Reno, claiming that laws designed to protect minorities from toxics and pollution were being abused by environmentalists and that the air base should be turned over to Miami Dade immediately. The notion that the airport advocates are really concerned with minorities is shameful, considering that HABDI never fulfilled its promise to Miami Dade county, codified in its lease agreement, that 25% of corporate stock would be owned by minorities. The last time corporate ownership changed hands, the family of the late Jorge Mas Canosa was offered and accepted into the deal.
Ros-Lehtinen, who scored a 45 percent on the League of Conservation Voters‰ 1998 Scorecard, has claimed to be a friend of the environment. In the past, she accepted recognition from Sierra Club Florida Chapter. Only recently, the Congresswoman garnered press for spearheading a Miami River Clean-up day. McCollum scored a 17 percent on the LCV‰s 1998 Scorecard, one of the lowest in the state.
There should never be a commercial airport at the former Homestead Air Base because a multi-billion dollar industrial development in the midst of America‰s threatened Everglades and Biscayne Bay is an activity that is incompatible with the purposes of our national parks. Period. It is time for economic stakeholders and political interests to make a good faith effort to find alternative uses which can provide jobs for south Dade, protect environmentally sensitive lands, and ensure that no harm will be done to our national parks.
As always, we need more volunteers, more Sierrans in Miami and the Florida Keys, to step forward and help us with this massive effort. We have been successful. With your help, we will continue to be successful. - Alan Farago, Chair
Action: This
may happen again at any time. Call your house Representative and tell them
what you think about the development of Homestead Air Base into a large
commercial airport. Call and take the power away from the back room
dealers.
July 1999 Update
Rule of law trumps politics
June 29, 1999: The
Supreme Court of Florida supported Sierra Club, rejecting the petition by
Miami Dade county that would have expedited development of a commercial
airport at the former Homestead Air Base, wedged between America's most
threatened national parks.
(Miami Dade County, Petitioner v. Miami
Sierra Club et al respondents, Case No. 95,052 3rd District Court of
Appeal No. 98-1251).
Earlier, environmentalists successfully sued the Governor and Cabinet and Miami Dade county to stop the illegal permitting effort that threatens the Everglades ecosystem. Lead attorney Richard Grosso of the Environmental Land Use and Law Center (954-262-6140) represented Sierra Club and Tropical Audubon Society, reversing results of a vote by the Governor and Cabinet, coordinated by Cabinet Officer Bill Nelson, affirming the Miami Dade plan to speed the multi-billion dollar airport and industrial development within two miles of Biscayne National Park.
Following the 3rd District Court of Appeals ruling in favor of Sierra Club et al, Miami Dade county petitioned to the Supreme Court of Florida for reversal.
Alan Farago, chair of Sierra Club Miami Group, said, "The ruling by the highest court in Florida gives people hope; we are determined not to compromise, ever, with the radical extremists who are planning to profit from a multi-billion dollar commercial airport by destroying the peaceful quiet of the Everglades wilderness and Biscayne National Park."
The decision by Florida's highest court is a rebuke to Miami lobbyists, consultants, and elected officials responsible for voting to speed the permitting permit in Miami Dade county, despite protests by conservationists that to do so violated the law. One Supreme Court justice found the county's argument so objectionable that payment of attorneys fees was recommended.
The reuse of the Homestead Air Base is marred by controversy. In 1996, politically connected Miami developers (HABDI) won exclusive rights to develop the air base from local county commissioners without competitive bidding, even though the property was controlled by the US Air Force. HABDI representatives played an important role in speeding the permitting process rejected by the Supreme Court of Florida.
Sierra Club maintains that developing a commercial airport next to America's most threatened ecosystem, the Everglades, which is currently subject of an $11 billion restoration effort, would devastate the integrity of the national park system by permitting urban sprawl at the edge of Biscayne National Park, as well as intolerable noise from commercial aircraft.
During the last presidential election, Miami Dade Mayor Alex Penelas made transfer of the air base a major point in conversations with the Clinton Administration. Referring to the radical extremist plan to build a commercial airport, Barbara Lange, conservation chair of the Sierra Club in Miami, said, "This turkey will never fly."
January
Update
-
Homestead Airport Approval
Reversed
Appeals Court Rules that State Concent for Homestead Airport
Reuse Plan was Illegal Miami, FL (Dec. 17, 1998)
The 3rd District Court of Appeals today reversed the State of Florida
Cabinet's approval of Miami-Dade County's plan to
construct a
commercial airport at Homestead. The
court ruling of an appeal filed
by Sierra Club
Miami Group and Tropical Audubon Society of Miami
nullifies the Governor and Cabinet approval of the Homestead Reuse
plan adopted by the County earlier this year. The
Court cited several
independent reasons for the
reversal, but primarily that the approval of
the
reuse plan was found to be premature in light of an ongoing
Federal Supplemental Environmental Impact
Statement. The court
also found that the state
decision was invalid because habitat,
stormwater
and noise management plans, needed to show if the
project was appropriate, had not been conducted. "The judges found
the re-use to be a blatant violation of law,"
said Richard Grosso,
executive director of the
Nova University Environmental and Land Use
Law
Center who argued the case. "After three years of politicians
ignoring the facts and the law, we finally have a
court telling them what
they've done was
illegal." The Homestead Commercial Airport,
supported heavily by Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, would allow for
236,000 flights per year, six times the number of
planes flown at the
abandoned Air Force Base. The
airport would sit just two miles from
Biscayne
National Park and 8.5 miles from Everglades National Park,
causing deafening noise in those national
preserves. A Federal
Supplementary Environmental
Impact Statement is currently being
conducted to
determine what environmental dangers the airport could
cause. The SEIS was conducted after government
attorneys found the
original EIS to be faulty.
"This shows that Miami-Dade County
politicians
can't trash our national parks," said Alan Farago,
conservation chair of the Sierra Club Miami
Group.
More details on the Airport Fight see Homestead Airport editorial
below
Everglades Restudy
TESTIMONY OF THE NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE
COUNCIL CONCERNING THE DRAFT PLAN AND EIS FOR THE
CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA PROJECT
COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW STUDY ("RESTUDY")
DECEMBER 8, 1998
My name is Bradford H. Sewell and I am here today testifying on
behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
NRDC thanks the
Corps of Engineers for providing
this and many other opportunities for
interested
persons and organizations to provide input into the shaping
of the Restudy.
NRDC supports the Restudy effort. It is our last great hope to restore
the Everglades and provide for a sustainable
South Florida. Without
something as bold as this,
we could not hope to accomplish these
tasks.
We have had the opportunity to review a substantial amount of the
documentation included in the Restudy's draft
feasibility report and
EIS and to attend public
meetings concerning the Restudy held since
the
draft plan/EIS' release.
Based upon our study of the Restudy plans to date, we have two
primary areas of concern with the existing draft
plan ù notwithstanding
our overall support for
the Restudy program. First, based upon the
documentation included with the draft report, the predicted ecological
performance of the Restudy's preferred
alternative is not all one would
hope for in a
project of this scope and magnitude and given the needs
of the long-neglected Everglades system. Indeed,
as we summarize
below, it appears that predicted
performance falls short of restoration
targets in
certain areas that are at the very core of the Restudy ù
including specifically Everglades National Park
and Florida Bay.
NRDC is by no means alone in
expressing these concerns; federal
and state
agencies have voiced many of them as well in recent weeks.
NRDC believes that solutions to the noted problems need to be found
as soon as possible. Otherwise, broad public
support and
congressional support for the
multi-billion dollar Restudy may be
imperiled, as
Congress has made clear that ecological restoration is
the Restudy's fundamental purpose.
First, the Restudy's preferred alternative appears to provide
insufficient overland flow to Northeast Shark
River Slough, Taylor
Slough, Model Lands and
Florida Bay. For example, documents
included with
the draft report/EIS indicated that many of these areas
will only receive 75-80% of their estimated
target water levels for
restoration purposes.
Second, the preferred alternative appears to provide insufficient
natural water inflows of suitable quality to
Biscayne Bay. Indeed,
operational modifications
to the L-31N and C-111 canal systems, as
well as
seepage management techniques, that will likely actually
reduce natural flows to Biscayne Bay are among
the earliest actions
proposed under the Restudy.
In addition, there is the issue of waste
quality
ù much of the currently-planned flow to Biscayne Bay, an
Outstanding Florida Water, comes from wastewater
reuse.
Third, the preferred alternative contains insufficient measures to
ensure that the water quality -- not simply water
flow -- needs of the
Everglades system are met.
Fourth, the preferred alternative appears to continue to cause
damaging high and low water conditions in the
WCAs. Fifth, the
preferred alternative does not
meet target fresh water inflows and
water quality
in St. Lucie Estuary.
Our second area of concern involves what is not included the
Restudy's draft report and EIS. We summarize
several of our specific
concerns here and will
discuss them further in our formal written
comments.
First, the Restudy fails to discuss, let alone address, the
environmental
impacts of the population increase
it will subsidize by providing water
supply for
10 million more people on Florida's south coast by the year
2050.
Second, we are very concerned about how the Restudy will be
implemented, including, in particular, how its
projects will be
sequenced. Everglades
restoration should receive early attention and
commitments to restoration goals should be incorporated into
long-term projects.
Third, the Restudy relies heavily upon costly and untested water
storage and seepage technologies. We believe
strongly that the final
report and authorizing
legislation will need to ensure that the Restudy
accomplishes its restoration goals in the face of uncertainty over how
successfully these technologies will meet the
challenge that has been
set out for them.
In closing, we strongly commend the Corps and the other involved
agencies in working so hard to develop the draft
plan. We intend to
work diligently to ensure that
the Restudy accomplishes the ecological
restoration it is capable of and intended for.
1998 December Update
- Miami-Dade
Students Fight Commercial Airport
A
coalition of students from schools throughout South Florida today
kicked off a massive, grassroots postcard drive
directed at
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas' plan
to build a major commercial
airport on the edge
of Biscayne Bay.
Students at South Florida elementary, middle, and high schools,
colleges and universities will receive preprinted
postcards addressed
to the mayor with objections
to the airport scheme planned for the
former
Homestead Air Force Base. The postcards cite the student's
worries that the massive commercial airport would
bring air
contamination, toxic waste, urban
sprawl, and noise pollution to the
ecologically
fragile Biscayne and Everglades National parks, located
nearby. The postcards remind Mayor Penelas that
his support for the
airport indicates a disregard
for students' futures.
South Florida's environmentally conscious students and teachers, in
cooperation with the Youth Environmental Senate,
a coalition of
concerned students, will
distribute over 5,000 postcards in the next
two
weeks. The signed postcards will be collected from each school
by the middle of December, at which point a
student-led press
conference will be held, where
participating students will speak
against the
airport. The Air Force is currently conducting a
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on the
proposed airport, scheduled to be released
sometime next year. The
SEIS occurred because the
initial study was found to have serious
flaws.
The postcard campaign was originated by Oliver Bernstein, a senior
at Ransom Everglades High School in Coconut
Grove, and an active
Sierra Club member. The goal
of the campaign is to deliver a clear
message to
the Mayor that the students of South Florida are against
the airport and will not stand for the
destruction of their national parks.
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