Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Special report: Vanishing wetlands

To save a wetland, two women beat Wal-Mart

They not only stopped a supercenter, but got the Army Corps of Engineers to study the impact of its decisions.

By CRAIG PITTMAN AND MATTHEW WAITE
Published May 22, 2005

NEW SMYRNA BEACH - Last year, two retirees pushed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do something unusual.

It said no to a permit to destroy wetlands. Of the thousands of permits the corps approves each year, this was one of only four it says it rejected last year.

Pam Winchester and Barbara Herrin not only got the corps to save a wetland in their neighborhood. They also forced the corps to do something it had never done before - study the long-term impact of a key part of its Florida wetlands program.

The case focused on a Wal-Mart supercenter planned for 37 acres on State Road 44, a two-lane road with no commercial development in this east coast beach town. Winchester was shaken when she heard about the project in May 2001.

"I took my dog for a walk and I was in tears," Winchester said. "I moved here because I liked the quiet, the woods."

Winchester and Herrin decided to fight it.

They knew the site flooded in the rainy season. But Wal-Mart's consultants, Kimley-Horn and Associates, told the corps only a tenth of an acre of wetlands would be destroyed.

That qualified Wal-Mart for a so-called "nationwide" permit designed for small wetlands. Developers prefer such permits because the corps approves them quickly with little study. The corps approved Wal-Mart's permit without verifying its consultant's information.

"The presumption is that the information is correct, which I think is crazy," said the women's attorney, Lesley Blackner of Palm Beach.

The site had once been considered for a new high school and Herrin found a School Board document showing 18 acres of wetlands.

Wal-Mart should have known how big the wetlands really were, Herrin said, because the purchase contract included that school report. A Kimley-Horn spokeswoman declined comment. A Wal-Mart spokesman said the company did everything the corps required.

The St. Johns River Water Management District determined Wal-Mart would wipe out 10 acres of wetlands - 100 times what Kimley-Horn said.

The women urged the corps to rescind the permit. Instead, the corps required Wal-Mart to apply for an additional permit.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Marine Fisheries Service told the corps it should save the wetlands.

Blackner sued, pointing out that for 15 years the corps failed to study the cumulative impact of its nationwide permits in Florida. An April 2004 settlement requires the corps to do that study.

Meanwhile, the corps rejected Wal-Mart's second permit. John Hall, the corps' former Florida regulatory chief, said the decision had nothing to do with the lawsuit.

"The area they wanted to fill was really, really nice," Hall said.

[Last modified December 14, 2006, 18:40:02]