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Compromise reached to take Keys off critical list

Legislators and the World Wildlife Fund agree to remove the Keys from a list of critical environmental areas - but not until 2009.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 4, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - Environmentalists and legislators Monday reached a compromise to take the Florida Keys off a list of critical environmental areas after more than 30 years.

Rep. Ken Sorenson, R-Tavernier, and members of the World Wildlife Fund in South Florida agreed Monday afternoon to move forward with a bill that could remove the Keys from the state's list of critical areas - but not until 2009.

Under the changed proposal (HB 1299), the Monroe County Commission has three years to show the state it has cleaned up wastewater, met hurricane evacuation standards, built affordable housing for area employees and preserved natural habitats for native species. At that time, the governor and the Cabinet will decide whether to take the area off the list.

Being a critical area of state concern means local governments must complete state reviews to show they've met environmental and development goals, according to the Department of Community Affairs, which administers the program. The city of Key West, Apalachicola, Big Cyprus and Green Swamp are the state's other four critical areas.

Before Sorenson changed the bill's deployment date from next year to 2009, environmentalists feared the Keys would lose state oversight too soon, leaving local government without incentive to complete projects, without punishment for overdevelopment and without leverage for some state and federal funds.

"What we say is if you want to be an environmentalist in Monroe County, move further south," to neighboring Cuba, Debbie Harrison, director of the Wildlife Fund's South Florida program, said before Monday's agreement.

Indeed, 32 years and hundreds of millions dollars later, Monroe County has made little progress as an area of state concern, Harrison said. Sewage is still seeping into the Keys water and killing its 150-mile coral reef, residents can't evacuate in time for storms, and affordable housing for tourism employees is nonexistent, she added.

"I would like to see us grow up and behave responsibly," Harrison said. "This may be the incentive to do it."

A telephone message left for County Mayor Charles McCoy was not immediately returned. But the bill's original supporters pointed to their successes under the watch list program, including an in-the-works water treatment program and a $100-million land purchase that saved botanical gardens in north Key Largo.

In fact, taking the Keys off the watch list will cut red tape and allow Monroe County to work faster and better alongside the state - instead of under its fist, Sorenson said.

"I'm an environmentalist," he said. Sorenson pledged to continue his efforts to protect the Keys, even after the area goes off the watch list.

"Why not?" he said. "It's my home, too."

The Keys are home to about 80,000 residents and a vacation spot for about 4-million tourists a year, Harrison said. The area boasts the world's third-largest coral reef and is the country's only tropical hammock, where several threatened species live.

[Last modified April 4, 2006, 03:00:35]