Homestead airport plan stirs up protest

By CRAIG PITTMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 2, 2000

TAMPA -- Trucks rumbled past, horns honked and a jackhammer stuttered nearby as four members of the Sierra Club staged a protest Tuesday against plans for an airport to be built in South Florida close enough to disrupt the solitude of the Everglades.

The protest in downtown Tampa took place outside the office of U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla. Sierra Club officials have accused Graham of working behind the scenes to turn Homestead Air Force Base into a commercial airport sandwiched between Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park.

Another 22 protesters waved signs outside Graham's office in Miami Tuesday morning as the national environmental group announced a letter-writing and advertising campaign targeting Graham.

The senator, who was not at either office, responded with a news release in which he said that the decisionmaking process should not be politicized. The Air Force may decide the base's fate after a supplemental environmental impact statement is released at the end of September.

Sierra Club officials accused Graham of being the one injecting politics into the decision-making process by blocking a measure that required whatever happens in Homestead to fit in with plans to restore the Everglades.

"Sen. Graham is the key to whether this airport moves forward or not," Sierra Club Florida staff director Frank Jackalone said.

Jackalone conceded that the protest's timing was "unfortunate" since Graham is under consideration to become Vice President Al Gore's running mate on the Democratic ticket. The environmental group has endorsed Gore over Republican rival George W. Bush.

"Vice president or not, though, we are still going to put his feet to the fire," Jackalone said.

Despite the endorsement, the Sierra Club has been critical of Gore for waffling on the issue, too. While campaigning for the Democratic nomination earlier this year, Gore would say only that he hoped "a balanced solution can be found that can help the community without hurting the environment."

Hurricane Andrew devastated the 717-acre air base in 1992. It has been all but closed ever since, wiping out a $500-million-a-year mainstay of the Homestead economy. When Miami-Dade County officials proposed converting the base to an airport, the Clinton-Gore administration supported it.

But lobbying by several environmental groups have eroded that support by focusing on potential problems with noise, water and air pollution. In January both Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner announced they would prefer something other than an airport.

"That is not where a commercial airport belongs," Browner said. Babbitt praised an alternative proposal from Collier Resource Company that calls for converting the base into an office park.

Last month Congress began debating whether to approve a $7.8-billion plan designed to restore the Everglades to something like its old self. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, had proposed an amendment requiring further studies on the proposed airport because it was "inconsistent with what we are trying to accomplish in the Everglades."

Graham and Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., both opposed the amendment because they said it would add an unnecessary step to redevelopment plans.

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