Comment period opens on Estates restoration project
 
 
November 20, 2004
 
by Eric Staats emstaats@naplesnews.com
 
Naples Daily News
 
Naples, Florida
 
 
To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@naplesnews.com
 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is warning that it needs more information to figure out how much an Everglades restoration project proposed for rural Collier County will help the environment.

The agency has been working for months with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District to resolve lingering questions about Southern Golden Gate Estates restoration.

The $150 million project aims to restore natural water flows across the mostly abandoned subdivision south of Interstate 75 by ripping out miles of roads and plugging canals that were carved out of the landscape in the late 1960s and 1970s.

The warning from the Fish and Wildlife Service is included in a massive report for which a public comment period opened Friday. The comment period ends December 19, 2004.

The report, called a Project Implementation Report/Environmental Impact Study, is a step toward getting Congress to authorize the project.

While the Fish and Wildlife Service "generally supports" the restoration, reviewers want assurances that the project won't overdrain wetlands outside the project's boundary and want to know more about how the project will affect endangered species like woodstorks, manatees and Florida panthers, according to the report.

"If these significant project issues are not addressed in the Detailed Design and Construction phase of this project, the Service would have to re-evaluate its position on this alternative," reviewers write in the report.

Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Carl Couret, who helped write earlier versions of the Fish and Wildlife Service comments, said Friday he doesn't consider the agency's concerns to be fatal to the project.

He said the agency is backing the project at this point "with the hope and promise" from the Corps of Engineers and the Water Management District that the agency's issues will be addressed.

"As partners we're all listening to each other and hopefully have equal weight in reaching decisions," Couret said.

He said "data gaps" are preventing a full evaluation of the environmental effects of the project.

"I think we can say qualitatively there will be benefits, we just can't say quantitatively how much," Couret said.

Florida Wildlife Federation field representative Nancy Payton echoed the Fish and Wildlife Service concerns and urged restoration planners to resolve the issues quickly.

"It's like dueling letters at this point and reports and documents and it's becoming very frustrating for those of us who want to see the restoration move forward," she said.

Rick McMillen, project manager with the Corps of Engineers in Jacksonville, said Friday the Fish and Wildlife concerns are "very workable."

"We've got to work out all these issues before we start turning dirt," McMillen said.

Southern Golden Gate Estates is one of eight projects that are part of a financing plan Governor Jeb Bush announced in October to speed up Everglades restoration.

In 2003, Bush broke ground on the first phase of the project, which fills in parts of the Prairie Canal on the old subdivision's eastern edge.

The project is facing other hurdles, too.

The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians and 68-year-old Navy veteran Jesse Hardy have refused to sell separate parcels to the state Department of Environmental Protection for the restoration.

Hardy has filed a federal lawsuit in Fort Myers alleging that various federal and state agencies and officials have ignored environmental laws in a rush to start the restoration.

Other opponents of the project have complained about the restoration taking away a favorite spot for ATV riding.

Rather than being worried about overdrainage of wetlands, some Golden Gate Estates residents worry the project will cause flooding north of I-75.

Attorney Doug Rankin, past president of the Golden Gate Estates Civic Association, said Friday that the corps has addressed his earlier worries that the project's pump stations could malfunction in a hurricane.

He said he still is waiting for details about how the corps would determine when to operate the pumps to lower water levels during floods.

"We're still concerned they haven't done enough," Rankin said.

To comment:

A copy of the report on Southern Golden Gate Estates restoration can be found at www.evergladesplan.org.

Printed copies are available at the Big Cypress Basin offices on Janes Lane in Naples, Max Hasse Community Park on Golden Gate Boulevard, the Collier County Extension Office off Immokalee Road and at library branches on Golden Gate Boulevard, Orange Blossom Drive and Central Avenue.

Comments can be submitted by e-mail to SGGEComments@saj02.usace.army.mil or by letter to:

Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ATTN:CECW-P (IP)

7701 Telegraph Road

Alexandria, Va., 22315-3860

E-mails must be sent by midnight December 19, 2004, and letters must be postmarked by midnight December 19, 2004.

Copyright 2004, Naples Daily News.