Last Stand - "Protecting the Keys"

Setting the record straight

One week ago, in the Saturday, August 16 edition of the KeyNoter newspaper, an editorial by the newspaper's publisher, Wane Markham, castigated Last Stand wth these statements:

Here's perfect example why government's broken

Talk about good intentions gone awry.

At Wednesday's County Commission meeting, an item listed under bulk approvals is announced innocently enough as "Approval of Engagement Agreement with Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart, P.A."

Turns out that's a Palm Beach County law firm retained to defend the county in an administrative challenge over runway work done at Key West International Airport.

This was part of the county's compliance with Federal Aviation Administration rules governing runway safety. Because the airport is in an environmentally sensitive area, it took quite a bit of time and permit review to construct runway safety areas, which are designed to stop a rolling plane in a safe manner over a short distance. When the South Florida Water Management District approved the county application for the permit to relocate and fill a pond west of the existing runway, in steps Last Stand to file an appeal.

Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart will be hired to represent the county in this process if the contract is approved Wednesday.

Looking at their hourly rates, it's quite an eye-opener. Top-paid litigator listed pulls in a hefty $425 an hour. That would be Brian M. Seymour. Several other attorneys with the firm are in the $350 to $300 an hour range. And then some associates charge "only" $275 an hour on down to $200 an hour.

Here's another little wrinkle to consider.

When Monroe County applied for federal grants to make necessary runway improvements, the feds coughed up $7.5 million. Of that, the FAA sort of set aside $100,000 "for the costs of litigation."

So clearly, a portion of your federal tax dollar goes to help fund such stupid things as this.

The runway work has already been done. The pond is gone and the county did the required mitigation. Airplanes need a safe landing zone.

So one needs to ask Last Stand and others -- what's to be gained by filing an administration appeal on the Water Management District's permit approval?

If this is one of those so-called "holding actions," it strikes me as too little, too late, too expensive for us beleaguered tax payers.

And just looking at the paperwork needed to itemize the lawyers' travel expenses and per diem for lodging and a raft of other billable items makes my head hurt.

When you ask why government takes too long to accomplish so little and at such a high cost, Wednesday's agenda item on Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart gives you just one small part of the answer.

Last Stand recognized errors in the claims made in the editorial, and has problems with the implications made there. We have issued the following statement in response (which ran in today's KeyNoter):

Last Stand issues challenge to preserve environment EDITOR: Publisher Wayne Markham's Aug. 16 column about Last Stand challenging a recent South Florida Water Management District decision to issue a permit that would allow the county to fill a salt pond at Key West Internatioal Airport contained some very basic factual errors, including the bizarre statement that "the runway work has already been done. The pond is gone and the county did the required mitigation." Obviously if this were true, the county would not now be applying for the permit, and Last Stand would not be opposing it. In actuality, the wetland filling and mitigation have not already been done, and the Duck Pond has not been destroyed, but continues to provide a rare natural habitat on Key West. The Salt Ponds form Key West's largest remaining open space, and the Duck Pond is a part of the original natural salt pond, site of a salt-works industry in the early 1800s. With its limited tidal circulation and extreme seasonal variations, the Duck Pond provides a unique habitat for fish and wildlife. It continues to function as a true salt pond while all the other ponds in the Salt Ponds area are now fully tidal. In the wet season, water levels are high and salinities low, supporting flocks of teal and other migratory waterfowl that gave the pond its name. In the dry season, when water levels are low and salinities are high, it provides valuable habitat for wading birds and shorebirds. Preserving the Salt Ponds has been a goal of this community for more than 30 years. In deciding to issue the permit, the South Florida Water Management District acknowledged room to improve the project and reduce wetland impacts. It encouraged the parties to continue working toward beneficial changes to the planned project. Last Stand was instrumental in an earlier decision to use an engineered material to greatly reduce the extent of damage to mangroves at the east end of the runway and believes that by shifting the runway to the east, this project can be modified to provide the desired safety areas on the west end while avoiding all impacts to the Duck Pond. We are willing to resolve the challenge and urge the county to put the money it would spend on a private law firm and the attention it might put into defending a still-flawed project into modifying the project to one that we can all support. Albert Sullivan, President, Last Stand

Important Book Review

In today's Solares Hill newspaper there's a detailed book review by Last Stand director (and previous President) Dennis Henize.  The review and the book itself should be of intense interest to Last Stand members and anyone who doesn't like the thought of our islands disappearing below the surf in the years to come.  Here's a copy of the review....

Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming

“Censoring Science”
Mark Bowen
Penguin, $25.95

reviewed by Dennis Henize

If you have followed how the Bush administration has systematically censored government scientists whose work contradicts administration policies, particularly regarding global warming, you’ll want to read “Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming,” by Mark Bowen. It’s the story of the fight for our planet, 306 pages-long including acknowledgements and index, published in January of this year.

Censoring Science is both infuriating and compelling. It tells the story of how the Bush administration has done its best to keep the American public from hearing the bad news simply that the Earth’s climate is changing, much less that human activity, through burning of fossil fuels, is overwhelmingly likely the culprit. It also offers understandable explanations of the science behind global climate change.

The book, whose author holds a PhD in physics, chronicles the squelching of bad news related to climate change through Bush - Cheney political appointments of unqualified people to key management and public affairs positions within NASA and other agencies involved with Earth science and environment. In fact, NASA’s Mission Statement was quietly changed in 2006 to eliminate what had been its first line: “To understand and protect the home planet,” cutting the legs out from under its Earth science mission.

Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Science for the past 25 years, is regarded as the nation’s preeminent climate scientist. Since the late 1980s, Hansen has warned us that with the rate at which we’re adding CO2 to the atmosphere, we’re on a course that’s likely to change the planet in very profound, negative ways. Until fairly recently, Hansen, ever the optimist, had assumed that once mankind understood the problem, we’d demand policy changes to do something about it. But we’ve done virtually nothing and, during the past eight years, information that there even is a problem has been low-balled.

Through placement of administration cheerleaders in NASA public affairs posts, information that several recent years were among the warmest on record was suppressed. Dean Acosta, who was the head of Public Affairs at NASA headquarters, had a media background as a sportscaster. Another PA appointment in NASA, George Deutsch, who stated that his job was “to make the president look good,” eventually resigned after it was revealed that he had lied about graduating college.

Interestingly revealed in “Censoring Science,” Hansen has not always been a supporter of Al Gore’s call-to-arms on climate change. Although he recognized the problem, Hansen, during the Clinton years, was reticent to get on Gore’s bandwagon, feeling that Gore was trying too hard to spin the science. Hansen has since come to admit that Gore’s insights and intuition were on track.

Although hardcore climate skeptics probably won’t be swayed, the book offers good and clearly understandable explanations of how mankind’s burning of fossil fuels has set into motion processes that may in coming years become irreversible, leading to some very unsavory consequences...the most obvious for the Keys being significant sea-level rise. Very modest sea-level rise would make much (if not all) of the Keys uninhabitable.

Feedback mechanisms are well explained, the simplest being the change in Earth’s albedo (reflectivity) as the areal extent of ice diminishes. Ice and snow reflect sunlight, and with less surface area covered by ice and snow, Earth’s surface absorbs more sunlight, causing more heating, melting ice faster, accelerating the process. A less obvious but related and very significant feedback loop involves the release of methane (also a greenhouse gas) and CO2 gas as permafrost in arctic regions warms and melts. More greenhouse gas, more warmth is trapped (reflected back to Earth). As these and other amplifying feedbacks kick in, Hansen convincingly argues that at some point, the processes become runaway, such that reducing manmade release of greenhouse gases could not reverse the heating, i.e. the “tipping point.”

Sensitivity and time lag are also explained, sensitivity meaning how much temperature change (and its negative consequences) will result from a given increase in CO2 concentration. Time lag is significant, not only because warming lags behind increases in greenhouse gas concentration, but effects of the actual temperature change vary in the length of time to show up. Likewise but conversely, warming, as well as its negative impacts, will continue to occur for some time even if we get a handle on, and begin reducing, greenhouse gas emissions.

For specifics on how much temperature change we can expect from a “business as usual” continuation of CO2 emissions, and how much sea-level rise to expect from given amounts of warming, read the book. It’s available from the Monroe County library.

Some have said, quoting him incorrectly, that Hansen is predicting ridiculously dire consequences such as specific number of feet of sea-level rise. While he does present sealevel increases in certain ranges that have been associated with past global temperature records, he does hold out some hope that prompt and decisive actions can head off catastrophic climate change. But time’s awasting, and the past eight years certainly have been frittered away.

[There’s a bit of an epilogue to the book, which may or may not be relevant. Since the book’s publication, the Office of Inspector General of NASA in June issued a report on its investigation of claims that Hansen had been muzzled. Quoting from the IG’s report:

“Our investigation found that during the fall of 2004 through early 2006, the NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public.”]

Don't give developers a free ROGO ride

Last Stand Director and Treasurer Mark Songer has posted the following personal editorial message to today's KeyNother newspaper....

Don't give developers a free ROGO ride EDITOR: I would like to challenge a recommendation that Monroe County Mayor Di Gennaro is reported to have sent to state Department of Community Affairs Secretary Pelham regarding a 300-room hotel proposed for Stock Island. To an ordinary citizen, the purpose of the rate-of-growth ordinance is to regulate development. The fear Mayor Di Gennaro expressed that the developer would acquire 300 ROGO units from affordable housing is not remedied by granting this hotel development new ROGOs for free. If there is a problem where developers purchase permanent housing ROGOs for use in transient lodging, then the solution would seem to be to further regulate the use of permanent housing ROGOs. Granting 300 new ROGOs will only increase the chances that permanent residents will be forced to evacuate Monroe County at the same time as tourists from this hotel when the inevitable short-notice hurricane evacuation order comes. In addition, the purchase of 300 ROGOs for an estimated $4 million is not a hardship to the hotel developers. Let's do the math. Let's assume that instead of a reasonable occupancy expectation of 70 percent that the hotel only achieves 65 percent occupancy because it is offline serving as housing for emergency first responders 5 percent of each year. If the developer wants to recover the ROGO investment over 20 years and has a 10 percent cost of capital, an additional $6.61 per night room rate covers the $4 million investment. This development is proposed to serve owners of super luxury yachts, who can easily afford a less than 2 percent up charge for the room. I am a full-time resident of Key West. I welcome Monroe County's status as an Area of Critical State Concern because I want an impartial government agency making the final decision on granting exceptions to the rules put in place for my safety. I want this oversight continued so that I have a reasonable chance to evacuate from mile marker 1 to the mainland on short notice. I urge Secretary Pelham not to grant free ROGOs to this proposed development. I encourage DCA to continue to exercise oversight so that any exceptions to laws promoting the safety of Monroe County residents are necessary and well justified. Mark E. Songer Key West

Beaches water quality in the News

Yesterday television station WPLG ran a story about the National Resources Defense Council annual beaches water quality report, which they call "Testing the Waters 2008 Florida". (The report covers testing done in 2007.)  The full NRDC report is available as a 35 page PDF file, here.  Most of the report is made up of tables of beach testing data.

The Monroe County section of the report that lists how often each beach is tested and how many times it excedes standards is mostly blank (i.e., there is no testing).  Of the 45 Monroe beaches listed, only 17 are tested (once per week).  Of those 17,  ten show less than 5% "excedence" (percent of time where tests showed excess bacteria).  And only THREE showed excedence over 10%:

3. Coco Plum Beach (Marathon) - 12%
2. South Beach (Key West) - 18%
1. Higgs Beach (Key West) - 24%

Higgs Beach was ranked the worst in all of South Florida.  The WPLG report calls it "the most dangerous beach in South Florida".

South and Higgs beaches, along with Smathers beach, lead the Monroe County section of the count of Beach Advisory days, with MONTHS of advisories.  Only four other beaches (Simonton, Veterans, Sombrero, Pennekamp) had any advisories at all, and only of 1 or 2 weeks.

The WPLG video report (which mainly covers Miami-Dade county) is here: click

De-revising Bridle Path history

One week ago, in the Sunday, July 20 edition of the Key West Citizen , a guest editorial by former Key West Assistant City Manager John Jones was run under the title "Transportation Department got beach parking right the first time".   Within the editorial, John made the statement, "The small group of dissenters enlisted Last Stand and other environmental groups and packed the commission meeting that was to give final approval," and addtional comments about rudeness and strife. 

Last Stand feels the editorial was inaccurate both in portrayal and in fact, and has issued the following statement in response (which ran in today's Citizen):

State plan for beach was resolutely rejected Last Stand would like to comment on [former Key West Deputy City Manager] John Jones’ [guest column] in the July 20 Citizen. Mr. Jones states that in 2002 the state Department of Transportation (DOT) presented a redesign of South Roosevelt Boulevard that included paving the historic Bridle Path in order to shift the roadway and provide parking adjacent to Smathers’ Beach. He states that the general population approved the design. On the contrary, our community was very unified in its strong and vocal opposition (See Key West Citizen, March 31, 2002). Outrage at the unpopular plan was expressed by the City Commission, civic organizations ranging from the Chamber of Commerce to Last Stand, almost 100 individuals who turned out for the March 18 meeting, and later in newspaper articles, editorials and cartoons. This wide spectrum of opposition spoke loudly and clearly the wishes of the people, and the DOT finally listened and relented. Mr. Jones suggests returning to the rejected plan that would destroy the Bridle Path in order to provide more beachside parking. The Bridle Path was built by the WPA to beautify Key West and try to pull it out of the 1930s depression by making the island attractive to tourists. Today, the Bridle Path between the Salt Ponds and South Roosevelt continues to welcome visitors with breathtaking ocean vistas. For 80 years, Key Westers have enjoyed the double rows of tall coconut palms on the sandy path with its quiet mangrove edges where wading birds still feed. The Bridle Path is part of old Key West, its history and heritage. Last Stand remains committed to protecting the Bridle Path, our environment, and our quality of life, and we reject both Mr. Jones’ interpretation of history and his suggestions regarding paving over the Bridle Path. Albert Sullivan, President, Last Stand

Airport hotel plans should be rejected

Last Stand Director and Treasurer Mark Songer has posted the following personal editorial message to the local newspapers....

Airport hotel plans should be rejected The Key West City Commission should reject the county’s offer to build an 18-story hotel at the airport. There are two good reasons to turn the offer down. First, an 18-story hotel is at least 15 stories beyond the height limits. The city charter requires that if the Board of Adjustment would approve a variance for habitable space above the height limit, it still must go before the voters. Time after time, citizens in Key West have spoken out against changing the height limit, and it is very unlikely that this project would be the exception. Second, neither the city nor the county should set themselves up in competition with private concerns in order to raise revenue, no matter how many hundreds of thousands per year it may be. The significant subsidies in this proposal will harm the interests of current hotels and innkeepers by adding competition with a lower cost of doing business. If there is an economic need for hotels in the city or the county, developers will justify building them within the Rate of Growth Ordinance. If the need for additional hotel rooms is great enough, developers will find a way to tear down condos and build hotels. If Key West or Marathon needs an emergency operations center that will house workers in a hurricane or other emergency, then the city or county should bring a proposal to the table that relies upon city, county or state funding. If city or county government needs additional revenue, it should look to the taxes under its control or continue the difficult process of cutting costs while maintaining essential services. Mark E. Songer Key West

Act fast on Solar Energy incentives

Last Stand Director and Keys GLEE Director (among other titles) Jody Smith Williams has posted the following personal editorial message to the local newspapers....

Incentives running out to install solar energy I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that interest in clean, renewable energy is gaining major ground among businesses and citizens around the country. The bad news is that the federal investment tax credit for renewables expires at the end of 2008, and without something to replace it, the renewable energy industry will suffer an even greater unfair disadvantage compared to the heavily subsidized oil, gas and nuclear industries. Already, renewable energy projects are being put on hold and overseas companies are picking up the slack left by America's inaction. Residents in Florida and other states who wish to get their own little piece of clean energy through solar installations are holding off while they wait to see if the government will commit to a clean energy future. HR6049, the latest version of many bills aimed at extending the tax credit, has passed the House and will be presented to the Senate next week. The last time the bill came up for a vote, it failed to pass by one Senate vote. Florida Sen. Mel Martinez voted against this bill and John McCain did not show up. Either of these senator's yes vote would have made the difference. Please let your senators know how important it is that they vote yes on HR6049. The August congressional recess is fast approaching and election mania will eclipse the attention of many in Congress once they return in September. Visit www.Solar-Nation.org for an easy click-and-send option to send your message. Jody Smith Williams Key West

Please say "NO" to Offshore Drilling

The following joint letter has been issued by Last Stand and Reef Relief. You will also see it in the local papers....

Speak out now on offshore drilling Last Stand and Reef Relief, two conservation organizations based in Key West, urge you to contact Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, and our congressional delegates today. Encourage them to protect our coral reefs, beaches, commercial fishing industry and tourism economy from the impacts of offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. There is more information and an online petition at www. reefrelief.org that you can sign, along with a sample letter you can send. We urge our representatives to protect Florida’s endangered coral reefs and all of America’s valuable marine environments on the outer continental shelf of America from offshore oil exploration and development. The current congressional bans on offshore drilling are there for good reason; the Keys are downstream of the toxic drilling muds. The current effort to open up these areas will neither lower gas prices nor solve our long-term energy needs. But they will jeopardize our tourism and commercial fishing industries for a few days of oil when better, renewable resources exist. Florida is the Sunshine State — let’s pursue being free of fossil fuels by investing in readily available non-polluting alternatives so that our economy and quality of life is protected for now and for future generations. Stop the oil subsidies in Congress now and invest in renewables; Congress has failed to renew legislation that provides tax credits for renewal energy, but there’s still time for that vote. If the United States had invested in renewables years ago, as other countries have done, we would not be held hostage to the oil interests today. Please consider this viewpoint as the issue of offshore oil and gas development is raised within the context of our current energy crisis. If we make wise decisions now, we can be safe, secure and healthy. Let’s restore, not risk, our oceans so that we benefit from vibrant coral reefs, clean coastal waters and abundant fisheries. Albert Sullivan, President, Last Stand DeeVon Quirolo, Executive director, Reef Relief

Last Stand joins the Navy?

In today's paper, the Key West Citizen ran a story with the title:

Home project gets 2nd objection
Last Stand joins Navy in fight against Key Haven development

The title is somewhat misleading, in that Last Stand has not joined forces with the Navy in their "fight" involving the Enchanted Island development proposed for just outside Key Haven (which is on Racoon Key). However Last Stand has objected to the proposal to build there based on the safety concerns that have been issued by the Navy.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

“Our opposition to this project is based on, and is in support of, the concerns raised
by Naval Air Station Key West regarding the air crash potential at this location so close to
the approach pattern to the Naval Air Station airfield,” Dennis Henize, Last Stand
board member, wrote in a letter on Tuesday to the commission that outlined the group’s
objections.

“While aircraft noise, which some may consider just an annoyance, may be mitigated
by soundproofing and notification in property deeds, nothing can absolve the county
of responsibility in the event of a calamitous air crash, given that the United States Navy
is warning you of the crash potential, and that state law requires the county to work
with the military on such planning issues near military bases.”

Henize wrote that approving the project would endanger citizens’ lives and ultimately
endanger the Navy’s continued presence in the Keys.

It should be noted that this letter was not submitted to the press by Last Stand. It's not clear where they got their copy.

Environmentalists not to blame for gas prices

Former Last Stand President and current Board Member Dennis Henize has posted the following personal editorial message to the local newspapers....

Environmentalists not to blame for gas prices In the debate about drilling closer to Florida’s coast or in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, nobody mentions that there really isn’t such a thing as “domestic” oil. When oil comes out of the ground, unless in Venezuela or a few other countries that have nationalized oil production and supply, it goes onto the world market, where thanks to the “charge what the traffic will bear” mentality of greed, the world price gets slapped onto every barrel. Do we see oil company executives on TV saying that if they can drill in ANWR or closer to Florida’s coast, they’ll keep the oil in the U.S. and give us a special price on homegrown? I haven’t, but I don’t watch much TV. We’ve helped boost the economy of China by insisting on cheap goods they produce, and now their economy is such that they, in essence, can outbid us on oil that comes out of our ground. One of the down sides of globalization has come home to roost. Don’t blame environmentalists for high prices of oil or gasoline. It’s not a shortage of U.S. refineries that’s causing high pump prices. Refineries in the U.S. have been operating at below capacity for quite some time, whether it’s a deliberate tactic to keep prices up, or due to shorter supply of crude because the developing world can now afford to outbid us. Dennis Henize Cudjoe Key