When Administrative Law Judge D. R. Alexander ruled in favor of the county’s anti-environmental Oslo Road boat ramp expansion project, it was a setback for our ailing lagoon.
But it didn’t come as a surprise.
“As expected, Judge Alexander went against our case,” said Dr. Richard Baker, one of the petitioners who appealed St. Johns River Water Management District’s intent to issue a permit for the $1 million dredge and fill project that lagoon scientists and area environmental organizations have strongly opposed as destructive to manatees, game fish nurseries and seagrass beds.
“I know of only one case in which Judge Alexander has ruled against an agency,” said Marcy LaHart, the Gainesville environmental attorney who represented Baker, Pelican Island Audubon Society and Vero Beach ecologist Dr. David Cox in the case, which was heard June 4-6 in Vero Beach and ruled on by Judge Alexander Aug. 6.
Commissioner Peter O’Bryan, who has emerged as the chief proponent of pushing the ramp expansion through despite massive evidence of the harm it will do, sounded jubilant in press quotes after the decision.
But the project isn’t a done deal, yet.
First, just because a judge approved the St. Johns permit doesn’t mean the County Commission has to go ahead with the project. If three commissioners think better of spending a million dollars of our money to damage the lagoon, the popular, well-used ramp will remain as it is. (The docks were built in 2009, there is ample parking and Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission rates the ramp’s condition as “excellent.”)
Second, the decision can be challenged in the District Court of Appeals.
Third, LaHart says there is a federal administrative review process that can be used to challenge the federal permits needed to proceed with dredging a channel through the seagrass so bigger boats can be launched in the ecologically sensitive aquatic preserve that surrounds the ramp.
“They have to have a permit from the Army Corps to go ahead,” said LaHart. “There is a fairly good chance that permit can be successfully challenged because U. S. Fish and Wildlife appears to have reversed its earlier recommendation against the ramp due to political pressure.”
“Audubon would consider a federal appeal if community monetary support is forthcoming,” said Baker, who leads Pelican Island Audubon Society.
PIAS funded the state appeal itself, putting a strain on organization finances. The county, of course, has unlimited taxpayer funds at its disposal – more so since the commission recently raised property tax rates.
“CCA is very aware of Judge Alexander’s decision and remains opposed to the project,” said Lange Sykes, president of the Treasure Coast chapter of Coastal Conservation Association, a 20,000-member group of conservation-minded fisherman who don’t want seagrass beds and fish nurseries destroyed by the dredging. “We will continue to look at ways to prevent or put off construction.”
In July, Florida Inland Navigation District refused to provide matching funds for the project because it failed to meet public benefit criteria and other benchmarks.
“FIND rating it so low should be a clear signal to the commission,” said Cox, who was disappointed Judge Alexander did not allow as evidence a video that clearly shows seagrass thriving in the dredging area where the county claims little or no seagrass exists.
“What will happen if they dredge the channel 210 feet out is boats will get up on a plane and then when they veer off from the channel they will tear up adjacent seagrass beds,” said IRC FIND Commissioner Paul Dritenbas prior to Alexander’s decision. “It must not happen.”
The general public doesn’t like the project, either.
“I have received about 250 e-mails concerning the Oslo Road boat ramp,” Commissioner Tim Zorc told me recently. “Maybe one of them was in support of the project. All the rest were against.”
The commission’s apparent intent to proceed with the project contrary to science and citizen’s wishes has made some speculate corruption is involved, somebody’s brother-in-law or business partner poised to win a fat contract.
I think the stubbornness of O’Bryan and some other commissioners has a simpler and in some ways more disturbing explanation: It is egotism, plain and simple. Commissioners have dug in their heels and are out to prove a point – that the Audubon Society can’t stop them from doing what they want to do.
They have been frustrated and angry about their failure to get the project done up till now and are determined to show everybody who is boss in Indian River County.