Making an Environmental Impact

The EIS does not change

the permitting process, emphasizes Barron, but strives to standardize and

streamline it, to make it more predictable for applicants, and to take into

account the cumulative effects of individual decisions.

The heart of the report

is the presentation of five maps -- termed "ensembles" or

"futures" by the Corps -- that predict five different levels of

development that could occur in the next 20 years. These range from one that

provides for more development than the comprehensive plans of the counties, one

that represents the status quo, and three that increase the amount of preserved

lands.

The maps continue to

cause some consternation because they make the EIS look like a planning

document. "If you take one of those maps out of context, it does look like

a land use map," admits Barron, but, he adds, "We are not using the

maps to designate land use, but to predict potential use. We are not enforcing

the map."

What the maps are designed to do is provide a wide range

of potential impacts. "We don't know which one is going to happen. By

comparing the maps and the effects, it helps us select issues to focus on. It

gives the project manager an appreciation of the cumulative impact."

How does a Corps project manager

put that notion into practice? Barron explains: He or she would locate the

project on these maps. The maps would indicate that of the major issues of

concern, listed in the permit review criteria (Appendix H), this project may be

affecting marsh, for example. The permit review criteria indicate that is an

issue of concern. Then the project manager would refer to the body of the EIS

-- Chapters 3 and 4 -- for background narrative explaining the important role

of marshes. In short, the project manager uses the appendix to flag the issue

and the body as a source of information.

If

the maps are the heart of the EIS, the permit review criteria are the brain.

They consist of the following issues that alert the Corps project manager to a

potential impact:

• style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Management of preserves style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- A change in use of

  land adjacent to a preserve should be compatible with the management

  purpose of the preserve.

• style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Public acquisition program style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- A property within a

  footprint flagged by one of various land acquisition programs must be assessed

  on how it would affect that potential acquisition.

• style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Flowways 12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- A project must be judged by its

  effect on water-flow patterns and potential to restore historic flow

  patterns.

• style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Habitat fragmentation style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- Expanses of wildlife

  habitat have been broken up by development. Connections between larger

  islands of existing preserves are considered beneficial.

• style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Marshes mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- Existing wildlife foraging locations with

  marsh and wet prairies should be preserved, or replaced if unavoidable.

• style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Coastal mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- An area within a half-mile of coastal

  forests and marshes and adjacent upland plant communities is to be

  preserved.

• style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Strategic Habitat Conservation Area lands style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- The Corps must

  preserve land identified by the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish

  Commission as the minimum needed to maintain Florida's plant and animal

  populations. About 8 percent of the SHCA lands are contained in the EIS

  study area.

• style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Wading bird rookeries style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- These are to be

  preserved with an adequate buffer.

• style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>High-proportion wetland style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- Sites with a high

  proportion of wetlands and little surrounding development must be shown to

  be the least damaging practicable alternative.

• style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'> mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Water quality style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- If a site is within

  one of 13 sub-basins designated by the Florida Department of Environmental

  Protection and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as not meeting water

  quality standards, the project must show that there is not a practicable

  alternative.

The permit review criteria

also include the following endangered species, whose habitats are not to be

disturbed, or in those cases where the disturbance is deemed unavoidable, the

habitat must be replaced or restored:

tab-stops:list .25in'>mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'>·

style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Audubon's crested caracara style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- Found in eastern portions

of the study area, primarily in agricultural lands.

tab-stops:list .25in'>mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'>·

style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Bald eagle style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- Found primarily along

coastal areas.

tab-stops:list .25in'>mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'>·

style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Florida panther style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- Habitat is identified as

all lands except those with intense development east of I-75 and north of

Tamiami Trail. It includes low-density residential areas in western portions of

Golden Gate and northwest Lehigh Acres.

tab-stops:list .25in'>mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'>·

style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Shorebirds style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- Disturbance of the

1,000-foot buffer around undeveloped beach areas is to be avoided to protect

shorebirds, particularly the piping plover.

tab-stops:list .25in'>mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'>·

style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Red-cockaded woodpecker style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- Found in pinelands.

tab-stops:list .25in'>mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'>·

style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Florida scrub jay style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>-- Found in oak-dominated

scrub areas.

Extending its Power?

Part of the criticism the Corps has received from the

development community is that the EIS uses the Endangered Species Act and water

quality issues to extend its regulatory reach. The Corps is empowered by

Section 404 of the Clean Water Act to regulate the filling of wetlands, but

some say, the Corps has overreached by including endangered species and water

quality as permit review criteria.

"At this point our biggest concern is making sure

the water quality and endangered species applications do not go beyond the

current regulations or state permitting requirements," explains Neil

Dorrill, a former Collier county manager who is now a Naples-based consultant

and president of Partners for Environmental and Economic Progress. That group

of large landowners and developers in Lee and Collier counties was formed in

direct response to the EIS. "We are more

than willing to play by the rules in this very environmentally sensitive part

of the country, but we don't want to see those rules change or be held to

unnecessarily high standards without a demonstrated scientific need to change

the rules," says Dorrill.

"The Endangered

Species Act is most pernicious in its ability to affect what we do in ways most

people don't understand," real estate attorney Ted Brown, of Orlando-based

Akerman, Senterfitt and Eidson, told a group of Southwest Florida builders and

developers last month. "It is the crown jewel of the environmental

movement -- their last best safety net to protect flora and fauna against

'unbridled development.'"

Barron

counters, "We are not trying to use

the Endangered Species Act, we are trying to normal'>follow it." Under one section of the actnormal'>, he explains, Congress imposed on the Corps and other agencies

that if an endangered species is affected by a project under Corps review, it

must consult with U.S. Fish and Wildlife. A Corps permit then covers both laws.

Developers further argue that the degree of danger that

endangered species face is unsubstantiated. The EIS is controlling development

"under the guise of preserving the panther. That's a scare tactic by

environmental groups," says Michael Reitmann, executive director of the

Lee Building Industry Association. He suggests that the research may be flawed

or outdated.

"Then

why are they endangered?" asks Simonik. "There would not be listed

species if it weren't for man and development."

At What Cost?