No Concern
Health Department: No issues with cistern use for No Name residents

The Monroe County Health Department is of the opinion that there are no “inherent public health concerns” with the use of rainwater cisterns for potable drinking water by residents of No Name Key.

That opinion, issued early last month by Bob Eadie, DOH administrator, brings the quest for water supplied by the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority to No Name Key homes back to the questions of who pays, how, and is it feasible?

No Name Key residents Brad and Beth Vickrey asked the FKAA to run water lines to their home a couple of months ago, sparking the latest search for answers to a question that seems to pop up every four or five years.

The feasibility of piping water to No Name is still under review, says Kerry Shelby, deputy executive director for FKAA.

“Our current rules state we will not extend water to No Name Key,” said Shelby. “Our board can change those rules, but we would first have to go through a lengthy public review process.”

The FKAA board would first need to determine it wanted the utility to extend water to No Name Key then go through a public hearing process to change its existing rules to allow that to happen.

“The question at that point, if the board says we go forward, is who pays for the infrastructure. Do we ask the residents to pay, or do we pay?” he said.

FKAA is not allowed to spend federal dollars to extend infrastructure to much of No Name Key because the lines would have to cross areas that are designated a Coastal Barrier Resource System and using federal dollars for any type of development in those areas is forbidden.

Regional officials of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that is responsible for species and land management over much of No Name Key, says there are also more pointed prohibitions that could derail the quest.

For instance, they point out, if homeowners borrow the money from a federally-backed program to pay for the extension of infrastructure, they can’t spend that money in the CBRS areas.

Federal grants can’t be used.

“We’re still in the early fact-finding stage,” said Shelby. “We haven’t taken any recommendation to the board as yet.”

FKAA had put the request on hold until it got an opinion from Eadie.

The DOH administrator said that since there is no historical evidence of a public health threat from using cisterns, the health department can’t urge FKAA to extend potable water lines to the remote island off the northeast shore of Big Pine Key.

Eadie said he has been unable to find any indications of reports citing illness caused by drinking cistern water. And from a historical perspective, ”cisterns have been safely utilized throughout the Keys for a long period of time.”

“If there are concerns by anyone about the safety of his or her drinking water supply, the Monroe County Health Department will test it and provide the results of the analysis,” wrote Eadie.

“If the cistern is properly maintained, there are few issues with its use,” said Shelby.

No Name Key is just one of many areas in the Lower Keys where cisterns are used for potable water. None of those other areas have yet cited health concerns as a reason for wanting FKAA-supplied water, and have not asked for such.

No Name Key residents have been fighting for the last two years to bring electricity, central sewers and now water to the island where none has ever existed. No one who bought a home on the island ever had public power, water or sewer.

Shelby said that the utility will continue due diligence. Crews were on No Name last week and again this week testing some old distribution lines that were installed by one of the original developers on the island.

“We wanted to see if the lines in the ground would hold pressure. They didn’t. We don’t expect any of the lines to hold pressure,” he said.

Determining where the last good pipe is that will feed the island water if the FKAA board decides that is the way to go, will give the utility a better fix on eventual costs of running that system, said Shelby.

Before FKAA could begin the process of digging trenches, however, it will have to consult with the USFWS for potential mitigation issues and possibly right-of-way easement issues, particularly in those areas where the federal agency owns the lot to the road out to the center line on cross lots.

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