KEYS sends report for USFWS perusal

By Steve Estes

A consultant hired by the No Name Key Property Owner’s Association has sent a report to the US Fish & Wildlife Service that states there will be no impact on either endangered species or habitat if Keys Energy Services extends electrical power to the environmentally sensitive island.

Phil Frank, former manager of the Key Deer Refuge and now a private consultant for developers and land owners on environmental issues, wrote in his report to USFWS that: “Due to the presence of a number of Federally-listed species on or near No Name Key, the proposed project has the potential to impact Key Deer, Lower Keys marsh rabbit, and others….However, because the proposed project will not directly impact these species or their habitats, the proposed project will have no measurable adverse impact on these species.”

Frank goes on to write that the island is protected from rampant over-development through land acquisitions and environmental regulations so adverse indirect and cumulative effects are not anticipated to occur.

The report says that the project will utilize 61 poles, all on right of way owned by Monroe County or possibly the National Key Deer Refuge.

Project proponents have long maintained that neither the county nor federal agency has jurisdiction in established public rights-of-way. The project will, however, have to run in some private easements where public rights of way do not exist. And county officials haven’t yet come to any determination on whether they can allow the issuance of permits for the project outside the public rights of way because county land use codes prohibit the extension of utilities into areas where the federal Coastal Barrier Resource System designation exists.

Frank’s report was in response to a letter from USFWS outlining the information it would need in order to determine any potential impact on endangered species or habitat covered under the protections of the federal Endangered Species Act.

In his conclusions, Frank calls any potential impacts to species and habitat on No Name Key as a result of electrification of the island are “insignificant” and “negligible.”

In addition to Frank’s report, Keys Energy also forwarded its detailed plans for construction of the proposed power grid for No Name Key.

From that information, USFWS representatives are expected to study potential impacts and issue a biological impact that outlines either no adverse impacts, as Frank claims, adverse impacts of no severity, or adverse impacts requiring action by the applicant. The applicant, according to USFWS rules, must be Keys Energy, although the utility has said it is passing on all costs to the homeowners association.

Once the process reaches the biological opinion stage, if USFWS finds that there will be adverse impacts, it will set a list of Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives that must be undertaken before it will approve the development inside the National Key Deer Refuge under the Endangered Species Act.

USFWS has also already notified Keys Energy that since part of the project must of necessity cross refuge lands, the utility will have to apply for a rental of easement from the federal agency.

The utility also still has to receive approval from Monroe County to attach to No Name Key bridge for the water crossing, and must get a determination from county staff whether building permits will be issued even if the lines are run for the individual homes to hook into the lines.

As of this week, county staff had not yet made that determination, although several environmental attorneys agree that the county must change its comprehensive plan policies and land development regulations before it can entertain permit applications for private electrical service.