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*** Friends was founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas ***

Environmental groups sue to stop plan to upgrade U.S. 1 to Keys

By David Fleshler
Staff Writer
Posted December 21 2004

Environmental groups filed suit Monday to prevent the start of a massive road project along a stretch of U.S. 1 that connects Key Largo to the mainland, saying the work would imperil wildlife and destroy more than 100 acres of wetlands.

The Sierra Club, Florida Keys Citizens Coalition and Friends of the Everglades sued the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Transportation and several other agencies involved in approving the project to revamp the two-lane road from Key Largo to Florida City.

Under discussion for a decade, the project is intended to speed hurricane evacuation and reduce accidents. Between 1997 and 2001, 29 people were killed in accidents on that section of road, most in head-on collisions, according to an analysis cited in a document released last summer when the Corps of Engineers approved the project.

Plans call for installing a concrete median to prevent head-on crashes, paving the shoulders and adding a 10-foot-wide northbound emergency lane for use only in evacuations. Plans also call for a series of bridges, including a fixed-span bridge to replace the drawbridge over Jewfish Creek to Key Largo.

These plans, proposed by the Florida Department of Transportation, represent a retreat from the original proposal, which called for widening the road to four lanes.

But the environmental groups that filed suit Monday said the scaled-back plan would bring more development to the Keys; block the movement of wildlife with a chain-link, barbed-wire fence; and result in the permanent loss of important wetlands. Replacing the old drawbridge with a permanent 65-foot span would bring more boat traffic to Florida Bay, they said, threatening manatees, sawfish and American crocodiles. They say the project would do little to improve safety or evacuations -- goals that could be accomplished without such a big project.

"We feel that the project they have proposed is far larger than the footprint needs to be," said Charles Causey, co-chairman of the Florida Keys Citizens Coalition.

The lawsuit, drafted by Miami law firm Reiner & Reiner, was filed in federal court in Miami.

Ken Huntington, the Corps of Engineers' project manager, said the environmental groups were correct in saying the project would destroy more than 100 acres of wetlands. But he said the destruction of 20 of those acres would be temporary, as traffic was rerouted over filled-in wetlands during construction.

While the environmental groups complained about the impact of the new bridge, Huntington said that part of the project could actually do some environmental good. Plans call for removing parts of the causeway across Florida Bay, allowing natural bottom habitats to return, with more growth of sea grass and better water flow.

David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4535.

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