Cwn Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 20, 2009

CONTACT: Linda Young Clean Water Network of FL 850/322-7978

MAJOR ECOLOGICAL DISASTER ON PANHANDLE ESTUARY St Joe dumped swamp for airport --- Airport now dumps tons of mud in estuary Panama City, FL -- Dire predictions of ecological disaster made by environmental groups who vigorously opposed building a new airport in a deep swamp, have come true in tragic proportions for West Bay, which was recently (pre-construction) part of one of the most diverse and pristine estuaries in all of North America. Four-thousand acres of deep swampland, donated by the St. Joe Development Company for the construction of an international airport, is situated at the bottom of an 80,000 acre bowl and was, pre-construction, remarkable for hundreds of acres of deep cypress swamps, high ground-water, abundant wetlands, and crystal clear streams which slowly fed two sandy-bottomed creeks that eventually opened into West Bay. To date, 5.7 million cubic yards of fill have been placed over these wetlands and streams. In addition, a crosswind runway will require approximately one million cubic yards of fill dirt. Since the land clearing began in January 2008, rain events, large and small, have created a deluge of mud and standing water on the airport site. The 80,000 acres above the airport still releases a tremendous amount of water through the airport site, but instead of being absorbed by thousands of acres of wetlands, the water now finds an impervious runway and an inadequate stormwater treatment system. The 7,200 linear feet of slowmoving winding streams are now paved over and the groundwater no longer flows evenly through the cleansing soils. The water rushes over the newly filled and graded land and carries tons of mud to Crooked Creek and Burnt Mill Creek which, as expected, are discharging rivers of mud into the highly productive fish-nursery marshes of West Bay. Onsite workers have told the Clean Water Network of Florida (CWN-FL) that the contractor who is building the airport is diverting the water on and around the runway to Crooked Creek with a 24-inch pipe. Aerial photos of the site (attached) bear this out. Any discharge to surface waters is prohibited by the general permit that the Airport Authority is utilizing and no permit for a discharge has been granted for the pipe. “The destruction of Crooked and Burnt Mill Creeks and West Bay has been happening for many months now and finally after many requests to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for appropriate enforcement action, apparently some enforcement is being initiated,” says Linda Young, director of the Clean Water Network of Florida, the organization that led the fight to stop the destruction of West Bay with an unneeded airport. “We have also alerted the US Environmental Protection Agency and sent the photos that document the violations. We are in a wait-and-see mode. This situation demands more than a slap on the wrist. It requires a re-thinking of the entire

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airport/West Bay development scheme,” Young said. The airport construction was opposed by the voters of Bay County as well as numerous groups such as the CWN of FL, Citizens for the Bay, Friends of PFN, Sierra Club, NRDC and Defenders of Wildlife. Experts for the groups warned FDEP officials, the public and the courts, of the dangers of destroying the vast wetlands that capture the voluminous amounts of groundwater and rainfall, and then slowly release the water into West Bay, which was known as an abundant fishery and one of the six most diverse estuaries in all of North America. The only environmental group that supported the destruction was Florida Audubon, who received large donations in cash and land from the St. Joe Company. “Protecting West Bay from after effects of bad development in its watershed, such as this airport, has been a long battle with our local officials, in the courts, and with environmental agencies that are charged with protecting our resources,” says Diane Brown, member of Citizens for the Bay. “We are now seeing the results of their failure to enforce local, state and federal laws that would have prevented this airport from being built in this environmentally sensitive location. It has been a predictable disaster waiting to happen,” Brown said. Before the airport construction even began, CWN-FL filed complaints with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida DEP regarding illegal dredge and fill activities on and near the airport site. Eventually the Airport Authority signed an enforcement/consent letter for these violations prior to the COE’s 404 wetlands/dredge and fill permit being issued. The current violations indicate they cannot keep their commitments to protect the natural resources. The Airport Authority and St. Joe have announced plans to fill thousands of more acres around the airport for commercial and residential development. The company essentially owns the entire watershed for West Bay and needed the airport as a means to get publicly funded infrastructure into the watershed, which is very wet and had few paved roads and no water, sewer, power or other infrastructure. At its meeting last week, the Bay County Airport Authority discussed how they could get $400,000.00 to construct two large canals from the site to nearby creeks to keep the site drained. The FAA rules do not allow standing water near airports because the water attracts wildlife (especially birds), which are a hazard to planes. “Any attempt to secure a permit to construct a direct discharge to the creeks or the bay will be aggressively opposed,” said Young. “Any future filling of wetlands in the West Bay watershed should be disallowed by state and federal agencies and the Airport Authority should be required to take immediate actions to stop the destruction of this important estuary – including removal of the runway if necessary. This was a failed project from its conception,” Young says.

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