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Village gets green light for pipeline
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Monroe officials have determined that a portion of Islamorada's sewage pipeline to Key Largo that will lie underground beneath Tavernier Creek will not be impacted by the county's controversial interpretation of a federal coastal protection system.
The determination, made this week by county Growth Management Director Christine Hurley, clears the way for the village of Islamorada to thread a pipeline 40 feet below ground under the Tavernier Creek Bridge. The project is part of the village's $91 million pipeline system taking Islamorada's wastewater to be treated at a Key Largo treatment plant at mile marker 101.5.
County Commissioner David Rice's office sent Hurley an e-mail in February asking if the Tavernier Creek portion of the project would violate the county's interpretation of the federal Coastal Resource Barrier System. Congress created the CRBS in 1982 and updated in 1990.
The county's land-use policy since 2001 has been not to issue permits for new utilities in the CRBS, which was established to protect sensitive coastal environments.
But policy has had consequences that many county officials did not foresee.
For instance, residents along County Road 905 are now unable to get permits to connect to the Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District's system and treatment plant. The policy is also partly the reason why residents on No Name Key rely on generators and solar power for their electricity and can't connect to the Keys Energy Services' main power grid.
But after discussing the issue with her staff, Hurley wrote Rice's office Monday to say the CRBS would not impact the Islamorada project, despite Tavernier Creek being in the protected zone, because the pipeline would go directly under U.S. 1. The highway is not bound by the CRBS.
Also, even though the properties alongside the bridge are in the CRBS, the houses that would connect to the system are in the village of Islamorada, and "the county doesn't issue permits for utility improvements within rights of way," Hurley said.
"So the system improvements would be done by the utility," Hurley wrote. "And in this case, Islamorada would be the government agency that would govern the connections because the properties that will seek permits are within Islamorada's jurisdiction."