Plans for turning the closed Homestead Air Force Base into a commercial airport bogged down in 1998 over the possible environmental damage to two nearby national parks, when environmental groups concerned about noise, and air and water pollution in two national parks voiced strenuous objections to the negative environmental impact the facility would have on the flora and fauna of the area.
After gaining approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, the airport plan was subjected to further study to address concerns about how Biscayne National Park, two miles east of the base, and Everglades National Park, 10 miles to the west, would be affected by noise, air and water pollution from their new neighbor and the development expected to surround it. Plans called for the airport to handle more than 200,000 flights a year for passengers and cargo as well as attract new industry.
Miami-Dade County officials supported the airport plan as a way of relieving some of the traffic at Miami International Airport, 30 miles to the north, while helping to revitalize a hurricane-damaged area. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew inflicted more than $400 million in economic losses to south Florida; the Homestead Air Force Base, which provided about 5,000 military and civilian jobs, was so badly damaged that it had to close.
In 1994 the base was converted into an Air Force Reserves installation with about 2,000 people that now occupies about a third of the former base's 3,000 acres. Then Homestead Mayor, Steve Shiver said, "It's extremely important," referring to the airport. "It's not the single savior but it definitely puts us on the right track."
Federal studies to transfer 1,600 acres of the base to the county found the site compatible with a commercial regional airport, and the redevelopment plans won Miami-Dade County approval in 1996.
Conservationists, however, attacked the Federal Government's environmental report for failing to adequately address the effects on Biscayne National Park, a180, 000-acre Aquatic Park, and Everglades National Park, a wilderness park on 1.5 million acres of saw grass marshes, pineland, and mangrove and cypress swamps.
Critics saw the airport proposal as undermining the Federal Government's own multimillion-dollar restoration project to preserve the Everglades. The opponents, including the Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society, said noise from passenger jets would surpass what the National Park Service considers acceptable. They also worried about degradation of water quality in Biscayne Bay, fuel dumping and collisions with birds.
Environmental concerns led the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration to review the project again, and the scope of the new study was expanded to consider adverse effects on agriculture and tourism, air travel safety and traffic. The study also looked into alternative uses for the site, including a theme park, a marine research center, a space launching facility, and other government and military use.
Public hearings were held on the study when was completed. Miami-Dade County officials still hoped to establish a commercial airport at the former Air Force base with minimal impact to the surroundings. They said they had been looking for 14 years for a site to accommodate overflow from Miami International. None of the county's three general aviation airports can be expanded, they said, because of their
proximity to residential and business areas.
These same issues affect FLL expansion!
In the FLL expansion plan, it is not only the wildlife environment that is affected; there is the human element that is being ridden rough-shod over by a callous County Commission that sees quality of business ahead of quality of life.
Certainly, the people in the immediate vicinity of the airport will face issues such as noise, air and water pollution, deflated home values and increased risk of accident, but what the County Commission has failed to recognize is the fact that all of Broward County will be affected in varying degrees by the air and water pollution.
A study by the Clean Air Task force has determined that South Florida is already one area where the Estimated Cancer Risk from HAPs (hazardous air pollutants) is greater than 1 in 10,000, which places us in the highest 20% of states.
Lifetime Cancers per Million People in Broward County range from 318 from Inhaled diesel soot to 44 from other inhaled toxics The Clean Air Task Force determined that the cancer risk posed by diesel soot is higher than all other air toxics combined.
The calculated average US cancer risk of 363 cancers per million is over 8 times higher than the cancer risk of all other air toxics combined. The relative cancer risk of diesel PM (particulate matter) is calculated as a ratio of the cancer risk of diesel PM divided by the cancer risk of other air toxics tracked by EPA.
"We calculated the cancer risk for diesel PM in the US by multiplying the CA cancer unit risk for diesel PM by the average national ambient concentration for diesel PM from Aspen model results for 1999". According to the 1999 NATA the combined risk from all 133 other air toxics tracked by EPA is 41.5 per million. Note: this risk is for inhalation as the only route of exposure.
The relative ratio of national diesel soot risk to the risk of all other air toxics combined is therefore 363 / 41.5 = 8.75. County and state ratios were calculated similarly. MSA results were derived from the county-level data using population weighting.
How did CATF determine that the urban risk is 3 times higher than the rural risk?
Based on the single CARB unit risk multiplied by the average diesel soot concentration in the U.S., the nationwide average lifetime cancer risk posed by diesel exhaust is 363 cancers per million. In the analysis counties are designated as 'rural' or 'urban.' In the rural counties we estimate a risk of 142 cancers per million based on the average concentration in rural counties. In the urban counties, the risk is 415 cancers per million. The ratio of urban to rural risk 415/142 = 2.92, rounding up to a relative factor of 3.
In 2004, deaths from firearm homicide were 11,829; from HIV, 14,095; from workplace accidents, 5,307; while the deaths from toxic emissions were 23,600, only 7, 631 less than all of the other causes combined.
FLL and Port Everglades are in such close proximity, that when the expansions of each are completed, they will abut. Within Port Everglades existing footprint, there is a very large FP&L generating plant. Less than 4 miles west of there is another FP&L plant, and less than ½ mile west of that is a solid waste incinerator, putting the five highest pollutant generating facilities in Broward County within five miles of each other. When the existing pollution level is combined with the added pollution levels that the expansions will produce, the effect on people, wildlife and habitat will be disastrous.
Within a five mile radius of this pollution center are located John U Lloyd State Park, The Anne Kolb Nature Center, West Lake Park, Frost Park, T Y Park, Snyder Park, Secret Woods Nature Center, and four major golf facilities. To add icing on the cake, the whole area is surrounded by the Broward Urban Trails "New River Loop", which is designated a National Protected Area.
With the variable winds common to South Florida, the pollution risk is not restricted to the immediate vicinity, but will affect all of Broward County and parts of Miami Dade County as well, subjecting well over two million people, as well as the avian, marine and terrestrial wildlife,
to elevated risk from pollution induced illnesses.
As stewards of the earth and of our own destinies, we cannot and must not allow this to happen for the sake of putting a few more dollars into some already well-stuffed pockets.
