Citizens for Sanity is a varied group of concerned citizens with grave concerns for our precious limited resources, such as water, and our quality of life which is constantly being negatively impacted by inept planning with little attention to what is truly in the public's best interests.

We are a well founded, not-for-profit state corporation which attained federal 501c3 status. Our recent challenge to Southwest Florida Water Management District's (SWFWMD) first Environmental Resources Permit (ERP) for the Long Lake Ranch Development of Regional Impact (LLR DRI) has garnered us many new members. Our common purpose is “to improve quality of life and preserve our natural environment.”


We are consistently referred to as environmentalists instead of community activists. As defined by Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary each and everyone of you is an environmentalist. Environment is “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded,” in other words your home, neighborhood, community and Pasco County. So we all are environmentalist because we care about the circumstances, objects and conditions surrounding us. Welcome aboard!

Back in 1999 Clay Colson and Citizens for Sanity sued Pasco over the rezoning of the Milo Thomas Ranch, which is presently Oakstead. However, it was Citizens, along with Judy Williams, Nancy Rosenberg and Jennifer Seney, who sued Pasco over the 1999 Amendments to our Comprehensive Plan (Complan), a citizens' blueprint for growth in our county. It was during this litigation that we discovered Pasco was in direct violation of the state's Growth Management Act of 1985. Pasco failed to implement the Conservation Elements (CE) of the Complan through ordinances as required by law –

and it remains that way to this day, 23 years later!

Pasco County had over 100 developers and large landowners intervene in that case to protect their rights to ravage your county. Citizens and the four plaintiffs entered into a settlement agreement with Pasco and the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to implement the CE of the complan by ordinance to protect wetlands, wildlife habitat and range as well as to establish wildlife corridors. Pasco is currently in direct violation of the law and our settlement agreement, ALL of which was to be enforced by the DCA.


Our challenge was NEVER about T. Rowe Price (TRP) but was instead about the needless, unwarranted and unjustifiable destruction of fully functioning wetlands in the LLR DRI, which is positioned directly adjacent to and surrounding the South Pasco Wellfield, a major source of your drinking water supply. TRP received the first permit of the DRI as it was expedited through a severely flawed and improper Basis Of Review (BOR) by SWFWMD.

SWFWMD failed in many areas of the BOR, not the least of which was the blatantly flawed delineation of wetland E-9 as only 0.236 acres. The true nature of wetland E-9 is 1.8 to 2.2 acres of Class I wetlands as defined under Chapter 62.340 Florida Statutes when properly delineated by appropriately accepted scientific methodology – all of which was to be needlessly destroyed for 18-20 parking spaces while TRP proposed to build 3 multi-story parking garages.

Ask yourselves this simple question: If the applicant and SWFWMD were confident of their delineation of wetland E-9 then why not defend that position in a court of law instead of working to exclude any testimony to the contrary? Is it that they are afraid of the truth? Anytime the applicant and SWFWMD want to match scientific facts in an open forum we will be glad to prove the truth!

This of course is the actual reason we dismissed our petition against SWFWMD, as the crux of our action was wetland E-9. Being excluded from presenting any evidence or testimony to the contrary undercut the basis of our challenge. To go forward would have exposed our organization to the potential assessment of overwhelming legal fees. This does not mean that our action was unwarranted or frivolous. It just means that the other side, through various ploys and deep pockets, undermined our case. This was the only way for them to prevail.

As for Citizens using this as leverage against Pasco, it is simply not true. Commission Chairman Jack Mariano called no less than six times to ask what they could do to make our challenge disappear. Begrudgingly we agreed to a confidential meeting with him and John Gallagher in which, per their request, we submitted a list of Citizens' demands. After the meeting was over, Mr. Gallagher, in direct violation of the terms of the meeting, faxed our list to reporters and accused us of filing our action for false reasons. These are the people who are running your county!

The first item on the list was Leave the wetlands alone! Not just on that site but for all future development in the county. Doing so would have settled this and all future actions we might undertake against any development permits. Simply leave the wetlands alone! Had that been done, there would be nothing more to do. This has always been about wetlands protection and nothing else.

This demand is based on the facts that your precious water supply is in eminent danger, not just from drought, but also from poor policies and untoward politics. By failing to protect the intricate systems which recharge our severely depleted Floridan Aquifer, we are experiencing salt water intrusion at rates never before measured. Groundwater levels are at lows never previously seen.

Wetlands are the second major mechanism of recharge to our severely depleted aquifer (the first being undisturbed uplands). Our precious remaining wetlands serve as a major means of flood control, they collect, capture and contain our precious rain water while slowly filtering and allowing it to percolate down to replenish our aquifer. They provide habitat and range for many forms of wildlife. And they are certainly more beautiful than any parking lot.


Yet our elected officials and the agencies directed to protect our wetlands continue to do the same things over and over and over again, expecting a different result. Isn't that the definition of insanity?

Sincerely,
Clay G. Colson
Board Director and Water Issues Chair
Citizens for Sanity.Com, Inc.

citizensforsanity.com