Citrus Chronicle
By: Terry Witt
Published: 6-Dec-06

Florida Turnpike Enterprise officials Tuesday were peppered with questions from Citrus County residents about Suncoast Parkway 2, but Citrus County commissioners were silent on the subject.

The state agency needs continued county commission support to go forward with the 26-mile toll road project, which would be built through western Citrus County.

FTE’s appearance at the meeting was part of its annual pilgrimage to the board to ask if commissioners have any questions. They didn’t.

“This is a courtesy,” said Nathan Silva, FTE’s project director for Suncoast 2.

Some residents thought FTE would give a formal presentation about Suncoast 2 and came armed with questions, but there was no presentation. Instead, residents were allowed to question FTE officials, even though it wasn’t a public hearing.

FTE appeared at the hearing with officials of the Florida Department of Transportation, its parent agency. FDOT discussed its five-year work plan, but never mentioned Suncoast 2.

Commissioners have not turned a blind eye to Suncoast 2. Earlier this year, they asked FTE to return with additional information about potential community and environmental impacts from the project, as well as a detailed cost analysis.

FTE spokeswoman Joanne Hurley said the volume of information requested by commissioners would take time to research. She said the agency expects to return to commissioners in mid- to late-2008 with the information. She said FTE sent the board a letter indicating the time it would take to compile the information.

The route selected for the toll road was approved in 1998 as part of an earlier Project Development and Environment study. Some of the information may be outdated and the entire route must be analyzed to see what has changed, according to Hurley.

FTE’s five-year work plan calls for $183 million to be spent during the next five years on acquiring land for and designing the toll road. The current estimated cost of the project is $879 million.

Resident Gus Krayer said there is growing concern in his community, Crystal Oaks, about FTE’s plans to build an intersection for Suncoast 2 at State Road 44 near the subdivision. Krayer said community leaders want the issue re-examined. He said the population of Crystal Oaks is expected to double in size.

Krayer said he also wants the state to re-examine the impacts to protected wildlife species like the Indigo Snake and Red Cockaded Woodpecker in the western Withlacoochee Forest. FTE officials said they would take a look at all the concerns raised by Krayer.

Janet Masaoy, chairwoman of Citizens Opposed to Suncoast Tollway Inc., said the organization has major concerns about the impacts of the toll road on water quality and quantity. She noted that Citrus County has porous soils that easily could be polluted if a chemical spill were to occur on the toll road.

She was also concerned that construction of the toll road might open the door to water transfers from the Tampa Bay region. She said a map contained in the old U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Four Rivers Basin Study shows a water pipeline running parallel to or on top of what is now the planned route proposed for Suncoast 2.

The pipeline on the map terminates in Pine Ridge, she said, but just above Pine Ridge is Lake Rousseau, a fresh water body. She said COST has concerns the public right-of-way for the parkway could serve a dual purpose as public right-of-way for a pipeline to Lake Rousseau.

“We in COST have entitled this cost or conspiracy,” she said.

Commissioners Joyce Valentino and Gary Bartell assured Masaoy that map she was referring is old and any plans there might have been for water transfers in the old basin study have been abandoned. However, Valentino said Bartell and State Sen. Nancy Argenziano head off attempts every year in the Legislature to overturn Local Sources First, the law Argenziano authored to prevent such transfers.

Carver Simpson of Pine Ridge asked if there was a connection between the toll road and the filling of a 25 to 30-acre abandoned sand mine not far from where he lives. Simpson said the sand mine lies directly in the path of the toll road and he wonders if someone could be filling the pit in anticipation of the toll road being constructed.

Simpson said thousands of truckloads of dirt have been dumped in the sand mine. He estimated about 15 feet of dirt has been added. He said the sand mine is near Donovan Street.

“I just want to know if there is a connection with the dirt being brought in,” Simpson said.

Commission Chairman Dennis Damato said it would be a good idea for county staff to find out who is filling the pit. He identified it as the “old Pardo pit” at the end of Donovan.