Publisher Wayne Markham's Aug. 16 column about Last Stand challenging a recent South Florida Water Management District decision to issue a permit that would allow the county to fill a salt pond at Key West International Airport contained some very basic factual errors, including the bizarre statement that "the runway work has already been done. The pond is gone and the county did the required mitigation."
 
Obviously if this were true, the county would not now be applying for the permit, and Last Stand would not be opposing it. In actuality, the wetland filling and mitigation have not already been done, and the Duck Pond has not been destroyed, but continues to provide a rare natural habitat on Key West.

The Salt Ponds form Key West's largest remaining open space, and the Duck Pond is a part of the original natural salt pond, site of a salt-works industry in the early 1800s. With its limited tidal circulation and extreme seasonal variations, the Duck Pond provides a unique habitat for fish and wildlife.

It continues to function as a true salt pond while all the other ponds in the Salt Ponds area are now fully tidal. In the wet season, water levels are high and salinities low, supporting flocks of teal and other migratory waterfowl that gave the pond its name. In the dry season, when water levels are low and salinities are high, it provides valuable habitat for wading birds and shorebirds.

Preserving the Salt Ponds has been a goal of this community for more than 30 years.

In deciding to issue the permit, the South Florida Water Management District acknowledged room to improve the project and reduce wetland impacts. It encouraged the parties to continue working toward beneficial changes to the planned project. Last Stand was instrumental in an earlier decision to use an engineered material to greatly reduce the extent of damage to mangroves at the east end of the runway and believes that by shifting the runway to the east, this project can be modified to provide the desired safety areas on the west end while avoiding all impacts to the Duck Pond.

We are willing to resolve the challenge and urge the county to put the money it would spend on a private law firm and the attention it might put into defending a still-flawed project into modifying the project to one that we can all support.

Al Sullivan, president

Last Stand, Key West