The water utility on Thursday removed a rule from its regulations that prohibits it from piping water to No Name Key and other sensitive environmental areas in the Florida Keys.

The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority board voted 3-2, with board Chairman David Ritz and board member Rose Dell dissenting, to lift the prohibition on providing water service to No Name Key and the Little, Middle and Big Torch keys.

Board members Antoinette Appell, Bob Dean and Elena Herrera said the utility's mission is to provide clean water to all Keys residents, making it unfair to single out No Name Key residents. Water is a "human right" that should be provided to all, Herrera said; Appell and Dean agreed.

The 43 homes there now rely on solar energy and generators for power and cisterns for water.

Thursday's vote came after No Name Key resident Beth Ramsay-Vickrey requested the utility provide water service to the island. She contends cistern water poses a significant health risk.

"I want to thank the Aqueduct Authority for being fair," Ramsay-Vickery said after the vote. "Everybody should have clean water. ... We are asking that everyone has a choice."

No Name Key residents who do not want commercial water do not have to receive it, she emphasized.

It was her request that sparked a review of why the utility does not pump water there. It was learned that its prohibition was a condition of a $60 million loan the utility received in 1980 -- and since has paid off -- from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farmers Home Administration, said utility Executive Director Jim Reynolds.

The Monroe County Commission, environmental group Last Stand and some Keys residents argued the prohibition was intended to extend beyond the loan's expiration, and is tied to the federal Endangered Species Act and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's concerns about increased development and damage to wildlife habitat, including the endangered Key deer.

Upper Keys resident Capt. Ed Davidson, who was part of an Audubon Society lawsuit against the federal government that led to the prohibition, said it was supposed to be in perpetuity.

"There is a serious legal background to this," Davidson said. "You can't just revoke this without serious legal consequences."

The County Commission sent the Aqueduct Authority board a letter Thursday urging it not to drop the rule, as bringing utilities to No Name Key is discouraged under the county's comprehensive land use plan.

The utility now must decide who will pay for the infrastructure to pipe water to the island. Ramsay-Vickery said she and other No Name Key residents are looking into securing grant money.

tohara@keysnews.com