A federal judge has clamped down on permits for new
subdivisions, roads, power lines, shopping malls, and other
projects in the habitat of the endangered cactus ferruginous
pygmy-owl in and around Tucson.
Many of Tucson’s
suburbs continued to approve subdivisions after the pygmy-owl was
listed in 1997, despite a county-wide effort to preserve the owl’s
habitat (HCN, 8/30/99). The projects need permits from the federal
Army Corps of Engineers, but the Corps has routinely approved
proposals affecting three-tenths of an acre or less of rivers and
washes.
Now, that loophole has been closed.
District Judge Alfredo Marquez” early October decision halts these
“nationwide permits’ for up to two years, and orders the Corps to
conduct a regional study of how these projects combine to affect
the owl. The ruling puts the brakes on some of Tucson’s biggest
developments, such as the 9,000-home, four-golf course Dove
Mountain project in the Tortolita
Mountains.
Kieran Suckling, director of the
Center for Biological Diversity, calls the nationwide permits “a
joke – a license to kill that the Army Corps doesn’t take a second
look at.” ” The center filed suit against the permit system, along
with the Defenders of Wildlife and Tucson’s Desert Watch. “They are
not going to be able to give out these rubber stamps anymore,” ” he
says.
Developers and state highway officials are
alarmed because the ruling doesn’t specify how much of the state
will be affected. The Arizona Department of Transportation, which
also needs Corps approval for many of its projects, has suspended
nearly $1 billion worth of road construction, although less than
$100 million worth of those projects lie in owl habitat. The
department will keep the projects on hold until the judge clarifies
where the permitting should be halted, says department spokesman
Doug Nintzel.
“My concern is safety,” ” said
Dennis Alvarez, who runs the highway department’s Tucson-area
district office. “The public will still be making demands to get
roadways finished, and it is hard for us to explain that the
process takes so long.” “
* Tony
Davis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Score one for the owl.
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