By early 2018 most of Coral Bay had electric power restored, but communications infrastructure was still nonexistent. Most people were still surveying the damage to their homes and to their lives, figuring out which step to take next. To say that it was overwhelming to many would be a gross understatement.
Our efforts to keep up with the barage of documents being submitted by Summers End Group to the Army Corps was a major challenge. Lacking adequate internet connectivity, lacking reliable phone service, and lacking a network of people able to assist, the burden seemed daunting at times. Nevertheless, we persevered. By the end of 2018 we had reviewed close to 1,000 pages of documentation including multiple technical studies, and had provided extensive feedback to the Army Corps on all of this. By mid-2018 the Army Corps had reached the point where it began the formal consultation process with the federal agencies, a new phase in the permit review.
If you are interested in just one event on the timeline you can click on the item below to jump to that section. Alternatively you can simply read through the entire story, which is still unfolding …
- Background: Army Corps Permits
- 2014: The Year it All Started
- 2015: The Public and Federal Agencies Weigh In
- 2016: No Response from SEG …
- 2017: The Year of the Hurricanes … And Summers End Responds to Army Corps
- 2018: Army Corps Initiates Consultation With Federal Agencies
- January 2018: Army Corps Issues Third Request for Additional Information and Preliminary Public Interest Determination
- February 2018: Summers End Submits Additional Materials to Corps
- April 2018: Coral Bay Property Owner Files Lawsuit Against Chaliese Summers
- May 2018: Save Coral Bay and CBCC Analyse and Respond to Additional Summers End Submissions
- July 2018: Army Corps Initiates Formal Consultation With Federal Agencies
- September 2018: Federal Agencies Request Additional Studies and Information
- 2019: Agencies Request Additional Information to Initiate their Reviews
- 2020: Federal Agencies and Army Corps Still Waiting for Adequate Responses
- 2021: Major Developments – Historic Shipwreck and Extensive Deficiency List
January 2018: Army Corps Issues Third Request for Additional Information and Preliminary Public Interest Determination
In late January 2018 the Army Corps transmitted its “Third Comments for Rebuttal Letter” to Chaliese Summers (the prior letters were in October 2015 and October 2017). This letter identified numerous errors, omissions and contradictory data in the August and December document subissions.
A key additional statement in this third review letter alerted Summers End that the Army Corps staff had made a preliminary determination that the project may not be in the public interest (under NEPA) and if that determination became final the permit would be denied. The letter stated “Please be advised that based on current site conditions and the most recent information you have provided, my staff has preliminarily determined that your proposal may be contrary to the Public Interest. Pursuant to Corps Regulations at 33 CFR 320.4(a)(1) your permit application would be denied if ultimately found to be contrary to the Public Interest.”
The letter from Jose Cedeno is shown below (highlights added):
February 26, 2018: Summers End Submits Additional Materials to Corps
In response to the January comments from the Army Corps, on February 26 the Summers End gang submitted an additional 21 documents, 515 pages total, to the Army Corps. Due to the post-hurricane logistical problems we did not receive the documents until April 16, almost two months after they were submitted. For the most part these documents attempted to correct errors made in the prior submission and attempted to clarify the very confusing multi-year story on compensatory mitigation, but didn’t add much new material overall.
The SEG cover letter describing the submission contents is shown below.
April 2018: Coral Bay Property Owner Files Lawsuit Against Chaliese Summers
The long time gaps in SEG’s responses to the Army Corps, coupled with the inadequacy of those responses when finally submitted, has caused a years-long delay over when Chaliese Summers initially claimed the marina would be finally permitted and construction begun. This has obviously placed a great strain on property owners who pledged their support of SEG based on the unfulfilled claims and promises.
By April 2018 one property owner had had enough. The owners of Coccoloba Plaze – Parcel 13 Remainder – filed a lawsuit in Virgin Islands Superior Court alleging that Chaliese Summers and the Summers End Group had committed title slander by recording a notice of interest on Parcel 13 Remainder when, they allege, the sales contract had already expired. Control of the Coccoloba parcel is essential to the plans of SEG, so this dispute is certainly going to be a major concern to Ms. Summers. The property owners are seeking a declaratory judgment that the sales contract is null and void, which would allow them to invest in rebuilding and restoration of hurricane damage and to seek long term tenants for the property.
May 4, 2018: Save Coral Bay and CBCC Analyse and Respond to Additional Summers End Submissions
By early May 2018 we had completed reviews of the post-Irma document submissions from SEG. These documents were submitted in August 2017, December 2018 and March 2018, all during the most intense part of our post-Irma recovery. Again, with the assistance of our federal pro bono lawyers and limited communications, we put together a significant response to the new document submissions and formally requested that our response be included in the administrative record for the permit review.
The response consisted of three parts, all shown below. First, there was a cover letter from Attorney Robb Fox stating the request to the Corps for our comments to be considered and placed in the record (since we were outside a formal public comment period). Second there was a cover letter from the Coral Bay Community Council speaking about post-hurricane conditions in Coral Bay, and finally there were the detailed comments on the new round of SEG documents.
July 2018: Army Corps Initiates Formal Consultation With Federal Agencies
It appears that by July 2018 the Army Corps determined that it had received all the information that the Summers End Group was willing or able to provide, and determined that the Corps would initiate the formal consultation process with other federal agencies.
The formal submission to NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Protected Resource Division, under the Endangered Species Act, and the NMFS Habitat Conservation Division, under the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Act, consisted of a cover letter from Jose Cedeno accompanied by essentially the entire administrative file for the Army Corps permit review. The cover letter was a very balanced assessment of SEG’s claims, counter claims, and the Corps’ own assessment of impacts. The attachments consisted of 865 documents amounting to 16,789 pages of content. Virtually every public letter submitted to the Corps was included, as well as all of the correspondence, studies, analyses, and so forth. It was delivered to Save Coral Bay on two DVD’s.
For obvious reasons we cannot post that entire set of documents, but shown below are the Corps’ cover letters to NMFS HCD and NMFS PRD.
September 2018: Federal Agencies Request Additional Studies and Information
The two main federal agencies working in consultation with the Army Corps for the Summers End marina application are the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Habitat Conservation Division (HCD) and the National Marine Fisheris Service Protected Resources Division (PRD). Both of these agencies are under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) umbrella.
NMFS HCD is responsible for ensuring that critical habitat is not adversely impacted by federal actions. In the case of the Coral Bay marina, the habitats of concern are Essential Fish Habitat (“EFH”) and hard bottom habitat for coral colonies. EFH includes sea grass meadows and other submerged aquatic vegetation (“SAV”) which provides habitat for young fish, shellfish, and forage for Green Sea Turtles. NMFS HCD derives its authority from the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Act.
NMFS PRD is responsible for in-water threatened and endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. Their consultation is known as a Section 7 ESA consultation, and NMFS PRD will be looking at impacts to sea turtles, corals, and other endangered fin fish (such as Nassau Grouper).
Following review of the extensive materials submitted to the agencies by the Army Corps in the July consultation request, both NMFS HCD and NMFS PRD responded to the Corps that the information provided was inadequate for their consultations to begin. They are both requesting additional data from the Corps, who will then request it from Summers End. These are the two Requests for Additional Information from the federal agencies:
Next Page: SEG USACE History – 2019