EDITOR'S NOTE: Key West The Newspaper investigative reporter Katha Sheehan first broke the following story back in June 1999. In light of the current mandatory water restrictions that have been laid on the Keys, here's an update.
While citizens of Key West are being pushed to abide by "phase two" water-use restrictions imposed by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), the chairman of that agency continues to use twice as much water per day as the entire City of Key West on his private Florida City fish farm. SFWMD Chairman Michael Collins is one of the partners who leased the 50-acre facility from the District in 1996 for 20 years, at $2,224 a year. With the property came a water permit allowing them to pump up to 46.16 million gallons per day (mgd) out of Biscayne Aquifer, the source of water for the Keys.
The population of Key West uses about 5.5 mgd.
Collins' original partners in the fish farm project included former SFWMD executive director and lobbyist James M. Harvey and Key Largo attorney— former Monroe County sheriff, former judge and now Gov. Jeb Bush's "Everglades Czar"— Allison DeFoor II.
DeFoor has since distanced himself from that project.
The fish farm lies about five miles southeast of the Florida Keys Aqueduct well field.
Collins told KWTN in mid-1999 that the fish farm has never drawn the authorized 46 mgd. He said actual consumption is closer to 12 mgd— still more than twice the daily consumption of the City of Key West. He also said that the discharge from the facility "goes back into the system."
Collins, 50, an Islamorada fishing guide, was appointed by Gov. Bush in March 1999 to a three-year term as SFWMD chairman. Before assuming that position, he served as member and chairman of the Florida Keys Resource and Planning Committee, and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Committee. He was the token Republican on Democrat Lawton Chiles' Commission for a Sustainable South Florida.
Since 1987, Collins has been instrumental in formulating the policy that limits building and water rights for residents of the Keys. And there are, apparently, some perks— such as having an inside track when it comes to procuring cheap leases on Everglades property controlled by the SFWMD.
For example, the SFWMD has authorized leases giving a private corporation, Florida Bay Initiative, the right to use hundreds of acres in the Everglades. That corporation is controlled by Michael Collins and a group of associates.