The former LUHRS boat-building site at 255 Diesel Road is on the City Commission agenda on Monday, August 25, for a proposed Planned Unit Development that would involve a too-tall dry boat storage facility for 300 boats, 90,000 square feet of retail, commercial and office space and 23,700 of boat service space.
Before the City considers a PUD, tough questions must be asked.
The former LUHRS site emitted 50 tons of volatile organic compounds annually. Our marsh started to recover the moment that LUHRS stopped polluting our air and our workers.
Has the land been tested? Have the storage tanks been cleaned up? What is the level of VOCs on-site?
None of that information appears in the City agenda packet. We're not surprised.
Still, four years after City Manager WILLIAM BRUCE HARRISS retired after his illegal dumping of contaminated solid waste and illegal emissions of sewage, not one City employee has the word "environmental" in their title.
Not one.
We reported this site to the National Response Center tonight. It is assigned National Response Center Report No. 1093256.
Soil testing must be thorough, with full involvement by EPA and DEP.
Before any soil is disturbed, we need to know about contamination by volatile organic compounds and petroleum products.
Why would a bankrupt company demand a PUD?
Why would we grant a PUD so that a bankrupt company could avoid county impact fees?
Why would we grant a PUD so that a too-tall building could be built?
Why would we build roads and a stop-lights for a developer?
Proposed St. Augustine Ordinance No. 2014-13, the St. Augustine Shipyards Planned Unit Development, must be delayed pending investigation.
UPDATE: EPA HAS NO RECORD of any remediation of this site. We need soil samples sent to the EPA lab in Athens, Georgia before any vote in St. Augustine, Florida on an $80 million PUD.
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