Audubon Florida Action Alert: Save Merritt Island NWR

[Ira Runyan]

Two Public meetings are being held about Space Florida's attempt to build rocket launch pads in the north end of the Merritt Island NWR.

Join Audubon at public hearings in New Smyrna Beach and Titusville to say NO to rocket launch sites in our refuge!

Public Meetings re: Space Florida 200 acre rocket launch site

[Ira Runyan]

Here is a report on the results of the two public meetings on this matter........

Thanks to all for such a great turnout at New Smyrna Beach and Titusville. Let's hope Space Florida and the FAA get the hint that we will fight to keep the splendor and beauty of Merritt Island NWR in tact. JUST SAY "NO" TO ROCKETS IN OUR REFUGE!!

TITUSVILLE­— For the second night in a row, nearly 500 people turned out to tell the Federal Aviation Administration their feelings about a proposed commercial spaceport in southern Volusia County.
But unlike Tuesday night’s meeting in New Smyrna Beach, the Brevard County crowd was overwhelmingly opposed to Space Florida’s proposal to develop two vertical launch facilities near the Volusia/Brevard county line in an area known as Shiloh.
Of more than 35 speakers who commented Wednesday night, only two spoke in favor of the spaceport.
Space Florida, the state’s aerospace development agency, has asked to develop the launch complex west of State Road 3, south of Oak Hill.

The land is owned by NASA, but managed as the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
Such a spaceport would have to be licensed by the FAA, which conducted the meetings this week as the first step in a process expected to take up to 18 months to review potential impacts of the development.

At the end, the agency will publish an environmental impact statement with its formal recommendation for action, or no action.
Supporter Mike Warner referred to NASA’s acquisition of the land at Shiloh in the 1960s.
“I’m asking the FAA to recognize, honor and fulfill the original intent,” Warner said.

J.B. Kump told the FAA the spaceport is needed. “Let’s face it, we have launches going on overseas like never before,” Kump said.
“We have asked our commercial space industry to do more. We need to give them the capability to do more.”

Other speakers opposed the proposed location for many reasons, including concerns about the impact on ecotourism from closing roads and waterways during launches and potential impacts to protected species and historic resources. Susan Holcombe said, “we can’t go tromping around feigning ignorance about our impact on the environment.”

Greg Hulllinger, a retired aerospace worker, said Shiloh is an ancient word that means “a place where God dwells.”
“Will you sell this place for 30 pieces of silver and let people do this to you?” asked Hullinger. “You should be ashamed if you do.”

Many opponents said they support the space industry; they just want to see the spaceport developed within Kennedy Space Center.
Dan Daniels said as a partner in a Brevard surgery center in Brevard County, he was “crushed” by the end of the space shuttle program.

“I have more than one reason to want jobs here,” said Daniels, also a board member for United Waterfowlers of Florida. He questioned Space Florida’s assertion that commercial clients launching rockets want to operate outside the bureaucracy that exists at the Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. “In our business, it’s all about red tape,” Daniels said. “We don’t take our surgical practices to a garage to start a business.”

Two Volusia County residents traveled to Titusville to speak, after also speaking at the meeting in New Smyrna Beach on Tuesday night.

Clay Henderson, a New Smyrna Beach attorney, represented the National Parks Conservation Association in opposing the project Tuesday, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Florida Trust for Historic Preservation on Wednesday. David Hartgrove, conservation chair of the Halifax River Audubon Society chapter in Daytona Beach, also spoke.

Jim Eager
Space Coast Audubon Society
Board Member/Publicity Chair