The county’s new 100-boat mooring field in the waters around Wisteria Island off Key West has been in bureaucratic purgatory for more than a year because of an objection the U.S. Navy filed in June 2024.
The delay jeopardizes the $1.6 million of grant funding that Monroe County received for the mooring field that would alleviate several environmental issues in the area. That funding will evaporate in May 2026 if the project does not move forward, County Mayor Jim Scholl told the Keys Weekly on Sept. 23.
“What we really need is for the Navy to rescind its objection, which would allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to approve our permit application,” Scholl said, adding that the Navy’s objection to the mooring field “is based on unfounded legal concerns about ownership of Wisteria Island, which, in my opinion, have absolutely no bearing on the mooring field, which doesn’t involve the island at all” and would be installed 300 feet offshore of the small island.
In June 2024, Capt. Beth Regoli, then-commander of Naval Air Station Key West (NASKW), sent a letter to Monroe County, informing the county that the Navy was objecting to the mooring field off Wisteria Island due to concerns about “the location of the project in relation to the Navy’s current or future use of Wisteria Island for operational and/or training requirements; ability for the Navy to navigate to/from Wisteria Island, and anti-terrorism/force protection requirements.”
Those concerns have been addressed, said Ron Demes, who has been working with the county on the mooring field after working as a civilian for the Navy for 38 years. Demes told the Keys Weekly on Sept. 22 that the location of the mooring field will not impede access to the Navy’s nearby property and will actually increase the required distance between moored boats and the military’s storage of munitions on Fleming Key.
A frustrated Demes added that Regoli’s mention of the Navy’s “current or future use of Wisteria Island” is a disingenuous concern, as any plans the Navy has for the island, which is owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), would require that a detailed environmental assessment be done far in advance. No such assessments have been done by the Navy or by the Bureau of Land Management, which Demes said has done nothing to manage or clean up the island since winning a court case years ago that determined the agency owns the island.
“The Navy’s action, with its objection, is significantly and severely impacting the county’s ability to address long-standing problems in the vicinity of Wisteria Island regarding tremendous long-term unmanaged vessel anchoring challenges, including abandoned and derelict vessels, environmental damage, marine debris, navigational hazards and water quality degradation,” Demes wrote in a Sept. 9 letter to U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, who represents the Florida Keys.
“After missing deadlines and not honoring commitments to support our county, the Navy continues to block this important project in a community the Navy depends upon for support; it’s shameful,” Demes said. “This is a sad case of what happens when the federal government stops talking with the community which has consistently and continually supported their respective federal activities.”
Demes added that he sympathizes with the position that the new commander of NASKW, Capt. Colin Thompson, has been placed in, as he was “handed this smoking issue upon taking command this year and is not receiving the support he should to resolve it,” Demes said. “Instead, I believe NASKW is being used as a pawn or shield for something they do not truly believe in, but are being used as the front of currently undefined hidden motives other than the local Navy’s at the expense of our county.”
Those undefined motives involve the BLM’s failure to complete any environmental assessments or responsible management of Wisteria Island, which has long been the site of homeless encampments and surrounded by derelict vessels whose occupants dump waste directly into the water.
In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Naval Air Station Key West told the Keys Weekly on Sept. 24, “The matter is currently under active litigation and we have no comment.”
That “litigation” has been active for more than 15 years and involved an ownership dispute of the island. A federal final ruling in May 2024 determined the federal government owns it.
“The Bernstein family did buy the island long ago from Bernie Papy, but his deed to the island was always clouded and it was known decades ago that the federal government could claim ownership of it,” Scholl said this week.
Multiple lawsuits and appeals have been filed, but most recently, in a May 2024 final judgment, U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez concluded that the government built the island of dredged material between the 1920s and 1940s for strategic naval use, not just for the disposal of dredging materials. This finding affirmed that the island was federal property. The ruling sided with the government and blocked F.E.B. Corp.’s long-standing ownership claims and occasional development plans.
