Start the vets' cemetery

The Department of Veterans Affairs proposed a cemetery for South Florida about seven years ago, but the first bulldozer has yet to move earth.

Delays were inevitable, given the choice of a 313-acre site west of Boynton Beach that contains 73 acres of sensitive wetlands. The VA and Army Corps of Engineers have spent months haggling over how to protect the Eastern indigo snake, wood stork and gopher tortoise and how to offset the loss of habitat through environmental mitigation, the often prickly process of trading credits for buying preservation in one place to offset damage in another. The gopher tortoise has its problems but always can outpace government bureaucracy. The corps reviewer in charge of the cemetery case has at least 300 other cases to monitor. The VA has to wait its turn like everyone else and also has to satisfy the South Florida Water Management District, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several other regulatory agencies.

U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, who has spearheaded the project, criticizes the VA for not uncovering the environmental complications before buying the property for $11.2 million. Two other prospective locations were rejected in 2001 because officials believed that the environmental problems were worse. The VA and the corps both agreed on the Boynton Beach property back then but didn't do much to work out the details, which have turned out to be substantial.

Apart from the wetlands concerns, the choice of the site makes good sense for other reasons. Close to a half-million veterans live within 80 miles of the property, and the cemetery will be busy when it finally opens as the final resting place for about 110,000 vets and their spouses. Passive-use cemeteries are far from the worst fate for sensitive lands. This one will include a wetlands marsh, a cypress dome and a preserve for those gopher tortoises on its perimeters. The VA's donations to the Loxahatchee Mitigation Bank will add to the natural buffer zone between the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and developments in western Palm Beach County.

Last year, VA officials thought that burials could begin this summer, but the target has been pushed back to January. With dozens of Florida vets dying each day, government agencies have an obligation to resolve their technical differences and address the needs of people who served the nation.