Rock mining, FPL Nuclear and the EPA: dismal battles shaping up, or, the Lawyers' Full Employment Act ... by gimleteye

One of the most disturbing aspects of county government acting as local land use authority is the repetitive kicking of applications to change the master plan (like moving the Urban Development Boundary) to Tallahassee-- the state capitol-- where responsibility for horrendous decisions dissipates and dissolves. Once the charade of public testimony is over, through legally required public hearings I've described as the equivalent of a 5th grade school play, the unreformable majority passes proposals by developer/campaign contributors "to get input from the state". The public loses concentration. The mainstream media is only interested in the drama and not the detail. And the result is that the unreformable majority is off the hook.

Now comes another important decision to change underlying land use-- from Florida Power and Light-- in conjunction with its new nuclear power plant pipe dreams. In order to get its new nuclear reactors built, FPL wants to elevate nearly 400 acres in South Dade about twenty five feet by building up fill pads with limestone dredged from Biscayne Bay wetlands. Allowing this to occur requires a favorable decision by the unreformable majority of the county commission in changing the underlying land use. On rock mining in Miami-Dade County, the unreformable majority of the county commission has a truly miserable record; lead by "environmentalists" Pepe Diaz, Dim Bruno, Joe Martinez and Natacha Seijas with the 'deaf, dumb and blind' assenting votes of the follow-ons. A law pushed through by Natacha Seijas on behalf of rock miners, allows changes to permits without any subsequent local public hearing.

On the FPL rock mining issue, the high stakes game of tic-tac-toe is being plotted out by an army of highly paid and qualified lobbyists and attorneys. The latest: a stiffly worded report from the Florida Department of Community Affairs on Sept 11: "The amendment is not supported by data and analysis to demonstrate that adverse impacts to natural resources will not occur. Therefore, the amendment does not demonstrate that the site in question is suitable for the proposed quarrying activities." (ORC Report, Comprehensive Plan Amendment 09-2). A week later, FPL notified Miami-Dade County that it was withdrawing its application: "FPL has determined that there is not adequate time to properly modify the Application to incorporate the comments of the agencies as well as to develop and disseminate the suggested additional data and analysis."

But that is not the key point of the Sept. 18 letter, written by Miami attorney for FPL, Jeffrey Bercow. That would be that FPL intends to lean on highly controversial new legislation that sharply curtails state authority-- legislation that every newspaper editorial board in the state railed against-- and was signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist: The Develop Anywhere Act, or, SB 360. What the new law does is to effectively eliminate the input of the Florida Department of Community Affairs. So, instead of responding to a negative report by the state, the backroom dealing by the unreformable majority of the county commission is likely to prevail in the matter of deciding on rock mining millions of cubic yards in threatened, fragile Biscyane Bay wetlands.

It is their decision-- and Seijas' in particular-- that allow the wealthiest and most secretive industry in Florida (rock mining, that would be) to screw up the wellfield protection zone in West Dade, the source of drinking water for 2 plus million residents. It is a huge and costly problem to fix, and one for which no county commissioner has suffered any penalty whatsoever.

The jeopardy to the public interest from rock mining in Miami-Dade County is replicated throughout the state of Florida by engineering cartels who wield great influence with local and state permitting agencies, ie. the water management districts. There are so many rock mines and wells-- for drinking and disposal of municipal waste-- that Florida looks like a piece of Swiss cheese. Environmental groups have been waging lengthy and important litigation, for years, against rock mining in West Dade, and from the looks of it, there is more to come in conjunction with the FPL idiocy for new nuclear at Turkey Point.

What is good for industry lawyers is very bad for the public. Here is the text of a letter sent, just on Sept. 18th, by dozens of members of the Everglades Coalition, to the US EPA.

"The Everglades Coalition writes concerning proposed limestone mining in what mining companies have dubbed the “Lake Belt” area of Miami Dade County (“County”). The Everglades Coalition is an alliance of 52 local, state, and national conservation and environmental organizations dedicated to full restoration of the greater Everglades ecosystem, from the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes into Lake Okeechobee, through the "River of Grass," out to Florida Bay and the Keys.

As EPA knows, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) is currently considering the re-issuance of ten-year mining permits, authorizing more than 5,400 acres of wetlands loss, that had been set aside by a federal district court in January and
the issuance of new permits of indefinite duration that would authorize an additional 10,000-12,000 acres of wetlands loss. Together with existing mining pits, this amounts to an approximately 30 square mile expanse of mining pits potentially lining
the eastern side of the remaining publicly-owned Everglades. As further explained below, the Everglades Coalition opposes issuance of these permits, because the mining as currently proposed would cause significant and irreversible harm to the
Everglades, our nation’s largest subtropical wilderness and a unique part of our natural heritage.

As documented in the Corps’ recently completed Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (“SEIS”), the proposed mining will result in the enormous loss of irreplaceable Everglades wildlife habitat and significantly increase harmful seepage out of the remaining publicly-owned Everglades, including from Everglades National Park (“Park”) and the “Pennsuco” wetlands. The scale of potential wetlands loss is so huge that even the Corps was unable to identify sufficient mitigation in the SEIS. Even assuming sufficient mitigation were available – and that such activities, e.g., invasives removal, could be considered an adequate ecological substitute for the permanent destruction of rare short hydro-period wetlands in the Lake Belt – the proposed mining fees are far too low to afford them, based on the SEIS’ projections and available information on the potential mitigation activities’ costs. The permanent creation of an expanse of 80-foot deep mining lakes will also produce, as the Department of Interior has said, “damaging seepage impacts” on the Park and other adjacent Everglades areas. For example, the proposed mining would increase seepage out of the Park by 25 percent, according to the SEIS; if other
adjacent mining projects being permitted separately are also considered, seepage would increase by almost 45 percent. This is directly contrary to Everglades restoration initiatives in the area, which are trying to reduce seepage.

In a July 1st letter to the Corps, EPA similarly determined that the expansion of mining in the Lake Belt, as currently proposed, will have “substantial and unacceptable adverse impacts on aquatic resources of national importance.” In following through on this determination, which we strongly support for the reasons outlined above, the Everglades Coalition requests that EPA ensure, including through use of its veto authority under the Clean Water Act if necessary, that any Lake Belt mining permits, if issued, contain adequately-protective permit conditions and restrictions. At the minimum, this should include the
following: First, the permits must include buffer areas close to the Park and Pennsuco wetlands (including specifically protection zones established in Alternative 7 and resulting from the south of Miami Canal exclusion area at 5-18 of the SEIS). Second, the permits must include an expanded protection zone around the Northwest Wellfield delineated on the basis of recent studies by the U.S. Geological Survey, which have demonstrated that the County’s most important drinking water source is under much greater risk of contamination from mining than previously considered. Third, the permits must be of limited
duration, i.e., five to eight years, so that the significant problems with the wetlands mitigation plan and with mining-induced seepage can be addressed and resolved prior to irretrievable consequences. Based on the information in the SEIS, sufficient limestone resources exist in areas of the Lake Belt away from the publicly-owned Everglades and the Wellfield to last this duration, i.e., allow at least eight years of mining, depending on the rate of mining, which the SEIS makes clear has slowed dramatically in recent years. It would also allow for the continued growth of alternative supplies, which the SEIS acknowledges
has occurred over the last several years.

Again, we appreciate EPA’s efforts thus far to protect these vital public lands and resources and look forward to continuing to work cooperatively with the agency on this issue and other issues vital to the future of America’s Everglades."

It is interesting to note that the unreformable majority of the county commission approved-- earlier this year-- in response to the public outcry against plans to move the Urban Development Boundary, a review by the US EPA of the county's growth policies. After several delays, the EPA is coming to town in October to perform that "review". With the election of President Obama, an agency that had languished for more than a decade seems to be reinvigorated. For instance, the agency recently castigated the State of Florida for avoiding the implementation of tougher laws governing water pollution. Given how much damage has been done in the past through political interference chipping away at protections of the nation's major environmental laws, it is no wonder that FPL believes it has all the cards it needs to push new nuclear through at Turkey Point and in Biscayne Bay wetlands. We'll see. In the meantime, to understand how the handicapping works in this expensive game, keep your eyes on who gets to fly for free on FPL jets. That is, if you can read through the blacked out sections of the flight manifests.