Local governments and environmentalists in Florida are doing everything they can to get a helping hand from the state in an effort to stop a new oil well from being drilled near the Everglades. The well would be in Broward County, a few miles west of the city of Miramar and near the Everglades.
In specific, The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) has requested a rehearing with the First District Court of Appeal after that panel ordered the state to issue an exploratory oil-drilling permit to Kanter Real Estate LLC.
The department said in its motion:
“Protection of the Everglades is of exceptional public importance because it affects residents of the State of Florida as a whole. The restoration of the Everglades is a matter of heightened public interest, and public interest alone should be deemed sufficient to demonstrate that it affects large numbers of persons throughout the State of Florida.”
The site where Kanter wants to drill is in the eastern portion of Water Protection Area 3A, which “is by many accounts the best-conserved part of the Everglades,” Matthew Cohen, a professor of forest water resources and watershed systems at the University of Florida, says. “It’s the part of the Everglades that probably looks closest to how the Everglades used to look.”
Litigation
The Kanter well battle began back in 2015, when the company first applied for the permit. The company represents the estate of banker Joseph Kanter. It owns 20,000 acres (8,094 hectares) of undeveloped land in the Everglades. Its well would be drilled some 11,800 feet (3,600 meters) deep, sitting on 5 acres (2 hectares) of land near a section of Interstate Highway 75 (also known as Alligator Alley, or Everglades Parkway, since it passes through the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve).
When the FDEP denied the permit, Kanter took that decision to an administrative law court. The judge ordered the permit to be issued after determining the land to be environmentally degraded and isolated enough from water sources for drilling to proceed. Then, The First District Court of Appeal concurred with that ruling, approving the judge’s determination about the land stating they were “factual findings.” Fighting back against this, the FDEP said its denial of the permit was based on protecting the Everglades, regardless of whether the proposed site is degraded.
The department said in its filing, as reported by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
“It looked beyond the vicinity of the well pad and concluded that the broader region, in this case the Everglades as [a] whole, was environmentally sensitive and should be protected.”
In the past, there were requirements for courts to defer to agencies’ interpretations of laws and regulations. However, a ballot measure, Amendment 6, which passed last November, removed this requirement. Nevertheless, Broward County and Miramar are arguing the court did not let them address the case as this amendment should not retroactively apply to older cases, like the drilling permit.
The FDEP announced, late on Feb. 20, 2019, it would request the rehearing and provide assistance to the Broward and Miramar case. The agency said in a statement:
“The Department filed a Motion for Rehearing and a Request to Certify the case to the Florida Supreme Court regarding the recent opinion reversing the Department’s decision to deny the Kanter Real Estate exploratory oil drilling permit. The Department is committed to the protection and restoration of Florida’s Everglades and will work with Broward County and local municipalities to provide technical assistance as they pursue their own action regarding this matter. We will also monitor any federal regulatory actions related to this issue.”
Fears Of Oil Spills
Florida has more than 1,000 active wells, but no new wells have opened since 1988, according to reporting by CityLab. The state produces fewer than 2 million barrels a year. This may seem like a lot but when you compare it to Texas – who has more than 180,000 wells and produces between 4 million and 5.6 million barrels a day – it’s nothing.
Rob Jackson, a professor of Earth system science at Stanford University, tells CityLab:
“The state’s lack of recent experience has made critics nervous about new wells, since they argue it increases the likelihood of spills and seeping. Florida has very little infrastructure, very little oversight of oil and gas activities, compared to other states.”
A spill would be a seriously devastating problem for the environment and people. Florida’s water systems are all interconnected, which includes everyone’s drinking water.
To illustrate this, CityLab recounts a 2003 U.S. Geological Survey test in which scientists drilled a small hole into a wall protecting the water supply in a protected area, then injected a harmless dye known as rhodamine into the hole. That dye appeared in Miami taps and washing machines before the day was even over.
The Biscayne Aquifer – where porous limestone holds a large mass of groundwater close to the surface – is where (almost) all of Miami receives its drinking water from. It can easily be contaminated. Jackson says:
“If something goes wrong [with the Kanter well], you have the potential to foul drinking water.”
There is only one Everglades in the whole world. Nowhere else on the planet is there an ecosystem like it. It must be preserved!
