Charlie Crist coming out against Everglades fracking. Did hand him a personal invite to the March on the Governors house and a letter... STONECRAB ALLIANCE 15937 Delasol Lane • Naples, FL 34110 • 239.404.2171 • dwyerka@gmail • Stonecrab Alliance @ Facebook October 6, 2014 Dear Governor Charlie Crist: We’d like to invite you to be the guest of honor at our “It’s All About the Water” march to Governor Rick Scott’s beachfront home starting at 4 p.m., Saturday, October 18, beginning at the Naples Pier. The intent is to shut down new Everglades oil drilling and fracking and to fix a broad range of water problems in Florida. Attached is an invite that spells out specifics. We’d be very grateful for your participation. We’re also looking forward to your Monday discussion about the environment regarding Florida’s waters and Everglades. Below are a few of our thoughts regarding the expansion of Everglades oil drilling and if it will cause water quality issues. We agree with Senator Bill Nelson’s statement that, “We cannot tolerate expanded industrial activities that pose a threat to the drinking and surface water so close to the Florida Everglades. . . . one of the world’s great environmental treasures.” We remain concerned about the expansion of new Everglades oil drilling, especially the threat it poses to Florida’s waters. Maps and permits show that industry is drilling in vital watersheds and crucial headwaters in the Greater Everglades Ecosystem. This is not vacant land. And it is certainly not industrial land. And it is not next to the Everglades; it is in the heart of the Everglades, in the midst of the massive 30-year, Everglades Restoration Project, a joint federal and state effort that will protect some 2.4 million acres of interconnected wetlands. It doesn’t get any bigger. These areas are critical habitat for more than 60 threatened and endangered species—such as the indigo snake, red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher turtle, burrowing owl, woodstork, and Florida panther. They are also vital watersheds that replenish levels in the Big Cypress National Preserve and the Everglades and fill the aquifers millions rely on for drinking water. Even a minor spill here would be catastrophic. It is irresponsible to risk contaminating important wetlands and our fresh water. They’re far more valuable than oil. Our point is that this new type of extreme drilling that uses horizontal directional drilling, acidizing, and if needed fracking, and destroys 5 million gallons of water per month, per well, IS NOT SAFE. Not here. Florida is still suffering from the worst oil disaster on record: the BP Oil Spill. We know, accidents happen. Over time pipes leak. Injected fluids surface. And—even cement casings fail, as mechanical integrity tests show, again and again and again. Because it only takes one incident to taint or even ruin a community’s aquifer, drilling is not in the public interest. Moreover, nothing is environmentally friendly about a large-scale industrial drill site with access roads, limestone pads, continuously running diesel generators, heavy trucks hauling in 15,000 feet of pipe, 145’ oil rigs and other infrastructure. Imagine our alarm when we found out that the oil industry could use trade secret chemicals in unknown concentrations and that one well could use 11,000 gallons of chemicals–everything from benzene, a known carcinogen, to hydrofluoric acid, a corrosive that eats bone, steel and rock. The oil industry may also inject wastewater that contains heavy metals and radioactive materials. And each well is permitted to destroy 5 million gallons of water per month. Unlike agricultural water, the drilling water can never be reused; it is permanently polluted and must be injected into the boulder zone, which is not holding it as securely as industry claims. Given the worldwide water scarcity and the annual water restrictions in South Florida, it is criminal to permit the oil and gas industry to destroy so much fresh water. Imagine thousands of wells on the 350,000 acres Collier Resources just leased for seismic testing, and even more, if Collier leases all of its 800,000 acres of mineral rights. Just as the pumping of aquifers in Florida has dried up springs, so too, the oil industry’s pumping of our aquifer threatens to dry up nearby wells and wetlands. If we add in climate change and sea-level rise, the case is closed; we need to shut the floodgate on new Everglades oil drilling. The state tells us that once the drilling permit is issued, industry is free to extract oil any way they’d like. They can acidize or hydraulically frack any time and they don’t have to tell us. They don’t even have to submit a new permit application, only Form 8, because extreme extraction is a workover procedure in Florida. The oil company may also inject wastewater that contains carcinogenic chemicals, heavy metals, and radioactive materials that no amount of regulation or disclosure can ever make safe. It’s legal because a loophole redefined all material from oil and gas drilling as non-hazardous, no matter how dangerous it is. It is precisely because these contaminants are so toxic that they have to be injected over 2000 feet into the cavernous boulder zone, which is not containing them as securely as industry claims. EPA records show that the boulder zone lacks a competent confining zone, especially in Florida’s highly porous and fractured limestone geology and that injected fluids migrate and surface, especially in Florida’s hundreds of improperly plugged and abandoned wells from the 1940’s. EPA records also show that oil and gas wastewater wells repeatedly fail, sending toxic chemicals gurgling to the surface or seeping into aquifers that store drinking water. The General Accountability Office reported that in scores of cases where Class II injection wells had polluted aquifers, most could not be reclaimed because fixing the damage was “too costly” or “technically infeasible.” Meaning you can’t clean up an aquifer. Which brings us to our final point about the DEP’s inability to compel compliance. We now know DEP realized the Hogan well was going to be illegally fracked. They photographed the carcinogenic chemicals and had an inspector onsite at the time of the illegal fracking to observe, but not stop the violation. When asked why they didn’t stop the unauthorized fracking, Secretary Vinyard, replied that the DEP does not have enforcement powers. This means no one, not even the state, is policing the oil and gas industry. We find this beyond belief and unacceptable. DEP should have immediately revoked the permit six months ago. The violation was grave. The fracking like incident was not a mistake or oversight, but intentional: the DEP told Hughes not to do a procedure that had never been done before in Florida; they ignored the state and went ahead with what sounds like acid fracking; when ordered to Cease and Desist, Hughes continued, in direct defiance. Imagine our alarm that a Texas oil company can disregard the rules and laws and engage in unauthorized and untested acid fracking in our vital watershed, either hoping they won’t get caught, on the one hand, or willing to pay the small fine, on the other. We now have documented evidence of the company’s criminal wrongdoing. They are not the exception. We know industry will do whatever it takes to extract oil—even break the law and recklessly endanger our water. Their goal is not to make extraction safe, but to make it as inexpensive, expeditious, and profitable as possible—even if it means using extreme extraction, in direct violation of orders from the state. So. If we wanted to draw a point from all this it might be that our water and our Everglades are far more valuable than oil. They’re our lifeblood, fueling everything from agriculture to our multi-billion dollar tourist industry. We need to protect them. ACTION: To conclude, Gov. Crist, we’re calling on you to endorse both a local and state ban on fracking and all forms of extreme extraction. And because oil drilling, can at any time turn into extreme extraction, we also recommend a moratorium on all new drilling until we have regulations in place that 1) ban extreme extraction, 2) mandate a one mile buffer zone from drill site to family home (so no one has to live in an emergency evacuation zone), 3) secure DEP real enforcement power, 4) levy penalties strong enough to deter. The Stonecrab Alliance would like to see all new Everglades oil drilling banned and by Everglades we do mean everything in the Greater Everglades Ecosystem. But banning irresponsible and extreme extraction is our first priority. Thank you for your help; we’re very grateful. Very truly yours, Karen Dwyer, Ph.D. and John P. Dwyer, Ph.D. Stonecrab Alliance 15937 Delasol Lane Naples, FL 34110 dwyerka@gmail 239-404-217
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 23:20:44 +0000
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