POSTS – Page 22 – PEOPLE FOR PROTECTING PEACE RIVER, INC.

Scott names development exec. as top Fla. planner

Scott names development exec. as top Fla. planner
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/05/2002403/scott-names-development-exec-as.html
By BILL KACZOR

Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Rick Scott named a development company executive as Florida’s next planning chief Wednesday and brought Kurt Browning out of retirement to again serve as secretary of state.
Scott also announced that Michelle Rhee, known for firing teachers who got poor appraisals when she headed Washington, D.C.’s school system, will continue as his informal education adviser.
A day after taking office, the new Republican governor appointed Billy Buzzett as secretary of the Department of Community Affairs. He comes from The St. Joe Company, one of Florida’s largest private landowners, where he was vice president of strategic planning.
Buzzett’s appointment predictably won applause from the business sector, but it also drew praise from an environmental leader.
“That’s actually a good thing,” said Audubon of Florida executive director Eric Draper. “I’ve walked the woods with him. I know he has a personal feeling for the specialness of Florida’s environment.”
Buzzett’s marching orders include advising Scott on how to align the planning agency’s functions with those of other state agencies. Scott noted in a news release that Buzzett served on a transition team that recommended merging Community Affairs with the departments of Transportation and Environmental Protection.
It’s an idea environmentalists oppose because they fear it would dilute protection of Florida’s natural resources, but Draper predicted it would be a nonstarter in the Legislature.
During his campaign, Scott accused Community Affairs, which is responsible for enforcing Florida’s growth management laws, of inhibiting development and being a job-killer.
“Billy is focused on helping me make government smaller, less intrusive and consistent with efforts to increase investments in Florida and spur job creation,” Scott said in a news release.
Buzzett will replace Tom Pelham, who fired a parting shot at Scott and other critics Monday by saying it’ll take decades to use up development capacity the department has approved over the last four years under ex-Gov. Charlie Crist.
Pelham’s final report shows the department has approved planning amendments that will permit more than a million new housing units and 2.7 billion square feet of nonresidential construction. Pelham said some local plans were revised because they failed to provide for roads, utilities and other infrastructure or allowed construction in inappropriate places.
Florida Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Mark Wilson said Buzzett’s appointment is “fantastic news for us.” He said it’ll encourage major developers who shunned Florida because of the department’s policies to take another look at the state.
Wilson said he anticipates a reversal of the focus on funneling growth into urban areas and open rural areas to development needed to accommodate a predicted growth in Florida’s population by two million people over the next decade.
“That’s where smart growth can happen and needs to happen,” Wilson said. “We don’t have room for them in the cities.”
Scott has spoken often of seeking outsiders like himself, but Buzzett is a familiar face in Tallahassee. The attorney worked for the Legislature, was Gov. Bob Martinez’s general counsel and served as an administrative law judge and executive director of the 1998 Constitution Revision Commission before going to work for St. Joe.
Browning retired last May, as required by the Deferred Retirement Option Program, which lets top employees draw retirement benefits as well as a full salary. He can be reappointed, though, after sitting out at least six months.
Rhee, who advised Scott during his transition, said in a statement that she was proud to work with leaders who support holding schools and teachers accountable for student achievement.
“Florida is leading the country in areas such as information about school performance, and we look forward to helping Gov. Scott push the envelope in promoting innovative policies,” Rhee sai

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/05/2002403/scott-names-development-exec-as.html#ixzz1AISlm0Bi

DEP Appointment Sends Pro-Industry Message

Scott’s Appointment for DEP Chief Sends Pro-Industry Message
The Bradenton Times
http://www.thebradentontimes.com/news/2011/01/05/state_government/scott_s_appointment_for_dep_chief_sends_pro_industry_message/
Published Wednesday, January 5, 2011 3:00 am
by Dennis Maley

BRADENTON – When Rick Scott named shipbuilding executive Herschel Vinyard to be the new secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection this week, deregulation proponents cheered. An attorney and part-time lobbyist, the BAE Systems executive used to represent clients accused of pollution violations. In other words, he’s made a good living arguing against the sort of regulations that the agency he will now head is charged with enforcing.

If this sounds shocking, it shouldn’t be. Scott ran on a platform of less government interference in the market place and as little industry oversight as possible. From allowing the Department of Community Affairs to sunshine, to talk of combining the DEP with the DCA and Department of Transportation, and even combining juvenile justice with children and families, Scott has revealed a desire to whittle government down to the smallest size possible — and a willingness to go to any lengths to do so. In fact, what might separate Scott from other governors most is his complete lack of political experience and the absence of a “well, you can’t actually do that” philosophy to such drastic changes.

However, his approach in selecting a DEP head is far from revolutionary. Hiring lobbyists and attorneys from the regulated industries to head a department’s oversight has been a popular tactic in recent years. President Bush regularly tapped such candidates to head agencies like Interior, Agriculture and the FDA. President Obama has relied almost exclusively on Wall Street vets and Federal Reserve Bank executives to monitor nearly every aspect of the banking crisis, TARP and even so-called reform. The argument used is that such professionals understand the practical implications of regulations best, but the end result is nearly always a quick and efficient gutting of any measures opposed by the industry, followed by a profitable return to the private sector they’ve just made so happy.

Predictably, Scott’s appointment, which still has to be confirmed by the Senate, was applauded by industry while being scoffed at by environmentalists. Neil Armingeon of the environmental group St. Johns Riverkeeper told the Miami Herald, “I’m almost at the point now where I’m not sure it matters who runs the agency, since the Scott administration plans to deregulate everything in Florida.” Whether Scott’s argument that such deregulation will yield massive investment and job creation or just turn the state into a giant landfill for a small handful’s profit remains to be seen

Former Environmental Lawyer Named Next Secretary of FDEP

Governor-Elect Rick Scott Names Herschel Vinyard as Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Brian Burgess January 3, 2010 850-922-5130
TALLAHASSEE, FL – In his continued focus on protecting the natural resources of Florida, while creating the best possible mechanisms for job creation in the state, Governor-elect Rick Scott today appointed Herschel Vinyard as Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection.
The appointment is subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate and the Florida Cabinet.
Vinyard, who also served as a member of Scott’s Economic Development Transition Team, has a deep background in environmental compliance and innovation, having practiced environmental law for nearly a decade, while more recently serving as director of business operation for BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards. This mix of legal expertise and service with a major Florida employer positions Vinyard to uniquely understand the need for strong environmental protection while ensuring that government and business find new ways to partner in growing the Florida economy.
“Herschel is a man of deep environmental knowledge and practical business experience. He has a love for our great state’s natural resources and a passion for job creation. He will effectively balance those interests for the benefit of all Floridians. We are fortunate to have recruited Herschel from the private sector into government service,” Scott said.
As an example of Vinyard’s focus on environmental responsibility and effective business practices, he provided counsel to BAE Systems in their recent, successful efforts to remove its treated wastewater outfall from the St. Johns River. That wastewater is now being used for irrigation purposes and eliminates a discharge to one of Florida’s most significant water bodies.
In addition, Vinyard led his company’s three-year effort to obtain state approval for a sovereign submerged lands lease. His experience in this complex regulatory proceeding provided Vinyard with new insights on the challenges businesses face in the permitting process and the need to provide a more efficient and streamlined mechanism to meet environmental requirements.
“Good environmental practices make good business sense. Not only can such stewardship better protect the resources around us, they often save money and lead to new innovation. Herschel has been on the front lines of such efforts and will ensure that Florida leads the nation in new partnerships between government and industry that save money, streamline processes and create jobs,” Scott said.
During his practice at one of Florida’s most well-respected law firms, Vinyard represented numerous clients in a myriad of complex environmental matters. His expertise includes the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Water Act and liability issues associated with the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, as well as Florida’s statutory counterparts in Chapter 376 and 403. He is also a past chair of the environmental and land use law section of the Jacksonville Bar Association.
Vinyard is involved in a number of volunteer efforts associated with conservation and environmental protection. As an advisory committee member of the Northeast Florida chapter of the Trust for Public Lands, Vinyard helped develop a strategy to identify and acquire sensitive environmental lands. He serves on the Florida DEP’s Lower St. Johns River TMDL Executive Committee to assist in the development of a basin management action plan for that water body.
About Herschel Vinyard:
Vinyard has more than twenty years of experience in environmental law and business management. In his current role as director of business operations at BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards, Vinyard is responsible for strategic planning, business development and regulatory and government affairs. BAE is the world’s second largest defense contractor. He also serves on a number of professional and civic associations that draw upon his expertise in environmental and complex business practices. This includes board service on the Jacksonville Port Authority, the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Manufactures Association of Florida. During his decade in private practice at Smith, Hulsey and Busey, Vinyard counseled clients in state and federal environmental compliance and permitting, was heavily involved in the siting of an electrical cogenerating facility and assisted in industry waste minimization efforts. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Louisiana State University.
###

Phosphate worker saw six name changes at Bartow phosphate plant

The Lake Wales News
01/01/11

Retiring after all these years

PHOTO BY BILL RETTEW JR. Scott Marshall Smith (left) accepts an award for his 57 years of service at Mosaic Wednesday from Plant Manager Jeff Golwitzer. The Mosaic plant in Bartow had a retirement party for him.
By BILL RETTEW JR.
Staff Writer
Published:
Saturday, January 1, 2011 10:06 AM EST
Most of more than 100 fellow employees raised a hand at Scott Marshall Smith’s retirement party to confirm that they were not yet born when he started working at Mosaic in Bartow.
The Lake Wales resident was around long enough to witness six name changes at Mosaic’s Bartow plant, one of the world’s largest producers of phosphate and potash.
Smith retired on the 57th anniversary of his hire date in 1953 to much fanfare and smiles from co-workers.
The plant once employed up to 1,200 employees, but thanks to technological improvements, now 373 workers toil at a 15 times larger plant.

Prior to automation, and since Smith started as a sulfuric operator testing and filtering sulfur, the 550-ton sulfuric acid plant has grown to three 2,500-ton sulfuric acid plants on the 100-acre site, surrounded by 10,000 acres of company owned reclaimed land and mines.
The retiree witnessed those technological changes first hand. The employees originally counted on pneumatic air tubes to help operate the plant. Now computers run the process.
When the 19-year-old started, safety glasses, steel toed boots and protective headgear were not required on the job.
“There was an operator for every little job,” said Smith, “and many jobs were combined into one.”
Plant Manager Jeff Golwitzer said the plant became much more productive and efficient during Smith’s tenure in order to compete with companies hiring overseas workers at lower wages.
“I just changed with the times,” said Smith. “I never did mind coming to work.

“If I did, I would have left.”
Before safety gear became mandatory, employees didn’t punch a time clock at the phosphate plant.
“We’d trade off if we needed some time off,” said Smith. “They were just happy we got the job done, no matter who did the work. We’d even sign each other’s names.”
Times also changed outside the workplace and in Polk County.
“People were more friendly,” said the 76-year-old. “You knew your neighbors much more then.
“We didn’t lock the house and left the car keys in the car, but you couldn’t do that now.”
Smith is married to Carolyn, father to Scott Jr., and grandfather to Scott III, Julie and Jonathan.
So why did the fisherman and clay target sportsman stay at one job?
At first he intended to get “a real job” when he turned the required 21 years old to work for the telephone or power company.
After working at Publix and for the school board, Smith started out earning $1.67 per hour at the phosphate plant.
“I was paid a fair wage and had job security and stability,” said Smith.
While Smith worked more than a half century at the same place, he’s not an atypical Mosaic employee.
The average employee at the Bartow plant has been on the job for 18 years and is 55 years old.
Hank Crowley worked with Smith.
“Sometimes you spend more time with the employees than you do with your family,” said Crowley.
Bill Scott is a 33 year vet at Mosaic.
“He’s like a fixture,” Scott said about Smith. “It’s kind of like having your family and your grandfather out here.”
Fellow employees seemed in awe of Smith’s endurance and fitness. Plant manager Golwitzer first met his co-worker in the on-site gym. Several fellow workers smiled when they talked about chasing Smith up the facility’s many stairways.
Bernie Kerber has worked with phosphate and Smith for 34 years.
“No way, I’m not in half as good shape,” said Kerber. Most who spoke said they hope to be as healthy when they choose to retire.
Golwitzer presented the retiree with several awards, framed photographs and presented a slide show.
“With his dedication and fortitude, he’s an inspiration for all of us,” said Golwitzer.

3PR News: Massive Sinkhole Opens in Lithia

The first radio reports I heard on this event is that the landfill was built on “a former phosphate mine” site. I don’t see any further reference to that fact in current reports….

Lithia is the regional headquarters of Mosaic.

Posted: 1:14 PM
Last Updated: 1 hour and 30 minutes ago
http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_hillsborough/leaders-looks-for-solution-to-massive-sinkhole

• By: Ellen McNamara
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. – Today, the Department of Environmental Protection plans to hold a meeting with Hillsborough County leaders to figure out how to fix a massive sinkhole under the Southeast Landfill in Lithia.
The last time we checked with Hillsborough County, the hole was about 60 feet deep.
Even before the meeting this afternoon, the DEP sent a letter to the Hillsborough County Solid Waste Management Department outlining what the county needs to do to ensure the groundwater is safe to drink.
The letter outlines eight different steps, and Michelle Van Dyke with Public Utilities, says the county is doing everything they have been told.
The DEP wants crews to take samples of water at different wells around the 3300 acre site. The samples have to be collected on a daily basis.
Workers also are required to monitor storm water and wells off site on private property near the landfill.
The gas collection system near the sinkhole has to stop operating, but other collection sites can continue working.
As for what caused the sinkhole, geologists working with the county say they are not sure.
Van Dyke says the Florida Aquifer, which flows 130 feet below the surface of the landfill, appears to be fine. The sinkhole formed on a mound about 45 feet above ground.
Copyright 2010 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Leaders look for solution to massive sinkhole
Source: abcactionnews.com

[email protected] sent this using ShareThis.

3PR News: DCA Leader Resigns

The DCA takes part in the phosphate mining process – reviewing all county comp plan amendment proposals and allowing the public their opportunity to comment….

Community Affairs Secretary: There Goes the Scapegoat
http://www.theledger.com/article/20101209/EDIT01/12095006/1036?p=all&tc=pgall
Published: Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, December 8, 2010 at 12:28 a.m.
( page all of 2 )
They won’t have Tom Pelham to kick around anymore. The respected secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs has resigned.
It is Florida’s loss, because Pelham has not only been an environmental and growth-management visionary, he has proved to be an adept-and-willing compromiser over the years, especially with the state’s insatiable growth-and-development machine.
It is clear Pelham had no future under incoming Gov. Rick Scott — and maybe would not have had one even if Scott hadn’t been elected, given the Legislature’s disdain for the DCA and Pelham. Nonetheless, Scott was elected and during the election the governor-elect branded the DCA a “jobs killer” for its role in monitoring compliance with the state’s Growth Management Act.
It was a bogus charge, of course, aimed solely at trying to provide the teetering development sector with someone to blame for its greed and lack of restraint. There is very little evidence to suggest that overregulation has slowed down Florida’s growth machine.
The DCA has stopped, or scaled down, some developments that city and county governments approved. While that was happening, hundreds of thousands of new homes and retail spaces were created. It’s the economy — not The DCA — that left them empty.
CLASS ACT TO THE END
To his credit, Pelham has not been shy about defending his department against relentless criticism from Scott and other politicians. In fact, Pelham has been an activist DCA secretary, getting personally involved in those cases he thought were important to Florida’s long-term growth management. In September 2007, Pelham came to Lakeland to hear the concerns of citizens about CSX Transportation’s plan to run more — and longer — freight trains through downtown. He always conducted himself with class and conviction.
Even in the end.
“I think it’s extraordinarily unfair … to give us the responsibility to enforce the laws written by the Legislature and then point the finger of blame at us when we do what we’re charged under the law to do,” Pelham said recently. “It’s very discouraging to public servants, who are given a mission and responsibility to enforce laws enacted by others, to be constantly bashed for doing their job.”
Pelham will leave behind a department under siege. Lawmakers have relentlessly chipped away at Florida’s landmark Growth Management Act. And it is likely that the DCA will be abolished outright, all but ending Florida’s three-decade-long attempt to more wisely manage land use and development.
What will the politicians do for a scapegoat after Pelham and the DCA are gone

Phosphate mining moves forward

As President of 3PR I would like to respond to this email (below) from Frank Kirkland which I consider a cynical misrepresentation of the position that the environmental plaintiffs have taken in the law suit and mediation process.

I feel confident that the partial settlement that we negotiated with Mosaic allowing their workers a 4-month reprieve and preserving two bayhead wetlands from extinction in the very branch that runs through Frank Kirkland’s property was a beneficial deal. Frank Kirkland himself said at the last 3PR meeting that those two bayheads were the only remaining source of baseflow to the branch. Now they shall become part of a permanent conservation easement. The easement will also buffer the McClellan’s property from mining.

These are “substantive” benefits – something that cannot be gained from an EIS. If the middle court’s decision to impose a preliminary injunction on the S. Ft. Meade Mine Extension is overturned on appeal, then, at the very least, we have saved two bayheads from mining. If the appeals court upholds the injunction then Mosaic will have to return to the negotiating table and sacrifice more wetlands in order to continue mining.

Yes, the environmental plaintiffs have continued to meet with a Mosaic representative to continue to explore the possibilities for further partial settlement agreements in the event that the preliminary injunction is upheld. There have been two such meetings (at Appleby’s) and as a result of them we have obtained some written information in response to questions we have asked about Mosaic’s mining operations, reclamation standards and timing, hydrology, conservation easements, water recycling, and gyp stacks. We will continue to meet with Mosaic as long as we consider the information they share to be useful for our purposes.

“Why go to court if you are going to go behind closed doors and work up deals with the industry…? ” I think I’ve explained that… because court decisions are subject to appeal and can be overturned. Mediation is a process by which you can use the leverage that you have at least temporarily gained to obtain some enduring results. And, by the way, the mediations were carried out by telephone conference calls – not “closed doors” – and were recommended by our legal council, Mr. Huber, whose experience and advice we trust.

The S. Fort Meade Mine Extension preliminary injunction doesn’t mean that we’ve snuffed out the phosphate mining industry forever. It means the environmental plaintiffs have a brief window of opportunity during which we have gained the upper hand in the court system and can use that momentum to our advantage if we are willing to participate in the mediation process. Although the mediation process isn’t mandatory it was proposed by Judge Adams prior to his decision to order the preliminary injunction. At that point Mosaic refused to mediate because they were confident, I suppose, that the court would decide in their favor. I’m sure they were bitterly disappointed. From the beginning the environmental plaintiffs, however, did agree to mediate. It was only after the preliminary injunction and Mosaic was at a disadvantage that they saw mediation as a useful option. In mediation both sides are willing to gamble knowing that they are going to have to sacrifice a long term objective for an immediate gain.

The Mosaic strategy has been to lay off their workers in response to the preliminary injunction on the S. Ft. Meade Mine Extension, thereby attempting to turn public sentiment against the environmental community and the court. Our willingness to exchange wetland protections for jobs disarmed that strategy and secured wetland protections that directly benefit Frank Kirkland and others.

Unfortunately the delight Frank Kirkland derives from deriding his own leadership outweigh his ability to apprehend the good that we have done.

Dennis Mader
Pres. 3PR

On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 10:27 PM, frank kirkland wrote:
The forward motion of phosphate mining is guaranteed by the people wasting time, money and court uses.

It seems that fear corruption reaches every corner where people are given any authority or power, crippling the chances for anything good
coming about.

We have watched helplessly as local and state authorities work the back room scams and plots that support the Industry and squash the people in their tracks with the medias who profit highly from the phosphate industry ads as do politicians.

this scenario I see reaches even deep in the environmental world as groups are formed and grow its leaders soon become as corrupt as government agents, going green is the motto, if you can’t make it honestly do it how ever you can “Just seek Money and or Power”

I now learn that we have people in high places playing what I consider illegal rolls in our mist (the very people supposedly fighting for us in the court system), these people are becoming the same as most politicians and Lawyers they are making close relations with the enemy, which include under cover negotiations between Mosaic officials and the plaintiffs, these people may have good intentions but in reality the have no place trading away our rights at their uninformed discretion and with out our consent.

Why go to court if you are going to go behind closed doors and work up deals with the industry that is not the wishes of the people who were used to form the case around, why introduce evidence to the court which puts you in some what control or gives you leverage, then in the heat of mediation be pressured by less than factual in put from the other side and a Mediator who is highly paid to sway the case into settlement of some sort. (Mediation can come from court order or both sides request, but in neither case is settlement mandatory)

These people are easily blind sided by the pro’s from the industry who are well experienced at deception, the actions of this commity will be costly to the case in many ways, such as saying to the Army corps its ok to mine before you get the EIS, It speaks along with the back room exchanges still going on between Mosaic and some of our people that we are easy,well trade a pime cow for a pig with lipstick, We are saying EPAs opinion is not valid, It says we don’t care if this case sets the way future cases will fall, knowing full well we can’t preform in lower corts where the industry is favored, above all it sais the groups are just plain not willing to stand for anything. (Run cowards run)

Our fate is in the hands of people who will only suffer from after shock of mining we are the people who are on the line that will be hit in the face with a ton of immediate crap, and we are the people who have fought the fight while many of the leaders were using our work to take our rights away and make the news as if they had done something special, well this is true it takes all to get to certain points but then the glory seekers go bananas and make stupid decisions.

so all you people that suck up to the dollars and no since white collars enjoy what they hand you for your time and money, every dog has his day this included us all.

where I go from here is very much in question but it dam sure want be with the likes of the heart of the groups involved with this federal suit I have enough enemies with out encouraging more, yes some of the people I met and worked with have a special spot in my heart but some have moved to another spot close to the rest of my main pains.

Make all the fun of this you want but keep in mined we reap what we soy and that includes bad and good, so sowing to corruptness will be accounted for the same as sowing to good even if good is not always the clearest path. (Its bad enough to make mistakes, but to continue that track after warning it becomes stupidity.)
Frank Kirkland

3PR News: Miners Dig In for a Fight ( The Wall Street Journal)

Environmentalists Say Phosphate Mining Threatens Florida Wetlands, Farmland

NOTE: ARTICLE FULL OF VERY DETAILED IMAGES
Recommend viewing via link
Text format:
By MIKE ESTERL
Mike Esterl/ The Wall Street Journal
Phosphate is extracted at Four Corners Mine in central Florida.
WAUCHULA, Fla.—The phosphate mined for more than a century here in central Florida to make fertilizer has yielded thousands of jobs and countless harvests around the world.
But environmental groups are arguing in federal court that the cornucopia extracts too high a price in lost wetlands, spoiled water supplies and ruined farmland.
The Sierra Club and local environmentalists have slammed the brakes on an 11,000-acre mine extension planned by industry giant Mosaic Co. after securing a court injunction in July—the first such ruling in a state that supplies approximately 70% of U.S. phosphate rock for fertilizer. Mosaic is appealing the ruling.
At the same time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to begin an environmental review early next year to determine the cumulative impact of phosphate mining in this region—the first such study in Florida since 1978.
The hurdles are threatening jobs in a local economy that is struggling to emerge from recession. Phosphate mining directly employs about 4,000 people in four Florida counties, generating an estimated 20% of the world’s phosphate fertilizer.
In Hardee County, where Mosaic’s mine extension is located, the unemployment rate has more than doubled to 15% since 2007. On the main street of Wauchula, the county seat, about half the store fronts are vacant. “I would hate to see anything happen that prohibits mining,” said Terry Atchley, chairman of the county’s board of commissioners.
View Full Image

Mike Esterl/The Wall Street Journal
Phosphate mining in four Florida counties employs about 4,000 people and produces about 20% of the world’s phosphate fertilizer.
Phosphate companies own nearly a quarter of the land in Hardee County, or about 120,000 acres.
Phosphate is extracted from “Bone Valley,” an ancient fossil bed where the nutrient-rich mineral lies. Seven-million-pound “draglines” create vast open-pit mines by digging often 50 feet or deeper with 300-foot-long booms and shovels large enough to cradle trucks. The mix of rock, clay and sand extracted is then separated, before the phosphate is combined with sulfuric acid to produce fertilizer.
Environmentalists say such mines damage wetlands and harm the area’s dwindling water supply. In addition to using water to process phosphate, large areas of clay left behind are less permeable and can block underground water flows. Past spills from such areas have polluted rivers, killing fish.
Critics say the strip mining also renders large tracts of land unusable for agriculture for many years. They also warn of health risks from increased radiation levels, because the mining brings radioactive materials closer to the surface.
“We’re trying to ensure that it’s done more responsibly in the future,” said Percy Angelo, chairwoman of the Sierra Club’s phosphate committee in Florida.
Mosaic says it’s responsible for less than 10% of the region’s groundwater usage and that it carefully rehabilitates mined lands. It also says the proposed South Fort Meade extension in Hardee County has been reviewed by 14 local, state and federal agencies since 2003, producing more than 100,000 pages of documents.
“We are a highly regulated industry,” said Richard Mack, general counsel of Plymouth, Minn.-based Mosaic, the world’s largest producer of phosphate fertilizer.
Mosaic, majority-owned by Cargill Inc., estimates its reserves are sufficient to continue mining for another 40 years in Florida. But it only has enough permits to cover about 10 years. The contested South Fort Meade extension would roughly double its permitted reserves.
After a Jacksonville court halted the South Fort Meade extension, Mosaic published advertisements in local newspapers warning it would have to lay off more than 200 workers. That struck a nerve in Hardee County, where mining jobs are among the highest paid and per-capita personal income is barely half the national average. Mosaic has nearly 300 workers in the county, making it the third-largest private-sector employer after a medical rehabilitation center and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CF Industries Inc., a smaller phosphate miner, ranks fourth.

“A lot of families are relying on their miner fathers,” said Zakk McClellan, 21 years old, who buses tables in a Wauchula restaurant and is critical of environmentalists.
Conservation groups have fought back, publishing their own advertisements in local papers and arguing that more jobs would be generated if the land was used for agriculture.
Since 1975, Florida has required phosphate companies to reclaim each acre of land that it mines for other purposes and replace wetlands. By the end of 2008, 69% of the 184,681 acres mined since 1975 had been reclaimed, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Mosaic says about 95% of the 30,000 acres it has reclaimed in the past decade have been converted to pasture land for more than 4,500 head of cattle.
Earlier this month, it also unveiled plans to build a 140-room luxury resort—with two 18-hole golf courses designed by Ben Crenshaw—on 16,000 acres of formerly mined land. The Polk County resort is scheduled to open in 2013.
The Environmental Protection Agency says the three-decade-old environmental-impact statement on phosphate mining in central Florida is outdated and that a comprehensive review will allow for better decision-making. The new study will take 18 months to complete, according to the Corps.
Federal regulators also decided to take a closer look after the Gulf Coast counties of Charlotte, Lee and Sarasota contested phosphate projects in state courts in recent years, arguing that further inland mining could threaten their shared drinking-water supply and harm coastal estuaries.
In late October, environmentalists reached a temporary truce with Mosaic, allowing it to mine an initial 200 acres at the contested site in return for avoiding some wetlands. The new acreage amounts to about four months of mining, postponing the immediate threat of big layoffs.
Despite the tough economy, some locals support the push for greater scrutiny and are skeptical that the industry has been doing enough to clean up after itself.
“I’m not a big supporter of the Sierra Club,” said Kenneth Jinwright, 58, a postal worker in Wauchula. “But if they can bring light to this, it’s probably a good thing.”
Write to Mike Esterl at [email protected]

Phosphate lawsuit: In hard-hit Hardee County, it’s wetlands vs. jobs

By Steve Huettel and Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writers
In Print: Sunday, November 21, 2010
Read article here

FORT MEADE — After a hitch in the Navy and work handling psychiatric patients in lockdown, Billy Griffis held a prized job in this corner of rural Central Florida. • Mosaic Fertilizer paid him $42,000 last year as “wrencher” laying big pipes and fixing pumps at its South Fort Meade phosphate mine. Griffis, 35, didn’t worry about job security. Fertilizer prices soared in recent months, and the world’s largest phosphate fertilizer producer hadn’t laid off a worker during the mine’s 15-year history. • That changed in September. After the Sierra Club and two Florida environmental groups won a federal court ruling to stop work on new section of the mine, Mosaic warned that hundreds of jobs were at risk, then cut 60. The company blamed the Sierra Club. Environmentalists shot back that Mosaic was playing hard-ball to sway public opinion. • The two sides worked out a deal that will bring all the employees back for a while. But neither is ready to quit. Too much is at stake.
Mosaic says it could run short of Florida phosphate without the Fort Meade expansion. Workers worry they’ll be back out of work in a drum-tight job market if the environmental groups win in court. Environmentalists hope a rare court victory will force mining regulators to get tougher with the state’s powerful phosphate business.
• • •
The groups sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on June 30, challenging a permit it gave Mosaic to destroy 500 acres of wetlands in an extension of the mine into Hardee County. The next day, U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. ordered a temporary ban on mining wetlands on the 10,855-acre site.
Within days, Mosaic said it would be forced to close the mine and notified 221 workers they faced layoffs in 60 days unless the judge lifted the order. Instead, Adams indefinitely continued the ban, saying the company could still mine upland areas for as long as two years.
Mosaic called it impractical to navigate massive draglines around pockets of wetlands and still mine enough phosphate to make economic sense. But laidoff workers began returning last week, after the agreement with environmentalists to let Mosaic dig 200 acres that had been prepared for mining before the lawsuit.
That gives employees four months of work while the battle grinds through the courts. What happens next lies in the hands of a federal appeals court in Atlanta.
• • •
Environmentalists say mining those wetlands at South Fort Meade will cause more damage than it’s worth. They contend it will lower the level of the already-drained Peace River and the underground aquifer, affecting the local water supply.
Also, destroying wetlands that filter pollutants from stormwater runoff could foul the river that empties 100 miles south into Charlotte Harbor, they say. The river is vital to maintaining the harbor’s delicate salinity that hosts endangered species as well as thriving commercial and recreational fishing.
Mosaic is counting on the South Fort Meade mine expansion to produce 30 percent of the rock that its Florida plants process into diammonium phosphate fertilizer, known as DAP. Without the new mine, Mosaic might have to import rock from Morocco or Peru at a higher cost to keep its fertilizer plants running at full capacity.
Any decline in production at Mosaic, which employs 3,000 in Florida, would ripple through contractors and vendors: welders, equipment mechanics, suppliers of bulk chemicals such as liquid ammonia.
Phosphate mining in Central Florida made Tampa a port city in the 1880s and still plays a big role supporting the maritime business.
The phosphate and fertilizer industry generated one-third of the 38 million tons of cargo that moved through the port last year. It supports more than 67,000 jobs in the region, reported a 2006 study commissioned by the Tampa Port Authority.
“It’s a singular industry,” says port director Richard Wainio. “Florida doesn’t have a lot of big industries, and this is at or near the top of the pile as far as economic benefit for the state.”
Judge Adams’ ruling, believed to be the first court order to stop a Florida mining operation, delighted environmentalists like Dennis Mader of the Protect the Peace River, a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“For years and years, the phosphate industry has ridden along on the short-term economic benefits in the form of jobs, business at the Port of Tampa and contractors,” said Mader, a resident of Hardee County. “Everybody’s excused the environmental damage that’s endemic in their method of operation.”
U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, the Bartow Republican elected Nov. 2 as Florida’s agriculture commissioner, on the other hand, contends that environmentalists are out to kill the golden goose.
“If you’re serious about putting Florida back to work, why in the world would you eliminate one of its largest employers?” he told the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club in September.
• • •
It’s not unusual to find families with two or three generations of men who have worked the mines in the vast rural landscape where Polk, Hardee, Hillsborough and Manatee counties come together. They might have played for or against South Fort Meade High School’s football team, the Fighting Miners.
Citrus and cattle dominate the local economy outside mining. Without a college degree, it’s tough even to find work that pays a little over minimum wage, says Griffis, who returned to his job at the South Fort Meade mine Monday.
Unemployment in his home county of Hardee hit 14.8 percent in September, tied with Hernando for the fourth-highest rate among Florida’s 72 counties. While unemployed, Griffis applied for jobs with the city of Wauchula, the county seat and the local McDonald’s. None was hiring.
Clay Farris hoped to be back at work as a Mosaic conveyor operator this week or next. On unemployment since September, he has burned through $5,000 in savings and stopped making $1,300 mortgage payments on his house in Frostproof.
The lawsuit has sparked friction within families. Farris, 32, was borrowing his brother-in-law’s truck but something on the bumper stopped him in his tracks: a Sierra Club sticker.
“That got ripped off plenty quick,” he says. His brother-in-law, a beekeeper, dropped his membership.
Last week, Mosaic announced plans to launch a new business near Fort Meade. The company will build a luxury golf resort on 2,000 acres of restored mine land. Building the golf course, clubhouse and guest villas at Streamsong Resort will employ hundreds of construction workers, Mosaic says. A hospitality management company will employ at least 200 people by the opening, scheduled for fall 2013.
“Without Mosaic’s help,” Griffis says, “Hardee County would turn into a ghost town.”
• • •
Formed by a 2004 merger between IMC-Global and Cargill, Mosaic first applied for the federal permit for the South Fort Meade mine expansion four years ago, after three years of reviews by local and state agencies gave it a green light.
The Corps of Engineers at last approved a permit that allowed Mosaic to souffle more than 500 acres of wetlands or open water. To make up for the environmental damage, the corps required Mosaic to create about 480 acres of new wetlands — something scientists say is often difficult, if not impossible.
The corps’ own rules require looking for less environmentally damaging alternatives when a project does not have to be built in wetlands. If the agency relies on the applicant to do that analysis, then the corps must double-check the work.
But according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mosaic and the corps failed to meet their responsibilities. For example, the EPA said, Mosaic should have considered a smaller mine that wouldn’t destroy so many wetlands. And the corps didn’t independently verify the company’s findings.
The EPA declined to use its seldom-invoked power to veto the permit. But the agency’s objections to the corps helped persuade Judge Adams to block further mining while the corps must start over on a crucial part of the Mosaic permit application.
Environmental and civic groups, alarmed by the phosphate industry’s water use and waste products, have been calling for a decade for the corps to launch a regionwide study of the environmental impact of mining. Instead, the corps has looked only at each permit application on its own.
But the suit over Mosaic’s permit contended that past mining has contributed to tremendous environmental degradation in Central Florida. It cited the corps’ own findings that phosphate mining had led to the loss of 343 miles of streams and 136,000 acres of wetlands in the Peace River region, as well as a decline in the Floridan Aquifer of up to 50 feet within the Peace River watershed.
After Adams’ ruling, the corps finally agreed in August to spend about 18 months on a regional study of phosphate mining’s impact on the environment. The reason: In addition to the South Fort Meade mine, the corps has pending wetland destruction permit applications for 11 more new mines, which it says “may result in significant cumulative environmental impacts in the future.”
Despite the contentions of Putnam and other pro-mining advocates, “it’s not our intention to stop mining,” said Glenn Compton of ManaSota-88, another plaintiff in the Mosaic suit. “We just want to make it a better process.”
Mosaic worker Farris insists environmental groups go too far when they endanger people’s livelihoods.
“I’m all for the environment,” he says. “I love to hunt and fish. I take my kids out on the boat. I love camping. But people have got to have jobs.”
Steve Huettel can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 893-8128.

3PR News: Streamsong, The Emperor’s New Clothes

Hold your nose and check out how Mosaic’s new “Streamsong” resort is being marketed….

http://www.streamsongresort.com/

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Welcome to a new kind of resort. Miles from what you might expect to find in Central Florida, Streamsong is the ideal destination for relaxation, restoration and, most of all, renewal. Here, the natural beauty of Florida sets the stage for escape amid pristine lakes and gentle streams. Streamsong’s guests are welcome to enjoy not only premium resort features like world-class golf and fine dining, but also enrichment programs centered on the arts, wellness, nature and more.

It’s the redefinition of resort. Explore the great outdoors, and also learn about the surrounding ecology. Pamper yourself with spa treatments, or find a new voice in a writing workshop. Far from your typical destination, Streamsong is a place to immerse yourself in any number of experiences, and come away enriched.

At Streamsong, outdoor opportunities abound, including two 18-hole golf courses, unparalleled Florida bass fishing, and hiking and biking on nature trails – to name just a few.

Guests can also take part in activities that elevate the mind and spirit. From wellness to culinary learning, and from gardening to fine arts, immersion programs will be offered in partnership with Florida’s best and brightest.

Whether enjoying fine dining, taking in an unfettered view of the stars from the rooftop garden or embarking on a nearby nature excursion, these unique offerings will make your stay at Streamsong an experience without equal.