POSTS

 Planning Commission Unanimously Approves Duette Fire Facility and Community Park despite Possibility of Health Hazards

Published Friday, August 13, 2010 3:00 am

by Merab-Michal Favorite

 PALMETTO — Mosaic Fertilizer is donating a fire station and community park in Duette to Manatee County as part of their land post-mining stabilization requirement for the four corners phosphate excavation. While the intentions of the company are good – the decision is not without health risks.

The community park will contain a baseball and soccer field, a 19 acre lake (left over from the mining project), a boat ramp and dock, restroom facilities, picnic and parking areas, irrigation for the fields and a center for environmental education.

The reclamation parcel topography will be returned to the approximate pre-mining state. Re-vegetation will be planted around the site with a one-mile hiking trail around the lake.

“This is a reclamation that is compatible with recreation,” said Dee Allen, permitting super attendant of the project.

Mary Sheppard of the county planning commission pulled the item for discussion to clarify any possible threats and get more information as to what was going into the recreational lake.

 “I remember the last time we had a piece of land after reclamation and we found that the wells and septic tanks could be detrimental to human health,” she said.

The facilities will run off a well and septic tank. The concern is that mines can cause water contamination in many ways. The first is whether the radioactive elements can get into water supplies, be released to the air, absorbed into the skin or accumulated in fish or animals. Heavy metals can have adverse effects on humans and too much phosphate can cause health problems, such as kidney damage and osteoporosis according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

The second concern is what happens when the radioactive particles, such as radium and thorium, are concentrated in the clay settling ponds.

High phosphate contents in lakes are initially a good asset. They increase productivity of fish population and overall biological diversity of the system. But, over time, a build-up of phosphate in the lake or surface water ecosystem will accelerate the aging process. This overproduction of the water body can lead to an imbalance and result in out of control algae blooms that have a detrimental effect on wildlife according to a study by Wilkes University.

Fish in phosphate reservoirs do not have heightened heath risk according to a study by the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research but bass contained the uppermost mercury levels.

There is a radiation unease for all buildings on the site. While radiation is a natural part of the environment, it is more concentrated near ore deposits underground. When mining takes place it stirs the layers together and it is separated becoming more intense in the remaining rock deposits. It can become a health risk. Humans can inhale it where it remains in the lungs or gets transferred in the blood stream to bones where it continues to emit radiation.

Homes built in mining areas had heightened radiation levels in a statewide study conducted by GEOMET Technology Inc. The result was a mandate for construction techniques to be developed that resist entry of radon gas into homes – Mosaic assured the commission they would implement these procedures.

“Radon barriers have been incorporated in the plans,” said Dee Allen. “The fire department building will be built with radiation protection techniques.”

The plans have been overseen by the county’s natural resource department. They feel that Mosaic has met all requirements and “will not adversely affect the health, safety or welfare of the neighborhood or the county as a whole.”

“The site has had a significant level of monitoring and it is very safe for public use,” said Dee Allen.

Published Sunday, September 5, 2010 3:00 am
Previously published on http://www.thebradentontimes.com.

by Dennis Maley

There are many drawbacks to a weak economy rife with unemployment. For those struggling to find work, they are of course obvious. We live in a market-based economy that relies on ever increasing consumption, so whenever unemployment rises and spending decreases, the economy tends to contract, often leading to further cutbacks in employment and reduced consumer confidence because of anxiety over whether any of our jobs are safe. It is indeed a vicious cycle.

One ancillary drawback that is rarely considered is our increased openness to short-sided and even dangerous sources of employment during the worst economic times. Our current economy has created multiple examples of conflict that has arisen as a result of people being much more sensitive to any policy, no matter how sound, that may lead to a loss of employment.

When fertilizer giant Mosaic lost a recent judgment denying its expansion in South Fort Meade, they announced the closing of the mine and told 140 people in an already hard-hit area not to come to work the next day. Obviously, there were many hard feelings among people who lost their livelihood for the greater good of the community.

Phosphate mining is nasty business. It has become a necessary component to modern industrial agriculture and our current food supply could not be maintained without it, but over-mining poses serious risks to any nearby community. Mosaic mines 30% of its phosphate from the Fort Meade operation, yet said it was not “cost effective” to continue operations there if they couldn’t expand in South Fort Meade.

The corporation posted $400 million in profits during the final quarter of last year, noting that phosphate margins were up significantly. In all likelihood, they could have continued to operate while making a tidy profit, but that is not what capitalism is about. There is more profit to be found somewhere else and that is their obligation to their stockholders, so they will move.

This is a difficult reality that is intrinsic to capitalism. In theory, that money is invested somewhere else in our economy where that greater profit can be made. Jobs are created to replace those lost, the increased wealth flows through the channels, trickles down via increased consumption, and our economy grows stronger as a result. But for those who are out of a paycheck now, that is of little comfort.

The backlash is almost always directed toward the government bodies that enforce important environmental and safety regulations, rather than the companies who seek to skirt them or move off to someplace less concerned about the welfare of their citizens. So then, what is the solution? Perhaps we should create laws that prevent companies from abandoning such operations when they are still profitable, just to move them someplace else for the sake of a better share price.

The areas surrounding Fort Meade have paid an ecological price to have their natural resources exploited in exchange for jobs. Is it fair be left with what may turn out to be decades of associated problems without even those jobs to show for it? Of course such laws would never work because more desperate states would undercut more prosperous ones and someone would do whatever the corporation wanted to get jobs for their voters.

It probably would require stiffer  federal regulations to ensure a fair playing field. If no state could lure a corporation away with relaxed state regulation or subsidies, a company would have less financial incentive to pull out. But of course such laws would be viewed as federal intrusion on states’ rights and the most depressed states would complain that such high-mindedness was easy for places with less significant employment problems – and they’d be right. It is easy for a state like California with a strong base of high-paying, clean jobs to be more willing to comply with strict environmental standards than say Mississippi or Kentucky.

I feel deeply for the families who have lost an income through this closing. As much as I try to be a good steward of the planet and act in the interest of my community, I have no shame in telling you that I would happily club a baby seal were it necessary to feed my children. I doubt there are many among us who wouldn’t, which is why we rely on government to protect us from self-interest, no matter how well intended.

Again, this is of little comfort as corporations such as Mosaic continue to reap billions, while displaced employees sign up for unemployment checks. However, the other choice seems to be allowing private corporations to rape, pillage and plunder our resources no matter the consequence, while hoping they’ll demonstrate a moral compass along the way to squeezing every last drop of milk and honey from our nation’s land.

Natural gas employees is Pennsylvania, coal miners in West Virginia, oil riggers in Southern Louisiana and Phosphate miners in Florida have a right to be angry. They want to feed their families and they want work in the field in which they are skilled. Some of these out of work employees might lose their homes. Trying to scrape by with an unemployment check while everyone else up the ladder seems to get a bailout when things go sideways, undoubtedly adds insult to injury. Welcome to capitalism 2.0.

href=”http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/08/30/gulf.dead.zone.minnesota.farm/?hpt=Sbin”>http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/08/30/gulf.dead.zone.minnesota.farm/?hpt=Sbin
Windom, Minnesota (CNN) — Within moments of meeting Tony Thompson, you can tell he sees the world from a different tilt.

His frayed shirt pocket is stuffed so full of notes that it’s ripping at the seams. Hairy eyebrows spring off his face like grasshopper antennae. There’s a purple prairie clover stuck in the dash of his van, a bird book below the radio.

He says bizarre, eco-minded things like “I want to be a chloroplast.”

So maybe it should come as no surprise that this wild-haired, icy-eyed farmer in southwest Minnesota is among the first people at this latitude to make an important intellectual leap:

He sees people who live and work near the Gulf of Mexico as his neighbors — even though they’re 1,200 miles away.

Further, he’s changing the way he farms in order to protect them.

Scientists have recorded one of the largest “dead zones” in the Gulf’s history this year. This oxygen-sapped area — currently about the size of New Jersey — is caused in large part by fertilizer that funnels into the ocean from Midwestern farms, since more than 40 percent of the land in the United States drains into the Gulf.

The fertilizer kicks off a chain reaction of biological processes that, in the end, drains the water of oxygen and kills fish, shrimp and other marine creatures that can’t swim away.

This year, the BP oil spill may make matters worse. The coast is already strapped for cash, and some scientists fear cumulative effects of the environmental stress.

Thompson, 54, whose family built a house on this farmland in 1878, doesn’t want to contribute to any of this.

“I’d much rather eat wild Gulf shrimp than farmed shrimp, and I know that my efforts may seem insignificant, but I think we can have sustainable fishing in the Gulf and corn production in the Mississippi [River] watershed,” he said.

“I think we should all be saying, ‘We must have both.’ ”

But, as he well knows, cleaning up the Gulf from the Midwest will require continental changes.

Suicidal shrimp

As summer approaches and the Louisiana air gets hot and wet, Dean Blanchard says, he can tell that the dead zone is forming because shrimp leap onto the beach.

“They pretty much commit suicide,” he says.

Blanchard, who owns a large-scale seafood wholesaling business in Grand Isle, Louisiana, says he never saw that phenomenon until six or seven years ago.

Scientists first recorded an oxygen-dead zone in the Gulf in 1972. Since then, the size of this underwater coffin has fluctuated, but it is growing. In 2009, the dead zone smothered an area of about 3,000 square miles. This year, it is more than twice as big — and is the fifth largest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors the area.

The longer the phenomenon persists, the weaker the Gulf ecosystem becomes, said Rob Magnien, director of the Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research at NOAA.

“If the area grows large enough, the consequence is, at some point, we’ll reach a tipping point where some of our major commercial and recreational species [of fish, shrimp and oysters] would be severely affected,” he said.

No one knows for sure when the Gulf will cross that threshold, but the wait may not be long, Magnien said. Early testing indicates that the ocean ecosystem is already under intense stress: It takes less fertilizer pollution today, for example, to produce a large dead zone in the Gulf than it did several years ago.

That’s a sign that the dead zone will continue to grow unless fertilizer levels are cut drastically.

In the meantime, people in the Gulf seafood industry, like Blanchard, say they have to work around the dead zone each summer. Blanchard says he loses up to $250,000 of his $35 million total revenue per year because of the phenomenon.

And shrimpers may not be able to avoid the zone forever.

“They avoid the dead zone areas and are able to catch shrimp in other areas, but at some point, the zone is going to grow to a size where they can’t reach the shrimp anymore or they simply have insufficient habitat to maintain a robust population,” Magnien said.

Blanchard says the Gulf has become “the cesspool of the nation” because “everything comes down to us.”

“If you s— in the river, then you s— down here,” he said. “They send us all the garbage; it comes down the river to us.”

Neighbors by water

Thompson, the Minnesota farmer, has never been to Louisiana.

And Blanchard, the Louisiana seafood businessman, has never been to Minnesota. “It’s too cold up there,” he said.

But their paths crossed last summer, when Thompson was organizing a community event at his 3,000-acre property, Willow Lake Farm.

He wanted his Minnesota neighbors to meet a person who was affected by their fertilizer use and water management.

“We’re all in this together,” he said.

He also wanted to eat some delicious Louisiana shrimp. So, out of the blue, he called Blanchard and invited him to visit.

Blanchard didn’t attend. But he did send his shrimp north for the event, and Thompson used that food as an entree into talk about the dead zone.

Blanchard is not angry at farmers in the Midwest, he said. But he is furious about the situation.

“I’m mad at the government, that they don’t make them use different kinds of [chemicals on their farms]. Somebody’s got to be smart enough in this country to invent something that can do the job they need up there — and not ruin the Gulf,” he said.

“The government ought to have a team of scientists working on that. How bad are they going to let it get before somebody stops it?”

The government has started to look for solutions but hasn’t made a notable dent in the problem.

The entire Mississippi River watershed must reduce its output of two key fertilizer pollutants — nitrogen and phosphorus — by 45 percent to get the dead zone down to a manageable size, says a 2008 report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

If those cuts happened, the dead zone still would be nearly twice the size of Rhode Island.

A new way of farming

Thompson was driving a tractor across his parents’ farm in 1989 when he cracked.

Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was the deafening roar of the engine.

Mostly it was because he felt the way he was farming — tilling over the soil — was destroying the environment.

“I just hated it,” he said. “It seemed impossibly destructive.”

That night, he scratched this entry in his personal journal: “Never grow up to be a farmer.”

But time passed. And Thompson realized that it was just this method of farming that he hated. His intense frustration helped mold his view that the land, water and air are inextricably tied and that the actions of one farmer can be felt thousands of miles away.

He vowed to become a different kind of farmer.

With the help of an environmentally minded neighbor and his brother, Thompson etched out his vision on a large sheet of butcher paper, which he spread out on a kitchen table.

He didn’t want to till the land anymore, which he saw as a contributor to erosion and phosphorus runoff. He would apply “the softest touch on the land” possible, he said.

After struggling to explain this idea to bankers, Thompson finally got a loan to fund his vision. He put it into practice first on a small section of the family property, which he leased from his dad.

The changes worked. Yields went up. And, in Thompson’s view, the local environment became healthier, too. Missing critters like the meadow jumping mouse returned to the farm. The water became clearer. All of this eased his conscience.

He started to love the farm again.

“Here, I know all of my neighbors,” he said. “This is where I make my living. This is where my ancestors made their living. I’m not interested in fouling my nest.”

‘A long way away’

For many, fouling the Gulf’s nest is another story.

It’s relatively easy to convince farmers to adopt environmentally friendly practices if they can see the effects nearby, said Gary Sands, an associate professor of bioproducts and biosystems engineering at the University of Minnesota, who teaches farmers about the environment.

But it’s hard to sell changes that deal with the Gulf’s dead zone.

“They agree there is a problem, but they’re just so separate — so far away — from what’s going on in the Gulf,” he said of the farmers.

Scientists largely have figured out what farmers need to do to lessen their impact on the dead zone, said David Mulla, a founding fellow and soil scientist at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment.

To be effective in tackling the Gulf’s problems, however, Mulla said, the new techniques have to be applied across the entire Midwest.

Right now, however, only voluntary pilot projects exist. And at best, with widespread adoption of these techniques, he said, the U.S. would reach its targets for shrinking the dead zone in 25 years.

Still, Mulla said, the efforts of one can make a difference.

He’s seen that happen before.

When the state started pushing farmers to leave some of their land wild along the banks of streams to act as a buffer, no one seemed interested in taking valuable land out of production.

Then one farmer broke.

“Eventually, we got one farmer who agreed to do it, and — [snap] — just like that, everyone followed.”

Farm filter

Walk to the bottom of a field of alfalfa on Thompson’s farm, and you can see the start of Mulla’s one-farmer theory in action.

The green field, bursting with purple flowers this time of year, slopes toward a small body of water called Fish Lake, where Thompson grew up swimming and where he can’t help but snorkel from time to time, he says.

He planted alfalfa here specifically to buffer that lake from nutrients. Alfalfa is a “very greedy plant,” he says, so it sucks up most of the water and fertilizer before it can get away.

But he’s going further than that.

Just before the field gives way to a thatch of oak trees and then the water, a small metal box is stuck in the ground.

It’s not much to look at, but that box — and another like it — is the visible component of an underground “bioreactor.” It eats nitrates out of the water before they hit the lake.

Water is piped through a subterranean block of woodchips that’s roughly the size of a blue whale. This slows the water down long enough for bacteria to start a process called nitrification, in which liquid nitrates from the fertilized water turn to harmless gas.

From there, the water trickles into Fish Lake and the Watonwan, Minnesota and Mississippi rivers before spilling into the salty Gulf.

On that journey, it slithers past Minneapolis, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; and finally New Orleans, Louisiana. You might think that, on such a long and winding journey, pollutants would somehow make their way out of the river, but scientists say that when liquid nitrates jump onto this one-way conveyor belt, they don’t look back until they’ve made it all the way to the ocean.

Thompson installed the woodchip bioreactor two years ago at a cost of $6,600, and most of that was paid through a university grant, he said. Another nitrogen-reduction project on a different field cost him $70,000. He paid that sum, he said, because that groundwater control system stands to increase his farm’s productivity, too.

Both of those systems are rather effective, Mulla said. The drainage system removes up to half of the ocean-harming nutrients; his bioreactor is capable of pulling 50 to 80 percent all of the nitrates out of the water under optimal conditions, said Sands, also from the University of Minnesota.

Thompson also says he monitors his fertilizer applications down “to the gnat’s eyelash” in order to reduce the amount of nitrate that enters the watershed.

“We don’t want to waste any nitrogen,” he said.

Thompson says it’s his responsibility to “send the best water possible downstream.” He doesn’t have the money to do everything he would like. But he’s optimistic about the situation improving in the long term.

“My job is to be a farmer, and I’m very committed to being the best farmer I can be,” he said. “I know to be a farmer I’m going to make a mess, and there are going to be mistakes, but my job is just to do a better job than I did last year.”

He hopes the idea spreads, one farmer at a time.

I have attached a PDF image of a 1/2 page color ad that the “Environmental Plaintiffs” (Sierra Club, Manasota-88, and 3PR) ran in last Sunday’s Lakeland Ledger explaining our position in the Mosaic/Corps of Engineers federal lawsuit.

This was in response to a full page ad Mosaic had run the week before. Their position is that they cannot mine the upland portion of the South Fort Meade Extension without destroying wetlands, therefore they have no alternative but to lay off all their workers at the South Fort Meade Mine until the case is adjudicated – which supposedly is going to wreak economic havoc on central Florida.

This ad is a variation on the previous ad I distributed which appeared in The Arcadian, however, it’s more concise and more cautious too.

We invite you to distribute this ad widely so that the people of Florida can know the truth about phosphate mining and how Mosaic conducts their business.

https://protectpeaceriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/phosphate_central_fl-Ledger-Version-Final.pdf

Dennis Mader
Pres. 3PR

  from The DeSoto Sun

 09/01/2010

 By CLINTON BURTON

 Staff Writer

 DESOTO COUNTY — The Florida Department of Community Affairs has objected to proposed changes to DeSoto County’s Future Land Use map. The DeSoto County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously on May 25 to seek state approval of a map overlay that specifically defines where in the county a company may make an application to mine phosphate.

 The application to amend the county’s land use plan was made jointly by the county planning department and Mosaic Fertilizer which owns most of the property within the proposed map overlay area in the northwest part of DeSoto County near Pine Level.

 Following the BOCC approval, the application was transmitted to the Florida Department of Community Affairs to begin a comprehensive review process that included other state agencies.

 On Aug. 16, the DCA communicated its objection to the proposed overlay in a memorandum to county officials.

 “When the county updated its comprehensive plan in 2008 many of the mining-related policies that established criteria, buffering and protection of natural resources were deleted,” the memo says. “The deletion of these polices reduced the strength of the protection area for the land. The mining overlay and related policies do not adequately protect and conserve wetlands and fail to direct incompatible uses away from wetlands. The overlay does not restrict land uses that would adversely affect the quality of the water resource … the overlay does not protect the natural functions of the soils, fisheries, wildlife habitats, river and floodplains and does not meet the requirements of Rule 9J-5.013 (20)(b)4, F.A.C. that requires the conservation, appropriate use and protection of wildlife and wildlife habitat,” the written objection stated.

 But DeSoto County Planning Manager Jason Green said some of the objections raised by the DCA do not take into account polices that the county already has in place.

 “They are looking only at what we sent to them,” he said.

 Mosaic spokesperson Russell Schweiss said the company is working with DeSoto County to respond to the DCA’s concerns.

 “Some of the issues that were raised are going to create logistical problems and we are working to address those issues,” he said. “This is nothing unusual. It’s just something that has to be worked through.”

 The DCA’s objections echoed concerns raised by some neighboring counties and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

 In a letter to the DCA from that agency, the FDEP’s Director of Intergovernmental Programs, Sally Mann, wrote, “The department believes that the proposed GOPs (goals, objectives and policies) supporting the overlay do not adequately protect important floodplain and wetland resources in the area” and the proposed GOPs “should be strengthened to provide for the adequate protection of tributaries and floodplains connected to the Peace River and Horse Creek.”

 Lee County also commented on the proposal. “The mining overlay area will result in substantial impacts on areas designated for protection or special treatment within Lee County jurisdiction. The proposed plan amendment must be augmented to include goals, objectives and polices to establish measurable objectives so there is a clear basis for evaluating the effectiveness of those policies in accomplishing in the goal of protecting the ecosystems that depend on the Peace River,” according to Lee County commissioner Tammy Hall who asked the DCA to urge DeSoto county to establish “specific and measurable objectives” so that the effectiveness of protecting the ecosystems could be evaluated.

 Hall’s objections were supported by Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash who also wrote to the DCA.

 Roland Ottolini, director of Lee County’s Division of Natural Resources, said decisions made in DeSoto County could have far-reaching effects,

 “Some of the reasons we’ve challenged the changes to the comprehensive plan is the potential impacts downstream. Phosphate mining involves a lot of major landscape changes and that can mean a major change to the quality of water,” he said. “Charlotte Harbor is a major economic draw for us.”

 Ottolini said Lee County is not necessarily against phosphate mining but county officials believe DeSoto’s overlay plan was not done properly.

 “There was not enough detail. We need a lot more information,” he said.

 E-mail: [email protected]

Desoto County Board of Commissioners has posted the purpose of the September 28 meeting on their website: The plan is to adopt the generalized mining overlay and future land use map allowing Mosaic a firmer foothold in their county. They have placed this extremely important matter as the very last item of business on their agenda for the meeting, so attendees will have to sit through an entire evening of irrelevant business to be heard (if they allow further public comment).

You can follow the link below to see more detailed information and a copy of the document in question. There are 269 pp. of information so it will take a while to download. Then scroll to the very last few pages….

Please disseminate this email widely so that all interested parties are informed.

Ordinance/LS #2010-01-Mosaic Fertilizer LLC

Request to adopt the Ordinance approving LS#2010/Mosaic Fertilizer LLC amending the Comprehensive Plan objectives and policies related to the creation of a Generalized Mining Over; and amending the Future Land Use Map based on comments provided by DCA.
http://co.desoto.fl.us/images/packets/Packet.pdf

(from DeSoto County website)

 

http://www.co.desoto.fl.us/images/bocc/Newspaper%20article%20response.pdf

 Once again our local newspaper and author Clinton Burton have provided the public with an article that distorts facts and paints a completely inaccurate picture. The context of the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) response, commonly referred to as an ORC, at times can be vague and easily misunderstood.

We know of this potential misunderstanding because it is exactly what the Central Florida Regional Planning Council did when preparing their review and comments for DCA. After a brief discussion and clarification with the Planning Council’s reviewer, they resubmitted comments and found no objection to the proposed Phosphate Overlay; and furthermore, found it in compliance with regional goals, objectives and policies.

The point about the greater context of an amendment is necessary to understand because it can easily be dismissed. As part of the 2007 adoption and 2008 remedial amendments to our 2030 Comprehensive Plan, the County Commissioners adopted policies that ensure the protection of our natural environmental features and habitat. As a rural county that offers ample eco-tourism opportunities and relies on the river system for potable water, we recognize the importance of the Peace River and its tributaries. This is why the Conservation Overlay, a guiding map not a technical survey, was adopted in 2008 to include all wetlands, floodplain, endangered species habitat, and other environmentally sensitive areas, as identified by best available data from State and Federal sources. Due to the fact that this data is an estimate or best guess, the Conservation Overlay is not all inclusive. Many areas will be identified at future dates as on-site technical surveys are conducted by land owners. In addition, some Conservation Overlay areas will be removed from protection because additional analysis will document the property does not have environmentally sensitive areas.

Most of the protection policies are already included in our Conservation Element and therefore did not need to be resubmitted to DCA. There are seven separate policies sprinkled throughout the Conservation Element and an entire Objective with fourteen (14) additional supportive policies solely regulating mining, including Phosphate. It is these Objectives and additional policies that protect our natural resources. The proposed Overlay was intended only to map potential areas for phosphate mining and to clarify that this use could occur in those areas. The County is not introducing phosphate mining to our Comprehensive Plan. That was done in 1991 with the adoption of the first Plan. The BOCC did this in 1991 because phosphate mining had been recognized through zoning (9,000+ acres since 1981) and ownership by mining companies (since 1970’s). The potential presence of phosphate mining should not be a surprise to anyone within DeSoto or adjacent counties.

The proposed policies and Overlay are reliant on and enhanced by the existing environmental protection policies. DCA’s comment about the removal of protection criteria is misleading. The policies that were removed when we adopted our “new” Plan were specifically related to setbacks from uses, such as a residential structure. The setback regulations are not necessary in the Comprehensive Plan because technical

setback restrictions are only appropriate in the Land Development Regulations (LDR); and because we already have those standards clearly delineated in the LDR and by Ordinance adopted by the BOCC. The approval by DCA to remove those setback standards when they approved our Comprehensive Plan in 2008 is sufficient evidence that this was not detrimental to the protection of our environmental and natural systems.                                                                                          

Our Comprehensive Plan is already loaded policies that protect the environment (21 policies). DCA staff complimented us upon adoption of the Plan in 2008 for our progressive policies and commitment to protecting the environment. Nothing has changed since the 2030 Plan was adopted and nothing will change as a result of a Phosphate Mining Overlay.

In conclusion, there is nothing unique about this proposed Overlay. It is nearly identical to those of Hardee County, Manatee County, and Hillsborough County, which all were approved without issue by DCA and with no objection from Lee County. Staff is working diligently to resolve outstanding issues, incorporate several of DCA and FDEP’s recommendations, and to communicate the relationship between existing and proposed policies. The Comprehensive Plan is a document where each Element within it works in concert together, not in isolation from each other. We continue to follow basic procedures for responding to comments by a state agency.

DCA Registers Objections to DeSoto County Mining Overlay

The Florida Department of Community Affairs, the state’s land planning and community development agency, published their response to DeSoto County’s proposed comp plan amendments and mining overlay on their website.

In a series of public hearings in May 2010,  the DeSoto Board of County Commissioners, in defiance of their Planning and Advisory Board and the majority of citizens attending the hearings, voted to transmit comp plan amendments and expansion of their mining overlay to the DCA for approval. Essentially the proposal increased the existing 9,000 acres dedicated to Phosphate Mining  by an additional 17,000 acres to bring the total “Phosphate Overlay District” up to 26,000 acres on the west side of the county at Pine Level (Next to Manatee County’s border). It included part of the Keys Mine & part of the Pine Level Mine. It straddled Horse Creek omitting the previous clause restricting mining from the 100 year flood plan.

The DCA did not approve.

To comply with the transmittal process DeSoto County has to address each of DCA’s objections when the plan is resubmitted for compliance review. In addition the DCA made it clear that by law local governments are required to provide the names and addresses of all citizens who have an interest in the outcome of the plan, and who have given their names and addresses at the hearings of transmittal or adoption. Therefore, if you attending the hearings, and submitted a form to address the commission, please be sure that the county communicates that information to the DCA so that you will be included in a Notice of Intent.

 

The DCA noted in its objections that when DeSoto County updated its comp plan in 2008 “many of the mining related policies that established criteria, buffering and protection of natural resources were deleted. The deletion of these policies reduced the strength of the protection policies for the area.” It sited violations of numerous rules relating to lack of comprehensive planning process for protection of wetlands, water quality, and the natural function of soils, fisheries, conservation of wildlife habitats, rivers, and floodplains. They recommended specific and appropriate buffering between mining activities and agricultural and residential uses, prohibition of mining of wetlands in the 100-year floodplain of the Peace river, Joshua Creek, Horse Creek and Prairie Creek, as well as the unaltered portions of the direct tributaries of the Peace River including Brandy Branch and Buzzard Roost Branch.

The complete DCA report can be viewed online at the following link:

http://www.dca.state.fl.us/fdcp/Advisories/Desoto%20County%2010-1%20ORC_00001.pdf