Environmental Groups Target Everglades Oil

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Florida’s environmentalist community has set its sights on energy companies surveying the Everglades for new oil deposits. The Texas company, Burnett Oil Co. of Fort Worth, has started to survey the Big Cypress National Preserve.

Big Cypress has one of the largest oil deposits beneath its surface – it is also home to sensitive wildlife species such as various birds, bears, and panthers. Roughly 100 miles of land has been surveyed by Burnett Oil by way of ground-pounds which produce detectable seismic waves. They continued their work until the start of Florida’s rainy season.

Now, they’ve reapplied for state permits.

So far, four different groups have vocalized strong opposition for the permit renewal. They’ve also filed letters with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) which criticize the oil company for its poor operation damaging the preserve.

According to the letter, the surveying has cost Big Cypress with damaged trees and ruts in the soil reaching 17 inches deep. The National Park Service also reported being unable to properly escort the company’s trucks to ensure denning panthers or nesting birds were scared off ahead of the caravan.

A lawyer for the National Resources Defense Council, one of the four environmentalist groups, told the Sun Sentinel:

“The other thing that’s alarming is they were supposed to have a biologist or ecologist walking in front of the truck to spot any active nests or dens or snakes or the like,” she said. “They couldn’t keep up with the pace of the trucks. Basically, there was no one scouting ahead of these trucks, as promised. The whole thing has just been the mess we thought it would be.”