Army Corps of Engineers accused of trampling environmental law in Florida

 

[caption id="attachment_11101" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Bridge over Peace River"][/caption]

Editor - In a court filing in Jacksonville the US Army Corps of Engineers is accused of "trampling environmental law" by allowing the strip-mining of 7,687 acres of wetlands and streams that leads to the "utter destruction of the local natural environment." 

Three environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and two others, sued the Corps and Col. Alfred Pantano over a "dredge-and-fill" permit issued in June. 

"Worse yet, the Corps downplayed the cumulative effects of this trip mine and tens of thousands of acres of similar mines on the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor estuary, an 'aquatic resource of natural interest' and drinking water source for 250,000 Floridians," according to the lawsuit. 

The complaint also discusses the permit that allows Mosaic Fertilizers to strip-mine 7,687 acres of wetlands, streams and uplands for phosphate ore in Hardee County, Florida, a place about 50 miles southeast of Tampa. 

The Corps is also accused of refusing to hold a public hearing on the matter or requiring an environmental impact statement.  In fact it had found "this permit action will not have a significant impact on the quality of the human environment."    

On the other hand, the environmentalists filing the suit say that is not true and that open pit phosphate strip-mining "has a devastating impact on the local environment." 

"Huge electrically powered draglines strip away all overlying vegetation, water bodies, topsoil, and overburden (the sandy soils that overlay the phosphate deposit) down to the phosphate containing layer," the lawsuit states. 

 "The result is the utter destruction of the local natural environment from ground surface down to a depth of approximately 80 feet." 

Environmentalists also allege violations of the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.  

This isn't the first time the Army Corps of Engineers has been on the hot seat for violations with refuse to the environment as New Orleans experience has shown, with the lack of proper maintenance of the levees being the principal reason a judge declared the agency responsible for much of the flooding of New Orleans. 

Oversight has been an issue with Mineral Management and some folks have said subsequent to the decision about the Army Corps of Engineers failures with regard to the levees, that oversight might be needed at more than one federal agency associated with environmental issues.