Judge Hoeveler issues ruling - halts Miami-Dade mining permits

July 13, 2007 - Judge Hoeveler finally issued his ruling this afternoon -- 170+ pages.  In short, he required an immediate halt (by next Tuesday, specifically) of mining in the areas with the greatest potential to contaminate the wellfield.  More specifically, he vacated (i.e., voided) the permits, but stayed (i.e., delayed the effectiveness) of the ruling while the Corps completes its Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, except with respect to the areas within the "60-day contour" line for the wellfield.

According to Larry Levine, attorney for NRDC, Judge Hoeveler "took seriously the potential for real adverse economic impacts to real people (e.g., mining employees who may lose their jobs), but discounted many of the miners' contentions as hyperbole, and determined they had not made the case that there are no adequate alternative sources of rock or that the mining companies would themselves take a major financial hit (in light of their zillions of dollars in annual profits). He completely discounted the FDOT "strategic aggregate study" as being cooked-up to serve the miners' interests. And, most importantly, while he found Jesse David's expertise in environmental economics to be "impressive," he found UM economist Dr. Richard Weisskoff's "expertise as an economist to be more pertinent," particularly in light of his "substantial experience investigating the impacts of Everglades restoration projects on the local and regional economy"!!

Judge Hoeveler's Decision (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format)

• Decision part 1 (2.7MB)

• Decision part 2 (2.6MB)

• Decision part 3 (3.9MB)

• Decision Appendix (176KB)

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