A federal judge invalidated a permit for a Florida Rock Industries mine in panther territory in southeast Lee County on Friday.  Pamela Smith Hayford - Ft. Myers News-Press

Additional info from the National Wildlife Federation:
Judge's Order granting Summary Judgment (pdf)
Judge's Opinion (pdf)

The August 31 Primary Election is moving forward despite hurricane Charley. There will be a Candidates Forum on Growth Management on Monday August 23, from 6-9 PM at the Lee County BCC Chambers. This will be an opportunity for Corkscrew residents to hear candidate positions on important issues like Smart Growth, water quality, residential compatibility issues, etc.

This would be a good time for Corkscrew Road folks to attend and remind the county commission that we are all here. Click here for more details (pdf).

Corkscrew Neighbors may have noticed some new "For Sale" signs on property immediately west of the Westwind mine. The parcel is located on the north side of Corkscrew Road, between Westwind Mine and "Corkscrew Estates".

We recently obtained the real estate firm's description and pricing for the 255 acre parcel. The description indicates that the property is located "within an identified mining area". The higher of the two astounding price offerings includes "entitlement to excavate and develop in place". However, Lee County Community Development has indicated that no mining permit applications have been received for this property to date.

Neal Noethlich of Wildcat Run has spent considerable time and effort over the last year helping the Corkscrew Communities in our fight against the encroachment of mining into our rural residential areas. He personally attended the Westwind Mine hearing. He initiated and organized visits to County Commissioners to make sure each commissioner heard our point of view about the impacts of mining. He has spoken at various BoCC and county committee meetings. As well, he’s represented Estero fairly and with elegant diplomacy on other issues.

Recently Neal made the decision to run for the District 75 House of Representatives seat that Carole Green is vacating. You can read Neal's biography here.

Neal is trying to obtain the 883 petition signatures needed to be included on the ballot. These signed petitions need to be in Neal’s hand by Sunday evening, June 20th. All registered voters who live in House District 75 are eligible to sign the petition.  Here is a map showing the District boundaries.

Click here to download the petition.

After the petition file opens, you can enter your voter information, and then print and sign it. Please deliver your signed petition to Mike Bray by Sunday, June 20th at 3PM. The Brays also have blank petition forms available if you have any trouble downloading the document.

Lee commissioners to decide zoning on Alico Road parcel - Naples Daily News

Commentary: DRGR study creates danger, possibility - Naples Daily News

• Blasting Memo
• Blasting I
• Blasting II
• Blasting III

"The Gulf in Distress" - The Truth about Red Tide, The Black Water and The Hypoxic Zone - For those that have been following the Naples Daily News series on "The Gulf in Peril". The seminar will be held on Friday, February 27th. Click the link for speaker list and reservations contact.
 

Wildcat Run Resident recounts dump truck wrecks - Wildcat Run resident Connie Hemsath relates accounts of two dump truck accidents on Corkscrew Road (with photos).

It may be worthy to note that the study speaks directly to the economic importance of mining, as well as the "problematic" impacts of mining. However, there is currently no call for review of the impacts of mining on rural residential land uses beyond water resource impacts.

Of the 13 reference reports mentioned in the study scope, only one is unrelated to Lee County - a US Army Corps Environment Impact Statement on the Miami-Dade Rock Mining Freshwater Lakebelt Plan. Lee Smart Growth uses this Rock Mining Lakebelt model as a basis for recommendations about mining.
 

Lee County identifies allowable uses for Schwab 640 Property - In response to Schwab 640's recent notice of intent to file a claim against Lee County under the Bert Harris Act, the County answered with a "Ripeness Decision". This Decision identifies allowable uses for the property.

Neighbors share scientific analysis of Mine's impact - On Tuesday Nov. 18th, the Schmidt's invited residents of the Corkscrew Road Rural Community and other interested parties to hear presentations about impacts to surrounding properties caused by Westwind Corkscrew Mine operations. The presenters, hydroecologist Sydney Bacchus, PhD, and hydrogeologist Tim Hazlett, PhD, explained how the mine's excavations are influencing the level and movement of groundwater beneath surrounding lands.
The meeting was covered by the local press:

• Estero family seeks to shut down mining operation by Chad Gillis - Naples Daily News
• Mine study shows threat by Pamela Smith Hayford - Ft. Myers News-Press

Further testimony was heard today from the mine consultants on areas including impacts on surrounding wetland systems from the proposed dewatering plan, the economic significance of locally mined limerock, and noise and light impacts resulting from the proposed change to 24 hour dragline and dewatering pump operation. The mine has still not presented testimony relating to blasting impacts.

Several Corkscrew Road Rural Community residents (especially Cedric - see article below) gave excellent testimony explaining their concerns about compatibility issues surrounding the mine. There will be more opportunity for public comment when the hearing reconvenes in two months.

Battle over Estero mine expansion continues - After 12 hours of testimony from high-powered and highly paid consultants, the most powerful message in a hearing over a Corkscrew Road mine came from 9-year-old Cedric Valentin. Article by Charlie Whitehead - Naples Daily News.

Lee to consider combined restudy of DRGR - Lee County officials will be looking for a two-for-one special next week when they start a search for someone to study a controversial groundwater resource area and the mines already in the area. Article by Charlie Whitehead - Naples Daily News.

 

While Corkscrew Road Rural Community residents are encouraged by the County's recommendations, they still plan to provide testimony about adverse impacts of the mining operation at the Public Hearing on Sept 10th & 11th.

You can download the CDC Staff report here. (Note, this is a 560 KB Adobe Acrobat PDF file which will take several minutes to download if you're on a dialup modem connection.)

The Lee County Department of Community Development provides a very helpful guide that describes the hearing examiner process, and how the public participates in the proceedings. It includes the layout of the hearing room, and rules about how cases such as ours are handled. Please take a few minutes to read the guide here.

County advancing plans to commission study on undevelopable land - Lee County staff will move forward with plans to commission a study of critical undeveloped land that has been virtually undevelopable for more than a decade. Article by Paul Herrera - Bonita Daily News