MIAMI-DADE

Engineers see little harm in NW Dade rock mining

Federal regulators proposed tweaks to plans for expanded rock mining in Northwest Miami-Dade but found no serious health or environmental risks.

Posted on Fri, Sep. 14, 2007

BY CURTIS MORGAN cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

TIM CHAPMAN/MIAMI HERALD FILE, 2006

According to a report by the Army Corps of Engineers, continued excavation in Northwest Miami-Dade poses no significant environmental or health risk.

Public meeting on mining

A new environmental study of mining in Northwest Miami-Dade reaches many of the same conclusions as a previous one a federal judge sent back for overhaul.

Continued excavation, according to the draft report produced by the Army Corps of Engineers, poses no significant environmental or health risk.

Despite harsh criticism from Senior District Court Judge William Hoeveler, five of the Corps' seven alternatives would clear the way for a major expansion that mining companies had sought before a 2002 lawsuit by environmental groups. Some options would add new buffer zones designed to reduce water seeping from the adjacent Everglades but also would allow two to four times as many acres to be converted into 80-foot deep quarries.

The Corps plans a public hearing on the new study Tuesday in Miami.

The industry, which is appealing a temporary halt of mining Hoeveler ordered in July near a county well field that supplies more than 1 million people, said the additional scrutiny only underlined miners' arguments that concerns about an area they call the Lake Belt were overblown.

''We think it corroborates that rock-mining and the environment can co-exist,'' said Kerri Barsh, an attorney for the Miami-Dade Limestone Products Association.

Environmentalists said an initial review of the nearly 400-page report raised questions of whether the agency had repeated the same mistakes as in an earlier review the judge rejected.

CAUTIOUS RECEPTION

John Adornato, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association, one of three environmental groups that sued the Corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that while the proposed new buffers appeared to offer some additional protections for the Everglades, ``we're still not sure that's enough.''

''There appears to be quite a lot of mining that is still being proposed,'' he said.

The study includes two lengthy sections on potential impact on the northwest well field but ultimately rejects the expanded no-mining protection zone environmentalists advocate.

It argues there is only a small overall risk of contamination and that an existing county protection zone, good water quality in the rock pits and planned upgrades to county water plants create redundant safeguards for the water supply.

''It is not believed that the public health and safety would be compromised,'' the report states. That echoes conclusions reached by Miami-Dade County's water and environmental agencies.

UNKNOWABLES

But the Corps' study also notes that contamination risks rise with more pits and that it isn't possible to fully assess risk because, among other issues, there are no federal standards for some pathogens. That finding runs counter to a July ruling by Hoeveler. He ordered mining halted in hundreds of acres near the wells, citing ''grave concerns'' of potential contamination.

The document lays out seven future options with widely varying impact on mining. One would halt excavation completely. Another would reinstate permits allowing companies to mine 5,700 acres over the next decade.

The remining five would allow 12,600 to 18,500 acres of new excavation, including the full ''mine-out'' option over 50 years the industry had originally sought.

Three new plans proposed by the Corps would reduce ''mine-out'' footprint by several thousand acres. Those also include changes intended to address additional concerns raised by the judge -- that the chain of rock pits will suck water from nearby Everglades National Park and destroy foraging areas for endangered wood storks.

Leah Oberlin, the Corps' project manager for the report, said the agency was legally required to consider the industry's original permit request -- not just the reduced area that regulators approved in 2000.

``We were attempting to resolve the flaws in the original [environmental impact study], she said. ``It would be silly to pretend there is not a potential to be asked for permits out there.''

YEAR-END TARGET

After collecting public comment, the Corps intends to produce a final draft and ''preferred alternative'' by year's end. That could be different from any of the seven now on the table.

The industry already has picked its top choice, which appears intended to address concerns raised by environmentalists and regulators.

It's nearly 6,000 acres less than what miners sought in 2000, the smallest of five proposed expansions. It also includes a broader range of restoration projects in and next to Everglades National Park to offset the destruction of wetlands. Barsh, the industry attorney, said that wouldn't necessarily prevent miners from seeking more acres in the future.