Ona Update

The 4200-acre Ona-Fort Green mine proposed by Mosaic (formed last year following a merger of IMC and Cargill Fertilizer) incurred another delay in August, when DEP Secretary Colleen Castille sent the case back to the administrative law judge for further clarification instead of issuing the permit as expected.

Judge Robert Meale had recommended issuing the permit to expand the mine in northwest Hardee County into the headwaters of Horse Creek contingent on 26 special conditions. Castille instead requested clarification on several points:

• Detailing boundaries of a stream system that the judge recommended be added to a no-mining zone, and conditions that may need to be imposed if mining is permitted in a small portion of that system
• Identifying the cost of transporting additional sand to the Ona site for restoration, where that sand will come from, and the cost of contouring and moving the sand, muck and overburden
• Determining whether Mosaic can transport a dragline across the no-mining zone without environmental impacts
• Providing further detail on the design of a proposed recharge well system
• And whether Mosaic’s proposed ditch and berm system is adequate to handle excessive stormwater.

The remand represents the latest volley in a protracted battle that began in April 2000 when IMC Phosphates, Mosaic’s predecessor, first applied for a permit to mine 21,000 acres at its Ona site straddling Horse Creek, an upper artery of the Peace River that supplies 15% of its freshwater. The proposal eventually was scaled back to 4,000 acres. Charlotte County has spent more than $9 million battling mining expansion in the watershed over concerns about environmental impacts to the Peace River.

Additional hearings are expected to conclude in October.

Out of Conflict, Lessons Learned

Observers including other local governments in the region and the state’s top environmental agency point to the benefits of information gleaned from the expert testimony and research, as well as negotiated concessions.

“We’ve learned a lot,” says Rick Cantrell, director of DEP’s Bureau of Mine Reclamation. For example, Cantrell admits that the rule under which DEP had been operating was so outdated that it actually created problems in the hearings on critical matters such as defining wetlands.

“We’ve been regulating all along based on the statute rather than the rule, but we’re now updating the rule to conform with the regulations,” he says.

Cantrell also acknowledges skepticism about the mining industry’s ability to effectively restore streams and bayhead-type wetlands. “That’s not to say they can’t, but the department is going to require much more detailed effort (on the part of permit applicants) to show that they can accomplish it,” he adds.

The hearings further prompted the agency to reevaluate its permitting process. “In this day and age, there’s probably no good rationale for issuing separate permits for mining and for reclamation,” Cantrell says. “We think that’s an antiquated way of doing it, requiring a lot of extra paperwork and no additional protection – it’s even counterproductive in some instances.” A single permit, Cantrell believes, would improve oversight and establish continuity over the entire process.

Hillsborough County planning staff, which had relied on state reclamation standards, is now developing its own far more stringent and explicit wetland reclamation manual, requested by county commissioners more than a decade ago.

Manatee County’s mining and reclamation ordinance was updated last year, making it one of the strongest in the state if not the nation.

Results of a long-awaited study of cumulative impacts to the Peace River from various land use activities dating back to the 1940s will yield even more insights when completed next spring. It will include an analysis of policy and regulations, and recommendations on opportunities for the water management district and DEP to better protect the watershed.

“At the end of the day,” reflects Doug Robison of PBS&J, the firm chosen to conduct a cumulative impact study, “out of all the chaos, we’ll probably end up protecting our resources better than ever before.”