Failing the Glades
A Times EditorialThe Army Corps of Engineers has acted more like a negotiator than a regulator, permitting the destruction of thousands of acres of wetlands.
Published March 27, 2006
When a federal judge revoked permits that allowed limestone-mining to destroy thousands of acres of wetlands, he brought sanity to Everglades restoration. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued the permits, but in doing so failed its regulatory duty, District Court Judge William Hoeveler ruled. No surprise there for readers of the St. Petersburg Times, which has documented the corps' miserable record on wetlands destruction.
The wetlands in question would seem to be among the least acceptable for mining. They lie near both Everglades National Park and the aquifer that provides Miami-Dade County with its drinking water, and are home to protected wood storks. Yet the corps rushed the permitting process before the county could respond to the threat and relied on a consultant hired by mining interests to determine the permits would have no adverse impact on wood storks. Hoeveler correctly called that "patently absurd."
The corps also failed to make the most basic determination: Whether a substitute mining site would be less damaging to the environment. In all, "a magnitude of defects" doomed the permitting process, Hoeveler found, leading to this troubling observation: "The court is also concerned about the perception, suggested by comments of corps staff, that the corps was "negotiating' with the miners, rather than serving as the regulatory agency."
Statistics gathered by a Times investigative series, "Vanishing Wetlands," bears out those concerns. The corps rejected only one of the more than 12,000 applications to destroy Florida wetlands between 1999 and 2003.
Federal and state officials responsible for Everglades restoration not only ignored the mining threat; it became a dubious part of their plan. They want to use the gaping pits for water storage, theoretically to restore flow to the national park. In other words, they want to destroy part of the Everglades to save it.
Never mind that such intrusion could threaten to contaminate Miami-Dade's water supply with deadly bacteria, or that the sterile "lakes" left behind would be no substitute for natural wetlands, or that the aquifer damage might actually drain water from the park. Scientists working to save the Everglades must have crossed their fingers when they signed off on that plan.
Hoeveler did Floridians a great public service by putting the corps and other agencies on notice that they will have to adhere to the law next time. At least all interested parties should have a chance to be heard.
It is hard to imagine, if the regulatory process works properly, that the outcome will allow destruction of the very Everglades taxpayers are paying billions of dollars to save.