Faced with a lawsuit filed by environmental groups, the Army Corps of Engineers temporarily suspended a permit for the Mosaic Co. to mine wetlands on the Altman Tract in Central Florida. Environmental groups involved in the dispute include Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, ManaSota-88, People for Protecting Peace River (3PR), the Gulf Restoration Network, and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida.
The 2,048 acre extension of the company’s Four Corners Mine in Manatee County, Fla., was approved by the Corps this past spring. A permit was also approved earlier by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. However, when approval of the local land-use permits came to a vote on September 16, the Manatee County Commission voted 4-3 to deny it (GM Sept. 22, p. 10). Shortly after, the company officially notified the county it plans to file a taking suit under the federal Bert J. Harris Property Rights Protection Act and said it would seek damages for the loss, which it said was greater than $617 million (GM Oct. 6, p. 13). After Mosaic delivered the letter to the county, the Corps notified the company that it was suspending its prior approval of the permit.
In its lawsuit, the environmental groups contended the wetlands that would be destroyed during mining could not be re-created after mining. It said, “the Corps ‘arbitrarily and capriciously’ failed to critically review Mosaic’s spurious claim that a man-made landscape, recreated after strip mining, functions as well as, or better than a natural landscape.”
Earthjustice claimed a major victory, saying the permit gave Mosaic the go-ahead to destroy 480 acres of high-quality wetlands within the Peace River watershed. “This permit suspension is a victory for the people of Manatee County and everyone who lives in the Peace River basin,” said Earthjustice attorney Monica Reimer. “This establishes that the permit should never have been granted. It didn’t comply with the law.”
“The Corps has determined that it is in the public interest to revisit the analysis in support of the permit decision,” the Corps said in the suspension letter.
Mosaic spokesman David Townsend said the suspension only applies to the wetlands portion of the permit, and not uplands areas. He added the delay would amount to only a matter of months while the Corps reviewed its findings.
Townsend said the Manatee county attorney concluded the Corps’ suspension of its permit would not affect Mosaic’s potential suit against the county. The county must still respond within the 90-day period and either approve Mosaic’s permit or face the taking claim in court.
“We cooperate fully (with the Corps) and will provide additional information to demonstrate it is a solid and environmentally responsible permit,” Townsend said.
The wetlands Mosaic wants to mine are part of the headwaters of the Peace River, which supplies drinking water to a large portion of Southwest Florida. Charlotte County, which had fought the phosphate company’s mining request for several years at a cost of more than $7 million, no longer opposes the plan.
“The Altman Tract has a mosaic of high-quality, interrelated wetlands and uplands, all with important native vegetation and only minor man-made impacts,” the environmental groups said. “It has deep marshes, shallow marshes, wet prairie, bay swamps, and mixed forested wetlands. Water quality on the tract is very good, and the tract is used by many threatened and rare species, including the Florida scrub jay, gopher tortoise, eastern indigo snake, Florida sandhill crane, Florida mouse and Southeastern American kestrel.”