----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "gothiclilies@xxxxxxx" <gothiclilies@xxxxxxx>
To: drmgale@xxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, August 9, 2015 12:40 PM
Subject: Controversial proposal to drill for oil in the Everglades west of
Miramar has run into trouble.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-everglades-oil-update-20150807-story.html
Controversial proposal to drill for oil in the Everglades west of Miramar has
run into trouble.
An attorney for Broward County says the land carries a strict conservation
zoning classification that would exclude oil drilling, according to documents
released this week as part of the proposal's environmental review.
The Kanter family of Miami, which owns 20,000 acres in the Everglades, would
have to ask the Broward County Commission for a zoning amendment, a dubious
proposition, considering the growing opposition to the proposal.
County Mayor Tim Ryan said he would need to see a detailed study of the risks.
But based on the site's proximity to residential areas and the possible impact
to the region's water supply, said, "I would be very, very concerned, and I am
initially very reluctant to allow such a rezoning."
A spokeswoman for the family declined comment.
The zoning issue was raised in an email from senior assistant county attorney
Michael Owens, released this week by the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, along with comments from other government agencies on the Kanters'
application for an oil drilling permit.
He said the land is zoned Conservation - 1, Conservation District-Water Supply
Areas.
"Permissible uses are limited to utilities, transportation and communications
facilities, specifically excluding hazardous liquid pipelines and electrical
power plants," he wrote, adding it "does not include exploratory oil well
drilling."
The land was accumulated by family patriarch Joseph Kanter, a Miami banker and
real estate developer who helped found Lauderhill and several other
communities. He acquired the Everglades land with plans to found a community
there, too, but the plans never materialized.
The family has applied for a permit to drill a single exploratory well more
than two miles deep. The land, located about five miles west of Miramar, sits
along a series of oil deposits called the Sunniland Trend, which runs from east
of Fort Myers to Miami and sustains a series of modest oil wells, the first of
which were established during World War II.
Since the announcement of the family's plans last month, opposition has arisen
among the cities along the Everglades. Miramar and Sunrise adopted resolutions
in opposition to the plan, and Pembroke Pines commissioners directed their
attorney to draft one. A town hall meeting on the proposal will be held 7 p.m.
Aug. 20 at the Pembroke Pines Theater of the Performing Arts, sponsored by
Pembroke Pines and the South Florida Wildlands Association.
State regulators are giving the application an extremely detailed review, and
are asking for technical details on the proposed drilling process, what
evidence there is for the existence of oil at the site and for further
explanation of environmental safeguards that would be put into place.
