An administrative law judge is considering allowing a permit to drill for oil in Northwest Florida’s Apalachicola River Basin.
The site being considered is in rural Calhoun County, in the river basin’s floodplain, and the state Department of Environmental Protection supports the idea. But the basin is highly fragile. In the past, its struggles for survival have upended the economy of Franklin County and reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Our livelihoods depend on clean water,” says Xochitl Bervera of Water is Life Oysters. “And we know, we all know, that oil and water do not mix. We know that one accident, one spill, one flood event and it would be devastation for everything downriver and into our precious bay.”
Bervera was speaking on the steps of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection headquarters in Tallahassee. She was surrounded by people holding signs reading “Kill the Drill.”
“We’ve seen it before,” she says. “The people of the Gulf Coast know what can happen when you have accidents with oil.”
A Louisiana-based company, Clearwater Land and Mineral LLC, applied for the permit a year ago, and in April DEP announced that it planned to grant it. The permit was then challenged by Apalachicola Riverkeeper, a citizen group that contends the failure rate of wells drilled in Calhoun County and its neighbors is 100 percent – 70 dry holes out of 70 wells drilled.
A DEP spokeswoman said the agency couldn’t comment while the case is being heard. Calhoun County commissioners wouldn’t comment, either.
But students from Cornerstone Learning Community wrote speeches and delivered them on the DEP steps. The following voices belong to Wyatt Simpson, Penny Hutchinson and Taylor Wiebler:
“It threatens our drinking water. If we drill down to the aquifer, it could contaminate the drinking water for several counties in this region and destroy the cleanest water in the country.”
“Apalach is very much a fishing and oyster town, and if the fish die and the oysters disappear, the town will also – 193 years of community washed away.”
“I love to swim, and I can’t swim in oil! So, what about us? What about our generation? We want to be on the river, too. So do your kids, and your kids’ kids.”
IT'S POLITICAL
State Sen. Corey Simon, who represents the area, has fought to fund efforts to repopulate the bay with oysters. He opposes the drilling permit, calling the idea “unconscionable.”
“I think the folks that are looking to do this, the folks over at Clearwater Land and Mineral – they need to understand the impact. They need to understand that families are struggling in these areas. Both of these counties are fiscally constrained counties. And so, we can’t have anything at this point that is going to hurt their ability to come back and feed their families.”
One of the leading voices to challenge the draft permit is Apalachicola Riverkeeper Cameron Baxley, a marine biologist. And covering it for the Apalachicola Times is editor and reporter David Adlerstein, who has been covering the region since 2002.
Baxley and Adlerstein discuss where local cities and counties stand on the question of drilling, where the local legislative delegation stands, when the bay will reopen and whether Clearwater Land and Mineral LLC has the money to make good in the case of an oil spill. [13-minute interview]
ENDANGERED SPECIES
Julie Wraithmell is the executive director of Audubon Florida, the state program of the national Audubon Society. They focus on water, wildlife, habitat and climate.
Wraithmell: The Apalachicola Basin is a place like no other. It has species that occur nowhere else in the world. It’s everything from wonderful red-cockaded woodpeckers all the way down to unique species of fish and mollusks that depend upon these drainages.
It once was a huge floodplain that fueled a massive bay and the ecology that was driven by it, and of course that was the foundation for a robust oyster industry and the like.
Nevertheless, over time, changes in water availability and what many have called the Apalachicola water wars have affected the amount of water eventually getting to the Apalachicola River and eventually to its bay. And it has fundamentally changes the function of this special part of Florida."
WFSU: It was the mix of saltwater and freshwater that made it such a perfect incubator for oysters -- is that correct?
Wraithmell: Absolutely. It’s an estuary, which by definition means where a river reaches the ocean. And it’s that mix of freshwater and saltwater that creates these perfect conditions for things like oysters. And as a result, Apalachicola Bay was an extraordinary place for an oyster industry.
With the reduction in freshwater flow, you can imagine that makes the bay a lot saltier, and once it hits a tipping point, the oysters aren’t able to survive in the same way that they did historically. Unfortunately, that’s the situation we have today."
WFSU: When I started covering the water wars in 2007, people were worried about the endangered species then, as the water was changing. And now the water has changed so much -- what is the impact of that on the endangered species?
Wraithmell: Well, it’s the impact especially on their habitat. And so, the broad, wide floodplain of the Apalachicola River doesn’t function like it did historically.
We’re seeing the loss of those sentinel trees that the species have depended upon for generations, and also the shift in the salinity if the bay. All of these are characteristics of the habitat that species depend upon, and if it’s less hospitable for them, they don’t thrive like they should.
WFSU: The tupelo honey. I know they’re worried in Wewahitchka about being able to continue producing the honey. Could you explain why?
Wraithmell: Absolutely. So, the trees that tupelo honey comes from, the tupelo trees -- they are a wetland species. And so, with less water in the watershed, and with that floodplain flooding less frequently, the very survival of those trees is at risk.
And so, to think that this traditional economy, this tupelo honey economy of Wewahitchka, could be a thing of the past because of a loss of water -- it’s just tragic.
You know, the riverway is important not just to wildlife but to people, and not just to the wildlife and people of the local area but of the hemisphere.
You know, the river corridor, for example, is a superhighway for migrating songbirds, birds that are breeding in Canada and wintering in Latin America. You can see them on weather radar in the spring, when they’re coming back. They make their long flights over the Gulf of Mexico, and they funnel up that highway as they’re heading north to their breeding grounds.
It is a phenomenon that has gone on for millions of years, and to think it could be disrupted in such a short period of time because of our casual misuse of resources is, you know, it’s tragic.”
A YOUTHFUL PERSPECTIVE
The students who spoke on the DEP steps know this conflict has tremendous implications for them. The following voices belong to Maximus Brown, Nina Ozerova and Ben Greene of Cornerstone Learning Community:
"The Apalachicola River is a really healthy and fish-populated river. With oil, it could kill all the innocent fish and other wildlife and make the healthy river unhealthy. Plus, they have drilled 70 times in this county and guess what? They have found zero kilograms of oil."
"The DEP and the Clearwater company have ignored citizens, our elected leaders and the downstream communities and industries. There would be no justification for continuing with the drilling. The people don't support it. Why does money have to win over the environment and democracy?"
"Oil and gas can contaminate the water, which can kill off most of the wildlife living in the water, like various types of fish, algae and tortoises. The drill would contaminate the water that we drink. I want to be able to swim and make memories in fresh, clean water, not contaminated water. I am sure most people want to, also."
Politico’s Bruce Ritchie reported last week that the state took an initial step toward buying land along the Apalachicola River that includes the proposed oil drilling site in Calhoun County. The state Acquisition and Restoration Council voted Friday to study the proposal.
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