# Oil Drilling Coming to the Everglades?



## spottedtail

Is oil drilling coming to the Everglades?

This request came from Dr. Karen Dwyer in Naples, Florida:
“Join us, March 11, in Naples and bring as many people as you can. This is an URGENT REQUEST. The federal EPA is flying in for a hearing that could decide the fate of Florida water and open the door to Everglades drilling. We need to act fast and get big. It’s time to show just how strong and far reaching opposition is to Everglades drilling. We need you at the hearing to say “NO” to the injection well. March 11. Clean water not dirty drilling. See you in Naples!”

If you fish or bird watch in Everglades National Park, if you don’t want the door swung wide open to oil drilling in or off the beaches of Florida, you need to sport these folks any way you can. For more information visit this link- https://www.facebook.com/groups/stonecraballiance/

Help stop oil drilling coming to the Everglades!


----------



## MariettaMike

When I look back where I grew up on the south Louisiana coast I see the good and bad that came from the oil industry.

The offshore areas are dotted with platforms that hold a ton of fish and brought tons of money to the economy.

The inshore areas are dotted with small oil well cribbings with pipelines to pumping stations that didn't seem to effect the fishing either way, and brought tons of money to the economy.

The interior areas were hacked up with canals to float the drilling rigs in. Then saltwater intrusion killed much of the freshwater swamp along the coast. The damage to the ecosystem is beyond repair, and all the money in the world can not bring that back.

When I fished with Bob a couple weeks ago I learned that there aren't any oysters in oyster bay because of things done many years ago and there isn't an easy way to reverse that damage.

Considering we live in a democracy where the majority of the people care more about money and driving their cars (and boats) than the environment, someone will get the oil sooner or later.

I just hope that the Lessons Learned in Louisiana are applied and the damage to the ecosystem is minimized.


----------



## fishicaltherapist

We are already vomiting poison out both coasts due to BIG sugar($$$$$); just think what ONE; that's right, ONE spill IN the Glades would do. CERTAIN DEATH!!! Think of what happened with the BP spill,OFFSHORE SPILL/ INSHORE DEATH. The Mississippi River and tides were of great help to the coast but, there is NO FLOWING RIVER and a HUGE part of the Glades has NO tides. Our state and federal (choke) LEADERS could not care less as long as the MONEY FLOWS in their direction. I urge everyone to call/email any & all gov. reps we can and if possible....BE IN NAPLES for the meeting.


----------



## Stormchaser

My opinion, the reason drilling is more dangerous (more likelihood of a spill like BP) is because people thought that moving rigs farther offshore was better for the environment, because, like most things, out of sight, out of mind. So now they're drilling in thousands of feet of water, and directional drilling to get where the oil is. It's more risky. Put the damn rigs in a position to drill safely. 

To say BP was offshore spill/inshore death is BS. That was the most overhyped crap I've ever seen by the media. Was it bad? YES. Several humans lost their lives. But the media was CAUGHT putting pics from the Valdez spill out claiming it was from the BP oil spill. The mainstream media didn't talk about it, of course. Just like they overlooked Bengazi for the most part. Didn't fit their agenda. But I can tell you, not a single LOON was killed by the BP oil spill! Yet there was pics of oil covered loons (with mountains in the background lol) on major news magazines following the BP spill. 

The only time the fishing suffered in LA was when they shut us down from fishing because of the media's BS. 

The dead dolphins that showed up on Mississippi beaches? Happens EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. at that time. Completely natural occurrence. But hey, let's hype it up and blame the big bad oil bidness. 

Have fun running your boats without it...

I have seen ZERO damage from the BP spill, and I fish Delacroix, Hopedale, Shell Beach, Grand Isle, etc..........and have for decades. 

Rant over.


----------



## Stormchaser

> The interior areas were hacked up with canals to float the drilling rigs in. Then saltwater intrusion killed much of the freshwater swamp along the coast. The damage to the ecosystem is beyond repair, and all the money in the world can not bring that back.
> 
> 
> .


Now THAT I agree wholeheartedly with.  I have said for years after they are done with an inshore facility, the oil company that utilized it should have to fill in the canals they dug for access.  

But regarding the saltwater intrusion, people overlook the OBVIOUS culprit.  We dammed the friggin BUILDER of the land off, the Mississippi River, and no sediment has been introduced for a century.  Also, no freshwater until the fairly recent introduction of freshwater via river diversions, which didn't pump sediment, only fresh water.  

Of course saltwater will intrude.  The only way to stop the erosion, IMO, is to build land via dredging, and then plant saltwater marsh.  All one has to do is fish Delacroix one day, and the Biloxi marsh the next.  COMPLETELY different marsh.  The Biloxi Marsh is saltwater marsh, while Delacroix is (now) freshwater marsh because of diversions.  That was a decent idea in the infancy of the coastal restoration movement, but without actually man made land building projects, it was pretty useless.  They transformed the saltwater marsh that had begun to take hold with freshwater grasses, but nothing stopped the saltwater intrusion, and the freshwater marsh died/is dying.  Delacroix is a crying shame to look at today, at least if you knew what it was 30 years + ago.  Look at Empire...same thing.  But the Biloxi Marsh?  Pristine, even after sustaining Katrina, Gustav, Isaac, and all the other storms that brought an influx of saltwater surging into and over it.  It's a saltwater marsh and can handle it better than Delacroix.

And it's not even 20 miles apart.


----------



## fishicaltherapist

I TOTALLY agree that media did a snow job on the public overhyping things on the BP fiasco; things were bad enough as they were. Death did occur and there are parts of the gulf bottom that may or may not recover.The Louisiana/Mississippi gulf waters have possibly the greatest Redfish/Trout fishery in the world and are a National treasure to be protected AND restored i.e. the canals. I lived and fished in the Tx,La,Ms for only 12 years but, got a chance to see the good,bad,and ugly of the oil co's. Florida has a HUGE decision to be made, let's hope it's the RIGHT ONE! Thx.


----------



## shiprock8

Just to expand on the media 'BP snow job', I got a call last week from a person in California connected with Audubon. She was asking me if I would contribute to the BP cleanup and help the birds that were injured during the spill. Not sure if this was some kind of a scam but she seemed legitimate. I tried to explain to her that there were no damaged birds left from the BP spill. I told her that I had never even seen the first drop of oil or tar on our coast from Tampa to Naples. I don't think she was listening because she asked me if I wanted to contribute anyway.

The most dangerous things along our coast are golf courses, sewage spills and land developers. 

I feel somewhat hypocritical saying that we need the domestic oil but not in my backyard.  I think that with all the studies and all the previous mistakes to use as data, we might be able to do this better this time around. I am absolutely against destroying the land to get equipment out to oilfields. If it can't be done by water or at least without destroying the Everglades and the surrounding habitat, then don't do it at all.

By the way, I am a Florida native and have been fishing in and around the Everglades most of my life.


----------



## Alex4188

News for you guys, hear the saying a day late and a dollar short? Some one mentioned a meeting in Feb, back in Oct they held a meeting for public opinion, that is all part of the procedure and doesn't influence the out come 1 bit. There have been rigs in the glades for 50-60 years how do you think "oil well rd" got its name. 4 years ago guys were flying into the Naples airport with some pretty heavy duty tools. I asked what they were for seeing using them to tune up a honda was out of the question. They said the got flown in to work on the oil rigs in the glades. Helicopters from oil companies have been flying over this area for years doing Ariel surveying. By the time it is brought to our attention the decision to do it was all ready made. They don't bring it up unless their "wild cat" rigs found enough to make it worth while, and then all the public outrage in the world doesn't matter they are going to drill and harvest the billions of dollars they found and spent a lot of money to find. That's how it works, you or I break a branch of a mangrove tree we get a $10,000 fine, they plow the glades, deep well injections, oil spills in a "protected environment" they just have to pad the pockets of a few politicians a little more, standard business! I see the trucks all the time bringing in the materials to build the rigs, it's all ready happening. I hate it I live 300 yards from the edge, at the end of my street there is only 1 road to cross until you get to Miami and all our water supply is from the well. Hate it but it is what it is.


----------



## Recidivists

http://www.sierraclubfloridanews.org/2014/04/big-cypress-swamp-advisory-committee.html?utm_source=currents&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter


----------



## Alex4188

"After several hours of deliberation yesterday, the Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee voted 4:1 to recommend denial of the Department of Environmental Protection Agency's (DEP) permit to allow an exploratory oil well in Golden Gate Estates"
Did you see that it just got approved any way? No stopping it.


----------

