From the Sun Sentinel: A Miami company has applied for a permit to drill for oil in the Everglades of western Broward County, setting off a likely fight with environmentalists over a remote area inhabited by wading birds, alligators and other wildlife.
As second-generation Floridians and owners of this property for over 50 years, we are excited about the opportunities this land and these resources will provide for Florida
– John Kanter, Kanter Real Estate LLC, which owns 20,000 undeveloped acres of the Everglades in far southwestern Broward County, filed applications with the state to drill a well more than two miles deep to assess the feasibility of extracting oil. The well would stand about five miles west of Miramar.
The company said the application filed this week is “one of the first steps in a long-term plan that includes proposed mining, as well as water storage and water quality improvement components that have the potential for assisting with Everglades restoration.”
The land was originally acquired by Joseph Kanter, a Miami banker, real estate developer and philanthropist who helped found Lauderhill and several other communities. His plans to build a town on the Everglades land never materialized. The South Florida Water Management District acquired the rights to control the water flowing over the land, as part of its management of the Everglades.
Kanter’s son John said in a written statement the company plans to develop its holding in an environmentally sensitive manner.
“As second-generation Floridians and owners of this property for over 50 years, we are excited about the opportunities this land and these resources will provide for Florida,” he said. “We understand and value Florida’s precious natural resources and believe the team of experts we have hired will allow us to complete the project safely while protecting Florida’s environment. As stewards of this land, we are fully invested in ensuring this project provides the maximum public benefit while also providing Florida with solutions for water storage and treatment in South Florida.”
The land rests on an underground series of oil deposits called the Sunniland Trend, which runs from Fort Myers to Miami, where South Florida’s modest oil business has quietly gone on since the 1940s. In the past few years, there has been greater interest in looking for additional Sunniland oil deposits, including a pending plan for seismic exploration at Big Cypress National Preserve, where oil wells have been active in two locations for years.
Environmentalists, who only learned of the proposal Friday, said that drilling that area would threaten the region’s water supply, destroy wildlife habitat and complicate the restoration of the Everglades. “I can tell you categorically it’s a big concern,” said Lisa Interlandi, staff attorney for the Everglades Law Center. “Oil drilling is not historically compatible with protecting the water supply and Everglades restoration.”
Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association, said he would fight the proposal but that the state’s regulators tend to rubber-stamp oil drilling applications. He said the work would expose the Biscayne aquifer, the porous layer of underground limestone that serves as a source of South Florida’s drinking water.
“It’s ludicrous to consider doing this to the Everglades and the water supply,” he said. “This is the recharge area for the Biscayne Aquifer. Any rock mining or oil drilling is going to cut through the Biscayne Aquifer.”
The plan filed with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection calls for a five-acre oil pad, with the drill reaching 11,800 feet. Once up and running, the drilling would take place 24 hours a day for 60 to 80 days. A crew of 12 to 18 people would work on site.
The well would be exploratory only. There are no plans yet for pipelines or other means of transporting the oil.
dfleshler@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4535
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