Now that Palm Beach County commissioners have unanimously approved zoning to allow a giant mining and water reservoir south of Belle Glade, the focus shifts to state permits, federal oversight and a May 29 public hearing.
The $200 million Southland Water Resource Project, on 13.5 square miles of sugarcane land, has divided the community. Commissioners were slammed with more than 7,000 emails.
The plan has alarmed several Everglades conservation groups, who objected verbally and in writing and could take the county to court.
Glades leaders, including the mayors of South Bay and Belle Glade, expect it to drive growth and jobs. They have voiced unqualified support.
U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, wrote to commissioners asking them to delay their decision until an Army Corps of Engineers review.
Landowners Florida Crystals and U.S. Sugar and contractor Phillips & Jordan propose to mine 6,000 acres on the property for up to 44 years and engineer the holes left behind for public water storage.
Under the conditions the county set, the partners have one year to obtain a permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The mined rock, known as aggregate, can be used only for public roads or to support South Florida Water Management District projects.
“My concern with the project is it is focused on storage,” wetlands ecologist Christopher McVoy told commissioners before they voted 6-0 Thursday. “A bunch of volume with the depth of stored water is no use to the Everglades unless it is unimaginably clean: 10 to 13 parts per billion of phosphorus. The district works extremely hard and has spent huge amounts of money to create stormwater treatment areas to try to get water to that level of cleanliness.”
In fact, the $4 billion Everglades Reservoir water storage project is under construction immediately south of the site in the middle of Palm Beach County’s Everglades Agricultural Area.
“We need more (water) storage,” Ernie Cox of Family Lands Remembered, a consultant for Southland, said Thursday. “We’ve made a commitment to the water district that we will be evaluating additional water treatment as the project goes forward.”
The last three county mining approvals were blocked after court challenges, said Lisa Interlandi, policy director of the Everglades Law Center. “This time, commissioners were unwilling to listen to any of the details or any of the concerns about the project.”
She declined to say whether her organization will pursue legal action to block the zoning change.
“We will continue to advocate to protect the Everglades restoration projects,” she told Stet on Friday.
Southland is an unsolicited proposal to the water district. Under an amendment to state law that passed last year with bipartisan support, governments that receive such pitches are no longer required to seek competing bids. (Though they can.)
Last year’s changes also allow the developer to retain ownership of the project.
The state changed the law to speed construction of projects for the public good, lower financial risk for private partners and lift the development burden from the government.
Phillips & Jordan submitted its Southland proposal July 1, 2024 — the day the amended law took effect.
The first of two public hearings by the water district is set for 1 pm Thursday, May 29, at the Lawrence E. Will Museum, 530 S. Main St., Belle Glade. The meeting is in-person only. More information is here.
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
