Oil company applies for drilling permit in Immokalee, raising concerns among environmental groups

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection resurrected an advisory committee to ensure a local company’s application to drill an exploratory well for oil in Immokalee meets state requirements.

The Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee met earlier this month to discuss Trend Exploration’s permit application for a directional well just northwest of the Immokalee Regional Airport, which raised some concerns among environmental groups.

The company, based in North Fort Myers, plans to drill a single well about 12,000 feet down — or just more than two miles — to test an upper portion of what is known as the Sunniland Formation for oil. The well will require a single 300-by-250-foot pad adjacent to wetlands and agricultural lands.

The company refused to comment on the application, but an oil and gas representative sitting on the committee said the permit application is well done.

“Necessary precautionary measures are being taken the best way possible to protect the environment and surrounding community,” said Gifford Briggs, Gulf Coast Regional director of the American Petroleum Institute. “My suggestion is to move forward with the application at this time.”

Other members, however, voiced concerns they hoped DEP addresses before approving the permit.

Brad Cornell, southwest policy director for Audubon Florida, said wildlife surveys should be conducted as endangered or threatened species such as eastern indigo snakes, sandhill cranes and caracara could be present.

Gopher tortoises have been documented on the site and indigo snakes use those burrows.

“It’s a beautiful snake but very hard to see,” Cornell said. “It’s very likely they could be on this property and no one has seen them. There’s a protocol the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requires when developing an area that could have indigo snakes because it is so hard to document them.”

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The presence of gopher tortoises also worried Cornell and committee member Hilary Flower, professor of environmental studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.

The drilling operation would run 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 60-80 days and large trucks driving up and down the access road could pose a danger.

“There are quite a lot of burrows within the location of the proposed pad and also a lot along the road,” Flower said. “I’d echo doing a survey that includes the road, but I’m very concerned about big vehicles on that road, just the very width of them and those tortoises being disturbed.”

The area around the proposed pad is dry and overgrown, Cornell said. Gopher tortoises have moved toward the edge of that overgrowth to burrow.

Another concern among committee members was the possibility of underground shell beds.

Shell beds, a remnant of when the area was coastal, can act like pipes by moving water far away from the drilling site, Cornell said.

More:Protesters hike to possible oil drilling site in Big Cypress National Preserve

Bore samples can prove whether those beds exist or not, committee members said, but the geologic information on the permit application was redacted, likely over proprietary rights.

Members also hope Trend Exploration would consider using a different source of water to mix with the fluid used when the drill is active. The company’s application calls for drilling into surface or sandstone aquifers to extract about 10.5 million gallons of water over 60 days.

Flower said surficial extraction can draw down the water tables, putting pressure on them.

“The consequences vary depending on the particular case, but in some areas, consequences can potentially include: it becomes more difficult for other wells to extract their share, ecological consequences such as diminished water levels in swamps, and sinkholes,” she wrote in an email. “Further, water used for drilling and processing oil can't be re-used, it must be taken out of circulation.”

Water found deeper below the surface can have higher salinity making it less valuable water yet still suitable for drilling, she wrote.

It’s important to protect the surficial aquifers, she wrote, because they are important sources of freshwater for irrigation and drinking.

“The best way to prevent excessive drawdowns in the aquifers is either to limit the rate of extraction, limit the magnitude of extraction, or to avoid extracting from the aquifers, and instead use groundwater that is not suitable for irrigation or drinking water,” she wrote.

During the meeting, members of the public like Amber Crooks, with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, spoke. Crooks asked for wildlife surveys in the area, saying the area where the operation would be located is within secondary habitat for the Florida panther.

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Matthew Schwartz, executive director at the South Florida Wildlands Association, did not attend the meeting, but said the proposed pad is adjacent to wetlands.

“Any spill that happens there is going to those wetlands,” he said. “A heavy rain, even, can wash water into surrounding wetlands and into underground aquifers. This is not an appropriate area; Southwest Florida in general is not an appropriate area for drilling hydrocarbons.”

The committee members will send their comments to the DEP, which will make its decision on Nov. 7.

The public still has the opportunity to comment on the permit application by sending an email to OPG@floridadep.gov by Oct. 29.

Karl Schneider is an environment reporter. You can reach him at kschneider@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @karlstartswithk