A settlement has actually produced a modified Environmental Resources License for a proposed rock mine in Florida’s Everglades Agricultural Location, clarifying the task’s authorized scope and needing brand-new licenses for any growth– however the task endures, and Army Corps evaluation is still pending.
A February settlement amongst the Tropical Audubon Society, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and mine operator Phillips & Jordan has actually produced a modified Environmental Resources License for a proposed rock mine in the Everglades Agricultural Location, developing that DEP approval covers just 1,337 acres of excavation within a 2,242-acre first-phase footprint– and does not greenlight the complete 8,632-acre website. For fishing guides and preservation groups who have actually defended more than a year to secure among the nation’s premier saltwater fisheries, it is a partial triumph.
The settlement solves a difficulty Tropical Audubon submitted versus the DEP’s Might 29, 2025 Notification of Intent for the Southland Water Resource Job– the name Phillips & Jordan offered to what challengers call a limestone rock mine dressed up as a remediation tank. Phillips & Jordan, which had actually intervened in the obstacle, is likewise a celebration to the settlement. Any mining beyond the 1,337-acre very first stage will need brand-new authorization applications and complete ecological evaluation. It does not eliminate the task.
What’s at Stake
The Everglades’ flats and backcountry are amongst the most in-demand fly fishing locations in the nation– prime water for tarpon, snook, and redfish. Just how much of that fishery endures the next couple of years depends upon a single building task: the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir (EAA Tank), an almost $4 billion, 10,500-acre impoundment being developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers south of Lake Okeechobee. When total, it will keep and tidy contaminated lake water before sending it south through the Everglades to Florida Bay. The Army Corps explains it as most likely among the biggest above-ground tanks in the country.
That tank is what the mine threatens.
The proposed mine website rests on land owned by U.S. Sugar Corporation and a Florida Crystals subsidiary. Captains for Tidy Water states it would be approximately 1,000 feet from the tank. Phillips & Jordan, a nationwide facilities professional, submitted an unsolicited application to mine limestone there on July 1, 2024– the day Florida enacted statutes enabling unsolicited remediation propositions. The business states the excavated pits would ultimately hold up to 40 billion gallons of water, adding to Everglades remediation after a 34-year mining operation– its county application defines blasting in 13 stages from 2025 through 2059. Capt. Chris Wittman, co-founder of Captains for Clean Water, argues that framing obscures what the task truly is: a limestone extraction operation the company approximates deserves more than $800 million.
Will Buehn, the company’s director of education and awareness, cautioned that blasting beside the EAA Tank might jeopardize its structural stability, setting off contaminated discharges that eliminate seagrasses and trigger massive fish die-offs in the estuaries.
How Guides Got Included
Captains for Tidy Water has actually led the opposition. Wittman and Capt. Daniel Andrews co-founded the company in February 2016; Andrews later on left his charter organization to function as executive director. Both developed their professions as southwest Florida fishing guides. The group had actually currently invested years pressing Everglades remediation and combating discharge-fueled algal blossoms before the Southland application landed.
Wittman affirmed at the Palm Beach County Commission’s Might 22, 2025 hearing, where commissioners all authorized zoning for the complete 8,632-acre task. He was among lots of guides, researchers, and worried residents who filled the hearing hall. Commissioners cut the basic three-minute public remark duration to 2 minutes per speaker– consisting of for legal and clinical specialists who are usually provided more time. Video from that hearing has actually considering that drawn more than 6 million views on Captains for Tidy Water’s YouTube channel.
After the county vote, the task still required state allowing. On May 29, the DEP released a Notification of Intent to give an Environmental Resources License– the action Tropical Audubon would later on challenge. The Everglades Law Center submitted that legal obstacle in August 2025 on behalf of Tropical Audubon and 2 of its members– José Francisco Barros and Brian Rapoza, the company’s president and vice president– who bird the EAA and affirmed to the mine’s prospective damage to the location’s wildlife. A two-week hearing before Administrative Law Judge Francine Ffolkes was arranged for late February 2026. The settlement came 5 days before it was set to start.
What the Settlement In Fact Does
The offer includes uniqueness to the DEP’s authorization: it clarifies that approval covers just the basic place of 13 prepared excavation cells, requireds water quality tracking if water transfer to or from the website, and needs a brand-new authorization for any style modifications. The Everglades Law Center stated the modifications are suggested to guarantee higher public examination on future stages.
The settlement stops there. It does not restrict the task’s overall footprint or avoid Phillips & Jordan from ultimately looking for licenses for all 8,000-plus acres as a water resource task. Any such growth needs brand-new authorization applications and complete ecological evaluation.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers evaluation stays open. In a July 2025 letter to Florida Rep. Brian Mast, the Corps raised issues about seepage dangers and prospective impacts on the EAA Tank’s water management operations. The Corps has no authority to stop the allowing procedure.
Under an arrangement Florida and the Army Corps struck in July 2025, the EAA Tank is targeted for conclusion in 2029– 5 years ahead of the previous due date. What remains of the Everglades when it opens will depend in part on what occurs next with Phillips & Jordan’s authorization.