Oil search resumes off Alligator Alley

A Texas company has resumed the search for oil along Alligator Alley, exploring the home of panthers, black bears and other wildlife for potential places to drill.

Burnett Oil Co. has sent workers in on foot to scout out areas for seismic operations across 110 square miles of Big Cypress National Preserve, a sweep of swamp and forest west of the Broward County line.

Any drilling would likely be years off. Instead, as soon as the land becomes dry enough, the company will send in specially equipped trucks to pound the ground with steel plates, producing vibrations that will be gauged for evidence of the geologic

structures that could contain oil. Drilling would require extensive government review and would be certain to generate intense opposition from environmental groups.

After starting work last year, Burnett was forced to suspend operations during the rainy season, a delay prolonged by the soaking the area received from Hurricane Irma.

Alia Faraj-Johnson, spokeswoman for Burnett, said the company resumed work after receiving permission from the National Park Service to begin preliminary surveys on foot, accompanied by a biologist and Park Service staff member.

Alison Kelly, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said environmentalists were concerned not only about the possibility of drilling but about the disruption caused by the heavy vehicles, known as “vibroseis trucks,” lumbering through the preserve.

“Future drilling in a national preserve in the Everglades is obviously concerning,” she said. “But the exploration itself is extremely damaging, since the oil company is driving large vehicles off-road through wetlands and wildlife habitat, as well as cutting down and running over vegetation, such as mature dwarf cypress trees.”

“We expect the damage will be as severe as Burnett Oil’s 2017 seismic activities when it drove large vibroseis trucks and other offroad vehicles into sensitive wetlands, recreational areas, and endangered species’ habitats, looking for oil,” she said. “”The seismic exploration caused visible and extensive damage to soils and vegetation due to the size and weight of the vibroseis trucks, which repeatedly got stuck in wetlands.”

Company spokeswoman Faraj-Johnson said the company has followed extensive permitting constraints to protect the preserve and will work with the Park Service to restore or compensate for any damage.

“Burnett has an unwavering commitment to ensuring any temporarily affected areas are mitigated appropriately under the supervision of the NPS,” she said.

Big Cypress, located about an hour west of Fort

“Future drilling in a national preserve in the Everglades is obviously concerning.” Alison Kelly, attorney

Lauderdale, is a national preserve, not a park, a designation that allows for a wider range of activities, including oil drilling. The oil rights for most of the preserve have been retained by the descendants of southwest Florida pioneer Barron Collier, who have agreed to allow Burnett to conduct the search for oil. The preserve already supports two functioning oil fields, part of a modest southern Florida oil industry that operates along a geological feature called the Sunniland Trend, a two-mile-deep structure that runs diagonally across South Florida from Fort Myers to Miami.

The preserve represents the largest single piece of Florida panther habitat, as well as important habitat for a wide range of other species, including redcockaded woodpeckers, wading birds, bobcats, deer and alligators. It is a popular place for hunting, hiking and bird-watching.

The search for oil at Big Cypress is distinct from the attempt by Kanter Real Estate LLC to drill an exploratory well in Broward west of Miramar. That plan stalled after the state refused to issue a permit. The company went to court, and the case is pending.

Burnett, however, obtained state and federal permits. And the company defeated a lawsuit by environmental groups, after a federal judge found that the National Park Service’s environmental review, which concluded the seismic work would have “minimal” impact on the preserve and its wildlife, was sufficiently rigorous.

Dee Ann Miller, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said state officials are working with the National Park Service to monitor Burnett’s work and prevent any environmental harm.

“The department is continuing to coordinate joint inspections with the NPS to ensure that any impacts are minimized and remediated,” she said.

JOE CAVARETTA/STAFF FILE PHOTO Burnett Oil Co. is driving large vehicles through wetlands and wildlife habitat, officials say.