In the News
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After months of outreach and grassroots efforts, residents near the Apalachicola River Basin are one step closer to preventing oil drilling in their backyard. A new bill aimed at protecting the region is now on its way to the governor's desk.
House Bill 1143 would ban oil and gas drilling within 10 miles of national estuarine research reserves, including the one in Apalachicola Bay. The bill also strengthens environmental oversight for future proposals in sensitive coastal areas.
“It’s essential to our oyster economy, our fishing traditions, and this bill helps make sure it’s protected,” said Gil Damon, founder of the Downriver Project, who has been working with the community to halt the drilling efforts.
“We are going to fight for our way of life, and that’s what’s happening here,” he said.
Adrianne Johnson, with the Florida Shellfish Aquaculture Association, says the risk posed by drilling was simply too high for the region's small businesses and farms.
“When we found out about the drilling upriver, we knew it could hurt small businesses and our farms. We made sure lawmakers understood that,” she said. She and other advocates have been a consistent presence at committee hearings and public forums, sharing their stories and urging lawmakers to act.
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The lawyer for an obscure corporation that sparked a firestorm when it proposed a land swap to get 600 acres of environmentally sensitive wetlands in northeast Florida says his client is pulling the plug on the deal.
“This would be a dangerous precedent that threatens all of our public lands, all of our wildlife management areas, all of our forests,” said Gil Damon of the Downriver Project about the consequences if the swap were to be approved.
Downriver Project also was part of the "Kill the Drill" coalition that organized last summer after DEP announced it would permit an oil drilling project along the Apalachicola River. The effort led lawmakers to approve legislation (HB 1143) that establishes a 10-mile buffer zone around a research reserve in the state, prohibiting oil drilling.
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“What about us? We want to enjoy the whole river too!” an impassioned fifth grader yelled into the mic.
“Our coastal economy cannot afford a repeat of the 2010 oil spill,” David Damon, owner of the JP Roberts Company, said.
Damon and many others referring to the Deepwater Horizon spill. Popularized by a movie, many said Monday that the area won’t survive a second similar hit.
“Today is a chance to show that we care about our waters and we’ve learned from the mistakes of the past,” Hunter Levine, host of the Captains Collective Podcast, said.
Levine said he’s interviewed more than 150 guides who believe the water is Florida’s best natural resource.
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Xochitl Bervera’s commute takes about 15 minutes, and she’ll argue it’s the prettiest drive on earth.
Each morning, Bervera boats into the middle of Apalachicola Bay, where she has raised oysters full-time for two years.
The ride, surrounded by the salt marshes and seagrass beds, reminds Bervera of why she loves her job in Northwest Florida — and it underscores what she could soon stand to lose.
Bervera was one of a handful of speakers flanked by about 200 protesters on the front steps of the Tallahassee headquarters of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Monday afternoon.
A few months ago, Bervera learned of a company that wants to drill an exploratory oil well just up the river from her farm. She worried for the more than 125,000 baby oysters she tends to each day.
Nearby, Grayson Hall shucked and served oysters from Apalachicola Bay. His brother’s business, Southern Oyster Farms, is one of the few full-time oyster operations left in the area, he said. Drilling there would be devastating.
“It would kill him,” Hall said. “It would kill his farm.”
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"I’ve grown up watching a lot of things change. We had a river change color from crystal clear to green-brown. We had to be oil spill. We’ve had just a lot of ecological degradation and there’s a lot of stake here.”
After seeing these things happen here, Gil Damon wanted to do something about it so he started an all-volunteer organization called Downriver Project.
Damon: “We work to unite hundreds of fishermen and paddlers and all sorts of folks to defend the waters of the Forgotten Coast.”
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Gil Damon, founder of the Downriver Project, a nonprofit organization that advocates for clean waterways, described the proposed legislation as “a strong start.”
“Rep. Shoaf is showing what it means to stand up for our fishing and hunting tradition, for our seafood economy, and for our way of life on the Forgotten Coast,” Damon added in a text message. “That’s leadership.”
The Downriver Project has worked to mobilize residents and bring other environmental advocacy groups together to oppose the drilling proposal.
Through the organization’s website, residents can submit a form email to the governor’s office to speak out against the drilling plan. So far, more than 3,200 people have sent a letter. Those letters of opposition are in addition to more than a thousand emails that have been sent to DEP since early last year.
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It should come as little shock that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) chose Dec. 19 and 20 — the last real workdays before the holidays — to hand over even more permits to an obscure Louisiana oil company that seems intent on wreaking havoc on the precious Apalachicola River basin.
As a result of these permit transfers, the company — which is called, no joke, Clearwater — is closer to building oil pads and industrial roads affiliated with three additional oil wells near the Apalachicola River and Dead Lakes.
This marks a significant expansion of the company’s drilling ambitions, which for months have alarmed a region that still bears the scars of the 2010 BP oil spill.
DEP has good reason to be wary of public awareness. Hundreds of Forgotten Coast oyster farmers and other locals protested at DEP headquarters on Dec. 9, many of them integral to the Governor’s base. But clearly, DEP isn’t able to prevent Clearwater Land and Minerals or its polo-loving owner from trying to poke toxic holes next to the river.
Thankfully, we have strong leaders who have worked hard on impactful programs to help the Apalachicola Bay. As we approach the 2025 Regular Session, plus a bonus Special Session, Florida lawmakers will have the opportunity to defend these investments, along with the tourism, seafood, retail and lodging industries that count on clean water in the Panhandle.
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Led by a fifth-grade glass from the Cornerstone Learning Community, more than 500 people waved signs and started to chant “Stop the Drill” at 1 p.m. Their cars filled the parking lot at the environmental agency and anyone wanting to enter or exit the building had to navigate a crowd of people waving signs and Florida flags.
Organizers had printed more than 500 "Stop the Drill" signs, and many people showed up with homemade ones saying, “Our Right - Clean Water” and “Remember BP,” a reference to the 2010 massive oil spill that contributed to the collapse of the bay's oyster fishery.
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The ironically named Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has thrown its preliminary support behind a proposal to begin exploratory, or “wildcat,” oil drilling in the environmentally fragile Apalachicola River Basin. But now, anger from lawmakers, oyster farmers and the public is spewing from the surface.
In fact, more than 1,050 objection letters have already been aimed at DEP. The total number of private citizen comments in support of oil drilling? One.
“The opposition from elected officials and citizens gives me hope,” said Monte Akin, a Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer in Apalachicola’s 4 Mile. “This is about our livelihoods and protecting the ecosystem where our oysters grow. Apalachicola Bay has come a long way and DEP’s actions undermine our progress.”
“I’d like them to explain how they think this is in the public interest,” said Gil Damon, Director of the Downriver Project, a nonprofit that supports fishing and aquaculture along the Forgotten Coast. “They’ve got us staring down the barrel of a disaster for the oyster economy, they’re putting Port St. Joe’s drinking water at risk, the legislators are opposed, and there’s literally 1,000-to-1 opposition from private citizens. It doesn’t make sense.”
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The Downriver Project is among the nonprofit organizations that worked to notify the public about the potential drilling permit in April. “We spread the word very quickly,” said Gil Damon, director of the group, which started in Wakulla County.
The organization’s website describes its work this way: “We unite fishermen, hunters, oyster farmers, faith leaders, troublemakers, and misfits to defend the waters that all of us depend on.”
Within about a week, about 700 people submitted public comment to DEP through the group’s email system, Damon said. “Once people became aware of this, DEP received more comments on this subject in opposition than all previous oil permitting applications in the state of Florida combined,” he said. That’s according to an analysis of public records dating back to 2016.
“The public’s mad,” Damon said.
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What was planned to be a 16-pump gas station on environmentally sensitive land is now on the way to becoming preserved greenspace the size of Tallahassee’s Tom Brown Park.
Thank the Florida Legislature's budget negotiators.
The final 2024-25 state budget to be voted on this Friday includes $3.7 million for Conservation Florida to buy 225 acres at the intersection of U.S. 319 and State Road 267, 14 miles south of the Capitol in Wakulla County. Gov. Ron DeSantis would have to sign off on the expenditure.
…Two years ago, the SunStop Oil Company announced plans to build a gas station at the site – four miles west of Wakulla Springs, the world’s largest known freshwater spring, and an international tourist attraction whose jungle-like ambience has been used for background in horror and disaster movies.
When the Wakulla County Commission met to approve a zoning ordinance to allow the gas station, car wash and convenience store development, an audience of more than 400 people turned out in 119-degree heat, filling the commission chamber and parking lot behind the courthouse.
But the zoning item was pulled from the meeting agenda and the project has remained stalled.
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The largest turnout for a Wakulla County Commission meeting anyone can remember coupled with excessive heat produced a stunning victory Monday night for a coalition of spring defenders.
They were able to delay and possibly derail plans by the Southwest Georgia Oil Company to construct a mega-gas station four miles from the famed Wakulla Springs.
The announcement that the commission was pushing the pause button on an amendment to the comprehensive plan and a request to change the zoning of a parcel came after less than 30 minutes of public testimony in opposition to the proposal.
About 400 people turned out in 100 degree temperatures for Monday's meeting of the Wakulla County Commission
The parcel of land at issue is currently zoned for agriculture and sits above a serpentine cave through which an underground river flows and connects the aquifer to Wakulla Springs, the world's largest known freshwater spring.
This is the second time the rezoning request and comprehensive plan change have been tabled after a large turnout to a commission meeting.
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WAKULLA SPRINGS, FLORIDA — Plans to build a gas station complex directly over Chip’s Hole Cave, a blue-water source leading directly to Wakulla Springs, has local residents up in arms.
Wakulla Springs is one of the world’s largest and deepest freshwater springs. Its sapphire waters are home to manatees, alligators and other wildlife – a popular tourist destination for a century.
Now, Southwest Georgia Oil Company wants to build a large 16-pump gas station complex with a car wash and convenience store over a sensitive water source – a cave below the ground that feeds the springs with fresh water.
“If you drop a ping pong ball in this cave, it will pop up in Wakulla Springs eight days later,” says retired Wakulla Springs park manager Pete Scalco, who is part of the coalition fighting the project.
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A majority of Wakulla Commissioners are racing ahead with zoning changes — while stifling public comment — which will allow a gas station to be built on top of one of the amazing underwater caves which supplies the crystal-clear water that makes Wakulla Springs so special.
The awful plan calls for 16 gas pumps and petroleum storage tanks placed on top of a limestone cave that could collapse into a sinkhole at any time, spilling its contents into the pristine waters of Wakulla.
One gallon of gas can poison a million gallons of groundwater.
This is insane.
Full Article
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Concerned citizens organized community forum sessions to explore alternative proposals that could gain approval.
The people who gathered to hammer out a proposed ordinance included “fishing and aquaculture experts, professors, divers, retirees, scientists,” the Wakulla paper reported. One key part of the ordinance called for petroleum tanks to be set back from the underground caverns.
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I’m particularly alarmed by the Wakulla County administrator blatantly misrepresenting DEP’s position to the commissioners. He told them that DEP “wouldn’t approve” the higher regulations that so many residents wanted. Comprehensive planning laws give the commission the power to protect important natural resources.
The administrator confused regulatory laws with planning laws. When a reporter contacted DEP, they said the exact opposite was true. Here’s the full quote: “The authority to enact a local ordinance — such as the proposed Wakulla Springs Water Quality Protection Regulation — rests solely with the county.”
The county has the authority to adopt more protective measures for natural resources and the state doesn’t have to approve it, just allow it to be adopted.
Our state and local leaders should not put the community through this gas station charade once again. Subjecting Wakulla Springs to environmental contamination was not a good idea in 1995 and is not a good idea today.
When local government moves this fast, it’s usually for one reason – they don’t want the public to be fully aware of what is happening.
I salute the residents and advocacy groups mobilizing to oppose this effort. There is simply no way a gas station – a gas station – should be located over this cave and threaten the Springs that have been such a cherished memory for so many Floridians and at least one former DEP director for so many years.
With passion, I say: Please stop this gas station rezoning and protect Wakulla Springs.
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Next year will mark the 70th anniversary of the “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” portions of which were filmed in Wakulla Springs.
Metaphors never looked so scary.
In case you have missed the news, a Georgia gas station company is intent on building a new mega-station on top of an underwater cave that feeds the Springs. Wakulla County Commissioners will consider the matter at a Monday afternoon meeting.
Environmentalists — and anyone with common sense — fear this could lead to a disaster that turns Wakulla Springs into a literal black lagoon.
Southwest Georgia Oil is the company, and it manages gas stations like Inland and Sunstop. Unfortunately, its track record reads like a horror movie script. As of April 2022, the company is responsible for 44 historically contaminated gas station facilities. In Quincy, a SW Georgia Oil gas station was found in 2019 to be the source of a petroleum spill that spread a quarter mile.
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Not only had the commissioners bought land from one of their former colleagues, Damon explained, but the county’s analysis of the property made no mention of the fact that it is full of sinkholes, as is the property next door. That’s particularly bad, Damon said, because the county’s original plan called for a disposal method of basically dumping the wastewater straight into the aquifer.
I checked with an expert on that subject.
“I went down to the site and it was very obviously full of sinkhole lakes,” hydrologist Doug Barr, former executive director of the Northwest Florida Water Management District, told me. The sinkholes show that Moore’s former property sits atop a type of limestone geology known as karst that’s full of holes, allowing water and other liquids to shoot through it with little to stop them.
Put that treated wastewater there, Barr said, and everything in it is likely to show up in nearby residents’ drinking water wells. That includes pharmaceuticals and cancer-causing chemicals, neither of which are removed during the sewage treatment process.
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Springs advocates are simmering to a boil over Wakulla County’s apparent plans to divert wastewater to a porous plain four miles from the world’s largest known freshwater spring.
The county commission agreed to spend a quarter of a million dollars to design and construct an artificial wetland to filter effluent on 100 acres at U.S 98 and Spring Creek Highway, known locally as the Moore property.
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Pollute, pay, repeat. That’s the governing rhythm in Wakulla County, as taxes are paid so developers can pollute. Now, locals are fighting back.
How the Scheme Works
First, the Wakulla County government takes state funding to remove high-polluting residential septic tanks, especially in zones where the groundwater is closely connected to Wakulla Springs. The Department of Environmental Protection pays millions to connect these homes to a clean public sewer system. On paper, this successfully removes nitrogen pollution and protects North Florida’s most treasured spring.
But here’s the catch: After spending millions of state dollars to remove septic tanks, Wakulla’s commissioners allow more septic tanks into the same area. That way, taxpayers, not housing developers, have to pay the steep cost of connecting to the sewer system. The cycle repeats and the water stays dirty.
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Septic tanks are a big water pollution problem around Florida. The state is spending millions of tax dollars converting old septic tanks over to connections to sewer plants or better septic systems.
Gil Damon of [the Downriver Project] told me last week that one of the places where the state’s doing that is in Wakulla County. The Watkins development, he said, “is within a mile of where they’re doing a current septic to sewer conversion project.”
A June letter from the state’s Department of Economic Opportunity to Wakulla’s commissioners makes the Watkins project sound even worse. It notes that “the site is surrounded by numerous septic-to-sewer projects.” Surrounded!
The state’s spending $76 million trying to rid Wakulla of polluting septic tanks, according to the Northwest Florida Water Management District. So far it’s gotten rid of more than 1,009 of them.
Yet even as the state is moving Wakulla forward by spending lots of our money, Wakulla’s commissioners are taking the county backwards.