‘This bill protects our precious waters’: how a Florida environmental group scored a win against big oil | Florida

TThe giant and catastrophic oil spill Deepwater Horizon, also known as the BP oil spill, did not reach Apalachicola bay in 2010, but the threat of oil reaching this beautiful expanse of the Côte du Northern Northern Gulf of Northern Florida was still sufficient to devastate the region’s economy.

The member of the Florida State Congress, Jason Shoaf, remembers how the threat affected the bay.

“This has harmed our commercial fishing, our aquaculture operations and our oil threat has removed tourists for months,” recalls Shoaf. “Companies have been forced to close, jobs have been lost and the disaster has reshaped our region forever.”

These memories were freshly triggered in April 2024, when the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) granted a permit to the land and minerals of Clearwater, based in Louisiana, for the drilling of exploratory oil on the Basin de la Rivière Apalachicola. Thus, residents of the region, as well as environmental and business groups, have formed a coalition of drilling killers to oppose the license.

A year later, the efforts of the coalition and an administrative dispute of the DEP license by the APALACHICOLA non -profit rivers prevailed when judge Lawrence P Stevenson recommended the ministry to refuse the permit.

In May, the DEP reversed the course and denied the license.

But that was not enough to convince those who sought to preserve the environment of the region. Shoaf, which represents the region of the Côte du Gulf du Northeast of Florida, applauded the DEP decision, but says that the threat of oil exploration and drilling near the interior waterways in northern Florida would only be completed with a permanent ban. Thus, to prevent future threats and the DEP from issuing other oil exploratory drilling permits, the Shoaf and the representative of the Allison state so co-author of the house Bill 1143.

“Although the Clearwater Terrors and mineral permit has been refused, we cannot assume that the next one will be,” says Shoaf. “HB 1143 protects our precious water resources and ecosystems that depend on them by prohibiting drilling, exploration and production of oil, gas and other oil products within 10 miles of a national estuarian research reserve in counties designated as rural areas of opportunity.

In April, the legislator adopted massively HB 1143 with a single dissident vote in the Senate. It was presented to the Governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, on June 18. And, despite a recent bad record on environmental protection, Desantis signed the bill last week – awarding the coalition that pressure for an enthusiastic victory.

The now saved area of ​​the petroleum industry is invaluable both to nature and to the people who live there. The Apalachicola river, formed by the meeting of the Chattahochée and Flint rivers, flows 160 miles (258 km) to the Baie d’Apalachicola and the Gulf. The river and the bay are essential to the tourism and seafood production industries in the region.

For environmental activists, the success of their efforts could help rest the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which released nearly 3.19 million barrels of oil in the Gulf.

“BP spill has not reached our ribs, but the damage caused by the threat was sufficient,” said so much. “We have seen what can happen. We lived it. It is not theoretical. It was a perilous moment for small businesses and for those who lived in the region. This has stopped tourism and small businesses.

Adrianne Johnson is executive director of Florida Shellfish Aquaculture Association which represents more than 350 soeufs of crustaceans in Florida. Johnson, from Apalachicola, was involved in the Kill The Drill movement for personal and commercial reasons.

“This region has a deep collective memory of the way the oil spill of the Gulf has devastated the regional economy and collapsed the oyster industry in Apalachicola bay,” said Johnson. “And it was only the threat of oil. The majority of oyster farms in the state operate in the counties of Wakulla, Franklin and Gulf, and these downstream zones would be the most affected by the drilling upstream upstream (on the proposed site of the Calhoun County).

Johnson also points to the frequent natural disasters linked to the weather conditions of the region, such as hurricanes, because another reason for which drilling was to be prohibited in the region.

“Our crustacean farmers are always recovering multiple hurricas from 2024,” she explains. “But the reality of being a Florida farmer is to be faced with these events related to weather conditions. Hurricane and natural disasters are out of our control. Allowing oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas is very under our control and is an unnecessary threat to our industry. ”

So much agrees.

“We are a state-subject state to hurricanes,” she says. “We cannot get away from that. This is not a question of what we will be struck by a hurricane because we know that it will happen. But a dark tide caused by a hurricane would aggravate the disaster 100 times.”

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the dark tide of Deep Horizon caused the loss of 8.3 billion oysters, the death of nearly 105,400 sea birds, 7,600 adults and 160,000 juvenile maritime turtles and a decrease of 51% of dolphins in the barataria bay of Louisiane.

Craig Diamond, current member of the Board of Directors and former President of Apalachicola Riverkeeper, said another factor behind the ban was the river system itself.

“A spill would have a very impactful impact given the existing constraints of the system,” explains Diamond, who worked with the Northwest Florida Water Management District and taught higher education courses on Florida State University. “The Apalachicola Baie river and its allies believe that the long -term risks of the exploitation of fossil fuels in the flood plain or the bay (or in the world) prevail from far -term advantages.”

Shoaf says it was inspired to write HB 1143 by the basic efforts of the community to defend the natural resources of the region.

“This bill is essential to avoid unnecessary and irreparable damage to Apalachicola bay, as well as to savings and ecosystems that depend on it,” he says.

After Desantis signed the bill, the threat of drilling has now retreated in the distance in the foreseeable future.