A company that wants to drill for oil near the Apalachicola River has gone to an appeals court after the Florida Department of Environmental Protection last month denied a permit for the project.
Louisiana-based Clearwater Land & Minerals Fla. filed a notice Tuesday that is a first step in appealing the Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to the 1st District Court of Appeal.
The notice, as is common, does not detail arguments that the company will make at the Tallahassee-based appeals court. But it is the latest development in a controversy that spurred state lawmakers in April to pass a measure aimed at preventing oil drilling near the Apalachicola River and Apalachicola Bay.
The Department of Environmental Protection last year approved a draft permit for Clearwater Land & Minerals to drill an exploratory well in an unincorporated part of Calhoun County, which is between Tallahassee and Panama City.
But the environmental group Apalachicola Riverkeeper challenged the draft permit at the state Division of Administrative Hearings. Opponents argued, in part, that oil spills could harm the river and bay, which the state and federal governments have long taken steps to try to protect.
Administrative Law Judge Lawrence P. Stevenson in April issued a 53-page recommended order that said the permit should be denied. Under administrative law, the issue then went back to the department for a final decision.
Reversing course on last year’s draft-permit decision, the department on June 16 issued an order denying the permit. Clearwater Land & Minerals is appealing that order.
In his recommendation, Stevenson wrote that the proposed site would be within the 100-year floodplain of the river, was within a mile of two ponds that are hydrologically connected to the river and was surrounded by swamplands. In addressing last year’s draft permit, he wrote that the “DEP and Clearwater took an exceedingly narrow view of the scope of the project for purposes of environmental review, limiting it to the immediate location of the drilling pad on the site.”
“A spill would have catastrophic consequences due to the proximity of the well to nearby streams, wetlands and ponds,” Stevenson wrote.
But Clearwater Land & Minerals has argued that the environment would be protected in the project. Also the Department of Environmental Protection in 2019 approved a permit for another company to drill on the same Calhoun County site. That company did not end up drilling.
Two days after Stevenson issued his recommendation, the state House on April 30 gave final approval to a bill aimed at preventing oil drilling near the Apalachicola River. The bill would effectively prevent drilling within 10 miles of the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill (HB 1143) on June 26, 10 days after the Department of Environmental protection denied the Clearwater Land & Minerals permit.
While relatively unusual for Florida, companies have long drilled for oil around the Santa Rosa County community of Jay and in parts of Southwest Florida.
