弗羅里達州將購買大沼澤地以防止家庭鉆探石油

弗羅里達州將購買大沼澤地以防止家庭鉆探石油

The state of Florida says it will purchase a section of land in the Everglades, effectively ending one prominent family's plans to drill for oil in an ecosystem unlike any other on the planet. If all goes as planned, it will be the state's largest land acquisition in a decade and a peaceful settlement of a dispute that had gone on for years.

佛羅里達州表示，它將在大沼澤地購買一塊土地，這實際上終止了一個顯赫家族在地球上獨一無二的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中開采石油的計劃。如果一切按計劃進行，這將是這個國家十年來最大的一次土地收購，也是一場持續(xù)多年的爭端的和平解決。

The Everglades is a vast but delicate ecosystem that supports plants, wildlife and the humans who live near it. (Photo: Alan Sandercock [CC BY 2.0]/Flickr)

The state has until June 30 to buy the 20,000-acre tract and prevent the threat of drilling on protected lands in Broward County, according to The Miami Herald. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was a key negotiator in the agreement, which says the state will pay $16.5 million by June 30 or $18 million if it misses that deadline.

據(jù)《邁阿密先驅(qū)報》報道，該州必須在6月30日前買下這片2萬英畝的土地，并防止在布勞沃德縣受保護的土地上進行鉆探。佛羅里達州州長德桑蒂斯是該協(xié)議的關(guān)鍵談判代表。協(xié)議規(guī)定，該州將在6月30日之前支付1,650萬美元，如果達不到最后期限，將支付1,800萬美元。

Litigation to preserve the Everglades

保護大沼澤地的訴訟

The proposed Kanter well would have been located near Interstate 75, a section of which (pictured) is also known as Alligator Alley for its proximity to the Everglades. (Photo: Felix Mizioznikov/Shutterstock)

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection or FDEP denied the permit, and Kanter took that decision to court, first to an administrative law court. The judge determined the land to be environmentally degraded and isolated enough from water sources for drilling to proceed, and ordered the permit to be issued. The First District Court of Appeal concurred with that ruling, even using the judge's determination about the land as "factual findings."

佛羅里達環(huán)境保護部(FDEP)拒絕了這一許可，坎特將這一決定訴諸法庭，首先是行政法庭。法官判定這片土地環(huán)境退化，與水源足夠隔離，可以進行鉆探，并下令頒發(fā)許可證。第一地方上訴法院同意這一裁決，甚至將法官對土地的裁決作為“事實調(diào)查結(jié)果”。

The FDEP said its denial of the permit was based on protecting the Everglades, regardless of whether the proposed site is degraded. "It looked beyond the vicinity of the well pad and concluded that the broader region, in this case the Everglades as [a] whole, was environmentally sensitive and should be protected," the department said in its filing, as reported by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

FDEP表示，其拒絕發(fā)放許可證的理由是，無論擬議中的濕地是否退化，都要保護大沼澤地。根據(jù)《南佛羅里達太陽哨兵報》的報道，國土安全部在申報文件中稱:“它的調(diào)查范圍超出了油井周邊地區(qū)，得出的結(jié)論是，范圍更廣的地區(qū)，也就是大沼澤地作為一個整體，對環(huán)境敏感，應(yīng)該受到保護。”

The history of oil and water in the Everglades

大沼澤地石油和水的歷史

The vibrant landscape of the Florida Everglades has been described as a 'river of grass,' which refers to the sawgrass marshes and a name the Seminole Tribe gave the large body of water: Okeechobee. (Photo: Kao Akana [CC BY-SA 2.0]/Flickr)

Florida isn't a major oil producer. According to CityLab, Florida has more than 1,000 active wells, but no new wells have opened since 1988. The state produces fewer than 2 million barrels a year. Texas, by comparison, has more than 180,000 wells and produces between 4 million and 5.6 million barrels a day.

佛羅里達不是主要的石油生產(chǎn)國。根據(jù)CityLab的數(shù)據(jù)，佛羅里達有1000多口井，但自1988年以來沒有新井投產(chǎn)。該州每年的石油產(chǎn)量不足200萬桶。相比之下，德州擁有18萬多口油井，日產(chǎn)油400萬至560萬桶。

The state's lack of recent experience has made critics nervous about new wells, since they argue it increases the likelihood of spills and seeping. "Florida has very little infrastructure, very little oversight of oil and gas activities, compared to other states," Rob Jackson, a professor of Earth system science at Stanford University, tells CityLab.

該州最近缺乏經(jīng)驗，這讓批評人士對新油井感到緊張，因為他們認為新油井增加了漏油和滲漏的可能性。“與其他州相比，佛羅里達州的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施很少，對石油和天然氣活動的監(jiān)管也很少，”斯坦福大學地球系統(tǒng)科學教授羅布·杰克遜告訴CityLab。

And any spill near the Everglades could be a serious problem for the environment, not to mention wildlife and people. CityLab recounts a 2003 U.S. Geological Survey test in which scientists drilled a small hole into a wall protecting the water supply in a protected area, then injected a harmless dye known as rhodamine into the hole. They expected the dye to slowly work its way through the water supply; instead, dye appeared in Miami taps and washing machines before the day was even over.

大沼澤地附近的任何泄漏都可能對環(huán)境造成嚴重問題，更不用說野生動物和人類了。CityLab詳細敘述了2003年美國地質(zhì)調(diào)查局的一項測試。在這項測試中，科學家們在一堵保護區(qū)內(nèi)水源的墻上鉆了一個小洞，然后將一種名為羅丹明的無害染料注入洞中。他們希望染料能慢慢地穿過供水系統(tǒng);相反，染料甚至在一天結(jié)束之前就出現(xiàn)在邁阿密的水龍頭和洗衣機里。

The test illustrated how sensitive and interconnected Florida's water systems can be. Miami receives most of its drinking water from the Biscayne Aquifer, where porous limestone holds a large mass of groundwater close to the surface. This makes it an easy candidate for contamination.

測試顯示了佛羅里達的水系統(tǒng)是多么的敏感和相互關(guān)聯(lián)。邁阿密的大部分飲用水來自比斯坎含水層，那里的多孔石灰?guī)r在地表附近儲存了大量的地下水。這使得它很容易被污染。

"If something goes wrong [with the Kanter well], you have the potential to foul drinking water," Jackson says.

“如果(坎特井)出了問題，就有可能污染飲用水，”杰克遜說。

There's also the issue of where Kanter wanted to drill. The site is in the eastern portion of Water Protection Area 3A, which "is by many accounts the best-conserved part of the Everglades," Matthew Cohen, a professor of forest water resources and watershed systems at the University of Florida, tells CityLab. "It's the part of the Everglades that probably looks closest to how the Everglades used to look."

還有一個問題是坎特想在哪里鉆探。佛羅里達大學森林水資源和流域系統(tǒng)教授馬修·科恩告訴CityLab，該遺址位于3A水域保護區(qū)的東部，“從很多方面來看，這是大沼澤地保存最完好的部分。這是大沼澤地的一部分，可能看起來最像以前的大沼澤地。”