Breaking: Triumph For Citizens in Florida As Hughes Oil Company Drops Fracking Project

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On Friday morning, Dan A. Hughes Oil Companyย and the Collier Resources Companyย agreed to terminate their lease agreement, with the exception of the Collier Hogan 20-3H well, next to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuaryย in Naples,ย Florida.ย 

Hughes Oil dropped its plans to drill an exploratory well adjacent to the Golden Gates Estates development.

โ€œWe are very happy that Hughes wonโ€™t drill next to our home,โ€ย Pamela Duran, who lives 1,000 feet away from the previously proposed drill site, told DeSmogBlog.

โ€œI think the whole neighborhood feels like there is a heavy weight taken off our shoulders,โ€ sheย said.


Pamela Duran in front of her house in Naples, Florida.ย ยฉ2014ย Julieย Dermansky


Site nextย to theย Golden Gates Estates development whereย Dan A Hughes Company dropped their drilling permit request.ย ยฉ2014 Julieย Dermanskyย 

โ€œWe make this announcement with the knowledge that our activities in the region have caused no harm to the environment and have been fully compliant with Florida Law,โ€ Dan A. Hughes Company stated this morning in a letter published by the Naples Daily News.

However, Hughes was caught moving forward with a workover request they made that had been denied by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) last New Years Eve. ย Their work order called for an โ€œenhanced extractionโ€ procedure synonymous to fracking, which had never been done before inย Florida.


Aerial view of theย Collier Hogan 20-3H well siteย in May 2014, weeks after a spill was reported to the Florida regulatory agency.ย ยฉ2014ย Julieย Dermansky

โ€œThe department became aware of workover operations being conducted because our inspector observed them while on site,โ€ Dee Ann Mill, spokesperson for the regulatory agency, toldย DeSmogBlog.

The regulatory agency issued a Ceaseย and Desist Orderย and fined Hughes Oil $25,000. They also โ€œcompelled the company to pay a third-party independent expert to perform the groundwater monitoring and investigations needed to ensure no harm to groundwater resources had resulted from the companyโ€™sย work-over operations,โ€ according toย Miller.ย 

โ€œThe chronology of events remains suspicious. Neither Hughes nor the FDEP will disclose just what Hughes did under cover of darkness last New Year’s Eve, claiming it is a โ€œtrade secret,โ€ statesย Preserve Our Paradiseย inc., a community based environmental group.ย โ€But assume it was a frack job. ย Hughes got the job done while both Hughes and the FDEP got plausible deniability,โ€ the group wrote on their blog.ย ย 

โ€œThe FDEP eventually announced it had fined Hughes $25,000โ€“more of a handshake than a slap-on-the-wristโ€“and Hughes can claim, as it started to do in court, that the FDEP had not told Hughes to stop its plans within the originally agreed upon Dec. 30thย timeframe.โ€ย 

The regulatorโ€™s lack of transparency has frustrated the public and the Collier Council Commissioners, who have been at odds with the FDEP.

โ€œThere are still many existing demands we have of Dan A. Hughes in order for them to continue their operations at the Collier Hogan site,โ€ FDEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. said today.ย โ€œWe will be prepared to take action after the July 15 deadline, in accordance with what they have chosen to do or not to do.โ€

Collier County commissioners are still pursuing their own administrative challenge to the Collier Hogan well and are asking for a revocation of the consent order and the wellโ€™s permit, Naples News reports.

โ€œThis is a huge victory for us,โ€ย Alexis Meyer, representative of the Sierra Club’s Florida panther critical habitat campaign,ย told DeSmogBlog. โ€œBut this doesn’t fix the deficient enforcement of the Hogan Collier well. Given Floridaโ€™s hydrology and that the area is part of environmentally sensitive land, a permit for this well should never haveย beenย issued.โ€ย 

Water from this area flows south, so if the aquifer is contaminated, water will flow into the Everglades.

Without a moratorium on fracking, Florida is still not safe from the fracking industry because another company could still lease land from Collierย Resources.ย 


Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples Florida still threatened by theย Collier Hogan 20-3H drill site operated by the Dan A Hughes Company.ย ยฉ2014ย Julieย Dermansky

Meyer and others in the community are still calling for an independent third party to do water testing at the Collier Hogan site.ย The tests done so far sampled water from a depth of thirteen feet, despite the depth of the drill site being over 12,000ย feet.ย 

The battle to stop drilling in the area has consumed the Duransโ€™ life for the past 15 months. ย 

โ€œWe were tired, sad, angry, bullied, threatened, and wanted to give up many times, thinking โ€˜what good is it to fight against these oil companiesโ€™? We told ourselves many times if we stop they will win,โ€ย Pamela Duran toldย DeSmogBlog.

โ€œWe knew if we fought and gave it our all, at least we could sleep knowing that we did everything we could. If not us then who? This is a victory for Florida. I hope more and more people learn about their environment andย stand up for the further generations. Never give up,โ€ Duranย said.

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Julie Dermansky is a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers Universityโ€™s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Visit her website at www.jsdart.com.

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