Oil Driller Sanctioned for Fracking In Florida's Everglades

Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection revealed that it had sanctioned a Texas-based company for unauthorized fracking in in an area surrounded by the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Critics of plans to drill in the Everglades were further dismayed that the fracking and sanctions against the Dan A. Hughes Co. dates back to December, but were not disclosed at lat month's hearings about the Hughes Co.'s Florida activity, the Broward/Palm Beach New Times reports.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is considered the gateway to the Western Everglades.

Hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") entails blasting water and chemicals into the ground to release oil and natural gas. Its effects on human health and the environment is controversial.

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Everglades To Lose Iconic Airboats

The Everglades are are home to a dying breed, and they're not on any official endangered species list. While many would claim that the 'Glades would be environmentally better off once the breed is gone, Keith Price, Don Onstad and Charlie Erwin might beg to differ. "We are the protectors of the Everglades," Charlie Erwin said in a Miami Herald article ("Iconic airboats won’t be part of Everglades culture for much longer").

The three men are among the last of the private airboaters operating in the Everglades National Park. Officials in the park are trying to phase out the airboats, allowing those remaining to be grandfathered in. Once those airboaters are gone, though, others will not be allowed to take their place, if officials have their way.

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