3PR is a public interest group dedicated to conservation of land and wildlife resources, environmental health, preservation of biological diversity, toxic waste reduction, and the preservation of coastal and freshwater ecosystems - all of which are currently threatened by the phosphate strip mining and fertilizer industry in central Florida. 3PR’s progeny was two organizations seeking to protect the natural environment of the Peace River watershed: DCAP (Desoto Citizens Against Pollution) and HARDCAP (Hardee Citizens Against Pollution).

3PR was formed in August 2008 consolidating HARDCAP and DCAP into a single entity to continue opposing the expansion of phosphate strip mining in the Peace River watershed by increasing its membership to a regional basis, and furthering the goals of its predecessors. The mercurial rise of 3PR’s interventions and responsibilities in response to the rapid expansion of phosphate mining developments has created a situation in which our resources are continually stretched to the utmost – particularly considering that our bailiwick, Hardee County, is almost exclusively agrarian, one of the state’s poorest counties with a high percentage of Hispanic agricultural workers.

We require additional support to muster personnel and opportunities for member recruitment, and much-needed fund-raising to finance our legal efforts.

Phosphate Mining in the Peace River Watershed

The Peace River flows 106 miles from Lake Hancock in Polk County to the Charlotte Harbor Estuary where it provides fresh water to many fish species and aquatic plant life, as well as drinking water for the human population. A total of about 320,000 acres of land have been strip-mined for phosphate in central Florida. A little less than half this area was not covered by mandatory “reclamation” rules which only commenced in 1975.

Most of this strip mining has occurred in the Peace River watershed. Forty percent or 130,000 acres have been left as clay slime impoundments – impermeable surfaces. In 2005 the Peace River was declared an “endangered river” by American Rivers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of North America's rivers, as a result of dwindling water flow, destruction of flowing springs, and the occurrence of sinkholes in the northern portion of the river.

Phosphate strip mining and fertilizer production, a highly profitable and inherently destructive industry, gained a foothold in Florida in the late 19th century, and has become well entrenched. The extensive irreversible environmental impacts, the disruption and contamination of ground and surface waters and riverine systems have been long considered acceptable trade-offs for short-term economic benefits.

In 2007 the Florida DEP and SWFWMD issued a report called the Peace River Cumulative Impact Study documenting the loss of 340 miles of streams and 137,000 acres of wetlands in the Peace River basin due to urban development, agriculture and phosphate mining. According to this report phosphate mining altered surface and groundwater hydrology by changing soil and land surface composition and structure, and the way water flows over and through the land, affecting the relationship of rainfall to stream flow. Those activities further affected runoff, surface water storage, aquifer recharge and evapotranspiration to the atmosphere. Clay slime impoundments altered the hydrology of mined and adjacent land by acting as holding ponds, decreasing flows to stream channels, and replacing native wetlands and uplands that act as natural recharge areas.

What the Future Holds

Recently, in response to continued requests from 3PR and other environment organizations, the US Army Corps of Engineers has finally ordered an area-wide Environmental Impact Statement to evaluate the cumulative impacts of active mining and reclamation activities and those that are reasonably foreseeable in the Central Florida Phosphate District. All federal permitting is on hold until this process is complete. 3PR will actively participate by contributing our point of view on the range of actions, alternatives, and impacts to be considered as the EIS process unfolds hoping to improve the parameters by which phosphate mining affects the Peace River’s wetlands and streams.