The U.S. Army Corps says it has not found any "clear evidence" of adverse impacts to Big Cypress National Preserve caused by Burnett Oil Co. exploration work in 2017 and 2018. This image was taken on March 6, 2020/Kurt Repanshek

While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday that it hasn't found any "clear evidence" of adverse impacts from an oil company's exploratory work in Big Cypress National Preserve, an outside consultant who visited the preserve in March to examine the work has found a number of significant impacts to the landscape that could remain for years if not properly addressed.

Damage to the preserve's marl prairie by the vibroseis vehicles used by Burnett Oil Co. to search for recoverable oil deposits beneath Big Cypress "is not expected to be fully restored for many years to come," was the assessment of Mary James of Quest ecology, an environmental consultant retained by the Natural Resources Defense Council to monitor the oil company's impacts on the preserve.

At Big Cypress, the National Park Service owns the surface of the more than 720,000-acre landscape, while the mineral rights are privately owned – energy exploration and possible development were allowed in the enabling legislation that in 1974 made Big Cypress the country’s first national preserve.

In 2017 and again in 2018 Burnett Oil conducted seismic exploration in Big Cypress, using viborseis vehicles that can weigh upwards of 60,000 pounds to shake the earth. This creates ground-penetrating seismic waves, which then are picked up by small instruments called “geophones.” Geologists use the waves to create three-dimensional maps of the underlying ground.

However, these pondrous trucks also knock down just about anything in their path, and greatly impact the earth. During a field visit to Big Cypress on March 6, I along with Traveler Contributing Writer Kim O'Connell observed some of the impacts as James and John Meyer, a retired wetlands scientist who had spent much of his career with the South Florida Water Management District, visited seismic line sites that Burnett Oil's consultant had assessed for impacts.

Some of the seismic lines were regaining their vegetative cover, others bore rutted troughs unnaturally holding water; certain sites were practically devoid of vegetation despite the preserve’s subtropical climate and highly diverse botanical collection.

When the Park Service agreed to let the exploratory work take place, it gave the oil company four dozen mitigation requirements it had to meet. One of those was a requirement that ruts, depressions, and vehicle tracks resulting from field operations be restored to original contour conditions concurrent with daily operations using shovels and rakes to prevent the creation of new trails.

Another was that field reclamation of impacts would begin immediately as the survey continued. Soils were to be decompacted and returned to match the original grade. If the Park Service later determined that revegetation of the disturbed areas was necessary, then the areas would be identified and Burnett Oil would have to plant native species in a specific pattern, species composition, and density as defined by the Park Service.

A video made by the Traveler on March 6 seemed to show significant impacts to the preserve's landscape, particularly in light of the National Park Service's requirements. 

That same day, the Army Corps chief of compliance and enforcement for its Jacksonville, Florida, District, Robert Halbert, sent Burnett Oil President Charles Nagel a letter stating that the exploration work was in fact “mechanized land clearing, ditching and channelization,” activities that “caused an impact that resulted in a change in the bottom elevation of the wetland, that the activity caused an identifiable individual and cumulative adverse effect on aquatic function, and that the survey had the adverse effect of degrading a water of the U.S.”

But last week the district's commander, Col. Andrew D. Kelly, Jr., reversed that position, writing Nagel that after talking with Big Cypress staff he was rescinding "the conclusions specified in the previous letter and asserts no further action is being taken by Jacksonville District or required of Burnett for its completed seismic survey."

Traveler reached out Monday to John H. Campbell, chief of the district's corporate communications office, to ask what specifically changed the colonel's mind. On Tuesday, Campbell told Traveler in an email that, "(A) staff member from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted a site visit on February 4 in response to a query.  During the visit, we observed some areas that appeared to be rutted in the past by heavy equipment. Burnett Oil Company had previously undertaken exploratory activities in the area. On March 6, the Corps issued a letter to Burnett advising them of our concerns and the need to coordinate on future work within the project area that could be subject to potential regulation.  

"In the time since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued the March 6 letter, we reviewed all current and available information related to Burnett's activities," he went on. "The Corps currently has no clear evidence of any residual adverse effects from Burnett's activities on the hydrology or biology of Big Cypress. The April 7 letter was an attempt to clarify the issue with Burnett."

The reversal surprised NRDC Senior Attorney Alison Kelly.

"As a former Florida wetland enforcement attorney, I am stunned by this change in course," she told Traveler. "However, I think the Corps left the door open to potential regulation of any future seismic activities by the oil company. I can’t imagine how driving 33-ton 'vibroseis' and other vehicles off-road through wetlands would not require a federal Clean Water Act permit. A national park unit deserves the highest level of protections under the law. We will continue to try to work with the Corps to ensure that any future seismic testing obtains Clean Water Act protections."

James, in her report from the March 6 field examination, noted various issues with the depth of some of the seismic lines that were below adjacent, undisturbed land, and problems with revegetation.

"...the incomplete topographic restoration is adversely affecting and will continue to adversely affect the composition of the naturally recruiting vegetation," she wrote. "Most of the impacted seismic lines are dominated or co-dominated by Gulf Coast spikerus, which, although native, is not a dominant or co-dominant species in the adjacent undisturbed marl prairie and cypress strand communities. An almost complete lack of recruiting pondcypress, and the characteristic epiphytes they normally support within the seismic lines amplifies the stark contrast between the impacted and adjacent wetlands," reads James' report.

"Based on observations of remnant soil ruts still devoid of pondcypress within long-abandoned off-road vehicle trails in this area and in other portions of the Preserve, the damage created by the much-heavier vibroseis and other vehicles used in (Burnett Oil's) seismic exploration is not expected to be fully restored for many years to come."

James also wrote that it was critical that the Park Service require Burnett to "restore the seismic lines to match topographic elevations of adjacent undisturbed wetlands..."