FL "Gets Tough" On Fracking Firm (Just In Time For Scott's Campaign); Sends Sternly-Worded Letter

[hatrack]

The state, in a scathing letter to the company that is drilling in Collier County, gave it two weeks to comply with nine demands or face penalties. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is demanding accountability from a Texas company drilling in rural Collier County, and Friday also put the property owner on notice.

DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. issued a letter Thursday night to the Dan A. Hughes Co., mpany, is drilling at the Collier-Hogan well near Golden Gate Estates. Opponents have labeled the company's actions as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." On Friday afternoon, despite it being a holiday, Vinyard sent a letter to Collier Resources stating his expectation the landowner ensures compliance from its contractor.

"Ultimately, you stand to benefit financially from Dan A. Hughes' operations," Vinyard wrote to Collier Resources senior vice president Tom Jones. "It is your responsibility to ensure that activities by your contractor on your properties do not adversely impact the families of Collier County or the environment. As we have called on Dan A. Hughes to fulfill their obligations to families, we expect that you hold your contractor accountable and require the company to fulfill these obligations before the July 15 deadline."

EDIT

The Florida DEP fined Hughes $25,000 in April (Ed. - Oooohhh!) and required groundwater testing after it used an "enhanced extraction procedure" at the Collier-Hogan well. Collier County is seeking to have the company's drilling permit revoked. Aerial photographs and on-the-ground assessments, according to the state, have exposed oil sheen that allegedly results from Hughes' technique of spraying oil into truck tanks.

Hughes' spokesman David Blackmon said the company has seen DEP's directive. "We find the press release quite extraordinary given the constant and open dialogue the company has been engaged in with the DEP at multiple points of contact over the last several months," he said. "Our goal has been to communicate with the department in a manner that is traditional of a relationship between a regulator and its regulated industry."

EDIT

http://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/naples/2014/07/04/florida-drilling-company-demands-face-fines/12209927/

[djean111]

1. Yeah, there is going to be a LOT of useless sounds-good bullshit excreted by Rick Scott

in the coming months. And, behind the campaign blather, business will go on as usual.
Since Crist has already been governor, I am assuming he will know where to look to show what really happens.

Scathing letter. Big fucking deal.
$25,000? Probably what a crony-filled golf weekend costs.