A rock mining project in sugarcane fields near a significant Everglades restoration project is being dramatically scaled back under a settlement announced Thursday.
Under the deal, the 8,000-acre mining operation expected to last 40 years will now only be permitted to a quarter of that size.
“The applicant sought to push this project through before analyzing how it would affect the Everglades ecosystem,” Tropical Audubon board president José Francisco Barros said in a statement. “That ‘build first, analyze later’ approach is not how projects intended to benefit the Everglades should be evaluated.”…