Florida Guides Win a Round Against an Everglades Rock Mine. The Fight Isn’t Over.

A settlement has produced an amended Environmental Resources Permit for a proposed rock mine in Florida’s Everglades Agricultural Area, clarifying the project’s approved scope and requiring new permits for any expansion—but the project survives, and Army Corps review is still pending.

A February settlement among the Tropical Audubon Society, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and mine operator Phillips & Jordan has produced an amended Environmental Resources Permit for a proposed rock mine in the Everglades Agricultural Area, establishing that DEP approval covers only 1,337 acres of excavation within a 2,242-acre first-phase footprint—and does not greenlight the full 8,632-acre site. For fishing guides and conservation groups who have fought for more than a year to protect one of the country’s premier saltwater fisheries, it is a partial victory.

The settlement resolves a challenge Tropical Audubon filed against the DEP’s May 29, 2025 Notice of Intent for the Southland Water Resource Project—the name Phillips & Jordan gave to what opponents call a limestone rock mine dressed up as a restoration reservoir. Phillips & Jordan, which had intervened in the challenge, is also a party to the settlement. Any mining beyond the 1,337-acre first phase will require new permit applications and full environmental review. It does not kill the project.

What’s at Stake

The Everglades’ flats and backcountry are among the most sought-after fly fishing destinations in the country—prime water for tarpon, snook, and redfish. How much of that fishery survives the next few decades hinges on a single construction project: the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir (EAA Reservoir), a nearly $4 billion, 10,500-acre impoundment being built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers south of Lake Okeechobee. When complete, it will store and clean polluted lake water before sending it south through the Everglades to Florida Bay. The Army Corps describes it as likely one of the largest above-ground reservoirs in the nation.

That reservoir is what the mine threatens.

The proposed mine site sits on land owned by U.S. Sugar Corporation and a Florida Crystals subsidiary. Captains for Clean Water says it would be roughly 1,000 feet from the reservoir. Phillips & Jordan, a national infrastructure contractor, filed an unsolicited application to mine limestone there on July 1, 2024—the day Florida enacted statutes allowing unsolicited restoration proposals. The company says the excavated pits would eventually hold up to 40 billion gallons of water, contributing to Everglades restoration after a 34-year mining operation—its county application specifies blasting in 13 phases from 2025 through 2059. Capt. Chris Wittman, co-founder of Captains for Clean Water, argues that framing obscures what the project really is: a limestone extraction operation the organization estimates is worth more than $800 million.

Will Buehn, the organization’s director of education and awareness, warned that blasting next to the EAA Reservoir could compromise its structural integrity, triggering polluted discharges that kill seagrasses and cause large-scale fish die-offs in the estuaries.

How Guides Got Involved

Captains for Clean Water has led the opposition. Wittman and Capt. Daniel Andrews co-founded the organization in February 2016; Andrews later left his charter business to serve as executive director. Both built their careers as southwest Florida fishing guides. The group had already spent years pushing Everglades restoration and fighting discharge-fueled algal blooms before the Southland application landed.

Wittman testified at the Palm Beach County Commission’s May 22, 2025 hearing, where commissioners unanimously approved zoning for the full 8,632-acre project. He was one of dozens of guides, scientists, and concerned citizens who filled the hearing hall. Commissioners cut the standard three-minute public comment period to two minutes per speaker—including for legal and scientific experts who are typically given more time. Video from that hearing has since drawn more than 6 million views on Captains for Clean Water’s YouTube channel.

After the county vote, the project still needed state permitting. On May 29, the DEP issued a Notice of Intent to grant an Environmental Resources Permit—the action Tropical Audubon would later challenge. The Everglades Law Center filed that legal challenge in August 2025 on behalf of Tropical Audubon and two of its members—José Francisco Barros and Brian Rapoza, the organization’s president and vice president—who bird the EAA and testified to the mine’s potential harm to the area’s wildlife. A two-week hearing before Administrative Law Judge Francine Ffolkes was scheduled for late February 2026. The settlement came five days before it was set to begin.

What the Settlement Actually Does

The deal adds specificity to the DEP’s permit: it clarifies that approval covers only the general location of 13 planned excavation cells, mandates water quality monitoring if water moves to or from the site, and requires a new permit for any design changes. The Everglades Law Center said the changes are meant to assure greater public scrutiny on future phases.

The settlement stops there. It does not limit the project’s total footprint or prevent Phillips & Jordan from eventually seeking permits for all 8,000-plus acres as a water resource project. Any such expansion requires new permit applications and full environmental review.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers review remains open. In a July 2025 letter to Florida Rep. Brian Mast, the Corps raised concerns about seepage risks and potential effects on the EAA Reservoir’s water management operations. The Corps has no authority to halt the permitting process.

Under an agreement Florida and the Army Corps struck in July 2025, the EAA Reservoir is targeted for completion in 2029—five years ahead of the prior deadline. What remains of the Everglades when it opens will depend in part on what happens next with Phillips & Jordan’s permit.