Texas oil company to restart seismic testing in Big Cypress Preserve

A Texas-based oil company will restart seismic testing in Big Cypress National Preserve as soon as conditions are dry enough.

The National Park Service gave the Burnett Oil Co. the go-ahead this month to start on-foot survey work in the preserve.

Soon, the company will restart survey work by using trucks equipped with steel plates that vibrate against the ground to send out signals that indicate whether underground formations might hold oil or gas.

Burnett started the survey for oil early last year but had to stop when the rainy season began. After the company's permit expired in June, it was renewed by the Department of Environmental Protection over the objections of conservation groups that objected to the size of the ruts Burnett's trucks left in the ground and the number and size of trees cleared to make way for the tests.

"These trucks are just extremely disruptive," said Amber Crooks, policy advocate for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. "They dig up the soil. They left ruts as deep as 17 inches. They essentially turned the serene Big Cypress refuge into an industrial area."

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The National Park Service found that Burnett's work would cause minor and temporary impacts to habitat for endangered species such as the Florida panther.

The DEP permit defers to the federal approval and includes requirements that any damage be fixed.

Park officials accompany Burnett throughout their operations, said Dee Ann Miller, DEP spokeswoman.

"The Department (of Environmental Protection) is continuing to coordinate joint inspections with the NPS to ensure that any impacts are minimized and remediated," Miller said.

The DEP permit this year added a requirement that Burnett use smaller and lighter trucks. The company already had made that switch after larger trucks were determined to be unworkable.

The ground still is too wet from Hurricane Irma for Burnett to begin to fix the ruts and damaged trees left behind by the work last year, Miller said.

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Burnett will complete the remediation work, said company spokeswoman Alia Faraj-Johnson.

“Burnett has an unwavering commitment to ensuring any temporarily affected areas are mitigated appropriately under the supervision of the NPS," she said.

The seismic surveys are being used to study a geologic formation called the Sunniland Trend. That formation already has proved to hold oil and has been tapped in the preserve since the 1970s.

Burnett plans to cover 70,000 acres of the preserve with its current survey but has indicated future surveys could cover more than 200,000 acres.