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Florida Power & Light's rock pit project arouses opposition
A county board approved a rock-mining request from FPL, despite questions from environmentalists, farmers and the Air Force.
Florida Power & Light's plan to dig rock pits near Biscayne Bay to provide landfill for two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point drew questions from an unusual array of groups on Monday.
Their concerns -- a potential increase in already serious groundwater intrusion and, for Homestead Air Reserve Base, added risks of bird strikes to military planes -- didn't stop the utility from securing a key approval from a divided Miami-Dade County Planning Advisory Board.
FPL canals criticized as health risk
Environmentalists and national park managers plan to fight FPL's push for rock mining approval at a county hearing, saying Turkey Point plans will put supplies of fresh water at risk.
The 168-mile-long loop of canals that cool the twin nuclear reactors at Turkey Point was dug in the 1970s to avoid pumping billions of gallons of damaging hot water into Biscayne Bay.
More than 30 years later, the solution to one environmental problem has emerged as a prime suspect in another -- an underground saltwater wedge that has pushed miles inland from Florida Power & Light's bayside
plant.