Nora Demers Homepage   

Graphic by Sydney Bacchus, PhD

 

First International Conference on

Mining Impacts to the Human and Natural Environments

March 15, 2008 Best Western Conference Center Punta Gorda, FL

 

 

 

Record of Program- with audio and power point presentations

 

Welcome!

Thank you for your interest in the conference.  Below you will find hyperlinks for the presentations - both in power point and an audio file.  Check back to this site periodically for more related links and resources.  The conference was held on the Ides of March, and we believe that this page contains valuable resources to help John Q Public inform and engage our elected officials in ensuring that Florida remains a desirable place to live.  Thanks for all you are doing in that regard.

 

Click here for Biographies of the Conference speakers

Schedule of Events

Morning Group Sessions – Human and Wildlife Impacts

8:00-9:00     Welcome and Session Moderator – Bill Wilcox, Edison College

                   Northern Florida

“Regulatory Inadequacies and Mining Impacts in the Lower Withlacoochee River Watershed”

Citrus and Levy Counties – Ron Armstrong, P.E. & Jack McCarthy, Withlacoochee Area Residents website

Listen to these resident's presentation

“Mine Activities in the Ocklawaha Basin: Inadequate Disclosure and Improper Siting”

Putnam County–Rob Brinkman, the Suwanee-St. Johns Group of the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club

Listen to Mr. Brinkman's presentation

 

9:00-10:00   Central Florida

“Inadequate Public Input on Offsite and Long-term Adverse Impacts of Phosphate Mining in the Peace River Basin: Lake Hancock to Charlotte Harbor Estuary”

                        Hardee County – Dennis Mader, People for Protecting Peace River

                                Listen to Mr. Mader's presentation

 

“Phosphate Mining Impacts, Gyp Stacks and Gaps in Agency Regulation“

Manatee and Sarasota Counties – Glenn Compton, ManaSota-88

                                                                                                website maintained by ManaSota-88  http://www.ourphosphaterisk.com

Listen to Glenn's presentation

 

10:00-11:30 Southern and Coastal Florida

“Threats to Lives and Lifestyles from Industrial Mining in a Rural Southwest Florida Community”

                                Lee County – Peggy Apgar-Schmidt & Kevin Hill, Corkscrew Road Rural Community

                                oops!  We don't appear to have the audio for this one- sorry!  Maybe next conference.

                                Brooks Concerned Citizens advocacy website - sign up for e-mail notices and e-action alerts

                   “Gulf Coast Impacts from Inland Mining”

                                Gulf Coast – Joe Murphy, Gulf Restoration Network  " If the earth came with an instruction manual, it would have said

                                                                                                                                DONT TOUCH THE KNOBS!"

                            listen to the presentation

 

“South Florida’s Dredge & Fill Projects for Beach Dunes Ignore Impacts of Source Material from Inland Mines"

Southeast to Southwest – Tom Warnke, Surfrider Foundation & the Eastern Surfing Association

    - look especially for their  "Position Statement on Coastal Armoring"

 

 

11:30-12:00 Morning Session Speakers’ Panel Discussion

Ron Armstrong, P.E. & Jack McCarthy, Withlacoochee Area Residents

Rob Brinkman, the Suwanee-St. Johns Group of the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club

Glenn Compton, ManaSota-88

Peggy Apgar-Schmidt, Corkscrew Road Rural Community

Dennis Mader, People for Protecting Peace River

Joe Murphy, Gulf Restoration Network

Tom Warnke, Surfrider Foundation & the Eastern Surfing Association

 

Lunch           Best Western Conference Center Restaurant or Your Choice

 

Afternoon Technical Sessions – Science, Technology and Alternatives

Session Moderator – Nora Demers, Ph. D., Florida Gulf Coast University

1:00-2:00     Monitoring Inadequacies and Alternatives

“Designing a Water Quality Monitoring Plan for Phosphate Mining: A Critique of the Horse Creek Stewardship Program”

                        Bill Dunson, Ph. D., Penn State University

                        Listen to Dr. Dunson's presentation

 

“High Performance Wireless Networks: Realtime Data Access for Monitoring Mine Sites” (see the video at the link)

Hans-Werner Braun & Pablo Bryant, University of California San Diego  Learn more about HPWREN

 

Applications for Glass Cullet as an Alternative to Mined Sand for Construction Aggregate” *

Charles W. Finkl, Ph. D. & C. Makowski, Coastal Planning & Engineering 

    sample of Florida projects

                                                 

2:00-3:00      Air and Water Quality, Remote Sensing and Economic Impacts

“Spatial and Temporal Monitoring of Phytoplankton in Waters Affected by or within Open Pit Mining Operations Using Pigment-Based Chemotaxonomy”

Bill Louda, Ph. D., Florida Atlantic University, and Councilman of Loxahatchee Groves

                                      see Dr. Louda's CV

            "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." (Isaac Asimov)

 

“Monitoring Open Pit Mining Operations Using Aerial Photographs and Google Earth” *

Tommy Jordan, Ph. D. & Marguerite Madden, Ph. D., University of Georgia Center for Remote Sensing and Mapping Science

 

“Economic Analysis of Mining Impacts: Flaws and Inadequacies”

Richard Weisskoff, Ph. D., University of Miami

technical difficulties - click here for Dr. Weiskoff's T/F test

 

3:00-4:00     Soils and Geology

“Comparative Analysis of Physical, Chemical and Hydrological Characteristics of Native and Reclaimed Phosphate Mine Soils in Hardee, Hillsborough and Polk Counties, Florida, USA”

                       Lew Carter, Polston Engineering

listen to the presentation 

“The Use of Seismic Profiling To Identify Subsurface Fluid Migration Pathways at Proposed Mine Sites in Florida, USA”

James Flocks, USGS

listen to the presentation

 

Controls on the Depositional Balance Between Carbonates and Siliciclastics on the Southeastern Florida Platform:  Applicability To Mine Site Evaluations”*

Kevin J. Cunningham, USGS Miami; Stanley D. Locker and Albert C. Hine, University of South Florida; David Bukry and John Barron, USGS Menlo Park & Laura Guertin, Penn State University Delaware County

 

4:00-5:30     Hydrology and Hydroperiod

“Understanding the Floridan Aquifer System: Dye Tracing Challenges Conventional Wisdoms of Mining Impacts”

                        Todd Kincaid, Ph. D., H2H Associates  "Don't do the pink underwear test"

listen to Dr. Kincaid's presentation

“Groundwater Modeling to Assess Impacts from Mining in Karst Aquifers”

                   Tim Hazlett, Ph. D. & Todd Kincaid, Ph. D., Hazlett-Kincaid

listen to the presentation

 

“Field Assessments of Landscape-scale Mining Impacts Based on Spectroscopic Analyses”

                        Sydney Bacchus, Ph. D., Applied Environmental Services

listen to Dr. Bacchus' presentation

 

 

5:30-6:00     Afternoon Session Speakers’ Panel Discussion

                        Sydney Bacchus, Ph. D., Applied Environmental Services

                       Lew Carter, Soil Scientist, Polston Engineering

                        Bill Dunson, Ph. D., Penn State University

James Flocks, USGS

                        Todd Kincaid, Ph. D., H2H Associates

listen to the afternoon panel discussion

 

go to the NETWORKING PORTAL (this page is sun-setting in May of  2008)- see instead the following

go to the compilation entry page

to find additional related resources for speakers and attendees who are looking forward to sharing skills and stories.

Please contact each other, and expand this citizen advocacy network so we can more effectively engage and educate each other and our elected representatives.  Thanks

The conference focused on adverse impacts from mining currently not addressed or evaluated by regulatory agencies and municipalities, as well as alternatives to mining and approaches for improved monitoring and evaluation of existing and proposed mine sites and mine-related impacts.  Thanks to the volunteer efforts of scientists, other professionals and citizens, combined with sponsorship by the organizations below to cover conference costs, this conference is free and open to the public.  This conference strives to be 100% carbon neutral and environmentally friendly.

Please enjoy your visit, and contact me with your thoughts.

 
The information on these pages is intended to be reproduced and shared freely.
Last updated November 1, 2013