PUNTA GORDA -- City Council members listened Wednesday to Charlotte County Commissioner Adam Cummings pitch the county's strategies to fight off new phosphate mining in the Peace River valley.

"I hope you will mull over the information and consider a financial contribution" to the cause, Cummings said.

He showed how the Peace River drainage basin stretches from Lakeland south to Charlotte Harbor. He also noted how Bone Valley and phosphate mining overlays more than half of the drainage basin of the Peace River, which is the longest river in the state.

"This is a big deal for our community," Cummings said. "(Phosphate mining) can affect what flows into the river -- what water gets where at what time -- and that can affect what happens in Charlotte Harbor -- everything from how much fish there are to what the harbor smells like."

The county's goal is to offset historic impacts to the Peace River and to stem impacts from future mining, Cummings said. He outlined the county's three-year plan that calls for state lobbying efforts for statutes and tighter permitting, negotiations with mining companies and possible litigation.

"The phosphate industry doesn't have to follow the same regulatory regulations that we do," Cummings said. "We want to break down that wall and make them live by the same standards that we do."

A fall-back position is to call for a statewide referendum, Cummings said. That is only a "last resort," Cummings said, since the phosphate industry has the financial resources to launch a political advertising campaign. He cited Florida's sugar industry and how it fought a referendum that would have held the industry more responsible for the Everglades restoration effort.

The county's plan bears a $3.8 million price tag.

"We wanted to explore more non-litigation, with the thought that it would be cheaper," Cummings said. "But when we got done with the tasks of all that needs to get done, (non-litigation) is actually more expensive than the litigation."

The county has a budget devoting $1.625 million for lobbying the state, $2 million for litigation and another $175,000 in reserves. The county plans to draw the money from its general fund.

Cummings said the county is hoping others will contribute to the effort. At least two Punta Gorda council members aren't ready to kick into the pot.

"Wouldn't this be double-dipping?" Council member Tom Poole asked. He and Councilman Steve Fabian pointed out how Punta Gorda property owners pay county property taxes that go into the county's general fund.

Cummings conceded his request from the city could be viewed as double dipping, but he added the county would not have been able to sustain its fight against phosphate without the help of others.

The impacts phosphate mining can have on Punta Gorda weren't completely lost on council members. Mayor Marilyn Smith said she has talked with long-time Punta Gorda residents who remember 1971 when "a mucky, whitish foam came down the river like a wall and killed all the marine life."

You can e-mail Steve Reilly at reilly@sun-herald.com

By STEVE REILLY
Staff Writer