Miami-Dade County Lake Belt

The Lake Belt Area encompasses 77.5 square miles of environmentally sensitive land at the western edge of the Miami-Dade County urban area. The wetlands and lakes of the Lake Belt offer the potential to buffer the Everglades from the potentially adverse impacts of urban development. Rock mined from the Lake Belt supplies one-half of the limestone used annually in Florida. The Northwest Wellfield - located at the eastern edge of the Lake Belt is the largest drinking water wellfield in the State and supplies approximately 40 percent of the potable water for Miami-Dade County. Approximately 50 percent of the land within the Lake Belt Area is owned by the mining industry, 25 percent is owned by government agencies, and the remaining 25 percent is owned by non-mining private landowners.

The Florida Legislature recognize the importance of the Lake Belt Area to the citizens of Florida and mandated that a plan be prepared to address a number of concerns critical to the State (Chapter 373.4139, F.S.). The Legislature established the Lake Belt Committee and assigned it the task of developing a long-term plan for the Lake Belt Area. Through a cooperative process involving government agencies, mining interests, non-mining interests, and environmental groups, the Lake Belt Committee completed the Miami-Dade County Lake Belt Plan - Phase I and Phase II.

The Lake Belt Phase I Plan - completed in 1997 - focused upon balancing limestone mining interests and environmental concerns related to wetland protection, water supply protection and water management needed for Everglades restoration. It established the footprint for future mining, and distinguished areas suitable for mining, areas suitable for environmental mitigation, and areas where further analysis is needed to determine mining suitability. It provided the basis for the Wetland Mitigation Fee, subsequently established in 1999, to fund the purchase and restoration of wetlands, including the Pennsuco wetlands, as mitigation for limestone mining.