Enclosed please find a draft reponse to DEP's "change of position" in the Pompano case.
Although we would normally take DEP heavily to task for its eleventh-hour change of position, and argue that the process cannot fairly proceed without additional procedural protections, I understand that keeping the trial date is our paramount concern here.
Accordingly, we have pulled our punches somewhat, and simply try to accomplish 3 things: (1) place all parties on notice that we will be advocating issuance of the original draft permit at the hearing (we can always pull back on issues that turn out to have no consequence), (2) require DEP to clearly state, for the record, exactly what textual changes to the draft permit it is advocating (we will also attempt to do this through discovery), and (3) sensitive the judge to the fact that we will likely need to expedite our discovery from DEP.
I would like to file this by mid-afternoon tomorrow (I am travelling on Wed.) and would welcome your comments at your earliest possible convenience.
Thanks!

Pompano Beach Energy Center