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.

The 5-3 vote sent FPL's land-use change request -- which would open farm land to mining in a coastal area where saltwater already has driven a wedge miles inland -- to the Miami-Dade Commission in May.

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Dawn Shirreffs, South Florida organizer for Clean Water Action, said changing the county's master land-use map to save a single landowner money was poor policy. And, she said, Biscayne Bay restoration plans call for no reservoirs where FPL wants its rock pits.

NUCLEAR POWER

''This is a rock mining application; this is not a water management project,'' she said. ``FPL is not in the business of water management or Everglades restoration. They are in the business of nuclear power generation.''