Tag Archives: Suwannee River

SRWMD has no comment on WFNF alleged cancellation 2026-05-15

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If it was really cancelled, you’d think SRWMD, SJRWMD, and JEA would say so, and announce they have cancelled any outstanding contracts, such as the one SJRWMD let on November 12, 2025, for $2.17 million for a consultant to study WFNF for three years.

Instead, we’ve heard nothing from JEA or SJRWMD, and the Executive Director of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) has no comment.

For much more about WFNF, including which Suwannee District counties oppose it (all 12 of them) and which have passed their own letters or resolutions of opposition (7 of them), as well as who you can contact, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

[SRWMD has no comment on WFNF alleged cancellation; Nothing from JEA or SJRWMD or FDEP 2026-05-19]
SRWMD has no comment on WFNF alleged cancellation; Nothing from JEA or SJRWMD or FDEP 2026-05-19

Stew Lilker, Columbia County Observer, May 15, 2026, Water First North Florida: The $1.1 Billion Project That No One Likes, Except Insiders, Is on the Ropes
Where is it now and how did it get there?

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Datacenters and wastewater pipeline speakers at WWALS River Revue 2026-09-12

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Hahira, Georgia, May 18, 2026 — Two experts from Georgia and Florida on current water topics will speak at WWALS River Revue, the sit-down fundraising dinner for WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc., plus the music of a headliner and the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, and a silent auction.

https://wwals.net/pictures/songwriting2026

[Speakers, WWALS River Revue, September 12, 2026, Amy Sharma on Datacenters, Rick Davis on WFNF]
Speakers, WWALS River Revue, September 12, 2026, Amy Sharma on Datacenters, Rick Davis on WFNF

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Floridan Aquifer Groundwater Pumping –Dr. Bob Knight 2026-05-09

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Published with permission, here is what Dr. Bob Knight ferreted out from USGS and the WMDs about groundwater pumping.

You’d think they would publish this information, but since they didn’t, WWALS is.

These slides (PowerPoint or PDF) don’t say anything about Water First North Florida (WFNF), the WMD and JEA plan to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee Basin, but this is the groundwater background to WFNF.

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

[Floridan Aquifer Groundwater Pumping Is Getting Worse --Dr. Bob Knight 2026-05-09]
Floridan Aquifer Groundwater Pumping Is Getting Worse –Dr. Bob Knight 2026-05-09

He sent these slides to various environmentalists on May 9, 2026, with this note. I asked him later in person if he minded WWALS publishing. He said go ahead.

All

Attached is an updated summary of Florida groundwater wells, permits, and reported extraction quantities from the Floridan aquifer. All data were provided by the water management districts and the USGS. But the summaries of those reams of data are my work and may not be complete and accurate in all cases. Surprisingly, the WMDs have differing data bases and few detailed summaries of these data. For now, I believe these may be the best data summaries out there. Historically (up to 2015) Richard Marella formerly with USGS reported a lot of Floridan aquifer detailed/summary data every five years. That important contribution ended in 2015 and there is no sign that it will be picked back up by the state or the USGS.

The inconvenient truth is that all groundwater extractions reduce spring flows and that data analysis indicates that the ratio is almost one to one. Measured spring flow reductions closely mirror these reported pumping totals and differ widely from groundwater flow model estimates.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Bob

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More about WFNF funding in how it got ratified by sleight of bill 2026-02-25

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Update 2026-05-19: SRWMD has no comment on WFNF alleged cancellation 2026-05-15.

Vigilance, please!

Yesterday, Tuesday, May 12, 2026, we heard from Florida State Senator Corey Simon that “the Water First North Florida project is being canceled in its current form.”

That’s good news, as far as it goes. And it wouldn’t have happened without all of you who have opposed it.

But it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings, and the SRWMD Governing Board said nothing about this that same morning. I was there and spoke against WFNF along with about half a dozen other people.

Nor have any of SRWMD, SJRWMD, or JEA said anything since that I’ve seen. And what happened yesterday did nothing to repeal huge financial support for WFNF by JEA and SJRWMD.

So please don’t stop now. Keep on speaking to cities, counties, the state, members of Congress, and the unelected boards that are pushing WFNF: SRWMD, SJRWMD, JEA, plus the Jacksonville City Council.

For much more about WFNF, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

[More about WFNF funding in how it got ratified by sleight of bill, SB 7034 into HB 1417]
More about WFNF funding in how it got ratified by sleight of bill, SB 7034 into HB 1417

We also heard yesterday from Florida State Representative Chuck Brannan that: Continue reading →

WWALS at Florida Folk Festival, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park 2026-05-22

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Join us on the banks of the Suwannee River on Memorial Day Weekend for Florida Folk Festival.

The festival is a three-day celebration of the music, dance, stories, crafts and food that make Florida unique.

Come talk to us about water quality testing, water reservations, Water First North Florida (WFNF), sewage, trash, detention centers, datacenters, and other advocacy as well as outings and water trails.

And of course our own WWALS River Revue, coming up Saturday, September 12, 2026, including the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, at the 4-H Camp in Lake Park, Georgia.

https://wwals.net/pictures/songwriting2026/

When: 10 AM, Friday, May 22, through Sunday, May 24, 2026

Put In: Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, 11016 Lillian Saunders Drive, White Springs, FL 32096.

GPS: 30.332884, -82.769513

[Florida Folk Festival, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center SP, White Springs, Florida, May 22-24, 2026]
Florida Folk Festival, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center SP, White Springs, Florida, May 22-24, 2026

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Pictures: WWALS Booth at Florida Folk Festival 2025-05-24

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Last year at the Florida Folk Festival on Memorial Day Weekend in White Springs at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park.

The festival is a three-day celebration of the music, dance, stories, crafts and food that make Florida unique.

We’ll be back this year, Friday through Sunday, May 22-23, 2026, on the banks of the Suwannee River.

https://wwals.net/?p=70272

[Pictures: WWALS Booth at Florida Folk Festival, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center SP, White Springs, FL 2026-05-23-24]
Pictures: WWALS Booth at Florida Folk Festival, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center SP, White Springs, FL 2026-05-23-24

Thanks to Michael Bachrach, Gee Edwards, Mark Coppage, and Gretchen Quarterman for talking to people about Right to Clean Water, BMAPs, opposing a strip mine permit too near the Okefenokee Swamp, sewage, trash, and other advocacy as well as outings and water trails.

And of course our own WWALS River Revue, which last year was September 6, 2025, including the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.

This year it’s 5-9 PM, Saturday, September 12, 2026, at the 4-H Club in Lake Park, Georgia.

https://wwals.net/pictures/songwriting2026/

For more Continue reading →

WWALS River Revue with Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2026-09-12

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Join us at the 4-H Club in Lake Park, Georgia, for the WWALS River Revue sit-down dinner with speakers from Georgia and Florida, music from Finalists in the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, and Headliner Joe First, last year’s winner. Plus a silent auction, online and in person.

If you like what we’re doing, with water quality testing and water trails and river and lake outings and hikes and cleanups and chainsaw cleanups, come on down and support WWALS and have some fun! We support rights to clean water and solar power in appropriate places, and we oppose unnecessary mines and datacenters, detention centers, and Jacksonville treated wastewater into the Suwannee Basin (Water First North Florida or WFNF).

[WWALS River Revue, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, 4-H Club, Lake Park, GA, 5-9 PM, Saturday, September 12, 2026]
WWALS River Revue, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, 4-H Club, Lake Park, GA, 5-9 PM, Saturday, September 12, 2026

Tickets: $65 each:

https://app.betterunite.com/wwals-wwalsriverrevue2026

MC Tim Carroll, a former trumpet player and Valdosta City Council District 5, will introduce the speakers, the Headliner, and the Judges, Anna Stange (Madison, FL), Tony Buzzella (Lake City, FL), and Norm McDonald (Live Oak, FL).

Songwriters, don’t wait until August 12 to send in your song! It can be about any river, creek, spring, sink, swamp, or pond in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin or Estuary, or underground water such as the Floridan Aquifer. Continue reading →

Agenda: Datacenters and planning priorities, Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council at Okefenokee Swamp Park 2026-05-06

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All three of St. Marys, Satilla, and Suwannee Riverkeeper will be at the May 5 6, 2026, meeting of Georgia’s Suwannee Satilla Regional Water Planning Council (SSRWPC), 10 AM-2:30 PM at Okefenokee Swamp Park.

Datacenters are on the agenda as a Discussion item. It’s not clear whether participants other than the Council will be allowed to discuss. But they will notice anybody who shows up. And there is Public Comment near the end.

For more about datacenters, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/datacenters

[Agenda: Datacenters and planning priorities, Suwannee-Satilla Water Council at Okefenokee Swamp Park 2026-05-06]
Agenda: Datacenters and planning priorities, Suwannee-Satilla Water Council at Okefenokee Swamp Park 2026-05-06

SSRWPC includes part of the St. Marys River Basin, as well as the Satilla and Suwannee Basins, including of course the Alapaha, Willacoochee, Withlacoochee, Little, and New Rivers, with much concern about groundwater including the Floridan Aquifer.

According to their WATER & WASTEWATER FORECASTING TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM of March 2024, population growth projections have been decreased, causing water use and wastewater use also to be less.

Datacenters could reverse that trend.

FYI, Mark Masters is Executive Director of the Georgia Water Planning and Policy Center (GWPPC) at Albany State University and Laura Rack also works there “in a joint role with the River Basin Center at the University of Georgia.”

Caitlin Sweeney is listed by the Jones Center at Ichauway, also in the Flint River Basin, although the agenda says she is with GWPPC.

Here is the agenda:

Agenda
Georgia Suwannee-Satilla
Water Council Meeting
May 6, 2026 at 10:00 AM
Okefenokee Swamp Park — Waycross, GA

Objectives: Continue reading →

Statewide Drought Response Level 1 –GA-EPD 2026-04-27

Georgia starts to catch up with Florida in drought declarations.

Georgia Environmental Protection Division Declares Drought Response Level 1

On April 27, 2026, after consideration of the drought severity and the water resource impacts, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) declared a state-wide Drought Response Level 1 for public water systems using surface water and/or groundwater. EPD has been closely monitoring drought conditions in Georgia for months, and on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, EPD held conference calls with public water systems to discuss current water supply and EPD’s consideration of issuing a Level 1 drought response. Following the conference calls, the public water systems had three days to submit any additional feedback before EPD could proceed with a drought response declaration.

[Statewide Drought Response Level 1 --GA-EPD, April 27, 2026]
Statewide Drought Response Level 1 –GA-EPD, April 27, 2026

As a result of the Level 1 Drought Response, public water systems must implement a public information campaign including, at a minimum, notice regarding drought conditions and drought-specific announcements in one or more of the following ways: newspaper or online ads, bill inserts, social media, and notices in public libraries. This public information campaign is designed to help citizens better understand drought, its impact on water supplies, and the need for water conservation.

Outdoor water use between the hours of 4 PM and 10 A.M. is still Continue reading →

Refilling the aquifer with wastewater is a problem –Tana Silva 2026-04-19

Like Tana Silva, you can write a letter to the editor of your local, state, or national newspaper, or ask your local radio or TV station to interview you, or post on social media.

Better yet, call or write your elected and appointed officials, and sign the petition:

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

Tana Silva, Alachua Chronicle, April 19, 2026, Letter: Refilling the aquifer with wastewater is a problem, not a solution
https://alachuachronicle.com/letter-refilling-the-aquifer-with-wastewater-is-a-problem-not-a-solution/

April 19, 2026

Letter to the editor

[Refilling the aquifer with wastewater is a problem (WFNF) --Tana Silva 2026-04-19]
Refilling the aquifer with wastewater is a problem (WFNF) –Tana Silva 2026-04-19

Until the 1970s, Jacksonville pumped sewage straight into the St. Johns River and allowed dumping industrial waste there as well. The mayor elected in 1967, local advocates, and the Clean Water Act of 1972 helped to at least send wastewater to treatment plants before releasing it to the river. That practice, too, is restricted by state law now, but raising springwater levels through recharging projects is another goal in state law that opens a path to reusing wastewater, a risky and irreversible choice.

Jacksonville, the largest city, water consumer, and wastewater producer in northern Florida, is again looking to offload its wastewater, this time far to the west, in rural springs country.

Local residents and governments and the 12-county regional planning council that includes Alachua County say no: Continue reading →