Update 2026-03-19: Residents raise concerns over WFNF and Suwannee River –WCTV 2026-03-18.
Much more about WFNF here: https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

Update 2026-03-09: Chance to speak to SRWMD at its Board Meeting, 9 AM, Tuesday, March 10, 2026.

Come to a WWALS Workshop to prepare to make public comments.

The workshop will be 5-6:30 PM, Wednesday, March 18, 2026,
at the Live Oak Public Library, 1848 Ohio Ave S, Live Oak, FL 32064.

Crafting Effective Public Comments @ Live Oak Library –WWALS Workshop 2026-03-18

Here is a facebook event to remind you, and so you can invite people:

https://www.facebook.com/events/694551033680363/

This workshop is conveniently the day before the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) will hold a public meeting at its Live Oak headquarters on Water First North Florida (WFNF), the plan to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee River Basin.

But there are always opportunities to make public comments, written, by telephone, or in person.

When you do, be polite, be brief, be specific, say something different from what everybody else said, tie it to your experience and to evidence, and connect to the larger picture.

All in a memorable way, of course.

As an example, read how the Columbia County Observer wrote up Hailey Hall’s comments on WFNF to the Columbia County Commission on February 21, 2026.

“What I heard in that video was not ‘this treatment plant can get the hormones out and get the PFAs out.’ I heard, ‘We’re researching it. We don’t know what it can even do yet.’ You don’t even know what you’re going to be putting into the ground.” —Hailey Hall, Suwannee County

Here are the WWALS written comments to that same Columbia County Commission.

https://wwals.net/?p=69442

Here is Dennis J. Price, P.G.’s op-ed in the Lake City Reporter, February 19, 2026.

https://wwals.net/?p=69519

And here is video of the February 2nd WWALS Webinar on WFNF, with appearances by Hailey Hall, Rick Lanese, Joe Squitieri, and others, after a presentation by Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.

https://wwals.net/?p=69378

Here’s a reference, How to Write Effective Public Comments, by the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, Gehrke, G., & Paz, A. (2024).

https://envirodatagov.org/how-to-write-effective-public-comments/

See you at the library Wednesday.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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