Does the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) really not know what alternatives were considered before WFNF, and why they were rejected?

Or are they refusing to tell the public?

In either case, how are they representing the people of the Suwannee River Basin about Water First North Florida (WFNF), the plan to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee Basin?

SRWMD apparently does not know the 800 alternatives to WFNF

Meanwhile, all dozen counties in the Suwannee District signed on to resolutions opposing NFWF by the Rivers Task Force and by the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council (NCFRPC).

The members of the Task Force and Council are all elected officials, unlike the boards of the Suwannee and St. Johns River Water Management Districts and JEA, who are promoting WFNF.

For those resolutions and the letters and resolutions by individual counties and the Town of Branford, as well as who you can contact, and a petition, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

On April 15, 2026, I sent SRWMD a public records request for the “over 800 initial alternatives to the four alternatives identified for additional study” to WFNF that were mentioned in a document they sent me. I included, “For each alternative, please include at least a description, along with reasons why it was rejected, and any relevant accompanying documentation.”

Today, April 23, I got a pretty nonresponsive reply, giving no descriptions nor reasons for rejection, with the excuse that, “The Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) was not the managing entity for the contracts or investigations referenced in your request.”

The response even spells out that it is nonresponsive, “This is not a full response to your request, and at this time, the District is not aware of additional responsive records in its custody.”

They don’t even say who was the managing entity. I can only guess it was the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD). So today I sent SJRWMD a similar public records request.

There is nothing in the SRWMD response that indicates they considered the proposal by Dennis J. Price, P.G., to drill aquifer rehydration wells at overflows of planted pine wetlands.

There is nothing to indicate they looked at any desalination plants other than a few in north Florida.

The actual content of the SRWMD response was two attached spreadsheets, which you can find here:

https://wwals.net/pictures/2026-04-24–srwmd-800-alternatives/Conceptual_Projects_20230418.xlsx

https://wwals.net/pictures/2026-04-24–srwmd-800-alternatives/Tier-2-Project-List–All.xlsx

The All spreadsheet has 1054 rows, each one of 32 SourceIDs and one of 32 RechargeIDs.

The SourceIDs are a few brackish rivers (Nassau East, North North(?), Saint Johns), a few desalination plants (Northside Power, Coquina Coast, Gulf Coast, two with a couple of variations), an assortment of stormwater sites, some surface water sites (Alligator Creek, Black Creek, StMarysNearMacclenny, SuwaneeBell, SuwaneeBranford, UpperSantaFe, UpperSantaFeWorthington, UpperSuwannee10, UpperSuwannee40, etc.), and some “Treated Effluent” sites, aka wastewater treatment plants (BuckmanWRFFull, BuckmanWRFHalf, GRU_WWTF_Transfer, LakeCityWWTF, MacclennyWWTF, and StarkeWWTF).

The RechargeIDs are a variety of river sites, county parcels, WMD lands, sinks, etc.

The 43 columns have labels ranging from obvious (PipelineDistanceMiles, Available_MGD) to many obscure ones such as TotAnnCst_SrcDev, with numeric code with numeric codes below them, and no key to labels or codes.

The Conceptual Projects spreadsheet has 37 rows, brief enough that you can see it here:

Spreadsheet and Map: Conceptual Projects 2026-04-23 –SRWMD

It’s easier to see with the two parts separated to make it not so wide:

Spreadsheet: Conceptual Projects 2026-04-23 –SRWMD

Map: Conceptual Projects 2026-04-23 –SRWMD

Notice several things.

• Each row has a latitude and longitude. Remember that last December I asked SRWMD what the latlongs were for the wetlands on its July 2025 map, and they answered, “Slide number 16 was presented as a conceptual graphic. The SRWMD does not have GPS locations of the points on the graphic.”

  
  WATER FIRST NORTH FLORIDA, 2025-07-08 –SRWMD
  PDF

  Well, several of the latlongs in this Conceptual Projects spreadsheet seem to be for the same locations as points on that July 2025 map, plus a bunch more potential recharge locations.

  I guess they are Heisenberg locations: SRWMD does not know and does know at the same time.

• The Water Quality Requirements column is filled with TBD, as in To Be Determined. Yet they promise us it will be clean.
• Again, there is nothing to indicate they considered Dennis J. Price’s forestry wetland well recharge proposal. Hard to argue that one doesn’t meet water quality standards when all these say TBD.

Request and Response

This is what I sent to PublicRecordsRequest@srwmd.org on April 15, 2026:

Dear SRWMD,

This is a Public Records request for the
“over 800 initial alternatives to the four alternatives identified for additional study”
mentioned on page 13 (labeled as PAGE 2-3 in its footer) of the
North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan Project Conceptualization Partnership of January 2025.
https://wwals.net/pictures/2025-01-01-nfrwsp-project-conceptualization/NFRW-Proj-Concept-Partner-LFT-FINAL-compressed.pdf

For each alternative, please include at least a description,
along with reasons why it was rejected,
and any relevant accompanying documentation.

I am willing to pay reasonable costs and fees,
but to email documents from those half-dozen 2024 meetings
listed in Table 2.1, there should not be many costs and fees.

Table 2.1 Workshops with Sponsor Organizations, 2025-01-01 –NFRWSP
PDF

My contact information is below.

…

Here is SRWMD’s reply, today, April 24, 2026:

Mr. Quarterman,

The Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) was not the managing entity for the contracts or investigations referenced in your request. Accordingly, the District was not responsible for the creation, retention, or maintenance of records associated with those contracts, and such records may be maintained by other entities involved in the project.

In response to your public records request, SRWMD is providing the records currently in its possession that are partially responsive to your request and were retained as part of the District’s participation in the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan Partnership Conceptualization process.

Attached please find the following two spreadsheets:

Tier 2 Project List – All.xlsx
Conceptual_Projects_20230418.xlsx

These records are provided as maintained. This is not a full response to your request, and at this time, the District is not aware of additional responsive records in its custody.

Please contact us if you have questions regarding the attached materials.”

Thanks,
Sharon

Sharon Hingson, FCRM, FCCM
Records, Contract and Procurement Manager
Suwannee River Water Management District
9225 CR 49
Live Oak, FL 32060
386.362.1001
www.mysuwanneeriver.com

I actually thought I would get a list of the 800 projects with reasons they we re rejected.

 -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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