Category Archives: EPA

Swift Creek @ Suwannee River Water Quality Testing 2025-06-21

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We had heard a report from Wednesday of a fish kill on Swift Creek, apparently at the Suwannee River.

So yesterday three of us went there and tested the water. We didn’t see any dead fish, and the Swift Creek Confluence doesn’t look much like what was in the Wednesday report video, so we’re not sure where that was.

We tested for E. coli, which was pretty clean, pH, which was slightly towards the base end, and Dissolved Oxygen (DO), which was low, but not fish-killing low. Probably it’s worth testing again.

Swift Creek comes down from the huge phosphate mine north of White Springs, which has previously gotten the mine’s owner into trouble with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

[Swift Creek, Florida Trail, Water Quality Testing 2025-06-21, Suwannee River, Hamilton County, FL]
Swift Creek, Florida Trail, Water Quality Testing 2025-06-21, Suwannee River, Hamilton County, FL

Gee Edwards drew a sample from Swift Creek just below the bridge on the Florida Trail. Continue reading →

Mercury found in Okefenokee alligators 2025-06-12

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The problem: “Alligators in the Okefenokee Swamp had mercury levels that were eight times higher than the other two research sites.” The other locations were Jekyll Island near Brunswick, GA, and Yawkey Wildlife Center, near Georgetown, SC. See Savannah Peat, UGA Today, June 12, 2025, New study shows alligators aren’t all that’s lurking in Georgia’s swamps,

Why this matters: “The presence of mercury in these waters not only impacts the health of the alligator but could have dangerous health effects on the other creatures relying on these waterways for food, including humans.”

Plus mercury comes down from the air not only into the waters where alligators live, but also onto nearby land, such as where the coal miners from Alabama want to strip mine for titanium dioxide (TiO2) too near the Okefenokee Swamp. Such mining could stir up mercury from the soil and get it into water or back into the air. You can still tell the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) that it should deny the miners’ permit applications:
twinpines.comment@dnr.ga.gov

And also probably where Chemours wants to expand its Trail Ridge South TiO2 mine onto land owned by the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD). The official comment period has expired, but you can still write to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) about the Chemours permit applications:
https://wwals.net/?p=67629

[High levels of mercury found in alligators, Okefenokee Swamp, UGA 2025-06-12]
High levels of mercury found in alligators, Okefenokee Swamp, UGA 2025-06-12

Where does the mercury come from? “For instance, precipitation is the dominant source of environmental mercury deposition in other systems, and the hydrology of OS is dominated by precipitation and runoff with an average annual rainfall of 132.23 cm (Brook and Hyatt 1985, Wang et al., 2019, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge 1945–2021). Okefenokee is also in close proximity to several industrialized power plants, which have the potential to contribute to atmospheric Hg deposition (Porter 2000, Sherman et al., 2012).”

The actual power plants are not named in that paper or its sources, but we know the main culprit: Georgia Power’s Coal Plant Scherer, near Macon, Georgia, Continue reading →

Waterkeeper Alliance advocates EPA and USACE restore longstanding protections for the nation’s waters 2025-04-23

Suwannee Riverkeeper, among 64 U.S. Waterkeepers, joined Waterkeeper Alliance and Environmental Integrity Project in asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to maintain and restore longstanding protections for the nation’s waters.

[Waterkeeper Alliance advocates EPA and USACE restore longstanding protections for the nation’s waters 2025-04-23]
Waterkeeper Alliance advocates EPA and USACE restore longstanding protections for the nation’s waters 2025-04-23

Most of this long comment letter is applicable to the Suwannee River Basin. For example, related to the ongoing Georgia attempts to define which rivers and creeks are navigable: “lUnder the agencies’ Pre-2015 Regulatory Definition, all tributaries to traditionally navigable waters, interstate waters, impoundments, and ‘other waters’ are categorically defined as ‘waters of the United States.’” For example, see Valdosta sewage into Sugar Creek and Quitman sewage and cattle manure into Okapilco Creek, both into the Withlacoochee River in Georgia, upstream from Florida and the Suwannee River.

The comment doesn’t mention the Floridan Aquifer, but there are mentions of “Large numbers of rivers and streams… that briefly flow subsurface and then reemerge as surface waters.” and river-connected “subsurface flows and springs” elsewhere. Subsurface flows are important in the Suwannee River Basin and the Floridan Aquifer.

The Florida Basin Managment Action Plans (BMAPs) supposedly intend to reduce by 85-95% the leaching of fertilizer nitrates through the soil and subsurface limestone into springs and rivers, causing algae blooms and crowding out native vegetation, to the detriment of manatees and other wildlife.

See also the Dead River Sink where the Alapaha River goes underground and comes back up in the Alapaha River Rise on the Suwannee River. Continue reading →

Modifications, Spectrum Energy pellet mill permit application, Adel, Cook County, GA 2025-03-05

Spectrum Energy has gotten some modifications to its pellet mill Air Quality application, partly due to comments during previous comment periods.

This latest comment period expires April 7, 2025.

[Modifications, Spectrum Energy pellet mill permit application, Adel, Cook County, GA @ GA-EPD 2025-03-05]
Modifications, Spectrum Energy pellet mill permit application, Adel, Cook County, GA @ GA-EPD 2025-03-05

NOTICE OF DRAFT SYNTHETIC MINOR AND SIP OPERATING PERMITS AND PERMIT MODIFICATIONS

GEORGIA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION DIVISION

AIR PROTECTION BRANCH

4244 INTERNATIONAL PARKWAY, SUITE 120, ATLANTA, GA 30354

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division announces its intent to issue initial Synthetic Minor Operating Permits, Synthetic Minor Modifications, and Major Source SIP Permits for the following facilities. The deadlines for submitting comments are specified for each facility.

MAJOR SOURCE SIP PERMITS

COOK COUNTY

Facility Name: Spectrum Energy Georgia, LLC

Application No: 29318

Facility Address: 801 Cook Street, Adel, 31620

EPD Notice Type: Proposed Permit

Description of Operation: Pellet Mill

Reason for Application: To construct and operate a greenfield wood pellet manufacturing facility. This application is a consolidated, smaller-scope version of the facility’s previous E-permit application.

Comment period expires on: April 07, 2025

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Continue reading →

U.S. EPA recognizes sewage sludge on farmland among human health risks of PFOA and PFOS forever chemicals 2025-01-14

WWALS Science Committee Chair Dr. Tom Potter notes, “Finally EPA has recognized the risks of sludge application to farmland.”

Sewage sludge as fertlizer is a widespread problem in Florida.
https://wwals.net/?p=61560

These forever chemicals as in our rivers in Georgia and Florida. They collect in fish, including in the Alapaha River.

Waterkeeper Alliance encourages Waterkeeper groups to participate in the public comment period, which must be received on or before March 17. Individuals and other groups can also comment.

[U.S. EPA recognizes sewage sludge on farmland among human health risk of PFOA and PFOS forever chemicals 2025-01-14]
U.S. EPA recognizes sewage sludge on farmland among human health risk of PFOA and PFOS forever chemicals 2025-01-14

See EPA on Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid (PFOS) and https://www.Regulations.gov, EPA-HQ-OW-2024-0504; FRL 12451-01-OW. Continue reading →

EPA EnviroAtlas, Suwannee River Basin 2024-11-29

Here are maps of the Suwannee River Basin in the EPA EnviroAtlas, with shadings and boundaries for Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUCs). HUC-8 (eight digits) is big river basins; in this case Little, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Santa Fe, Upper Suwannee, and Lower Suwannee. HUC-12 is more local.

[HUC 8 and 12 150%]
HUC 8 and 12 150%

What are the odd HUC-12s that are not shaded in? At least some of them, such as around Lake Octahatchee are endorheic basins. Continue reading →

Huge win for Waterkeepers: Court stops FDEP assumption of water permitting, and countersuit 2024-02-15

In a rare huge win for conservationists, on February 15, 2024, St. Johns Riverkeeper, Miami Waterkeeper, and co-plaintiffs won their case to stop the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) from assuming wetlands permitting.

[Florida panther, Waterkeepers Florida]
Florida panther, Waterkeepers Florida

FDEP assumption was always a bad idea. “The toxic algae blooms that now plague Florida are a direct result of the state’s decades-long failure to protect our waterways from wildlife-choking pollution,” Jason Totoiu, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Now the state wants to make it even easier to dredge and fill wetlands that help filter these pollutants.”

Here’s the original lawsuit.

Jim Saunders, WUSF & News Service of Florida, February 19, 2024, A judge sides with environmentalists in wetlands permitting shift,

In a win for environmental groups, a U.S. district judge Thursday ruled that federal officials did not follow required steps in 2020 before shifting permitting authority to Florida for projects that affect wetlands.

Washington, D.C.-based Judge Randolph Moss, in a 97-page decision, found that actions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violated the Endangered Species Act. Moss vacated the approval of the shift to the state.

Continue reading →

Mercury through the air into rivers has greatly decreased in recent years 2023-06-05

Good news: “Atmospheric [mercury] deposition from domestic power plants decreased by 91% across the contiguous U.S. from 6.4 Mg in 2010 to 0.55 Mg in 2020.”

Bad news: “Despite large deposition declines, an end-member scenario for remaining exposures from the largest active power plants for individuals consuming self-caught fish suggests they could still exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reference dose for methylmercury.”

[Better with room for further improvement]
Better with room for further improvement

We know mercury is a problem in the Alapaha River, coming through the air from coal Plant Scherer, north of Macon, Georgia. So by this paper the problem is lessened, but still is a problem.

It’s also a problem on land, for example near the Okefenokee Swamp, where the proposed strip mine may stir up mercury, as mentioned in the Clinch County resolution against that mine and for the Swamp.

You can still help stop that mine.

Sociodemographic Disparities in Mercury Exposure from United States Coal-Fired Power Plants, Continue reading →

Redesignation as Recreational, Withlacoochee River, GA 37 to Tiger Creek 2023-07-19

Update 2023-07-26: Valdosta notified GA-EPD four days after the latest Knights Creek sewage spill 2023-07-06.

This was unexpected. GA-EPD asked if we wanted to complete redesignating the rest of the Withlacoochee River in the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT) in Georgia from Fishing to Recreational, for tighter contamination restrictions. We said yes.

[Nomination form and map]
Nomination form and map

What’s the difference? There are three levels of waterbody designations considered every three years in the Triennial Review of Water Quality Standards required of each state by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These are Fishing, Recreational, and Drinking. Fishing has the least restrictions on contamination, and Drinking has the most. Nobody drinks out of our Suwannee River Basin rivers, so Recreational is what we want.

If this new request gets approved, that’s 46.3 more Withlacoochee River miles, added to the 23.71 miles redesignated in 2023, that’s 70 river miles.

Since Florida by default designates all rivers as Recreational, that means that if this redesignation happens, all of the Withlacoochee River in the WLRWT will be Recreational. That’s 97.6 river miles in Georgia and Florida.

Her question, received July 19, 2023: Continue reading →

EPA Proposed PFAS NPDWR Public Hearing 2023-05-04

Register by May 2nd for this online Public Hearing on Thursday, May 4, 2023, from 11 AM to 7 PM EDT.

[PFAS testing, Withlacoochee River, 2022-06-30]
PFAS testing, Withlacoochee River, 2022-06-30

Public hearing to present information and receive public comment on the proposed PFAS NPDWR:

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hosting a public hearing to present information and receive public comment on the proposed per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The hearing will be held virtually on May 4, 2023, from 11am until 7pm eastern time. The number of online connections available for the hearing is limited and will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Persons wishing to attend this public hearing are requested to register in advance no later than May 2, 2023.

During the virtual hearing, there will be Continue reading →