Category Archives: Mining

Nominating Okefenokee NWR for UNESCO World Heritage List –WWALS 2023-06-28

Update 2024-12-24: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to be Nominated to Join UNESCO World Heritage List –U.S. Department of the Interior 2024-12-20.

This is what we sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for their bid to make the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Remember, you can still help stop a strip mine from locating near the Okefenokee Swamp:
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining

The WWALS letter 2023-06-28 and the old-growth cypress 2021-01-10

It features an old-growth cypress stand with trees 400-500 years old.

NW: Big Cypress Camp Island, Little Cooter Lake, 30.6829690, -82.2001230 seen on a Southwings flight for Suwannee Riverkeeper 2021-01-10.

The WWALS letter

In web form below, and also in PDF and with attachments.

See also the previous WWALS letter of January 26, 2021.

And, among the references cited, thanks to WWALS Science Committee Chair Tom Potter for spotting G. Ronnie Best, et al., “An Old-Growth Cypress Stand in Okefenokee Swamp,” University of Florida, 1984. https://cfw.essie.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/312/2020/07/Best-etal-1984-OldGrowthCypressStandInOkefenokeeSwamp-BookChapter.pdf

Continue reading →

Crossings under CR 6 by Nutrien Phosphate Mine 2023-06-10

An anonymous photographer sent these pictures of the Nutrien Phosphate Mine in Hamilton County digging under CR 6 east of Jasper, heading north towards the GA-FL line.

Remember, the same phosphate deposits continue north into Echols County, Georgia.

Collage, Nutrien Phosphate Mine across CR 6

I don’t know quite where these pictures were taken. But if I had to guess, probably somewhere a bit east of where the label is for Nutrien Phosphate Mine on this SRWT map. Continue reading →

Nutrien phosphate mine on the ground 2023-05-12

Update 2023-06-11: Crossings under CR 6 by Nutrien Phosphate Mine 2023-06-10.

A little birdie dropped these pictures, which were taken near Fivemile Still Road off of Woodpecker Route (CR 135), in Hamilton County, Florida, northeast of White Springs.

The locations are all less than a mile up Fivemile Still Road, which was closed above that.

Inside the Nutrien phosphate mine, Hamilton County, Florida

Fivemile Still Road parallels Long Branch, which runs into the Suwannee River above Big Shoals Tract Launch.

Or did. Hard to say where Long Branch runs after all this mining. Continue reading →

Rivers and mining: WWALS comments on Suwannee-Satilla Draft Regional Water Plan 2023-05-15

Sent yesterday as PDF, in response to the invitation to comment and before the May 24, 2023 meeting in Tifton of the Georgia Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council.

The WWALS letter and rivers and mines in and near the Suwannee River Basin

May 15, 2023

To: Water Planning

Georgia Department of Natural Resources
water.planning@dnr.ga.gov

RE: WWALS Comments on SSRWPC Draft Regional Water Plan

Dear DNR,

Responding to your invitation to comment on the draft Regional Water Plans, I write to mention some omissions in the Suwannee-Satilla Regional Draft Water Plan of March 2023.

Continue reading →

Suwannee Riverkeeper wants you to get these Florida bills vetoed

Floridians, you can help protect our river, springs, and Floridan Aquifer!

Please use these convenient Waterkeepers Florida forms to ask Florida Governor DeSantis to veto three bad bills:

Suwannee Riverkeeper wants you! Photo: Shirley Kokidko, Alapahoochee River 2022-07-09

Don’t forget to sign the petition for a constitutional amendment referendum on Right to Clean and Healthy Waters:
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/

Georgians and everybody else, you can still send a comment to GA-EPD opposing a titanium dioxide strip mine too near the Okefenokee Swamp:
twinpines.comment@dnr.ga.gov Continue reading →

Veto Florida fertilizer preemption

Please ask the Florida Governor to veto the part of the budget bill that could end up with preemption of local fertilizer bans.

You can use this handy Waterkeepers Florida form to do that: https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/stopthefertilizerpreemption/

Who would benefit by the bill? Phosphate mines.

As everyone knows, fertilizer nitrates leaching through the soil into our springs and rivers is the main cause of the algae blooms that crowd out native vegetation and starve fish and manatees in the Suwannee River Basin. The state’s Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) won’t solve that problem. Counties and cities can pass ordinances to address the problem, but not so easily the relevant part of this bill becomes law.

The relevant part of line item 146 of SB 2500 reads: Continue reading →

Say NO to Radioactive Roads in Florida 2023-05-11

The Florida legislature has already passed a bill to allow spreading waste from phosphate mines on roads.

Those gypstacks at the White Springs Nutrien phosphate mine near the Suwannee River should not end up on roads, not in Hamilton County and not elsewhere.

Say no to radioactive roads in Florida

Please urge Governor DeSantis to veto HB 1191/ SB 1258.

Here’s a handy form by Waterkeepers Florida so you can tailor your email to the governor:
https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/saynotoradioactiveroads/HB1191-SB1258-VETO/

Here’s the bill, which also would legitimize use of coal ash in roads:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1191

For more about phosphate mines, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/phosphate-mining/

About Waterkeepers Florida, of which Suwannee Riverkeeper is a member, see:
https://www.waterkeepersflorida.org/

-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/

Join us today for The Amazing Give, 8:00AM-8:00PM 2023-04-20

Ahead of #earthday2023, we’re participating in “The Amazing Give.” It’s a 12-hour window for a day of giving on Thursday, April 20th, 2023, 8AM-8PM.

People of WWALS, The Amazing Give, What you support

Please contribute to this great cause and keep the 10,000 square mile Suwannee basin clean, swimmable, fishable, and drinkable!
https://www.theamazinggive.org/organizations/wwals-watershed-coalition

-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/

No phosphate mine waste into recreational lakes, and more transparency –WWALS to Hamilton County BOCC 2023-04-17

You can send your own comments to the addresses in the WWALS letter. If you prefer to telephone, see https://hamiltoncountyfl.com/board-of-county-commissioners/.

The Public Hearing is tomorrow, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at 6 PM, at 207 NE First Street Jasper, Florida 32052.

WWALS letter to Hamilton BOCC 2023-04-17

More materials: Hamilton County Planning Commission on Nutrien phosphate mine permit renewal 2023-03-28

Update 2023-04-17: No phosphate mine waste into recreational lakes, and more transparency –WWALS to Hamilton County BOCC 2023-04-17.

See also, from five years ago: Pictures: PCS Phosphate mine permit Public Hearings, Jasper, FL 2018-01-23.

Here are 78 more documents related to the Public Hearing at 6 PM this Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at the Hamilton County Commission in Jasper, Florida, about Nutrien’s phosphate mining permit renewal.

Mining location, reclamation, flow, and areas

These documents, from a USB stick I picked up from Hamilton County today, are in addition to the documents I posted yesterday.

Ordinarily I would read everything first and post some analysis, but in the interests of time, here are the documents. Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.