Category Archives: Phosphate

Way down upon this Florida river, pollution and water withdrawals spell double trouble –Craig Pittman 2026-04-23

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A wide-ranging story, which includes springs, the Nutrien phosphate mine, Stephen C. Foster, Ray Charles, Pilgrim’s Pride, WFNF, dairy farms, and Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs).

For much more about WFNF, see

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

First, some pullquotes:

Even blunter was John S. Quarterman, who’s been the Suwannee Riverkeeper for a decade. He told me, “It certainly IS endangered.”

Sheesh! Having your state’s most famous river classified as endangered is like having the governor’s limo towed because it’s a clunker. It reflects badly on all of us — especially whoever sits in the driver’s seat.

…

[Way down upon this Florida river, pollution and water withdrawals spell double trouble, --Craig Pittman, 2026-04-23]
Way down upon this Florida river, pollution and water withdrawals spell double trouble, –Craig Pittman, 2026-04-23

One of the largest drains on the Suwannee: Jacksonville. Water from the Suwannee is being pumped out of the ground to benefit folks who live nowhere near the river.

The water district has a plan to fix this. But it’ s so controversial, Quarterman said, that all the counties in the Suwannee River basin are opposed to it.

The flaw in the flow

The cover of the American Rivers report on the 10 most endangered rivers in America is an image of the flowing Suwannee.

Smack dab in the middle is a pipeline dumping waste into the river. Quarterman identified the pipeline’s owner as Pilgrim’s Pride, a chicken processing plant in Live Oak.

According to the water management district, the solution to the Suwannee’s dwindling flow lies in building a bigger, longer pipeline, this one stretching all the way to Jacksonville.

Although it’s called “Water First North Florida,” this project does not, in fact, involve water. It involves treated wastewater.

Continue reading →

Aquifer recharge is needed, but Jacksonville pumping is the biggest problem –Dennis J. Price, P.G. 2026-02-22

This was an op-ed in the Lake City Reporter, February 19, 2026, by Dennis J. Price, P.G., of Hamilton County, Florida. It’s about Water First North Florida (WFNF), the SRWMD and SJRWMD plan to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into wetlands in the Suwannee River Basin.

He does not want the Suwannee River Basin to continue to be a giant water tower for Jacksonville, through the Floridan Aquifer. He suggests JEA could get drinking water from the St. Johns River instead of withdrawing it from groundwater.

Of JEA could get on with seawater desalination, as south Florida already does.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Aquifer recharge is needed

To the editor:

Recently the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) proposed a plan to recharge water into our drinking water aquifer, the Floridan Aquifer. The plan is being coordinated with the St. John’s River Water Management District (SJRWMD). Duval County has a private company that supplies almost all the water used in Duval County. With the city of Jacksonville and outlying suburbs using most of that water, the company is the Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA). The SJRWMD is the permitting authority that controls the amount of water the JEA can pump. There are practically no restraints placed on the JEA. The amount of water the JEA pumps is enormous, 120 million gallons per day. Growth in Duval County is growing rapidly, extending those suburbs towards and into Baker County.

[Aquifer recharge is needed --Dennis J. Price, P.G. 2026-02-22, but Jacksonville pumping is the biggest problem]
Aquifer recharge is needed –Dennis J. Price, P.G. 2026-02-22, but Jacksonville pumping is the biggest problem

Our aquifer is in limestone. It is cracked and fissured by several processes that occurred over the past several million years. The amount of cracks and connected fissures determine how fast water can move through the aquifer. The aquifer under Duval County has 2 problems. It doesn’t flow quickly from the north and from the south to the pumps and the Atlantic Ocean on the east is a barrier to fresh water flow. But water does flow easier from west to east, in other words from our direction to Jacksonville. Jacksonville is faced with a water problem. The wells closest to the coast are pulling salt water into the wells. USGS studies from 1990 based on 1980’s data shows that Jacksonville was already pulling water from underneath us and flowing to them. They have begun to move their production wells closer to Baker County. With Jacksonville’s growth, these new wells produce more water and therefore draws down the water in our aquifer.

Continue reading →

Need more river testing and more types of testing 2025-09-13

Update 2025-09-17: Clean Santa Fe River 2025-09-10, Filthy Sugar Creek, Dirty upstream Withlacoochee River 2025-09-11.

E. coli is the canary in the coal mine for other contaminants in waterways.

For years WWALS has been asking the state of Florida to test frequently in many places on all rivers, to very little response FDEP did do some testing for chemical and biological tracers, including DNA tests, after Valdosta’s huge December 2019 spill, but that petered out. While FDEP was doing that, those results helped identify another source of contamination that was not Valdosta.

WWALS did test the Withlacoochee River for PFAS forever chemicals and round some, although much less than many other rivers, and no higher below the outfall of Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant or PCA’s package plant.

FDEP continued with quarterly tests for a while, and put at least its fecal bacteria results online. But it stopped doing that last year.

The 2020 GA-EPD Consent Order on Valdosta required bacterial testing of the Withlacoochee River over 40 river miles three times a week, for four years. Once those four years were up, Valdosta dropped back to two locaitons once a week.

USGS ceased financial support for nitrate and pH monitoring in eight Florida springs this year. It is not clear whether SRWMD picked up the slack.

We need more testing, not less.

[Need more river testing, and more types of testing, DNA, PFAS, metals, etc., by FDEP and others]
Need more river testing, and more types of testing, DNA, PFAS, metals, etc., by FDEP and others

Treated wastewater still has PFAS and other contaminants, as Joe Squiteri of Lee, Florida, pointed out in the recent meeting of the Florida Rivers Task Force with the City of Valdosta. Continue reading →

Nutrien water withdrawals approved –SRWMD 2025-09-09

After SRWMD Chair Virginia Johns took the oath of office due to being reappointed, the Board at its September 9, 2025, meeting approved the agenda unchanged and then approved the Consent Agenda with the Nutrien White Springs phosphate mine water use permit still in there, for withdrawal of up to 64.1621 million gallons per day (MGD) of groundwater.

Plus, “The executive director may authorize the use of groundwater for back-up mining/dewatering use in excess of 11.0000 mgd in emergency circumstances.”

For comparison, the City of Gainesville is permitted 30.0 mgd by SJRWMD.

This strip mine water use permit was approved despite the fish kill WWALS notified SRWMD of and despite frequent violations of the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

[Nutrien water withdrawals approved, Consent Agenda unchanged, Letters from WWALS and OSFR ignored --SRWMD 2025-09-09]
Nutrien water withdrawals approved, Consent Agenda unchanged, Letters from WWALS and OSFR ignored –SRWMD 2025-09-09

I wonder if the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) Board or Staff looked at EPA ECHO, which shows Clean Water Act (CWA) Violations Identified in 5 of 12 quarters and 1 Significant Noncompliance, as well as Significant Noncompliance in all 12 quarters of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). It’s true that these EPA ECHO quarters do not seem to include 2025, but such previous results are troubling. This is for PCS PHOSPHATE WHITE SPRINGS, 15843 SE 78TH PL, WHITE SPRINGS, FL 32096, which is the permit holder for NPDES permit FL0000655, which is cited in the SRWMD Board packet on page BCS 66: Continue reading →

Please take the Nutrien Water Use Permit off Consent Agenda and hold a Public Hearing –WWALS to SRWMD 2025-09-08

The SRWMD Board agenda for tomorrow, Tuesday, September 9, 2025, is here:
https://www.mysuwanneeriver.com/Archive.aspx?ADID=1706

I sent this letter Monday evening.

[Please remove Nutrien WUP from Consent Agenda and hold a Public Hearing --WWALS to SRWMD 2025-09-08]
Please remove Nutrien WUP from Consent Agenda and hold a Public Hearing –WWALS to SRWMD 2025-09-08

September 8, 2025

To: Virginia H. Johns
Board Chair
virginia.johns@srwmd.org
Suwannee River Water Management District

Cc: Hugh Thomas
Executive DIrector
Hugh.Thomas@srwmd.org

Dear SRWMD,

Staff seem unaware of a recent fish kill on Swift Creek, one of the “offsite discharge locations” cited in the Memorandum on the proposed five-year extension of the Nutrien Water Use Permit 2-047-219878. A fish kill is not a natural system “healthy and functioning well.”

That alone should be enough reason to remove that item from the Consent Agenda and to schedule a public hearing on that WUP.

Specifically, on your agenda for Tuesday morning, in this item, Continue reading →

Chemours to blame for flooding rural Santa Fe River Basin? –Grist 2025-09-04

Update 2025-09-05: Clean Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers 2025-09-04.

What is overflowing in that floodwater from those five Chemours mines on Trail Ridge at the top of the Santa Fe River Basin?

“If I lived near Chemours, I’d be paranoid too,” said John Quarterman, who serves as the Suwannee Riverkeeper, a staff position for an organization of the same name that advocates for conservation of the numerous watersheds within the Suwannee River Basin. “Some of the stuff they’re paranoid about is probably actually happening, but it’s hard to document which of it is and which of it isn’t.”

Until the Florida Department of Environmental Protection takes frequent measurements up and down the state’s rivers, Quarterman said, it will be difficult to pin down the impact of Chemours’ activities. And without such studies, he said, it’s difficult to identify bad actors — let alone hold them accountable.

WWALS has a volunteer water quality monitoring program, and two recently-trained testers may start testing in the Santa Fe River Basin soon.
https://wwals.net/issues/testing

[Is Chemours to blame for flooding rural Santa Fe River Basin? --Grist 2025-09-04]
Is Chemours to blame for flooding rural Santa Fe River Basin? –Grist 2025-09-04

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey, Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist, September 4, 2025, Waterlogged and contaminated: In rural Florida, locals suspect a mining company is to blame for their flooding troubles: Residents are trying to connect the dots between hurricanes, high radium levels, and a mineral mining giant next door.

The storm had passed, but the water kept rising. In September 2017, Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida, causing tides to surge and dumping about a foot of water across much of the state. A few days later, Jane Blais stood on a bridge with her neighbors near her High Springs ranch, watching the Santa Fe River below swell higher and higher.

“We had zero notice,” Blais said, Continue reading →

Video: How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar by Dennis Price, 2025-06-19

Update 2025-07-25: SRWMD & SJRWMD aquifer recharge project update @ SRWMD 2025-07-08.

Dennis Price, P.G., of Hamilton County, Florida, asked, “Are we just a water tower for Jacksonville?”

He showed us “the history of surface and ground water in the flatwoods in south Georgia and north Florida in the Suwannee River Basin. Historic water levels and how we have changed these levels. Changes beginning with forestry then farming, and population growth. Ideas for correcting the problems.”

[How Humans Affect the Aquifer, WWALS Webinar by Dennis Price, Are we just a water tower for Jacksonville? 2025-06-19]
How Humans Affect the Aquifer, WWALS Webinar by Dennis Price, Are we just a water tower for Jacksonville? 2025-06-19

This applies to the Floridan Aquifer proper and the other aquifers above it, all below the Suwannee, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, the Okefenokee Swamp, and their tributaries.

Here is the WWALS video of this WWALS Webinar:
https://youtu.be/o4s1jPN0EVI

Some still images are appended.

Thanks to WWALS Board Member Janet Martin for organizing this webinar and for introducing Dennis.

Thanks to everyone who attended.

See the announcement of this webinar for Dennis’ resume and other background.
https://wwals.net/?p=67740

See also: Continue reading →

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

Update 2025-09-08: Please take the Nutrien Water Use Permit off Consent Agenda and hold a Public Hearing –WWALS to SRWMD 2025-09-08.

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 →

Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20

Very good news today! The coal miners from Alabama have been bought out, ending mining on their specific property. First, the thanks. Then the rest of the story.

Many thanks to The Conservation Fund for buying out Twin Pines Minerals, LLC (TPM), and to the James M. Cox Foundation and the Holdfast Collective (Patagonia) for helping fund that acquisition. Thanks to everyone who helped, and to everyone who has opposed this bad mining proposal since at least 2019.

There is a direct path to adding this land into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR), since the Okefenokee NWR Minor Acquisition Boundary Expansion was approved by USFWS 2025-01-03. Although given the current chaotic state of the federal government, keeping that land in private hands for now might be prudent.

[Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20, Twin Pines Minerals, by The Conservation Fund]
Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20, Twin Pines Minerals, by The Conservation Fund

We should all celebrate!

But this land acquisition is not the end of the mining story. There is much more we can do to protect the entire Okefenokee Swamp, the blackwater rivers of south Georgia, and to pass a constitutional amendment for Right to Clean Water, Air, and Soil.

Directly to the north of TPM’s parcels is much more land, Continue reading →

How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar, by Dennis J. Price, P.G., 2025-06-19

Dennis Price, P.G., of Hamilton County, Florida, says, “I plan on going through the history of surface and ground water in the flatwoods in south Georgia and north Florida in the Suwannee River Basin. Historic water levels and how we have changed these levels. Changes beginning with forestry then farming, and population growth. Ideas for correcting the problems.”

This applies to the Floridan Aquifer proper and the other aquifers above it, all below the Suwannee, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, the Okefenokee Swamp, and their tributaries.

When: 12-1 PM, Thursday, June 19, 2025

Put In: Register to join with zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/FdxNg0QeSB-ngQLGUaIWKw
WWALS Board Member Janet Martin will give a brief introduction.
Questions and answers will be at the end.

[How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar 2025-06-19, in north Florida and south Georgia, by Dennis J. Price P.G.]
How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar 2025-06-19

Continue reading →