Stay to the left to go to Lanier Boat Ramp first, then come back and take the right fork to Pafford’s Landing for the WWALS and Rivers Alive cleanup this 10 AM this Saturday, October 12, 2019, on the Alapaha River near Lakeland, Georgia. It’s free!
You can also help pay for these Alapaha River Water Trail road signs Continue reading
Update 2019-10-10: Looking west from the Cherokee of Georgia Tribal Grounds along GA 94 past sawmill to equipment on mine site, with Okefenokee Swamp beyond. And a Bill of Rights for Nature.
![[Tribal Grounds west along GA 94 to TPM equipment, 12:38:38, 30.5257540, -82.0411100]](https://wwals.net/pictures/2019-10-05--equipment-tpm/triba-grounds-to-TPM-equipment.jpg)
Tribal Grounds west along GA 94 to TPM equipment, 12:38:38.
Photo:
John S. Quarterman for WWALS, on Southwings flight, pilot Allen Nodorft, 2019-10-05.
This time it’s true: there is heavy equipment on site Twin Pines Minerals proposes for titanium mining near the Okefenokee Swamp, as of yesterday. It looks like dredging equipment similar to what we saw a few minutes earlier at the Chemours North Maxville Mine in Baker County, Florida. People more familiar with mining equipment, what do you think?
![[Closeup: equipment]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-10-05--equipment-tpm/equipment-crop.jpg)
Photo:
John S. Quarterman for WWALS, on Southwings flight, pilot Allen Nodorft,
Closeup: equipment, 12:41 PM, Saturday, October 5, 2019.
For context, this picture is looking east along GA 94 towards St. George: Continue reading
It was surprisingly interactive meeting, with the Board members repeatedly questioning staff about multiple projects, sometimes taking up points raised from the audience. One Board Member even stopped a project. Yet half the rump board was not visible, being on the telephone, and the Budget Public Hearing may or may not have been legal.
At the rescheduled September SRWMD Board meeting, OSFR President Mike Roth questioned the validity of the permitting process for Nestlé’s proposed 1.2 million gallon per day water withdrawal from Ginnie Springs on the Santa Fe River, since the actual application is from Seven Springs, which proposes to sell the water to Nestlé, which is not a use authorized by Florida Statutes.
I seconded that, and added that the SRWMD Board should revisit Nestlé’s permit for water withdrawal at Madison Blue Springs on the Withlacoochee River, since Florida Statutes to authorize them to do that.
You can comment to SRWMD about Nestlé’s permits.
Photo: Jim Tatum for OSFR, of Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman
Afterwards, SRWMD’s Tom Mirti told me the $70,000 contract with SRWMD for Nestlé to support springs water quality monitoring is required by the Nestlé permit for Madison Blue Spring, even though it has to be negotiated separately. Apparently yet another open records request is needed.
Update 2019-11-07: This blog post published as an op-ed in the Charlton County Herald, October 9, 2019, as Convenience of private profit is no excuse to risk Okefenokee.
![[Convenience of private profit is no excuse to risk Okefenokee --Suwannee Riverkeeper]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-09-25--tpm-full-page-ad/jsq-0.jpg)
Convenience of private profit is no excuse to risk Okefenokee –Suwannee Riverkeeper
It’s the miners who are proposing to risk the Okefenokee Swamp for their private profit, so it’s their job to provide proof, despite what the Twin Pines full page ad in the Charlton County Herald says. Alex Kearns has already made this point for St. Marys Earthkeepers in a letter to the editor. You can comment on the newspaper’s website on that one, or you can send one, too, to: editor@charltonherald.com.
![[CharltonCounty-Herald 25Sept2019-0001]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-09-25--tpm-full-page-ad/CharltonCounty-Herald_25Sept2019-0001.jpg)
CharltonCounty-Herald 25Sept2019-0001
PDF
Yet in our Suwannee Riverkeeper comments to the Corps, we have provided quite a few studies that indicate the risk, including a Florida Consent Order against the same company for similar mines in Florida.
Where are these studies Twin Pines touts in the ad? They were not in Twin Pines’ mining application, as we and many others, including U.S. EPA and GA-EPD have pointed out. When will these miners’ studies be published?
The one Twin Pines hydrogeological study I have been able to find is in a different application that this miners’ ad doesn’t mention: for groundwater withdrawal and use. That study shows the 4.32 million gallons per day the miners’ want (more than twice all the current permitted water withdrawals in Charlton County) would lower the level of the Floridan Aquifer under the Swamp.
At the August 13, 2019 miners’ meeting in Folkston, GA, Steve Ingle claimed the mine would not affect the Floridan Aquifer, and the miners’ hydrologist Mark Tanner claimed there would be no cone of depression under the Swamp, both on video. This was two weeks after the same company had filed its withdrawal application with a hydrology report that clearly depicts a cone of depression extending under the Swamp. A report authored by the same two hydrologists who were at the August 13th meeting: Robert M. Holt and J. Mark Tanner.
The same miners’ hydrologists also repeatedly refused to guarantee there would be no effect on the Suwannee River, despite the ad’s claims of “100% certainty.”
Pretty much every other point in that ad is similarly easily rebuttable.
It’s curious they didn’t mention their biggest selling point: Continue reading
A favorite bridge, on Old US 129 across the Suwannee River:
Seen from US 128, looking upstream on the Suwannee River. North (to the left) is Jasper, Hamilton County, Florida. South (to the right) is Live Oak, Suwannee County. Continue reading
Update 2019-12-19: Cleanup finishing at Flying J, Exit 2, I-75, Lowndes County, GA 2019-12-10.
I must compliment Lowndes County Code Enforcement, the Flying J, Dynamis, and Deep South Sanitation, about this cleanup at the Flying J, Exit 2, I-75, Lake Park, Georgia, about a mile from the GA-FL line.
On August 23, 2019, I sent this picture and the location to Lowndes County Code Enforcement:
Code Enforcement Director Mindy Bates responded within the hour: Continue reading
Cook County had the most people I’ve ever seen at one of these meetings in any county! SGRC’s Elizabeth Backe corroborated my remark, noting I had recently been to the Charlton County meeting.
![[Cook County and its four cities]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-09-16--cook-county-comp-plan/20190916_160811.jpg)
Cook County and its four cities
The next meeting will be 3 PM, Monday, October 7, 2019, at the Cook County Commissioners Conference Room, 1200 S Hutchinson Ave., Adel, GA.
The purpose of the first meeting was: “we will review the community vision, goals, issues, and opportunities — for the county and all four cities (Adel, Lenox, Cecil, and Sparks).” All four cities were at the meeting, and each of them spoke at various times. Also unlike most other such meetings in other counties, nobody was sitting up front; everybody was in the audience.
Here is marked up document from the first Workshop: Word, PDF.
As usual, I suggested adding more about rivers and water trails. This additional Opportunity on page 2 I think was my suggestion: Continue reading
Get some fresh-fried food at the Skillet Festival, and come by the WWALS booth, in Quitman, Georgia, this Saturday. Yes, we will have the raffle kayak. And what will NextEra be up to this year?
When: 9AM-3:30 PM, Saturday, October 19, 2019
Where: Brooks County Courthouse, 100 Screven Street, Quitman, Georgia 31643
What: Brooks County Skillet Festival, quilts, cooking, vegetable market, fashion, dogs, clogging, skillet toss, race, and parade
Volunteer: You can help at the WWALS booth. Sign up on this form or send us email.
Event: facebook
WWALS at the Skillet Festival in 2018.
At the 2018 Skillet Festival in Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, the froggy toss game was quite popular.
Rivers Alive clean up at Lakeland Boat Ramp and Pafford’s Landing on the Alapaha River near Lakeland, Georgia, on the Alapaha River Water Trail.
When: Gather 10:00 AM, Saturday, October 12, 2019
Put In: Lakeland Boat Ramp, head east from Lakeland on GA 122, turn right at the Lakeland Boat Ramp sign, immediately turn left along the side of the highway, to the boat ramp at the Alapaha River.
Take Out: Pafford’s Landing. Take GA 122 east from Lakeland, turn at the sign, go into the woods, to the west side (right bank) of the Alapaha River, in Lanier County, Georgia.
Bring: Cleanup materials will be provided,
but if you’ve got a trash picker, bring it along.
No need for a boat, but you can bring one if you want to.
It’s only a quarter mile from Lakeland Boat Ramp to Pafford’s Landing,
but you may find some trash if you paddle that.
Free: This outing is free to everyone! We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
Event: facebook, meetup
![[With roads]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-10-05--paffords-landing-sign/20191005_071127.jpg)
![[OSFR President]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-09-18--srwmd-board-pictures/20190918_152732.jpg)
![[Figure 8. Drawdown 2930 days]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-07-24--tpm-ga-epd-water-withdrawal/424772086-7-24-19-Final-Application-for-Industrial-Groundwater-Withdrawal-Permit-0044.jpg)
![[River Bend and Bridge]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-09-18--old-us-129-bridge-suwannee-river/20190918_181120.jpg)
![[Trash in gap]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-08-23--exit-2-flying-j-trash/20190823_091403.jpg)
![[Still more trash]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-08-23--exit-2-flying-j-trash/20190823_091624.jpg)