Tag Archives: Alachua County

Update Rock Bluff Management Plan, renew Woods Ferry River Camp lease agreement @ SRWMD 2025-04-08

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On the SRWMD Board Agenda for April 8, 2025, related to the Lands Committee proposal to convey three spring parks to Suwannee County, SRWMD hasn’t even finished its planned work on Telford Spring, and Falmouth Springs is still closed due to hurricane damage. See page 48 in the Land Management Update Report.

Telford Spring: In July, the District opened Telford Spring to the public. EUTAW, Inc has completed a conceptual plan to improve parking and public access. The initial phase to develop the parking lot is planned.

Storm Facility Repairs: Hurricane Debby and Hurricane Helene have damaged public use areas to varying degrees. Eight sites are currently undergoing plans for assessment and construction costs to repair. The sites under assessment are Suwannee Springs, Falmouth Springs, Owen Springs, Steinhatchee Falls, Blue Sink, Atsena Otie Key, and Lukens. FEMA conducted site inspections for 3 of the damaged facilities. Falmouth Springs remains closed due to damage to the boardwalk.

[Collage, SRWMD Board Package 2025-04-08]
Collage, SRWMD Board Package 2025-04-08

Perhaps the most interesting items in the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) Governing Board agenda for April 8, 2025, are these two items under “5. Consideration of the following Items Collectively by Consent:” Continue reading →

Exploring the Santa Fe River: Origins –Joanne Tremblay 2023-11-03

Joanne Tremblay says, “I was inspired to create a visual of the river’s path so folks could get a better understanding of its changes it goes through before it becomes the spring-laden stretch that most are familiar with. All my own footage, paddles are a composite from my own at different times.”

[Cover]
Cover

My favorite is this slide, “I will not repeat this journey”, about Worthington to Bible Camp Road: “Seven miles through tangled woods”. Continue reading →

High Springs small sewage spill, Santa Fe River 2023-05-04

Update 2023-05-05: Clean Withlacoochee River 2023-05-04.

High Springs, Alachua County, Florida, had another small sewage spill, mostly vacuumed up. It probably did not affect the Santa Fe River, but High Springs needs to get a grip.

[Public Notice and Map of High Springs Plaza Sewage Spill 2023-05-04]
Public Notice and Map of High Springs Plaza Sewage Spill 2023-05-04

Pollution Notice Continue reading →

Alachua County Flood Insurance Rate Maps Update Meetings 2023-04-12

The first of four Public Meetings about updates to Alachua County Flood Insurance Maps is tomorrow, April 12, 2023.

Thanks to WWALS Development Director Veronica Oakler for spotting this news item.

[Alachua County Flood Map 2023-04-11]
Alachua County Flood Map 2023-04-11

Alachua County, Headlines, April 6, 2023, Flood Insurance Rate Maps Update Public Meetings

Periodically, the Department of Homeland Security provides funding to FEMA to reissue the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) and execute new detailed studies in selected areas. The FIRM is used by insurance brokers and housing lenders to determine the risk of flooding and to set the premium for flood insurance. New FIRM maps are being developed for Alachua County and surrounding communities. The Santa Fe Watershed Flood Risk Project covering most of the North and Northwestern portion of the County is available for public review. FEMA has started a public comment and appeals period that ends on April 30, 2023.

Four information meetings are being held on April 12, April 13, April 17, and April 18, 2023, at Alachua County Public Works Ready Room (5620 N.W. 120th Lane, Gainesville) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Those wishing to appeal or comment about the FIRM maps can obtain information on how to do so at this meeting.

Those who would like to look up their property and view the current FIRM maps and the proposed changes should visit the Continue reading →

Waldo Tree Farm on the Santa Fe River and Camp and Abel Tract on the Suwannee River @ SRWMD Board 2023-04-11

Last month the SRWMD board approved buying the Camp and Abel Tract on the Suwannee River in Hamilton County.

Tomorrow morning, April 11, 2023, at 9 AM, SRWMD will approve an additional resolution for a slightly higher amount to cover costs of the transaction.

And SRWMD will consider buying Waldo Tree Farm, which is near the Santa Fe River in Alachua County.

You can attend in person at SRWMD HQ, 9225 Co Rd 49, Live Oak, FL 32060.

Or online:

GoTo Webinar Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7498156259411455319

Public Comment Form Link: www.MySuwanneeRiver.com/Comments.

[Agenda, Waldo Tree Farm on the Santa Fe River, Camp and Abel Tract on the Suwannee River @ SRWMD Board 2023-04-11]
Agenda, Waldo Tree Farm on the Santa Fe River, Camp and Abel Tract on the Suwannee River @ SRWMD Board 2023-04-11

The entire board packet is on the WWALS website.

Here are a few excerpts. Continue reading →

HPS II withdraws phosphate mining application from Bradford County, Florida 2023-01-19

After many years of massive opposition, HPS II Thursday withdrew its application for a phosphate mine “without the County taking any formal action on it.”

[Letter, Map]
Letter, Map

Union County, where HPS II also wanted to mine, rejected its application there, changed the Union County Comprehensive Plan to limit mining, and, with the assistance of Alachua County, maintained legal defense against the mine, until HPS II dropped its lawsuit last June.

So it seems safe to finally say the HPS II phosphate mine is dead.

Congratulations to all the opponents, especially Bradford Environmental Forum, Citizens Against Phosphate Mining, Sierra Club, and Our Santa Fe River (OSFR).

Suwannee Riverkeeper has opposed this mine since 2017, because it drains ito the New River and the Santa Fe River in the Suwannee River Basin, above the Floridan Aquifer. Update 2023-01-24: Added detail. Our opposition has included attending demonstrations, speaking at County Commission meetings in Union and Bradford Counties, writing letters to those Commissions, organizing Southwings small plane overflights of the mine site with opposition members from Union County and OSFR, publishing photographs from such overflights, attending coordination meetings as far away as Tampa, and attending nationwide meetings against phosphate mining. See https://wwals.net/issues/phosphate-mining/. In December 2018, the first official action of the newly-formed Waterkeepers Florida was a a Resolution Against Phosphate Mines in Florida.

HPS II withdrawing their rezoning application does raise questions about where phosphate miners will aim next. Continue reading →

HPS II drops Union County phosphate mine lawsuit 2022-06-23

Last Thursday, Kate Ellison posted on her facebook page the news that HPS II had dropped its lawsuit against Union County, Florida, which had been going on since 2019.

The miners were attempting to overturn Union County’s rejection of their phosphate mining permit applicaiton, and Union County’s changed land development regulations that prohibited such mining except in a small area. This is big news, although there may be more to come, and there are implications as far away as the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.

[Union County Times, Nutrien Phosphate Mine]
Union County Times, Nutrien Phosphate Mine

Suwannee Riverkeeper has opposed this mine since 2017, because it is uphill from the New River which flows into the Santa Fe River and then the Suwannee River, and above the Floridan Aquifer. Our Santa Fe River (OSFR) has been in the middle of this opposition all along, so, not surprisingly, OSFR has posted an extensive review, see below, naming many of the other people involved.

I’d also like to mention that, Continue reading →

Videos: Florida Right to Clean Water, Poe Springs Park 2022-04-21

Update 2022-05-01: Florida petition online now for Right to Clean and Healthy Waters 2022-05-01.

Five of us spoke about the new Florida Right to Clean and Healthy Waters (RTCW) statewide petition for a constitutional amendment. We said saying extraordinary problems demand extraordinary solutions, water supports everything, RTCW is needed like the First Amendment, flow and nitrates in the Santa Fe River and springs need RTCW, and drinking water needs RTCW.

[RTCW, Poe Springs]
RTCW, Poe Springs

That press conference at Poe Springs Park on the Santa Fe River was covered by CBS4 News out of Gainesville. Here is the TV news story, WWALS video of the speakers, and the full text of the petition amendment.

TV News

Julianne Amaya, CBS4, Gainesville, Florida, Thursday, April 21, 2022, Petition calls for ‘rights to clean and healthy waters’ in Florida, Continue reading →

Proposal for the Recharge of the Upper Floridan Aquifer –D.J. Price P.G. 2016-11-14

Dennis J. Price, P.G., sent this proposal to the committee for the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP), and that WWALS included in our comments.

They duly noted it in their matrix of comments. But, so far as I can tell, they did not follow any of its recommendations.

[Map and Proposal]
Map and Proposal

See also Dennis’s other letter on this subject.

SE ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY
DENNIS J. PRICE, P.G.
P.O. BOX 45
WHITE SPRINGS, FL 32096
cell 362-8189, den1@windstream.net
Recharge-Proposal.pdf

November 14, 2016

North Florida Regional Water Supply Partnership

RE: PROPOSAL FOR THE RECHARGE OF THE UPPER FLORIDAN AQUIFER IN THE NORTH FLORIDA FLATWOODS ENVIRONMENT, HAMILTON, COLUMBIA, UNION, BAKER AND ALACHUA COUNTIES.

My proposal is directed towards those areas in the SRWMD and the SIRWMD that are underlain by the Hawthorn formation resulting in extensive areas containing a surficial aquifer and the intermediate aquifers that exist in the Hawthorn. Recharge to the Floridan is retarded by the presence of the clay layers in the Hawthorn. Very large wetland systems are common in these areas.

Water balance studies were produced twice that I am aware of in the SRWMD, one by Continue reading →

Videos: Toll roads as prosperity drain and climate change, at M-CORES toll road meeting, Madison, FL 2020-02-11

More toll roads could drain prosperity, and more driving means more climate change, said two speakers at the meeting in Madison County, Florida, February 11, 2020.

You can send your opinion to FDOT.Listens@dot.state.fl.us. And Sierra Club has provided a convenient way for Floridians to tell FDOT No Build:
https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/no-roads-to-ruin/take-action

See also the No Roads to Ruin Coalition facebook page.

A couple of speakers in Madison were for the toll roads, both claiming economic benefits. Madison County later terminated the consulting contract for one of them as a cost-cutting measure due to virus pandemic.

If one county can do that, the state of Florida can do that, as we previously suggested. See also Philip Beasley, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, April 12, 2020, Put federal dollars in hands of jobless.

Here are the WWALS videos of speakers in Madison: