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.
See also PDF.
Continue readingUpdate 2023-04-13: More materials: Hamilton County Planning Commission on Nutrien phosphate mine permit renewal 2023-03-28.
Update 2023-04-12: The County Commission meeting will be April 18th.
The Nutrien Phosphate Mine in Hamilton County, Florida,
is up for renewal by the Hamilton Board of County Commissioners
on Tuesday, April 28 18, 2023, at 6 PM.
There will be a Public Hearing.
Since time to speak will be limited, best to send written comments in advance.
The renewal request has already been reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Board (PNZ), on March 28, 2023. PNZ recommends renewal with some conditions.
Private landowners, a number of whose property is inside the mine boundary, object that some of Nutrien’s plans for disposal of waste such as clay will adversely affect those landowners’ businesses as well as wildlife and waters.
Dennis J. Price, P.G., of Hamilton County filed a page of questions.
Bienville Outdoors filed a a request to find other options for settling areas.
Maybe you would like to comment on effects of this mine on the Suwannee River, Swift Creek, the Floridan Aquifer, or public health.
![[Private landowners, Clay flows, aerial: Nutrien Phosphate Mine, Hamilton County, FL]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-28--hamco-planning-packet/many.jpg)
Private landowners, Clay flows, aerial: Nutrien Phosphate Mine, Hamilton County, FL
On the WWALS website are Continue reading
I sent this at 4:08 PM today to TwinPines.Comment@dnr.ga.gov:
“Please find attached a letter of opposition by all nine Riverkeepers of Georgia to the mining permit applications by Twin Pines Minerals, LLC.”
![[GA Riverkeepers letter for Okefenokee Swamp against strip mine 2023-03-09]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-09--ga-riverkeepers-us-waterkeepers-okefenokee/many.jpg)
See also the letter by Waterkeepers Florida, representing all fifteen Waterkeepers of Florida. It includes links to the letters by Suwannee and St. Marys Waterkeepers.
You can still send in your own comment.
While the comment period on the Mining Land Use Plan nominally closes at 4:30 PM today, that same address has been open for comments for a year or more, and will probably remain open.
Plus GA-EPD has said that if there is a draft permit, they will open another 60-day public comment period.
Meanwhile, all the Waterkeepers of Georgia and Florida oppose that strip mine for white paint, and support the Okefenokee Swamp, the St. Marys and Suwannee Rivers, and the Floridan Aquifer.
The letter is below in web form, or see it as PDF. Continue reading
Update 2023-03-20:
All nine Riverkeepers of Georgia oppose the mining permit applications by Twin Pines Minerals too near the Okefenokee Swamp 2023-03-09
Also, you can still send a comment to TwinPines.Comment@dnr.ga.gov.
Waterkeepers Florida, representing all fifteen Waterkeepers of Florida, opposes a titanium dioxide strip mine too near the Okefenokee Swamp, in a letter to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp Friday. (PDF)
You can still comment to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division by 4:30 PM, Monday, March 20th, and ask Georgia legislators to pass bills protecting the Okefenokee Swamp, the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, and the Floridan Aquifer.
![[Support the Okefenokee Swamp, not a strip mine --Waterkeepers Florida 2023-03-17]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-17--wkfl-ga-epd-kemp-oke-tpm/many.jpg)
Support the Okefenokee Swamp, not a strip mine –Waterkeepers Florida 2023-03-17
March 17, 2023
![[Logo of Waterkeepers Florida]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-17--wkfl-ga-epd-kemp-oke-tpm/small/wkfl-logo.jpg){kind=logo}
Governor Brian Kemp
206 Washington Street
Suite 203 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Delivered via email to: brian.kemp@georgia.gov
Re: Please stop a strip mine near the Okefenokee Swamp that threatens both Florida and Georgia
Dear Governor Kemp and staff,
In support of our fellow Waterkeepers’ missions to protect the St. Marys River and the Suwannee River, we, Members of Waterkeepers Florida, are again expressing serious concerns regarding the activities the proposed Twin Pines Minerals, LLC (TPM) application number SAS-2018-00554-SP-HAR will have on the Okefenokee Swamp, its river systems, and the Floridan Aquifer. Waterkeepers Florida is a regional entity composed of all 15 Waterkeeper organizations working in the State of Florida to protect and restore our water resources across over 50,000 square miles of watershed, which is home to over 15 million Floridians.
Continue readingMarch 17, 2023
Land Protection Branch,
4244 International Parkway,
Atlanta Tradeport- Suite 104,
Atlanta, Georgia 30354
twinpines.comment@dnr.ga.gov
RE: WWALS Public Comments on Mining Land Use Plan of Twin Pines Minerals, LLC (PDF)
Dear EPD,
This letter recommends denying the permit applications by Twin Pines Minerals, LLC (TPM) to mine for titanium dioxide (TiO2) near the Okefenokee Swamp, based on specifics of the Mining Land Use Plan,1 as requested in the Notice of the Opportunity for Public Comment.2
![[Please deny the mining permits]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-17--wwals-to-epd-tpm-okefenokee/many.jpg)
Please deny the mining permits
First, we present some context for why this decision is important far away from the Okefenokee Swamp.
Any lowered water level or dewatering of the surface around the Swamp increases the risk of fires. The 2007 Bugaboo fire spread smoke west across the Suwannee River Basin, causing respiratory distress 80 miles away in Quitman, continuing 450 miles to Meridian, Mississippi. Southwards the smoke closed I-75 and went 370 miles to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. North it went 250 miles to Atlanta.
During the 2017 West Mims fire, Lowndes County Fire (along with Valdosta and its other cities, and nearby counties) sent assistance from 75 miles away. They were among 900 firefighters from across the country.3 “There’s nobody Continue reading
After two hours of speakers in the Public Hearing, the Brooks County Commission this Monday denied the Special Exception for Morven Solar, 3:1:1.
![[Speakers, Decision: Morven Solar @ Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-06--brooks-county-morven-solar-videos/many.jpg)
Speakers, Decision: Morven Solar @ Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06
Commissioner Myra Exum, after saying that whatever the Commissioners did they would be wrong, Continue reading
Update 2023-09-14: Draft 2023 North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP) workshop 2023-09-21.
Sent as PDF.
January 31, 2023
To: SRWMD, SJRWMD, partnership@sjrwmd.com
Re: Water budget, limit water withdrawals, do better aquifer recharge, NFRWSP
Dear Water Management Districts,
Thank you for the opportunity for public input.
![[Not every demand needs water withdrawals]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-31--wwals-nfrwsp/many.jpg)
Not every demand needs water withdrawals
At the November 15, 2022, public meeting about the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP), I thanked the presenters for all the hard work they had put into the details, such as in the North Florida-Southeast Georgia (NFSEG) regional groundwater flow model .
I have some issues with another level. I noticed repeated assertions in the public meeting that demand or projected demand are just taken as givens. So basically anybody who wants to build a golf course, or start another titanium mine, or plant almond trees that need lots of water, that’s just a given, that’s demand.
Continue readingThe North Central Florida Regional Planning Council had several public speakers cram topics into their three minutes each.
![[Phosphate and Titanium Mines, and Trash @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-26--ncfrpc-pictures/trashmines.jpg)
Phosphate and Titanium Mines, and Trash @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26
Two directly-affected women and Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, a board member of Our Santa Fe River (OSFR), talked about the Cornerstone Crossings mega development on top of Clay Hole Creek and Cannon Creek confluence, a part of the Ichetucknee Trace, which is in the Southwest quadrant of I-75 and SR 47 Hwy interchange, due south of Lake City in Columbia County, Florida. Merillee wondered about the development’s water withdrawal permit, and how much PFAS it might unleash into the waterways and the underlying Floridan Aquifer. She displayed LiDAR maps she got from SRWMD that clearly show the Ichetucknee Trace. Continue reading
GA-EPD is providing more public comment opportunity than it has been promising for the past year. It has opened a comment period on Twin Pines Minerals Mining Land Use Plan, after which it will do what it previously promised: issue a draft permit and open a comment period on that.
You can object now to that titanium dioxide strip mine for white paint far too close to the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, and sits above the Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink in south Georgia and north Florida. You can email or paper mail your comments, or join one of two zoom webinars.
The comment deadline is 60 days after the notice of yesterday, so apparently Monday, March 20, 2023.
The Twin Pines Minerals Draft Mining Land Use Plan and Associated Documents for Public Comment are on the GA-EPD website, and also on the WWALS website.
Here is the public notice: Continue reading
Old news is new again.
You can help make this resolution and others affect the miners’ plans:
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium
Terry Richards, Yahoo News and Valdosta Daily Times, January 1 2023, Valdosta on record opposing mining operation,
Jan. 1—VALDOSTA — More than a year ago the Valdosta City Council joined lawmakers across South Georgia opposing controversial mining plans near the Okefenokee Swamp.
At the time, the president of the mining company said he was not concerned about local resolutions like the one passed by Valdosta.
“The Valdosta City Council’s resolution has no impact on our plans whatsoever,” said Steve Ingle, president of Twin Pines Minerals, in a statement.
Valdosta City Council voted Nov. 11, 2021 to oppose Twin Pines’ plans to start a mining project near the Okefenokee Swamp, about 75 miles from Valdosta. The vote was 6-0.
![[Dragline on TPM mine site 2022-09-27 and Valdosta City Council 2021-11-11]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-01--valdosta-opposes-mine/m2.jpg)
Dragline on TPM mine site 2022-09-27 and Valdosta City Council 2021-11-11
Here is video of that vote
and the text of the resolution.
https://wwals.net/?p=57073
All the other similar resolutions are on the WWALS website.
Back to the story: Continue reading
![[Letter and mine]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-04-17--wwals-to-hamco-nutrien-phosphate-permit/many.jpg)
![[Proposed Project Location, 2-MLUP-App-N-b-Modeling-the-Groundwater-Flow-System-on-Trail-Ridge-9-14-2021-Figs-Tables-and-Apps-0012]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-19--ga-epd-tpm-public-comment/big/2-MLUP-App-N-b-Modeling-the-Groundwater-Flow-System-on-Trail-Ridge-9-14-2021-Figs-Tables-and-Apps-0012.jpg)