Tag Archives: C. Rhett Jackson

Okefenokee Swamp exchanges water with the Floridan Aquifer –peer-reviewed evidence 2025-12-09

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Update 2025-12-26: WWALS Webinar via zoom: Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer, Prof. Evaristo & Rasmussen, 2026-01-15.

University of Georgia (UGA) Professor Todd C. Rasmussen is back after 30 years with peer-reviewed double evidence that the Okefenokee Swamp does exchange water with the underlying Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink in south Georgia and north Florida.

[Okefenokee Swamp leaks water into the Floridan Aquifer --peer-reviewed evidence 2025-12-09, Mining withdrawals would make it worse]
Okefenokee Swamp leaks water into the Floridan Aquifer –peer-reviewed evidence 2025-12-09, Mining withdrawals would make it worse

This paper is more incentive to pass Georgia House Bill 561 to protect the Okefenokee Swamp from mining, at least on its east side. Georgians, please ask your statehouse delegation to pass HB 561. Floridians, please ask your Georgia friends and relatives to do the same. Here’s how to contact Georgia Statehouse members:

https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/

Here’s a video explaining the new paper by its first author Prof. Jaivime Evaristo, on YouTube, 2025-12-09, The Okefenokee is Not a Bathtub: A New Look at Wetland-Aquifer Coupling, Continue reading →

Miners and GA-EPD picked a bad gauge for the stripmine permit application 2023-02-21

If you needed another reason to object to the strip mine proposed far too near the Okefenokee Swamp, here it is.

Hydrologists from seven different universities rebut the choice of the Macclenny St Marys River gauge by the miners and the state regulatory agency to model and monitor the proposed titanium dioxide strip mine. The hydrologists propose the Moniac gauge as much closer to the mine site.

[St. Marys River Gauges --NOASS, USGS]
St. Marys River Gauges –NOASS, USGS
Red circle: proposed titanium dioxide stripmine site.
Center green diamond: Moniac St. Marys River Gauge.
Bottom green circle: Macclenny St. Marys River Gauge.
Upper right green diamond near Folkston: Traders Hill St. Marys River Gauge.
Left green diamond: Fargo Suwannee River Gauge.

I would argue that neither of those gauges is downstream from water flowing from the eastern side of the mine site: for that they need the Traders Hill gauge.

Further, they should also be monitoring the Fargo gauge on the Suwannee River. And they should be modeling and monitoring not just water levels but also water quality at all these locations.

To comment on the permit applications, Continue reading →

Unacceptable risk to mine near the Okefenokee Swamp –U.S. Interior Secretary Haaland 2022-12-07

She finally said what she did not say when she toured the Okefenokee Swamp back in September.

You can also tell the state of Georgia to stop the proposed strip mine far too close to the Okefenokee Swamp, the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, above the Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink.

[Interior Secretary Haaland in the Okefenokee Swamp 2022-09-16 Photo: Shannon Estenoz and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]
Interior Secretary Haaland in the Okefenokee Swamp 2022-09-16 Photo: Shannon Estenoz and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Russ Bynam, AP in the AJC, 7 December 2022, Interior secretary: `Unacceptable’ to mine near famed swamp,

A member of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet is urging Georgia officials to deny permits for a proposed mine near the edge of the famed Okefenokee Swamp and its vast wildlife refuge

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A member of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet is urging Georgia officials to deny permits for a proposed mine near the edge of the famed Okefenokee Swamp and its vast wildlife refuge, saying the plan poses “unacceptable risk” to the swamp’s fragile ecology.

“I write to express Continue reading →