The map in this Chemours followup report about its January 31, 2024, 194,195-gallon wastewater spill seems to indicate the water went south into Double Run Creek, which goes to the Santa Fe River.
The latlong in the map legend, 29.8901015, -82.0506411, is on one branch of Double Run Creek. Continue reading
Update 2025-05-16: More about Spill from Chemours Trail Ridge South TiO2 mine SE of Starke, FL 2024-01-31.
Chemours wants to mine on SRWMD land in Bradford County, FL, upstream from the Santa Fe River, on Double Run Creek which already had a tailings wastewater spill last fall.
You’ve got 30 days to comment:
The Jacksonville District will receive written comments on the proposed work, as outlined above, until June 12, 2025. Comments should be submitted electronically via the Regulatory Request System (RRS) at https://rrs.usace.army.mil/rrs or to John Fellows at john.p.fellows@usace.army.mil. Alternatively, you may submit comments in writing to the Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, Attention: John Fellows, 10117 Princess Palm Avenue, Suite 120, Tampa, FL 33610. Please refer to the permit application number in your comments.
That’s permit application number SAJ-2019-00480 (JPF).
Many of us complained back in 2019 about SRWMD allowing Chemours access through SRWMD property, but in 2021 SRWMD claimed it had no choice.
![[SRWMD parcels, Bradford County Property Appraiser 2019-10-17]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-05-13--usace-chemours-cr230-wetlands/srwmd-bradford-co.jpg)
SRWMD parcels, Bradford County Property Appraiser 2019-10-17
Now it’s not just access, it’s actual mining. So what does conservation mean to the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD)? Or to its parent the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP)?
Here’s the problem: Continue reading
After Hillman Bridge, WUFT News Reporter Andrew Sheridan and I went to Edwards Spring.
Also known as Ellaville Spring, this is a second magnitude spring next to the Suwannee River, on private property.
It is just downstream from Suwannee River State Park, but you can’t get through from there anymore. Best to get permission from the landowner, as we did, before going there.
As TJ Johnson attested, he and other cave divers have established Edwards Spring connects under the Suwannee River to Suwannacoochee Spring on the other side of the Suwannee River, next to the Withlacoochee River.
In 2014, the Florida Geological Survey and the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) put dye into Falmouth Spring, inland from here, and the dye came out at both Ellaville Spring and Suwanacoochee Spring. SO there are connections al the way through the Falmouth Cathedral Cave System between those three springs. Continue reading
Six months after the in-person meetings last October, FDEP is holding more BMAP meetings, this time as webinars.
The Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) documents can be found here:
https://floridadep.gov/dear/water-quality-restoration/content/basin-management-action-plan-documents
I have asked the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for the agendas for these meetings.
Lower and Middle Suwannee River Basin BMAP Meeting
April 10, 2025
10 a.m. EDT
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8387583116283965525
Santa Fe River Basin BMAP Meeting
April 10, 2025
2 p.m EDT
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2633110891434594903
Silver Springs and Rainbow Springs BMAP Meeting
April 11, 2025
10 a.m. EDT
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6935859431224387930
From the Summary of the Lower and Middle Suwannee River BMAP, page 9: Continue reading
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-04-08--srwmd-board/many.jpg)
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
There’s nothing on the SRWMD agendas for Tuesday, April 8, 2025,
about the proposal last month for
a swap of the back of the SRWMD Ellaville Tract for Riverview Farms on the Withlacoochee River.
Presumably negotiations are still in process.
See the previous post for a petition against the swap and other things you can do:
https://wwals.net/?p=67339
But this month’s Lands Committee Agenda contains examples:
This Avalon Woodlands Ravines is in Jefferson County in the Aucilla River watershed for a conservation easement with Tall Timbers Research, Inc., who would conduct all easement monitoring and compliance.
This Turkey Island Tract is in Levy County near the Suwannee River, because “The parcel is isolated from the larger tract, with no adjacency to District lands and is located within a residential neighborhood.”
![[Collage, SRWMD Lands Committee 2025-04-08]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-04-08--srwmd-lands-committee/many.jpg)
Collage, SRWMD Lands Committee 2025-04-08
Let’s concentrate on a proposal to transfer several SRWMD parks to a county: “5. Intergovernmental Agreement for Conveyance of Suwannee Springs Park, Falmouth Spring Park, and Telford Spring Park to Suwannee County,” all on or near the Suwannee River.
Why? SRWMD staff thinks these parks are too developed and intesively used for SRWMD’s passive parks model, and they would fit Suwannee County better.
And: “An estimated $35,000 will be saved per year in management expenses by conveying the properties to the county.”
This is the same Suwannee County that sold off the site of Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park to what has become perhaps the most intensively used private park in the county, just downstream and across US 129 from Suwannee Springs Park. So I wonder what Suwannee County wants to do with these three parks. The proposal does say transference would include a deed restriction that public access must be maintained. Continue reading
We all drink with straws from the groundwater here in the U.S. southeast coastal plain.
So surface water interchange with groundwater produces problems for city and county drinking water treatment, and for E. coli contamination of private water wells. Continue reading
These pictures of Quitman’s large sewage settling pond appear to show evidence of recent sewage runoff from these ponds, as well as holes in the fence and a rather rotted pier. They were taken Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Water quality testing downstream the day before indicates something contaminated Okapilco Creek and the Withlacoochee River downstream after rains a day before that.
For months I have been asking for a tour of Quitman’s sewage facilities to see if conditions have improved.
![[Quitman sewage settling ponds: Spills? 2025-07-26, None reported, WQ monitoring says maybe]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-07-26--quitman-large-settling-pond/many.jpg)
Quitman sewage settling ponds: Spills? 2025-07-26, None reported, WQ monitoring says maybe
On the preceding Sunday, July 24, 2022, there had been more than an inch of rain on Quitman. I find no Quitman reports for July 2022 in the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report.
Yet Valdosta’s water quality monitoring for that Monday got 1,000 cfu/100 mL E. coli for Okapilco Creek at US 84 (US 221), which is downstream of those Quitman settling ponds and upstream of the nearest dairy. Valdosta got worse on the Withlacoochee River downstream of Okapilco Creek at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp: 2,700. Continue reading
Monday at 1PM or after the House adjourns, the Georgia House Natural Resources and Environment Committee (HNRE) will meet to consider the two bills against mining near the Okefenokee Swamp.
This is the committee where previous bills have died. So this is a very important meeting. Please contact your Georgia Statehouse Representative.
Feel free to mention that many city councils and county commissions have passed resolutions
supporting the Okefenokee Swamp against mining.
And all the Riverkeepers of Georgia and Waterkeepers of Florida have written letters.
https://wwals.net/pictures/okefenokee-resolutions/
Floridians, please ask your Georgia friends, relatives, and business associates to do the same. And you can contact those Representatives directly. Part of the Okefenokee Swamp is in Florida, and all of it is upstream from Florida, on the St. Marys River and the Suwannee River, of the Florida state song.
To find your legislator (and see below):
http://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
These are the bills:
More about those bills here:
https://wwals.net/?p=67055 Continue reading
Update 2025-03-01: Georgia House Committee meeting on Okefenokee Bills Monday 1PM 2025-03-03.
Many local governments support Georgia legislation to prevent mining near the Okefenokee Swamp, and you can, too.
Please ask your Georgia Statehouse Representative to support the two bills now in the Georgia House.
More about those bills here:
https://wwals.net/?p=67055
Here are all the Georgia State Representatives whose districts include any part of the Suwannee River Basin:
https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/
Find your legislator:
http://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
![[Okefenokee Bills, city & county resolutions, GA House Committee, Natural Resources & Environment]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-02-26--ga-hnre-okefenokee-bills/fbmany.jpg)
Okefenokee Bills, city & county resolutions, GA House Committee, Natural Resources & Environment
Floridians, please ask your Georgia friends and relatives to do that. And you can contact those Representatives directly. Part of the Okefenokee Swamp is in Florida, and all of it is upstream from Florida, on the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers.
Soon these bills will be heard in the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment (HNRE). Not this afternoon, despite an earlier rumor. Maybe as early as Monday. Continue reading
![[More about Spill 2024-01-31, Chemours Trail Ridge South, TiO2 mine SE of Starke, FL, Santa Fe River Basin]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-01-31--about-spill-trail-ridge-south-chemours/fbmany.jpg)
![[Chemours Army Corps application to mine TiO2 on SRWMD land, Bradford County, FL, Santa Fe River Basin 2025-05-13]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-05-13--usace-chemours-cr230-wetlands/fbmany.jpg)
![[Edwards Spring, Suwannee River, aka Ellaville Spring 2025-04-22, Steps by TJ Johnson, On private land]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-04-22--edwards-spring/fbmany.jpg)
![[Silver and Rainbow Springs, BMAP Webinars 2025-04-11, Lower and Middle Suwannee & Santa Fe River 2025-04-10]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-04-10--fdep-bmap-meetings/fbmany.jpg)
![[River water and groundwater interchange interacts with drinking water treatment in Georgia and Florida]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-03-26--groundwater-interchange/fbmany.jpg)
![[Georgia House Committee Meeting 2025-03-03 1 PM, on Okefenokee Bills, Natural Resources and the Environment]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-03-03--ga-hnre-okefenokee-bills/fbmany.jpg)