The two Adel wood pellet plants are examples of air quality permits can be relevant to water.
The Public Hearing will be “1:00 p.m. on March 31, 2022. EPD will be hosting this public hearing via Zoom.”
https://gaepd.zoom.us/j/93237284952?pwd=UytaUUdVU21pdlNJRUcrZk1aSGZkQT09
The text of the Public Notice is below. Continue reading
Update 2022-02-04: Clean Rivers 2022-02-03.
Good news! All tests pretty clear for the Little, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers for Wednesday and Thursday. So if you want to boat, fish, or swim in that cold snap tomorrow, or Sunday, the water quality is good so far as we know, with little E. coli. No rain is predicted until mid-week, so nothing else should wash into the rivers.
Oh, and Ashburn had another sewage spill on January 16th, but it does not seem to have affected Alapaha River water quality.
Gus Cleary’s Wednesday test downstream from Allen Ramp at Cleary Bluff was as clean as Valdosta’s upstream tests at US 41, GA 133, and US 84. Thanks to Scott Fowler of Valdosta Utilities for that upstream Wednesday data.
Elizabeth Brunner’s GA 122 tests of Thursday samples at Folsom Bridge on the Little River, Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee River, and Lakeland Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River, were also all good. Continue reading
The Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle has been rescheduled to Saturday, February 19, 2022. Everything else is as Valdosta Mayor Scott James and I discussed on his radio show last Thursday. We’ll be talking about it again this Friday, January 28, 2022, at 8AM, Talk 92.1 FM.
Thanks to The Langdale Company for access to take out at Spook Bridge, and for a mid-point lunch spot. Thanks to Georgia Power for water quality testing grants to WWALS.
Gather 9AM for the Chairman and Mayor’s Paddle, at the rescheduled Saturday, February 19, 2022.
![[Mayor and Chairman's Paddle (since rescheduled to February 19, 2022)]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-01-20--videos-scott-james-radio/big/mayor-chairman-paddle.jpg)
Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle (since rescheduled to February 19, 2022)
We hope everybody’s favorite on-water painter, Julie Bowland, will join us.
WWALS is talking to Valdosta State University Deans and Faculty about Education and research at Troupville River River Camp and River Park. The paddle will go right by there.
On the radio, Scott James and I discussed the trash problem, coming mostly from parking lots with fast food outlets, down Sugar Creek, into the Withlacoochee River.
Arrow the talking puppy helped.
Don’t forget to tell GA-EPD no mine near the Okefenokee Swamp.
WWALS has a paddle on the last stretch of the Alapaha River, US 41 to Suwannee River, Saturday, February 5, 2022.
And a paddle from Langdale Park on the Withlacoochee River, to Sugar Creek, and on to Troupville Boat Ramp, May 7, 2022: the announcement will be up soon.
The Sugar Creek trash problem was described in the 2010 Valdosta Stormwater Master Plan, which said it should be fixed immediately. Continue reading
Dozens of scientists across the U.S. have written a letter spelling out dangers of strip mining near the Okefenokee Swamp.
They couldn’t cover everything, but they found scientific evidence running from habitat loss, fire risk, and lowering the Floridan Aquifer, to dark skies, tourism, and economy, including: “Mining will impact the water quality of the Okefenokee Swamp and downstream rivers, including the St Mary’s and Suwannee Rivers, through release of stored chemicals, including toxic heavy metals.”
You can mention the scientists’ letter when you ask the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to deny the miners’ permit applications.
![[Heavy Mineral Mining In The Atlantic Coastal Plain-0006]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-09-12--wwals-usace-tpm/Heavy-Mineral_Mining_in_the_Atlantic_Coastal_Plain-0006.jpg)
The mine site is labeled Saunders Tract in the middle of this map. See Figure 5.
The situation is no different from when DuPont tried to mine next to the Swamp twenty years ago. As Gordon Jackson points out in The Brunswick News (December 9, 2021), “The argument two decades ago and today is there has never been a comprehensive study to show how much of an impact, if any, disturbing the layered soil would have on the refuge.”
Naturally, the miners disagreed, according to Emily Jones for WABE (December 1, 2021): Continue reading
Since September, GA-EPD has twice more asked the miners for more information on their permit applications to strip mine for titanium dioxide too near the Okefenokee Swamp. We have more questions beyond those. You can ask GA-EPD questions, and to deny the mining permit applications.
On October 20, 2021, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) asked more questions about water: retention, disposal, reclamation. The miners’ answer on November 19th apparently was not satisfactory, because on December 7, 2021, GA-EPD asked more water questions.
![[TPM Ponds and Another GA-EPD Letter]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-12-07--ga-epd-request-tpm-oke/many.jpg)
TPM Ponds and Another GA-EPD Letter
I’ve got another: how can Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) with a straight face promise “zero discharge of wastewater” and in the next paragraph say “Overflow from the process water primary overflow pond may occur due to heavy rain events.” That’s exactly what happened after Hurricane Irma at three north Florida Chemours mine sites where TPM was processing tailings, resulting in TPM still being under a Florida Consent Order. What if wastewater overflows into the Okefenokee Swamp during a hurricane or other “heavy rain event”? What stops wastewater even in TPM’s proposed retention ponds from seeping down into the Floridan Aquifer, from which we all drink?
And another: TPM still shows piezometers for water monitoring on property it does not own, with a disclaimer that it has no access to. So how will TPM monitor that area, which is downhill towards the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the St. Marys and Suwannee Rivers?
You can
ask GA-EPD for a moratorium on mining permits,
or to deny the permits,
or at the very least to examine them very thoroughly and produce the equivalent of the Environmental Impact Statement that the Army Corps should have been working on.
https://wwals.net/?p=55092
You can also use Protect Georgia form to end a message to your Georgia statehouse delegation.
Floridians, this mine site is upstream from Florida, and you can also use these forms.
All of this GA-EPD correspondence with the miners and the permit applications is Continue reading
Let one pellet plant in, and another follows. WWALS asked GA-EPD to stop that second one in Adel, Georgia, on the divide between the Little and Withlacoochee River Basins, between Morrison Creek of the Little River and Bear Creek of the Withlacoochee River. Any contaminant spills could end up in one or the other. Deforestation could affect water flows and increase flooding.
![[Tree cutting radius, plant location, letter]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-19--adel-pellet-plant-wwals-comments/many.jpg)
Tree cutting radius, plant location, letter
See also the PDF, and the permit application. Continue reading
The Valdosta resolution could influence the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), especially through elected state and national officials. So it doesn’t matter that the head of the LLC from Alabama that wants to strip mine next to the Okefenokee says that resolution won’t affect his decisions.
You can help influence by talking to your elected officials or by writing to GA-EPD: https://wwals.net/?p=55092
Terry Richards, Valdosta Daily Times, November 17, 2021, Valdosta council opposes swamp mine plan,
VALDOSTA — An Alabama-based mining concern said a resolution by Valdosta’s city council won’t stop them from starting a controversial South Georgia mining project.
“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 to oppose Twin Pines’ plans to start a mining project near the Okefenokee Swamp, about 75 miles from Valdosta. The vote was Continue reading
Update 2023-01-05: News again: Valdosta’s 2021 resolution against the strip mine proposed too near the Okefenokee Swamp 2023-01-01.
Yesterday the most populous city in the Suwannee River Basin passed a resolution opposing the proposed Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) strip mine or any others within ten miles of the Okefenokee Swamp. The resolution further asks the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reverse its abdication of oversight, asks GA-EPD for a moratorium on all mining permits until effects are settled of the recent court overruling of 2020 Clean Water Act changes, as well as to reject the TPM permits, or at least to review those applications as thoroughly as the Army Corps would, and asks the Georgia legislature to prevent such strip mines near the Swamp or any blackwater rivers in the Suwannee River Basin.
You can also ask the state to stop this mine: https://wwals.net/?p=55092
Continue readingEric Cornwell of GA-EPD says “they have yet to submit the toxic impact assessment modeling demonstration. If you are familiar with Adel, the proposed plant site is the former SierraPine engineered wood plant (I think that old plant used to make particleboard or MDF )”. Thanks to Eric for a speedy response to my open records request about this wood pellet plant proposed by Spectrum Energy Georgia LLC on a site owned by Green Tree Biomass LLC.
![[Location, Title, Boundary, Plan]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-10-22--spectrum-energy-pellet-plant-adel/many.jpg)
Location, Title, Boundary, Plan
The permit application files are on the WWALS website:
https://wwals.net/pictures/2021-10-22–spectrum-energy-pellet-plant-adel
Why would WWALS, a water organization be concerned about an air quality permit application? Well, this plant sits on the divide between the Little and Withlacoochee River Basins, between Morrison Creek of the Little River and Bear Creek of the Withlacoochee River. Any contaminant spills could end up in one or the other. Continue reading
That titanium strip mine too near the Okefenokee Swamp is still in permitting, as Scott James and I discussed on his radio show Monday morning; here’s video. You can help stop that mine.
There’s serious doubt about the legitimacy of the decision last October by the Army Corps of Engineers to abdicate responsibility, since a District Court revoked last year’s EPA decision that the Corps used to decide. Meanwhile, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) has five permit applications from those Alabama coal miners, Twin Pines Minerals LLC. For details, see Mining moratorium: NWPR WOTUS and Army Corps on Okefenokee mine site –WWALS to EPD 2021-09-27.
![[Strip mine discussion and location]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-10-19--scott-james-radio/minemany.jpg)
Strip mine discussion and location
You can ask GA-EPD for a moratorium on all mining,
until the effects of that District Court decision get sorted out,
or to deny the permits for that mine,
or at the very least to examine the permits very thoroughly and produce the equivalent of the Environmental Impact Statement that the Corps should be working on.
https://wwals.net/?p=55092
And don’t forget the WWALS Boomerang paddle race tomorrow morning,
Saturday, October 23, 2021, from Georgia into Florida and back!
https://wwals.net/pictures/2021-10-23–boomerang/
Here’s WWALS video of that radio discussion: Continue reading
![[Public Notice]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-31--ga-epd-air-rule-public-meeting/many.jpg)
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-01-27--wq/many.jpg)
![[Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson; Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman; Map: Okefenokee Swamp, Valdosta, mine site]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-17--vld-oke-vdt/many.jpg)
![[Mayor and Riverkeeper]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-11--valdosta-okefenokee-resolution/many.jpg)