The Alachua County BOCC meets
this morning, May 5, 2026, at 10 AM,
County Administration Building – Grace Knight Conference Room
12 SE 1 Street, 2nd Floor, Gainesville, FL 32601.
There is nothing on their
agenda
about either of the moratoria that
Hailey Hall requested on April 28, 2026, after their last meeting:
Don Hale came to speak about the resolution against WFNF that the dozen-county Task Force had passed earlier that same day,
and the letter the Suwannee County BOCC had passed the previous evening.
SUWANNEE COUNTY, Fla. (WCTV)—Residents are weighing in on a
North Florida water project that could impact the Suwannee River.
The “Water First North Florida Project” will be
discussed at a public open house on Thursday, with officials saying
it could help meet water demand and restore the river and aquifer.
A more interactive than usual WWALS Webinar update about what happened in the previous week’s meetings on Water First North Florida (WFNF), the plan to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee River Basin.
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman will expand, especially on modern desalination examples.
Then we will keep it casual and conversational.
We will field and pose questions, and
“popcorn share”.
We will call on various people if they are present,
and others can chime in.
Branford is at the mouth of the Santa Fe River, and downstream of the Ichetucknee River, both of which Water First North Florida (#WFNF) purport to help.
For more about WFNF, including the other local and regional government opposition, see:
A RESOLUTION OF THE TOWN OF BRANFORD, FLORIDA, OPPOSING THE FIRST NORTH FLORIDA
(WENF) PIPELINE PROJECT AS CURRENTLY PROPOSED; REQUESTING AN IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM
PENDING INDEPENDENT STUDY; AND DIRECTING TRANSMITTAL TO STATE OFFICIALS
WHEREAS, the St. Johns River Water Management District and the Suwannee River Water Management
District approved elements of the Water First North Florida (WFNF) project in November 2025, which
includes a proposed approximately 90-mile pipeline to transport highly treated reclaimed water from
facilities in the Jacksonville metropolitan area to wetlands within the Suwannee River Basin for purposes
of aquifer recharge; and
WHEREAS, the project is estimated to cost between $1.0 and $1.1 billion, including approximately $400
million in funding from JEA, and proposes to recharge the Floridan Aquifer with more than 40 million
gallons per day; and Continue reading →
But there are always opportunities to make public comments, written, by telephone, or in person.
When you do, be polite, be brief, be specific, say something different from what everybody else said, tie it to your experience and to evidence, and connect to the larger picture.
“The entire area JEA serves uses 120 million gallons. Remember
that Texas plant, one plant does 100 million gallons. There’s no
reason it has to be all in one place,” said Quarterman.
“It doesn’t have to take more than a dozen years to come
online.”
Around 50 people attended the town hall, with the majority of
attendees being older. None of the attendees who spoke out favored
the Suwannee River Water Management District’s plan to strengthen
the water supply. The main concerns of the project were over where
funding would come from, project logistics, and the safety behind
drinking recycled water.
“One of my biggest concerns with this project is that it’s
introducing contamination that’s extremely expensive to test for, to
even know it’s there, much less manage and treat,” said Hailey
Hall, a groundwater monitor.
Area resident Ed Lee expressed his dissatisfaction with the plan
approved by the Suwannee River Water Management District in November
2025 to address potable water issues. “Nobody has talked
anything about money,” said Ed Lee. “Today you’re
talking $1 billion. What the hell do you think it’s gonna cost with
the time it gets there? It’ll be $15 billion.”
LIVE OAK, Fla. — Almost everyone attending a Suwannee County
GOP town hall on Feb. 5 again opposed a plan to recharge the
Floridan aquifer with treated Jacksonville wastewater.
Thanks to all who participated, this webinar turned into a
45-minute online town hall, after the
the two-minute introduction by WWALS Treasurer Sara Squires Jones
and the 32-minute slide presentation by Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.
Many questions were asked about
s the plan by the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) and the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) to pipe output from the JEA Buckman wastewater treatment plant into wetlands in the Suwannee River Basin, to recharge springs and rivers.
We now know much more about why JEA wants to do this,
especially thanks to Joe Squitieri, Rick Lanese, and Hailey Hall.
The slides are on the WWALS website in
PDF
and
PowerPoint.
The slides are slightly updated to clean up a few glitches and especially
to add four slides about what JEA gets out of this project.
Images of each slide are below.
Notes on the Q&A are at the end of this post,
and you can see and hear for yourself in the video.
Please remember to
Ask for explanations or to stop the projects.
![[Leaf Area Index and Forest Water Yield, Dr. Matthew J. Cohen, WWALS Webinar 2026-05-28]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-05-28--leaf-area-index-and-forest-water-yield/fbmany.jpg)
![[Two moratoriums: detention centers and WFNF --Hailey Hall to Alachua BOCC, 2026-04-28]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-05-05--alachua-bocc-hall-wfnf/fbmany.jpg)
![[Residents raise concerns over WFNF and Suwannee River --WCTV 2026-03-18]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-03-18--wwals-workshop-wfnf-wctv/fbmany.jpg)
![[WFNF Update, an interactive WWALS Webinar, Online by zoom, 6 PM, Wednesday, March 25, 2026]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-03-25--wfnf-update-wwals-webinar/fbmany.jpg)
![[Town of Branford, Resolution against WFNF 2026-03-01, Water First North Florida, JAX treated wastewater]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-03-01--town-of-branford-wfnf/fbmany.jpg)
![[Crafting Effective Public Comments @ Live Oak Library --WWALS Workshop 2026-03-18]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-03-18--wwals-workshop-wfnf/fbmany.jpg)
![[Nobody liked Jacksonville wastewater into the Suwannee Basin at a Live Oak meeting 2026-02-05, News by WUFT 2026-02-19]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-02-05--wfnf-scrp/fbmany.jpg)
![[Video: Jacksonville Wastewater into Suwannee Basin, WWALS Webinar, online by zoom 2026-02-12]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-02-12--jax-wastewater-into-suwannee-basin-video/fbmany.jpg)