Tag Archives: Jim Tatum

Videos: Valdosta Wastewater at SRWMD Board 2019-02-12

Update 2019-02-18: The rest of the Valdosta wastewater story at SRWMD 2019-02-12.

The most direct interaction by the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) Board that I’ve ever seen, yesterday, when Valdosta Utilities Director Darryl Muse came to explain what Valdosta has done and is doing to stop its sewage spills. Neither the board nor the audience seemed satisfied.

[Movie: Darryl Muse, Utilities Director, Valdosta (1458M)]
Movie: Darryl Muse, Utilities Director, Valdosta (1458M)

Stay tuned for another post about some of what was said. Meanwhile, below are links to each WWALS video of each speaker or agenda item, with a few notes. These WWALS videos are under a Creative Commons Attribution license, which means you can use them, provide you cite the source, which is WWALS. There are a few more pictures on the WWALS website. See also the agenda. For background and data, see: Continue reading →

Anyone who understands fracking opposes it 2015-05-12

This popular meme has lacked any indication of who wrote those words. Words that are relevant right now, when we need you all to support Florida SB 314 to ban fracking.

Now with authors, Meme

Here are the authors of those words: Jim Tatum and Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, Pensacola News-Journal, online 11 May 2015, on paper the next day, Anyone who understands fracking opposes it,

Anyone who understands fracking is opposed to it. If they understand it but still support it, then they must be gaining profit from it. There is no “gray area” with fracking. There is nothing good about it. There is no such thing as safe fracking.

Rotated, Op-Ed

Millions of gallons are used for each and every frack, polluted Continue reading →

PBS airs part of Alan Toth’s Phosphate Mining Movie 2018-10-31

Some national news about the proposed phosphate mine in Union and Bradford Counties.

If the phosphate would not be processed in Union or Bradford Counties, as Jack Hazen says, the closest place with processing capability is the Nutrien (PCS) phosphate mine in Hamilton County, on the Suwannee River.

Judy Woodruff, 31 October 2018, PBS News Hour, Battle over phosphate mining roils small Florida town,

No-phosphate-mining, Union County

Laura Newberry:

Union County commissioners recently passed a one-year moratorium on mining permits, but Bradford County commissioners are still considering the mine.

Carol Mosley:

Continue reading →

Videos: Tour of Valdosta WTPs 2018-10-03

Thanks to Valdosta Utilities Director Darryl Muse and staff for the Tour of Valdosta wastewater treatment plants Wednesday. Afterwards, I got them to sit down in a conference room and say again the most important points. They said what they had done to prevent future spills like the big ones this year.

Valdosta staff,
Counterclockwise from front: Utilities Director Darryl Muse, Public Information Officer Ashlyn Becton, Environmental Manager Scott Fowler, Mud Creek WTP Superintendent Mud Creek Stanley K. Martin.

We also elicited Valdosta Utilities’ view on the letter establishing the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force, which was mainly Continue reading →

Bradford BOCC 2018-09-04

All the public speakers were against the phosphate mine. Before the Commissioners decided, Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson spoke about rain, the Chemours mine, and how what Bradford County does affects her business downstream. (I think Stasia Rudolph also spoke before I got there.) After some confusion on timing, afterwards Marc Lyons reminded them Citizens Against Phosphate Mines (CAPM) is ready to sue, and Kate Ellison said she hopes this means we will all see the consultant’s report before the public hearings. I sent a letter and a resolution the previous day and gave them paper copies.

The actual decision was much better than expected. While some Commissioners wanted to hold Continue reading →

Nutrien (PCS) mining phosphate and water in Hamilton County and soon in Columbia County? 2018-07-11

Update 2023-05-08: Fixed some images.

Five Years Later: Hamilton County Planning Commission wants conditions on Nutrien phosphate mine permit renewal 2023-03-28.

See also: PCS Phosphate Mine dragline access permit application SAJ-1984-04652 2019-10-15.

Thanks to Jim Tatum of OSFR for spotting this op-ed in the Lake City Reporter yesterday by WWALS member and Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida about Nutrien (PCS) mining phosphate and water in Hamilton County and likely planning to expand to Columbia County.

[Dennis Price explains, 13:50:12, 30.57871, -83.05231]
Photo by John S. Quarterman of Dennis J. Price at the Dead River of the Alapaha River, 2018-01-27.

To the Editor:

Much has been written in the last year about Sam Oosterhoudt’s mitigation bank. I was involved in permitting the bank through the Army Corps (ACOE) and The Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. It took about 5 years to get all the permits. Now, 9 years after work began on the project, the phosphate company (then PCS now Nutrien) petitioned the state to shut down the mitigation bank.

I do not know for sure, but, Nutrien may tell you that during the recent sale of PCS and the review of mineral interests owned, they discovered that the mitigation bank had snuck in there and set up shop over their minerals. This probably has some truth to it but I think there is a much more involved reason.

In Hamilton County, Nurtrien/PCS is planning to run out of phosphate to mine in about 10 years, give or take a few years either way. I do not believe they are planning on shutting the doors and leaving. Occidental Chemical Company started mining in Hamilton County Continue reading →

Sabal Trail blowdown with no notice 2018-04-03

Update 2018-04-05: Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson noted yesterday: “Correction it was a FGT blowdown. Easy to be confused as Sabal Trail is in the same corridor and working on their pipeline too. And remember that SONAT gas pipeline is also in this same corridor. That’ll really be something else if and when all 3 gas transmission pipelines are being worked on simultaneously. I think it is also very disconcerting that pipeline companies do not have to inform the NRC (National Response Center) or PHMSA (Pipeline Hazard and Materials Safety Agency) when they do work on these explosive infrastructure corridors.”

See Where pipelnes already cross rivers into Suwannee County, Florida.

Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson reported on facebook yesterday:

Sabal Trail has been doing a blowdown operation on the pipeline corridor and the Santa Fe River. That was what sounded like a jet airplane in the river community on Monday April 2, 2018.

Valve, Sabal Trail
Photo: Jim Tatum.

That sounds much like the FGT pipeline noise last month in Suwannee County near the Suwannee River.

Also similar: Sabal Trail’s FERC-required Informational Postings contain no Critical nor non-Critical notices about whatever it is they are doing now.

Where are the state and federal agencies that permitted Sabal Trail? Why have they not required notices to neighbors, local Fire Rescue, and the public?

This month, Graphs

Meawhile, Sabal Trail gas is up and down yet again. How can this pipeline be needed when it’s shut down half the time? Is its main function really to scare the neighbors?

This month, Graphs

Continue reading →

HPS II phosphate mine in Union and Bradford BOCC meetings

Steve Pieczenik called the Union County Commissioners brave, honest, respectful, efficient, and transparent public servants. Jim Tatum said they had foresight and had taken appropriate steps. Both complimented the many mine opponents who showed up and spoke their piece briefly and effectively. Here are a couple of reports from Union BOCC’s Monday workshop about the HPS II phosphate mine.

Aerial: From the New River across the HPS II mine site to Lake Butler
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS on Southwings flight, 17 Sep. 2017, N from New River across mine site: l. New River P. r. Beasley; left center prison; top left Lake Butler, 09:55:21, 29.9550800, -82.3183000

The next one is coming up 5PM Tuesday, January 16, 2018, at which Union BOCC is scheduled to vote on extending its moratorium against phosphate mining, as well as reviewing their proposed Comprehensive Plan changes.

Meanwhile, across the New River, Bradford BOCC Continue reading →

Aerial photographs of Phosphate Mine site: WWALS to Union BOCC 2017-09-18

Sent today (as PDF) before this afternoon’s 4:30 PM Union County BOCC meeting at Union County High School.

September 18, 2017

To: James Tallman, Chairman
Union County Board of County Commissioners
15 NE 1st Street, Lake Butler, FL 32054
(386) 496-4241
ucbocc@windstream.net

Cc: Scott R. Koons, Executive Director
North Central Florida Regional Planning Council
2009 NW 67th Pl, Gainesville, FL 32653
(352) 955-2200
koons@ncfrpc.org

Re: Aerial photographs of Phosphate Mine site

Dear Chairman Tallman, Commissioners, Staff, Director Koons, and NCFRPC,

Sometimes it helps to see the problem from a different point of view, so on September 1st Suwannee Riverkeeper organized an overflight of the proposed HPS II mine site. Here are a few aerials from that flight. I hope they help encourage you to rezone to prevent mining in Union County, regardless whether from the current proposals or from others.

In addition to the few examples below, a few hundred more pictures are online here:

http://www.l-a-k-e.org/issues/phosphate/2017-09-01–southwings-phosphate/

The Howard mine site at the corner of CR 231 and the New River includes Five Mile Creek and other wetlands. Between there and the Pritchett mine site many people own land that could be affected. Just beyond is Worthington Springs, downhill and thus downstream from the mine.

W across Howard mine site, Five Mile Creek, SW 48th Path, CR 18A, Pritchett mine site, Worthington Springs
W across Howard mine site, Five Mile Creek, SW 48th Path, CR 18A, Pritchett mine site, Worthington Springs, 09:53:54, 29.9461300, -82.3565700

From the air, Union county looks Continue reading →

WWALS over Phosphate mine site, Union and Bradford Counties, FL 2019 2017-09-01

See from the air the land the Union County, Florida, Commissioners will be voting on tomorrow.

When: 4:30-9PM, Monday, September 17, 2017

Where: Union County High School, 1000 S. Lake Avenue, Lake Butler, FL 32054

What: Voting on Union County Comprehensive Plan with much stronger restrictions on mining

Event: Two facebook events, by Citizens Against Phosphate Mining in North Central Florida (CAPM)
and by Our Santa Fe River (OSFR).

WNW from Compressor Station up FGT pipeline to Columbia Co., 10:18:14,
WNW from Compressor Station up FGT pipeline to Columbia Co., 10:18:14, 29.9114200, -82.3324080

I took these pictures in Union and Bradford Counties, Florida, of the proposed HPS II phosphate mine site, on a Southwings flight for WWALS Watershed Coalition 1 September 2017. You can help figure out what some of them show.

The main conclusion, already published in much briefer form by Jim Tatum with a few pictures he took, is that Continue reading →