Tag Archives: Santa Fe River

Nitrate monitoring and mining on SRWMD land –Suwannee Riverkeeper to SRWMD Board 2025-07-08

Update 2025-07-21: PFAS in sewage effluent used to restore wetlands 2025-07-18.

I did get answers from the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) about nitrate testing for springs, but no response about the Chemours application to mine on SRWMD land in Bradford County in the Santa Fe River Basin, using mineral rights retained by Rayonier.

[Nitrate monitoring of springs and Mining on SRWMD land, --Suwannee Riverkeeper to SRWMD Board 2025-07-08]
Nitrate monitoring of springs and Mining on SRWMD land, –Suwannee Riverkeeper to SRWMD Board 2025-07-08

Surprisingly, nobody showed up to speak at the recent SRWMD Board meeting in item 6. Public Comment. See SRWMD’s YouTube video at 15:28.
https://www.youtube.com/live/9pousRkUayc?si=VoUYIbT4Ak8SKlGV&t=928 Continue reading →

Agendas: WWALS Annual Member Meeting and Quarterly Board Meeting 2025-07-13

Here are the agendas and zoom parameters for the two meetings Sunday evening, July 13, 2025.

Zoom Registration Required:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/OBgEA_jQTpKP3NKu8o8TPw

WWALS Annual Member Meeting

When: 6 PM, Sunday, July 13, 2025

What: Presentation of Annual Report, and WWALS members elect some board members.

WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting

When: 6:30 PM, Sunday, July 13, 2025

What: WWALS Board members elect officers for one year terms, and do the usual board business.

Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/711860431701498/

[Annual Member Meeting & Quarterly Board Meeting, Election of some Board Members, Election of Officers 2025-07-13]
Annual Member Meeting & Quarterly Board Meeting, Election of some Board Members, Election of Officers 2025-07-13

AMM

PDF of agenda for the Annual Member Meeting. Continue reading →

Florida Triennial Review –FDEP 2025-06-27

Every three years Florida reviews its standards for surface water quality.

The comment period this time is open from June 27 to July 18, 2025.
https://flrules.org/Gateway/View_notice.asp?id=29715385

[Florida Triennial Review --FDEP 2025-06-27 to 2025-07-18, Threatened and Endangered Species in Suwannee, Withlacoochee, Santa Fe, New Rivers]
Florida Triennial Review –FDEP 2025-06-27 to 2025-07-18, Threatened and Endangered Species in Suwannee, Withlacoochee, Santa Fe, New Rivers

This Triennal Review is being conducted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), as required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

There was a public workshop back on September 10, 2024; best to review its agenda, presentation, and Public Comment Compilation. That presentation notes there is at least one proposed rule change for springs, in RULE 62-303.354, F.A.C., NITRATE-NITRITE IN FRESHWATER SPRING VENT.

The only upcoming public meeting about this Triennial Review in FDEP’s Water Quality Standards Meeting Calendar is ERC Adoption Public Hearing for the Triennial Review of Florida’s Water Quality Standards, 9 AM, September 25, 2025, at FDEP’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Building, Conference Room 137, 3900 Commonwealth Blvd. Tallahassee, FL 32399.

So get your comments in during the comment period.

Most of it is about the rest of Florida outside the Suwannee River Basin and Estuary, but a few rules and documents under review are specifically about those. Continue reading →

Plastic bag bans keep trash out of rivers and the sea –a study in Science 2025-06-19

Plastic bag bans work, finds a study published in Science this month. And not by a little bit: “a 25 to 47% decrease in plastic bags as a share of total items collected relative to areas without policies” and a “30 to 37% reduction in the presence of entangled animals in areas with plastic bag policies”. The study says even partial bans help, and the effect increases with more bans.

[Plastic bag bans keep trash out of rivers and the sea --a study in Science, June 19, 2025]
Plastic bag bans keep trash out of rivers and the sea –a study in Science, June 19, 2025

Cleanups alone do not solve the trash problem: trash just keeps coming back. Trash traps help keep it out of creeks and rivers, but have to be continually cleaned out. Banning use of the trash goes a long way towards fixing the problem, as this recent study shows.

Local governments in Georgia and even in Florida can ban or regulate such packaging. Continue reading →

Additional documents for Chemours permit application to mine SRWMD land 2025-06-16

Update 2025-08-31: SRWMD purchased Rayonier tract with mineral rights leased to Chemours for TiO2 mining –SRWMD to Carol Mosley 2025-07-11.

Update 2025-07-20: Nitrate monitoring and mining on SRWMD land –Suwannee Riverkeeper to SRWMD Board 2025-07-08.

Today, I got about 1.4 gigabytes of files in response to the FOIA I sent to the Army Corps on May 28. Unfortunately, this additional information arrived after the June 12 deadline for comments on the Chemours application to mine for titanium dioxide on SRWMD land. WWALS already sent a letter on that day.

If the Public Hearing happens that we and others called for, we can bring up any questions that come out of this additional information.

[Additional documents for Chemours permit application to mine SRWMD land. Obtained via FOIA]
Additional documents for Chemours permit application to mine SRWMD land. Obtained via FOIA

It’s all on the WWALS website.

You can pick up the 661 megabyte zip file.

Or you can look in the extracted subdirectories and files, starting with:

This is what I requested: Continue reading →

Sign the Letter Urging Senators to Vote No On the Reconciliation Bill 2025-06-14

Your organization can still sign onto this letter to all U.S. Senators:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJYPPq-I7vrVSDmC3qoo4SrN9WwFpOacdMcPkacGpEn-5rwg/viewform

The letter specifically opposes pipeline pay-to-play: the section that would give pipeline companies expedited permitting if they pay the lesser of $10 million or 1% of their expected construction costs, while removing the ability of any state or federal agency to reject such a permit.

The letter also opposes the bill’s prohibition on state regulation of so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) operations, which consume vast amounts of power and emit noise and pollution.

The latter has already been sent to all U.S. Senators, but they will get updates as more organizations sign on.

[Sign the Letter Urging Senators to Vote No On the Reconciliation Bill: No pipeline pay to play]
Sign the Letter Urging Senators to Vote No On the Reconciliation Bill: No pipeline pay to play

Dear Senators,

The “Big Beautiful Bill” strips states rights, property rights, and turns the United States into a Pay to Play nation whereby big industry polluters can very literally buy the permits they desire, States and regulatory agencies are stripped of the ability to reject damaging projects, and impacted property owners and impacted communities are too often denied their day in court, all in service to advance major fossil fuel pipelines, export facilities and associated infrastructure.

We, the undersigned organizations, Continue reading →

Questions and call for Public Hearing on Chemours permit application to mine SRWMD land –WWALS to USACE 2025-06-12

Update 2025-06-16: Additional documents for Chemours permit application to mine SRWMD land 2025-06-16.

This is what I filed by the Thursday deadline as public comments on the latest Chemours mining permit application. This one is to expand the Trail Ridge South Mine onto land owned by the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD). I continue to wonder why SRWMD bought this land, allegedly for conservation, if they were going to let Chemours mine on it?

Several other organizations also filed comments, some of them also calling for a Public Hearing.

[Questions and call for Public Hearing, Chemours application to mine SRWMD land, Santa Fe River Basin --WWALS to USACE 2025-06-12]
Questions and call for Public Hearing, Chemours application to mine SRWMD land, Santa Fe River Basin –WWALS to USACE 2025-06-12

Continue reading →

Ask Alachua City Commission to investigate resignations of planners 2025-06-10

If you care about the Floridan Aquifer, from which we all drink, or underground caves, or surface creeks, or the Santa Fe River, or government transparency, please go to the Alachua City Commission meeting tonight, 6 PM, Monday, June 9, 2025.

That’s at James A. Lewis City Commission Chambers, 15100 NW 142 Terrace, Alachua, FL 32615.

Or call or write them:
https://www.cityofalachua.com/government/city-commission/meet-the-commissioners

[Ask Alachua City Commission to investigate resignations 2025-06-09 of planners and City Manager, Tara Forest & Mill Creek Sink]
Ask Alachua City Commission to investigate resignations 2025-06-09 of planners and City Manager, Tara Forest & Mill Creek Sink

Thanks to Vickie Bashor for this cogent explanation:

3 planners with over 50 years experience at the City of Alachua resigned earlier this year within a 2-week period. One of the planners, Justin Tabor, sent an open letter to the Alachua City Commission alleging Continue reading →

Additional Project Drawings for Chemours application to mine on SRWMD land –USACE 2025-01-02

I got these additional figures indicate that Chemours wants to mine right up to Double Run Creek, upstream from the Santa Fe River.

I got them by following up on the Chemours application to the Army Corps for a permit to mine TiO2 on SRWMD land,

[Additional Project Drawings, Chemours application to USACE to mine on SRWMD land --SWCA 2025-01-02]
Additional Project Drawings, Chemours application to USACE to mine on SRWMD land –SWCA 2025-01-02

Chemours can’t continue mining without this permit, which it must get from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), because of the successful lawsuit by Miami Waterkeeper, St. Johns Riverkeeper, et al., to revoke the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) takeover of federal Clean Water Act permit applications.

See the third page of the USACE application form:

This project was originally review[sic] and approved by the USACE in 2020 pending the issuance of the State Water Quality Certification. Prior to USACE receiving the State Water Quality Certification, the EPA approved Florida’s State 404 Program, which became effective on Dec. 22, 2020, and all USACE pending permits were transferred to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for processing.

This project was subsequently reviewed, and Phase 1 was approved on June 6, 2022, under the FDEP State 404 Program, Permit no. ST404_137482-022. A portion of the Phase 1 approved impacts have been completed. The approval of Phase 2 is needed for Chemours to continue mining operations without any disruptions. Due to the FDEP being divested of its authority to issue State 404 Program permits on Feb 15, 2024, Chemours has requested the USACE review and approve the entire project for compliance consistency.

For that lawsuit, see Continue reading →

Rachel Grubb Headlines Suwannee Riverkeeper Contest 2025

Hahira, Georgia May 22, 2025 — Rachel Grubb of Lake City, Florida, will sing her haunting encore from last year, as well as the song she won with, as Headliner for the 2025 Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.

[Rachel Grubb Headlines Suwannee Riverkeeper Contest 2025, Ghost of the Suwannee, Encore by 2024 First Prize winner Rachel Grubb]

Come hear the finalists this year, Saturday, September 6, 2025, at the Turner Center for the Arts, in Valdosta, Georgia. “Musicians, send in your own song!” said Gala Committee Chair and WWALS Board President Sara Squires Jones.
https://forms.gle/LfXFBVESipd231Dr7

The Contest is part of WWALS River Revue, which features food, drink, a silent auction, and speakers from Georgia and Florida. Rachel Grubb’s encore, “Ghost of the Suwannee,” will call you home.
https://youtu.be/IVKrUqiwXBk?si=EtZ3K8SsqbOyrhHP Continue reading →