A sinkhole opened in U.S. 90 in the middle of Live Oak, Florida, yesterday. FDOT says it’s fixed since yesterday evening.
But chronic overpumping of groundwater produces such cavities, and increasintly big rains wash them open.
![[Live Oak Sinkhole, U.S. 90, 2025-08-25, Between Dowling Ave. and Union Ave.]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-08-25--live-oak-sinkhole/fbmany.jpg)
Live Oak Sinkhole, U.S. 90, 2025-08-25, Between Dowling Ave. and Union Ave.
Live Oak Police Department yesterday reported with a video of the sinkhole opening: Continue reading
A billion dollars to run Jacksonville and JEA treated wastewater through wetlands in the Suwannee River Basin and into the Floridan Aquifer: this proposal was presented to the SRWMD Board this month.
Nevermind that sewage effluent carries PFAS forever chemicals into wetlands. After contaminating all the wetland wildlife, PFAS would continue into the Florida Aquifer, from which we all drink.
A SRWMD Board member pointed out that desalination of seawater would cost less. Another pointed out that Jacksonville would just suck the water back out of the aquifer. More on board comments below.
Instead, how about Jacksonville and JEA treat their effluent to drinking water standards and reuse it for themselves? The money they save from pumping it to any of those recharge areas would be enormous. That would use less groundwater, so there would be less need for recharge.
The excuse for this project is increasing population needing more water. Continue reading
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.
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
Update 2025-07-25: SRWMD & SJRWMD aquifer recharge project update @ SRWMD 2025-07-08.
Dennis Price, P.G., of Hamilton County, Florida, asked, “Are we just a water tower for Jacksonville?”
He showed us “the history of surface and ground water in the flatwoods in south Georgia and north Florida in the Suwannee River Basin. Historic water levels and how we have changed these levels. Changes beginning with forestry then farming, and population growth. Ideas for correcting the problems.”
This applies to the Floridan Aquifer proper and the other aquifers above it, all below the Suwannee, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, the Okefenokee Swamp, and their tributaries.
Here is the WWALS video of this WWALS Webinar:
https://youtu.be/o4s1jPN0EVI
Some still images are appended.
Thanks to WWALS Board Member Janet Martin for organizing this webinar and for introducing Dennis.
Thanks to everyone who attended.
See
the announcement of this webinar
for Dennis’ resume and other background.
https://wwals.net/?p=67740
See also: Continue reading
Very good news today! The coal miners from Alabama have been bought out, ending mining on their specific property. First, the thanks. Then the rest of the story.
Many thanks to The Conservation Fund for buying out Twin Pines Minerals, LLC (TPM), and to the James M. Cox Foundation and the Holdfast Collective (Patagonia) for helping fund that acquisition. Thanks to everyone who helped, and to everyone who has opposed this bad mining proposal since at least 2019.
There is a direct path to adding this land into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR), since the Okefenokee NWR Minor Acquisition Boundary Expansion was approved by USFWS 2025-01-03. Although given the current chaotic state of the federal government, keeping that land in private hands for now might be prudent.
![[Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20, Twin Pines Minerals, by The Conservation Fund]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-06-20--okefenokee-land-deal-tpm-conservation-fund/fbmany.jpg)
Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20, Twin Pines Minerals, by The Conservation Fund
We should all celebrate!
But this land acquisition is not the end of the mining story. There is much more we can do to protect the entire Okefenokee Swamp, the blackwater rivers of south Georgia, and to pass a constitutional amendment for Right to Clean Water, Air, and Soil.
Directly to the north of TPM’s parcels is much more land, Continue reading
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-06-16--chemours-usace-foia/fbmany.jpg)
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
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.
Continue readingDennis Price, P.G., of Hamilton County, Florida, says, “I plan on going through the history of surface and ground water in the flatwoods in south Georgia and north Florida in the Suwannee River Basin. Historic water levels and how we have changed these levels. Changes beginning with forestry then farming, and population growth. Ideas for correcting the problems.”
This applies to the Floridan Aquifer proper and the other aquifers above it, all below the Suwannee, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, the Okefenokee Swamp, and their tributaries.
When: 12-1 PM, Thursday, June 19, 2025
Put In: Register to join with zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/FdxNg0QeSB-ngQLGUaIWKw
WWALS Board Member Janet Martin will give a brief introduction.
Questions and answers will be at the end.
![[How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar 2025-06-19, in north Florida and south Georgia, by Dennis J. Price P.G.]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-06-19--aquifer-dennis-price-webinar/fbmany.jpg)
How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar 2025-06-19
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-01-02--chemours-trs-figures/fbmany.jpg)
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
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
![[SRWMD & SJRWMD aquifer recharge project update @ SRWMD 2025-07-08, What about PFAS? and limits on water withdrawals?]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-07-08--srwmd-aquifer-recharge-project-update/fbmany.jpg)
![[Nitrate monitoring of springs and Mining on SRWMD land, --Suwannee Riverkeeper to SRWMD Board 2025-07-08]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-07-08--srwmd-board-public-comment/many.jpg)
![[How Humans Affect the Aquifer, WWALS Webinar by Dennis Price, Are we just a water tower for Jacksonville? 2025-06-19]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-06-19--aquifer-dennis-price-webinar-pictures/fbmany.jpg)
![[Questions and call for Public Hearing, Chemours application to mine SRWMD land, Santa Fe River Basin --WWALS to USACE 2025-06-12]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-06-12--wwals-usace-chemours-trail-ridge-south-mine/fbmany.jpg)
![[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)