Here is the video of Emily Floore, St. Marys Riverkeeper, giving the third WWALS Webinar, about the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the St. Marys and Suwannee Rivers: why we protect it and the proposed strip mine that threatens it, as well as a recent Conservation Fund study.
Here is the video:
https://youtu.be/9EjO_kNue1g?si=GvyTL3xUc2HDtwpc
This webinar was held by zoom, noon-1 PM, Thursday, March 21, 2024.
Some things mentioned in the video: Continue reading
Update 2024-03-19: Okefenokee webinar, resolutions, bills, Suwannee River paddle 2024-03-19.
Emily Floore, St. Marys Riverkeeper, will give the third WWALS Webinar, about the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the St. Marys and Suwannee Rivers: why we protect it and the proposed strip mine that threatens it, as well as a recent Conservation Fund study.
This webinar will be by zoom, noon-1 PM, Thursday, March 21, 2024.
![[Okefenokee Swamp over proposed strip mine --Emily Floore, WWALS Webinar]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-03-21--wwals-webinar-st-marys-riverkeeper-okefenokee-swamp/igmany.jpg)
Okefenokee Swamp over proposed strip mine –Emily Floore, WWALS Webinar
“WWALS and Suwannee Riverkeeper continue our work to protect the Okefenokee Swamp, 85% of which is in the Suwannee River Basin. We conduct outings for direct exposure, we have gotten city council and county commission resolutions passed, and we talk to Georgia state legislators, while expanding the issue into Florida. But the mine site is in the St. Marys River watershed. So I am very pleased that, since she’s been St. Marys Riverkeeper, Emily Floore has taken a strong position and action to support the Swamp and to oppose the mine,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.
Register in advance with zoom for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrdOmtqzkpGt3UGEP7SDw6JJaAVAPt9d30 Continue reading
Update 2023-09-12: Clinch County Resolution against strip mine, for Okefenokee Swamp 2023-09-11.
In addition to its usual business of roads and taxes, the Clinch County Commission discussed with Suwannee Riverkeeper outings, boat ramps, and a proposed resolution against the strip mine too near the Okefenokee Swamp.
![[Collage @ Clinch County Commission 2023-08-07]](https://wwals.net/pictures/2023-08-07--clinch-county-commission/many.jpg)
Collage @ Clinch County Commission 2023-08-07
For the boat ramp, Clinch County can apply to the GA-DNR Recreational Trails Program, Nonmotorized. Andrew Schock, writing for the landowner, The Conservation Fund, sent a letter saying that among the half a dozen possibilities he favors Drawdy Mill Landing on Drawdy Mill Road, which is about half way between Griffis Fish Camp and Fargo Boat Ramp.
For the
resolution supporting the Okefenokee Swamp and the Suwannee River against the proposed strip mine,
the Commissioners chose to take another month to read it thoroughly,
with a vote next month, which should be 6PM, Monday, September 4, 2023.
The resolutions already passed by other cities and counties,
including
the one passed last week by Echols County,
are
on the WWALS website.
For more about that mine, see
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining
Thanks to Chairman Henry Moylan and the Commissioners for their hospitality, to Clinch County Administrator Jaclyn James for ongoing communications, and to WWALS member Etta Lee for talking to Commissioners and for being at the meeting; also for dinner.
Below are pictures, videos by Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange of the relevant agenda item, and links to documents.
Here is a WWALS video playlist of the relevant LAKE videos.
For the entire meeting, see the LAKE blog post, Videos: Boat Ramps, Okefenokee Swamp, LMIG, Taxes @ Clinch County Commission 2023-08-07.
Continue readingThe headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, the Okefenokee Swamp, is threatened by a proposed strip mine too close to it. That mine site also sits above the Floridan Aquifer, from which we all drink.
Here is a handy form you can use to ask your Georgia state legislators to support
HB 71,
to protect the largest blackwater wetland in North America:
https://protectgeorgia.org/okefenokee/#/366/
And don’t forget to send GA-EPD comments on the Mining Land Use Plan:
https://wwals.net/?p=60735
Floridians, you can Continue reading
The meeting is 7PM tonight in Lake City, with remote participation options; see:
https://wwals.net/?p=60792
January 26, 2023
To: Scott Koons, E.D., North Central Florida Regional Planning Council
Re: Limit water withdrawals, strip mine near Okefenokee Swamp, Valdosta trash
Dear NCFRPC,
Thank you for the opportunity for public input.
I would like to bring to the attention of the Council three issues:
![[Three topics for NCFRPC from WWALS 2023-01-26]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-26--wwals-to-ncfrpc/many.jpg)
Three topics for NCFRPC from WWALS 2023-01-26
Update 2023-01-26: Limit water withdrawals, strip mine near Okefenokee Swamp, Valdosta trash –WWALS to NCFRPC 2023-01-26.
Tonight I will ask them to take up Valdosta trash as an issue like they previously successfully took up Valdosta sewage.
I will ask them to oppose the proposed titanium strip mine and to support the Okefenokee Swamp, the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, and the Floridan Aquifer.
And I will ask them to ask SRWMD and SJRWMD to add a water budget and constraints on water withdrawals to the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP).
![[When and Where NCFRPC 2023-01-26]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-26--ncfrpc/many.jpg)
When and Where NCFRPC 2023-01-26
Now I am composing a letter to send them before the meeting. Continue reading
GA-EPD is providing more public comment opportunity than it has been promising for the past year. It has opened a comment period on Twin Pines Minerals Mining Land Use Plan, after which it will do what it previously promised: issue a draft permit and open a comment period on that.
You can object now to that titanium dioxide strip mine for white paint far too close to the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, and sits above the Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink in south Georgia and north Florida. You can email or paper mail your comments, or join one of two zoom webinars.
The comment deadline is 60 days after the notice of yesterday, so apparently Monday, March 20, 2023.
The Twin Pines Minerals Draft Mining Land Use Plan and Associated Documents for Public Comment are on the GA-EPD website, and also on the WWALS website.
Here is the public notice: Continue reading
Kyra Purvis, WFXL, November 15, 2021, The city of Valdosta is working together to protect Okefenokee Swamp,
The city of Valdosta is working together to protect the Okefenokee Swamp from a proposed strip mine being placed near the area.
![[Reporter, Mayor, Suwannee Riverkeeper, mine in Suwannee River Basin map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-15--valdosta-okefenokee-resolution-wfxl/many.jpg)
Reporter, Mayor, Suwannee Riverkeeper, mine in Suwannee River Basin mapThe Okefenokee Swamp is a 438,000 acre wetland that straddles the Georgia-Florida line and is a place [where] many local residents go for nature-filled fun.
Continue reading
Let’s put the end of the story up top:
John Quarterman, who is the Suwannee Riverkeeper with the WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc., said he hopes potential new federal protections will highlight the need to shield part of the turtle’s potential habitat from a proposed mining project near the Okefenokee Swamp. The [Georgia] state Department of Natural Resource[s] is weighing whether to issue mining permits to Twin Pines [Minerals LLC of Alabama].
The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is included in the turtle’s range outlined by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
“It’s yet another reason to protect the swamp,” Quarterman said this week.
Please send your comments to Georgia officials asking them to thoroughly review and then reject the five permit applications from the miners:
https://waterkeeper.org/news/help-suwannee-riverkeeper-save-okefenokee-swamp/
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)
listed the Suwannee alligator snapping turtle as State Threatened in September 2018.
Jill Nolin, Georgia Recorder, 7 April 2021, Feds propose protection for hefty Suwannee alligator snapping turtle,
A rare prehistoric looking turtle only found in south Georgia and north Florida might soon gain federal protection after struggling to rebound.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that it has proposed listing the Suwannee alligator snapping turtle as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The announcement kicks off a public comment period that will wrap up this June.
The turtle is the largest found in north American rivers, with some males weighing in at more than 200 pounds. The Suwannee gator snapper makes its home in the waterways flowing through Tifton and Valdosta before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.
The federal agency reported Tuesday that only about 2,000 of the turtles remain across the two states. The Suwannee alligator snapping turtle was only recently split off as its own species.
“The science that the Service has gathered on this turtle indicates Continue reading
You, too, can do what all the Waterkeepers of Florida did, and ask the Governor of Georgia and other elected officials to stop that mine too near the Okefenokee:
https://wwals.net/?p=54109#howtocomment
And you can ask the runoff candidates for Senate and Public Service Commission, what’s your position on that mine and the Swamp? https://wwals.net/?p=54359
To: Governor Brian Kemp
206 Washington Street
Suite 203 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-1776
brian.kemp@georgia.govCc: Trey Kilpatrick, Chief of Staff
trey.kilpatrick@georgia.gov
Caylee Noggle, Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations
caylee.noggle@georgia.gov
Bert Brantley, Deputy Chief of Staff, External Affairs
bert.brantley@georgia.govRe: Please stop a strip mine near the Okefenokee Swamp that threatens both Florida and Georgia (PDF)
Dear Governor Kemp and staff,
On behalf of our respective organizations and our thousands of members, we are writing to express our concerns regarding the Twin Pines Minerals, LLC application number SAS-2018-00554-SP-HAR. Waterkeepers Florida is a regional entity composed of all 14 Waterkeeper organizations working in the State of Florida to protect and restore our water resources across over 45,000 square miles of watershed, which is home to over 15 million Floridians.
Georgia is all that stands between that titanium strip mine within a few miles of the Okefenokee Swamp, proposed by coal miners from Alabama. Part of the Okefenokee Swamp is in Florida, and the Swamp is the headwaters of both the St. Marys River, which forms part of the border between Georgia and Florida, and of the Suwannee River, which flows through Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. Thus if the mining activities of the applicant affect the Okefenokee, or the underlying Floridan Aquifer, they may affect the quality of the waters of the state of Florida. In addition, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge promises more economic benefit to Florida than any other NWR. https://tinyurl.com/y5dws8oa
Please direct the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to thoroughly examine the five state permit applications from Twin Pines Minerals, LLC (TPM). https://wwals.net/?p=54009 The evidence indicates DNR should reject those applications. At the least, an environmental review equivalent to an Environmental Impact Statement should be conducted, with public hearings and third-party review.
The 60,000 people who wrote to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers against that mine are still opposed, despite the Corps abdicating its oversight. https://wwals.net/?p=53867
For many reasons to reject permits for this mine, see Continue reading
![[Video: Okefenokee Swamp, over proposed strip mine, Emily Floore, St. Marys Riverkeeper, WWALS Webinar 2024-03-21]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-03-21--wwals-webinar-st-marys-riverkee-okefenokee-swamp-video/many.jpg)
![[Bear: Protect the Okefenokee]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-12--gwc-oke-protect/28CE119F-5056-86B6-5F318F70659BA10C.jpg)
![[Proposed Project Location, 2-MLUP-App-N-b-Modeling-the-Groundwater-Flow-System-on-Trail-Ridge-9-14-2021-Figs-Tables-and-Apps-0012]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-19--ga-epd-tpm-public-comment/big/2-MLUP-App-N-b-Modeling-the-Groundwater-Flow-System-on-Trail-Ridge-9-14-2021-Figs-Tables-and-Apps-0012.jpg)
![[Map, letter, WKFL]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-12-11--wkfl-ga-gov-okefenokee/many.jpg)