Tag Archives: surficial aquifer

Aquifers: Surficial, Upper Floridan Aquifer, and sinkholes 2015-04-08

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When you drill a well in the Suwannee River Basin, what water do you get?

Early settlers could dig a well by hand 20-40 feet deep and get enough water. That’s the Surficial Aquifer, which is groundwater in sandy soils near the surface, below the water table. That’s not so easy now, after decades of agricultural and industrial well pumping.

Drill deeper and you’re into the Upper Floridan Aquifer, which is water in cracks and caverns in karst limestone. Or that aquifer may reach to the surface in a spring, as in a few spots in south Georgia and many in north central Florida.

Or the ground may collapse into the aquifer, in a sinkhole. How often do sinkholes happen, and under what conditions? Well, we don’t know in Lowndes County, Georgia, because the county has never studied it. I don’t know of any other counties that have studied this problem. Alachua County, Florida, at least has a factsheet.
https://alachuacounty.us/Depts/EPD/Documents/Natural/sinkhole%20fact%20sheet%20062112.pdf
But it doesn’t seem to reference any systematic study.

Few wells go deeper than the Upper Floridan Aquifer, but there is also a Lower Floridan Aquifer, and in some places, more aquifers even below that.

[Surficial Aquifer, Upper Floridan Aquifer, Sinkholes and Springs, Lower Floridan Aquifer]
Surficial Aquifer, Upper Floridan Aquifer, Sinkholes and Springs, Lower Floridan Aquifer

These figures are from USGS Professional Paper 1807, Revised April 8, 2015, “Revised Hydrogeologic Framework of the Floridan Aquifer System in Florida and Parts of Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina,” by Lester J. Williams and Eve L. Kuniansky.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1807/

How deep? In Lowndes County, maybe 100 feet deep, maybe less, and you’re into the Upper Floridan Aquifer.

In Irwin County, Georgia, where a hyper-scale AI datacenter has been permitted, anywhere from almost zero to 200 feet, depending on where. Continue reading →

Why Okefenokee NWR expansion matters in Florida –Rose Schnabel, WUFT 2024-11-16

Update 2024-12-09: Virtual public meeting about the minor proposed expansion of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge 2024-12-09.

This is still my bottom line:

“If we’re not going to protect the Okefenokee,” said John S. Quarterman, Suwannee Riverkeeper, “what are we going to protect?”

Joe Hopkins knows how to turn a pithy quote, but people are working on economic development in the counties surrounding the Okefenokee Swamp; see below.

Rose Schnabel, WUFT, November 16, 2024, Georgia’s biggest wildlife refuge is poised for expansion. Here’s why it matters in Florida.

[What it means to Florida, Okefenokee NWR Expansion, Rose Schnabel, WUFT 2024-11-14]
What it means to Florida, Okefenokee NWR Expansion, Rose Schnabel, WUFT 2024-11-14
The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is the largest in Georgia. (Courtesy of Michael Lusk)

Florida’s water levels, rare plants and ancient fish are among the natural resources that could be protected by a proposed expansion to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge is within the Okefenokee Swamp: a blackwater bog almost half the size of Rhode Island that feeds the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposed expansion, announced earlier this month, would extend the refuge’s borders by 22,000 acres. The deadline for public comment is Dec. 9.

Continue reading →

Twin Pines Minerals supplied more documents to GA-EPD about mining near Okefenokee Swamp 2021-06-25

The miners finally responded to GA-EPD’s questions from April about more information for the five permit applications to strip mine titanium far too near the Okefenokee Swamp.

Checking today with Georgia Environmental Protection Division Deputy Director John Eunice, it will probably take several weeks for EPD’s Mining group to review the documents. If EPD finds documents or information still missing, they may ask Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, for more. When at some point EPD finds enough information to call it a complete application, they will announce a Public Hearing with a public comment period.

You can go ahead and ask GA-EPD to reject the permit applications, or at least thoroughly evaluate them:
https://waterkeeper.org/news/help-suwannee-riverkeeper-save-okefenokee-swamp/

The miners’ recent documents contain plenty of reasons to reject the permits, including they say themselves they didn’t answer all the questions, and they keep sending maps including land owned by TIAA as part of their mine site after TIAA rejected that many months ago.

[Upon completion; Okefenokee Swamp, Suwannee and St Marys Rivers; TIAA land still in mining site maps]
Upon completion; Okefenokee Swamp, Suwannee and St Marys Rivers; TIAA land still in mining site maps

I’d say the miners themselves said their responses were incomplete in items 5 and 6 on page 12 of their Response to Comments: Continue reading →

Regional aquifers crossed, according to Sabal Trail

300x388 Figure 2.2-1, in Regional Aquifers Crossed by the Sabal Trail Project, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 20 February 2015 Sabal Trail seems to have a very constrained idea of the Floridan Aquifer that doesn’t include areas in for example Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes County that USGS says are in the Floridan Aquifer. But at least Sabal Trail is admitting its fracked methane pipeline would cross numerous aquifer systems.

Filed with FERC 2015-02-20 as Accession Number: 20150220-5131, “Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC submits supplemental information on adopted alternatives and information on other reroutes and modifications under CP15-17.” PDF. Continue reading →