This is a placeholder for a forthcoming article with evidence in endnotes.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/
Join us for an eight-mile paddle on the beautiful Suwannee River with a short detour upstream to the Alapaha River Rise, where that river reemerges after traveling underground for 10 miles. We will paddle by the confluence of the the Alapaha River, as well as several springs along the way to Suwannee River State Park (SRSP).
Gibson County Park entry is free but there is a $5 fee for the State Park, fees are collected via online payment or QR code. Check SRSP’s webpage if you need more information.
When: Gather 9 AM, launch 10 AM, end 2:30 PM, Saturday, June 27, 2026
Put In: Gibson County Park, 6844 SW CR 751, Jasper, FL 32052. Right bank, west side of the river. From Jasper, Hamilton County, FL, travel southwest on Right bank. SW CR 249 to SW CR 751; turn left and boat ramp is on the right in Gibson Park, in Hamilton County.
![[Gibson County Park to SRSP, Suwannee River 2026-06-27, Alapaha River Rise, Suwannee River State Park]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-06-27--gibson-park-srwsp-suwannee-river-paddle/fbmany.jpg)
Gibson County Park to SRSP, Suwannee River 2026-06-27, Alapaha River Rise, Suwannee River State Park
The most populous county participating in many Suwannee Basin forums, Alachua County has passed a resolution opposing Water First North Florida (WFNF) and proposing alternatives. It is also the second county partly in the St. Johns Basin to do so, after Baker County.
Before their unanimous vote, the Alachua County Commissioners discussed whether this resolution adequately supported the resolution by the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council (NCFRPC), which represents all twelve counties in the Suwannee River Water Management District.
Well, the Alachua County resolution doesn’t say anything about desalination, nor anything else for Jacksonville to reduce its groundwater withdrawals. It recommends limiting irrigation to only one day a week, apparently only for Alachua County.
Still, the 800-pound gorilla has spoken, and its last recommendation is:
7) evaluate alternatives to the Water First North Florida Project along with filtration and siting strategies for beneficial re-use of reclaimed water from Jacksonville.
![[Alachua County resolution against WFNF 2026-06-09, Stacie Greco, landscape irrigation]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-06-09--alachua-county-wfnf/fbmany.jpg)
Alachua County resolution against WFNF 2026-06-09, Stacie Greco, landscape irrigation
For much more about WFNF, see:
11:30 AM, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, Alachua County BOCC Meeting Agenda:
Continue reading
- Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers Implementation Strategy/Water First North Florida Project Resolution – 26-00395
More on how WFNF is not done yet, including that contributing projects are still going.
Cost is one of many reasons for the massive public opposition to Water First North Florida (WFNF), the plan to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee River Basin.
The WFNF cost estimate was $1 billion in July 2025, but had ballooned to $1.1 billion by February 2026. That’s 10% inflation in six months.
Even that higher estimate expressly does not include the cost of the pipeline or eminent domain, not to mention likely lawsuits.
Another reason is that few people trust JEA to clean up the wastewater or to keep the pipeline system working without failures.
Another is that nobody got to vote on WFNF except the unelected boards of JEA and the St. Johns and Suwannee River Water Management Districts (SJRWMD and SRWMD).
Much more about WFNF here:
Julianna Bendeck, the independent florida alligator, June 14, 2026, Why the Water First North Florida project may not be done just yet: The state cancelled the $1 billion aquifer recharge proposal amid drought conditions,
Although state officials abandoned the original Water First North Florida proposal, research associated with the project continues.
Continue reading
Asked directly about WFNF, what’s happening with the $125 million and have you cancelled the consultant contracts, SJRWMD had no response.
Remember that whenever somebody tries to tell you WFNF is cancelled. It’s just laying low.
That’s Water First North Florida, the plan to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee Basin to seep down from wetlands into the Floridan Aquifer and come back up in springs, rivers, and drinking water wells, at the June 9, 2026, meeting in Palatka of the Governing Board of the St. Johns River Water Management District.
What they did do, after their Hydrologic Conditions Report showed how dire the drought is, they approved an increase in the amount of groundwater GRU can withdraw for Gainesville.
And they praised GRU’s wastewater reclamation, i.e., Sweetwater, as a model. They didn’t say, but that’s one of the precedents cited in https://waterfirstnorthfl.com: “Similar projects like the Sweetwater Wetlands Project in Alachua County and the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project in Clay County have successfully improved water quality, restored wetland habitats, and provided community benefits – proving this approach works for North Florida.”
Nevermind that, as Suwannee County BOCC pointed out, “You assert that this method has been “proven” at the Sweetwater Wetlands Project and Black Creek Water Resource Development. That is simply not true as both of those projects use wetlands to cleanse run off — not chemically “treated” water. To be blunt, those projects are not receiving sewer water like you are planning to use for the Water First North Florida Project. Even if they were similar projects, the difference in scale compared to Water First North Florida negates any reasonable comparison.”
For more about WFNF, see:
Here’s another question. Continue reading
You can help stop sprawl west of Alachua along US 441, uphill from the Santa Fe River.
![[Help stop US 441 big box sprawl, Alachua City Hall, June 22, 2026]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-06-22--alachua-city-farmlands-rezoning/many.jpg)
Help stop US 441 big box sprawl, Alachua City Hall, June 22, 2026
Call, write, or go to the 6 PM, June 22, 2026, Alachua City Commission meeting.
Here’s a petition by the Suwannee-St. Johns Group of Sierra Club Florida Chapter:
https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Florida?actionId=AR0619414&fbclid=IwY2xjawSZ_cZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFHckF4eGVwYmRlYUJ2U3lOc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHkQjqONwPFpZmnp8B2Grx_yYBxP1yHJrP5HoydoDB9Y8xeqBd1Yu_wuID_cn_aem_QfdwczhEdjHfmrHbOKaPzw Continue reading
Update 2026-06-18: Drought dire; GRU water withdrawal increase approved; no response about WFNF @ SJRWMD Board 2026-06-09.
You can speak about WFNF, taxes, etc. at the SJRWMD Governing Board Meeting,
10 AM, Tuesday, June 9, 2026
Board Room, SJRWMD District Headquarters, 4049 Reid Street, Palatka, FL 32177
Don’t be late: 5. Public Comment is very early on the agenda.
So far, the Suwannee River Water Management Districdt (SRWMD) has no comment on the alleged cancellation of WFNF. We’ve heard nothing at all from the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), which has dedicated $125 million to WFNF. Maybe you’d like to ask them what they are doing with WFNF.
How much of SJRWMD’s own tax revenue comes from property tax, and how much of that will be affected if the voters in November approve the Florida Homestead Property Tax Exemption?
Public Comment is right after this item:
- Consideration: Approve Consumptive Use Permit 11339-8, known as Murphree WTP – GRU. This application is a renewal of an existing public supply permit with an increase in the Upper Floridan aquifer groundwater allocation from 30.0 million gallons per day (mgd) to 34.592 mgd, through the year 2056.
That’s a 15% increase from 2056 for Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU). From the same Upper Floridan Aquifer everybody drinks from in the Suwannee Basin. With direct effects on the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and Associated Priority Springs minimum flows and levels, as spelled out later in the board packet.
There is no mention of PFAS forever chemicals or pharmaceuticals being removed from the “reclaimed” wastewater that ends up in the aquifer. One of the reclaimed wastewater routes goes through Sweetwater Wetlands Park, which WFNF claims as a precedent.
Maybe you’d like to talk about that.
On packet page 9: Continue reading
The Southwest Florida Water Management District has approved an Environmental Resource Permit modification for a borrow pit for use in constructing the Suncoast Parkway 2 toll road extension.
That move brings the toll road ever closer to extending up US 19 across the Suwannee River and other sensitive wetlands all the way to the GA-FL line towards Thomasville, Georgia.
![[SWFWMD approved ERP, for Suncoast Parkway 2, Eastern Borrow Site, owned by FDEP 2026-05-22]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-05-22--citrus-county-sand-mine/fbmany.jpg)
SWFWMD approved ERP, for Suncoast Parkway 2, Eastern Borrow Site, owned by FDEP 2026-05-22
This site is not in the Suwannee River Basin. It is in the watershed of Citrus County’s Crystal River. But building any part of that toll road accellerates the likelihood of the same road heading north into the Suwannee Basin.
Hurricane evacuation is the usual excuse for this toll road, but solar panels and batteries for houses and businesses would cost less and would mean many people would not have to evacuate and would not be without power for weeks as happens now after every hurricane.
You may recall that this is the same sand mine that Southworth sold to the state of Florida after Continue reading
A Florida bill could force Florida county parks and boat ramps to be pay for use, and could eliminate 4-H, agricultural extension services, libraries, and even county veteran services.
If passed, HJR 203 would eliminate all property taxes on homestead property except school taxes.
It failed in the Florida Senate, but it will be heard again in a July 2026, legislative special session.
If it passes the legislature, the people will get to vote on this constitutional amendment on the November ballot.
Gilchrist County held a workshop about this on April 20, 2026. Other counties would do well to do the same.
The origin of the word republic is the latin phrase Res publica, which means public thing. It is often translated as commonwealth. I understand people don’t like paying taxes, especially property taxes. But something is needed to fund public services. Florida already does not have income tax.
That leaves a gas tax, increasing millage on everybody else, or, as slide 28 suggests, “100% Fee based parks.” Which wouldn’t help libraries or 4-H.
I don’t know about you, but I prefer people, especially young people, being able to go to the library or to the river without paying, such as to Hart Springs, Otter Springs, or the FL 47 Ramp, aka Santa Fe River Gilchrist County Park Ramp. Otherwise, they will find other, perhaps more troublesome, ways to spend their time.
Oh, and your taxes would still be paying to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee Basin; see:
If it was really cancelled, you’d think SRWMD, SJRWMD, and JEA would say so, and announce they have cancelled any outstanding contracts, such as the one SJRWMD let on November 12, 2025, for $2.17 million for a consultant to study WFNF for three years.
Instead, we’ve heard nothing from JEA or SJRWMD, and the Executive Director of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) has no comment.
For much more about WFNF, including which Suwannee District counties oppose it (all 12 of them) and which have passed their own letters or resolutions of opposition (7 of them), as well as who you can contact, see:
![[SRWMD has no comment on WFNF alleged cancellation; Nothing from JEA or SJRWMD or FDEP 2026-05-19]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-05-15--srwmd-no-comment-wfnf/fbmany.jpg)
SRWMD has no comment on WFNF alleged cancellation; Nothing from JEA or SJRWMD or FDEP 2026-05-19
Stew Lilker, Columbia County Observer, May 15, 2026,
Water First North Florida: The $1.1 Billion Project That No One Likes, Except Insiders, Is on the Ropes
Where is it now and how did it get there?
![[WFNF not done yet --Florida Alligator 2026-06-14, Stacie Greco, Alachua County, Sarah Younger, SSGSCFL]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-06-14--alligator-wfnf/many.jpg)
![[Drought dire, yet approved GRU water withdrawal increase, No response about WFNF @ SJRWMD Board 2026-06-09]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-06-09--sjrwmd-board-pictures/many.jpg)
![[Speak about WFNF, Taxes, etc., at SJRWMD Board 2026-06-09, Or GRU 15% increase groundwater withdrawal affecting Suwannee Basin]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-06-09--sjrwmd-board/fbmany.jpg)
![[Florida Homestead Property Tax Exemption: for-pay parks and boat ramps? @ Gilchrist County Workshop, Monday, April 20, 2026]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-04-20--gilchrist-county-tax-workshop/fbmany.jpg)