Gibson Park Ramp will not be closed for upcoming work, except possibly briefly.
Inquiring minds wanted to know, so I called Chuck Burnett, Director, Hamilton County Parks & Recreation.
The work is actually about the dock, not the ramp. Continue reading
These springs protection recommendations presumably took place at the SRWMD Board’s May 9, 2023, meeting in Live Oak: they were on the agenda.
![[Springs and WWTF --SRWMD Board Package 2023-05-09]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-05-16--srwmd-springs-projects/many.jpg)
Springs and WWTF –SRWMD Board Package 2023-05-09
SRWMD Press Release, May 16, 2023, Seven area projects recommended for Springs funding by SRWMD Governing Board,
LIVE OAK, FLA., MAY 16, 2023 — The Suwannee River Water Management District (District) Governing Board this month recommended seven projects to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for Springs funding.
The seven projects – two local government projects and five projects to a non-profit organization – total $6,106,441. This funding request is part of FDEP’s Springs and Watershed Restoration program which provides funding for projects that improve the quality and quantity of the state’s water resources. FDEP works with the water management districts, local governments, and other stakeholders to identify and implement springs projects that achieve these goals.
“Florida is a great place to live and do business; because of this, the state continues to see tremendous growth,” said Hugh Thomas, executive director of the District. “With that growth comes the need to identify innovative ways to grow while also protecting our natural resources. Funding for projects like these is beneficial to ensuring the preservation of our local springs for generations to come.”
Projects include:
Continue readingSent yesterday as PDF, in response to the invitation to comment and before the May 24, 2023 meeting in Tifton of the Georgia Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council.
![[The WWALS letter and rivers and mines in and near the Suwannee River Basin]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-05-15--wwals-comments-ssrwpc-draft-water-plan/many.jpg)
The WWALS letter and rivers and mines in and near the Suwannee River Basin
May 15, 2023
To: Water Planning
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
water.planning@dnr.ga.gov
RE: WWALS Comments on SSRWPC Draft Regional Water Plan
Dear DNR,
Responding to your invitation to comment on the draft Regional Water Plans, I write to mention some omissions in the Suwannee-Satilla Regional Draft Water Plan of March 2023.
Continue readingFloridians, you can help protect our river, springs, and Floridan Aquifer!
Please use these convenient Waterkeepers Florida forms to ask Florida Governor DeSantis to veto three bad bills:
![[Suwannee Riverkeeper wants you! Photo: Shirley Kokidko, Alapahoochee River 2022-07-09]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-05-14--suwrk-wants-you/square-suwrk.jpg)
Suwannee Riverkeeper wants you! Photo: Shirley Kokidko, Alapahoochee River 2022-07-09
Don’t forget to sign the petition for a constitutional amendment referendum on Right to Clean and Healthy Waters:
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/
Georgians and everybody else,
you can still send a comment to GA-EPD opposing a titanium dioxide strip mine
too near the Okefenokee Swamp:
twinpines.comment@dnr.ga.gov Continue reading
Please ask the Florida Governor to veto the part of the budget bill that could end up with preemption of local fertilizer bans.
You can use this handy Waterkeepers Florida form to do that: https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/stopthefertilizerpreemption/
![[Veto fertilizer ban preemption]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-05-13--veto-fertilizer-preemption/2023-05-13--veto-fertilizer-preemption.jpg)
Who would benefit by the bill? Phosphate mines.
As everyone knows, fertilizer nitrates leaching through the soil into our springs and rivers is the main cause of the algae blooms that crowd out native vegetation and starve fish and manatees in the Suwannee River Basin. The state’s Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) won’t solve that problem. Counties and cities can pass ordinances to address the problem, but not so easily the relevant part of this bill becomes law.
The relevant part of line item 146 of SB 2500 reads: Continue reading
Update 2023-06-08: FL Gov signed sprawl bill: need Rights to Clean Water 2023-06-08.
Citizens and nonprofits can’t afford to sue about bad development decisions if they might lose like this.
This year’s Florida legislature “session of sprawl” passed HB 359/ SB 540 entitled “Local Government Comprehensive Plans” that would allow the winning parties to recover their attorney fees from the losing parties in legal challenges to comprehensive plans and plan amendments. Developer attorneys tend to be very expensive. You probably can’t afforsd to pay for them, and we can’t, either.
We need local governments to be accountable to the people.
Please ask Governor DeSantis to veto HB 359 / SB 540.
You can use this handy Waterkeeper Florida form:
https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/Development_Bills/SB540_Rules-2/
For more about Waterkeepers Florida, of which Suwannee Riverkeeper is a member,
see:
https://www.waterkeepersflorida.org/
-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/
The Florida legislature has already passed a bill to allow spreading waste from phosphate mines on roads.
Those gypstacks at the White Springs Nutrien phosphate mine near the Suwannee River should not end up on roads, not in Hamilton County and not elsewhere.
![[Say no to radioactive roads in Florida]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-05-11--veto-radioactive-roads-fl/say-no-to-radioactive-roads-fl.jpg)
Say no to radioactive roads in Florida
Please urge Governor DeSantis to veto HB 1191/ SB 1258.
Here’s a handy form by Waterkeepers Florida so you can tailor your email to the governor:
https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/saynotoradioactiveroads/HB1191-SB1258-VETO/
Here’s the bill, which also would legitimize use of coal ash in roads:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1191
For more about phosphate mines, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/phosphate-mining/
About Waterkeepers Florida, of which Suwannee Riverkeeper is a member, see:
https://www.waterkeepersflorida.org/
-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/
Update 2023-05-16: Rivers and mining: WWALS comments on Suwannee-Satilla Draft Regional Water Plan 2023-05-15.
We have an agenda for the May 24, 2023, meeting of the Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Commission (SSRWPC) in Tifton, Georgia.
Note the SRWMD presentation about Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs), as in the ongoing SRWMD peer review of the Upper and Middle Suwannee River MFLs.
SSRWPC will also be discussing their Lake Beatrice water storage and Alapaha River replenishment scheme, which has assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Don’t wait until the SSRWPC meeting to get your comments in on their Georgia Regional Water Plan by May 15, 2023.
Received this morning in response to a WWALS request, Cliff Lewis wrote:
Agenda for the upcoming meeting is below. See you then. Continue reading
Update 2023-05-25: Ready for Florida Folk Festival 2023-05-25.
WWALS will have a booth at the Florida Folk Festival on Memorial Day Weekend in White Springs at the Stephen Foster State Park.
The festival is a three-day celebration of the music, dance, stories, crafts and food that make Florida unique.
We need volunteers for this three day event. The event requires that we submit the names of our volunteers by May 15th. If you are interested in helping at this fun event, please let me know ASAP so that I can get you on the list. Plan on a 4-6 hour shift of hanging around and talking to people about clean water. When not volunteering, you may attend the festival events.
When: 6:30 PM, Friday, May 26, through 6 PM Sunday, May 28, 2023
Put In: Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, White Springs, Florida, on the banks of the Suwannee River.
Continue readingUpdate 2023-05-16: Rivers and mining: WWALS comments on Suwannee-Satilla Draft Regional Water Plan 2023-05-15.
The comment deadline is coming up in less than two weeks for the Georgia Regional Water Plans.
Here is the notice:
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/GADNR/bulletins/35828a6
The draft plans are here:
https://waterplanning.georgia.gov/regional-water-plans
The Suwannee-Satilla draft plan is here:
https://waterplanning.georgia.gov/suwannee-satilla-regional-water-plan
Send comments to: water.planning@dnr.ga.gov
For more information, please contact Clete Barton at (470) 251-4769 or Clete.Barton@dnr.ga.gov
The Suwannee-Satilla Regional Planning Council (SSRWPC) is meeting a few days after the deadline, May 24th, in Tifton.
-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/
![[Square Gibson Park Ramp 2022-02-05]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-05-25--gibson-park-ramp-work/big/gprampsquare.jpg)
![[Veto SB 540]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-05-12--veto-sb-540/2023-05-12--veto-sb-540.jpg)
![[The attendees: Sheri Almer and Cliff Lewis of GA-EPD, Emory Gawlik and Shayne Wood of GDM Smith, Council Mac McCall, Chair Scott Downing, Foreground Bert Early of Georgia Forestry, Elizabeth Backe of SGRC, Emily Ducker and Sean King of SRWMD --John S. Quarterman Suwannee Riverkeeper]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-14--ssrwpc-videos/20230314_103332.jpg)
![[WWALS Booth at a previous Florida Folk Festival and Carrillon at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-05-26--fl-folk-festival/many.jpg)
![[Comment deadline 2023-05-15]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-05-15--ga-draft-regional-water-plants/big/2023-05-15--comment-deadline.jpg)