Tag Archives: Suwannee River

Sewage Spill, Live Oak, Florida, WTP 2026-02-06

Update 2026-02-06: Clean Alapaha, Withlacoochee, and Santa Fe Rivers 2026-02-04.

Received this morning from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Pollution Notices.

Apparently it was 2,500 gallons of sewage, not near any major waterway. The closest river is the Suwannee.

[Sewage Spill, Live Oak, Florida, Wastewater Plant 2026-02-06, 2,500 gallons, Not near any major waterway]
Sewage Spill, Live Oak, Florida, Wastewater Plant 2026-02-06, 2,500 gallons, Not near any major waterway

Pollution Notice

Pursuant to Section 403.077, F.S., the Department of Environmental Protection has received the following Public Notice of Pollution for a reportable release. All information displayed was submitted by the reporting party.


Type of Notice: Initial Report
Date of Notice: 02/06/2026

Incident Information
Name of Incident: Live Oak WWTP Headworks Overflow
State Watch Office Case Number: 20261159
Start of Incident: 02/03/2026 05:00 PM
End of Incident: 02/03/2026 05:35 PM

Incident Description
Mechanical barscreen control issue causing influent launders to overflow onto deck of headworks and onto lawn/driveway below. Water leak at facility called into City Fire, City Fire dispatched and notified Public Works provider who then contacted site PM. Spill gallonage to State Watch Office reported as 20,000 Gal, photos of site following review have estimate adjusted to ~2,500 Gallons.

Incident Location
Facility/Installation Name: City of Live Oak WWTF
Address Line 1: 701 Lime Ave NW
Address Line 2:
Directions:
City: Live Oak
State: FL
Zip Code: 32064
Coordinates (in decimal degrees):
Lat: 30.3074307765754, Long: -82.9923627665505 Click to view Incident Location
Impacted Counties: Suwannee
Updated Impact:

Incident Reported By Continue reading →

Video: Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer peer-reviewed evidence, WWALS Webinar, 2026-01-15

Thanks to UGA Professors Jaivime Evaristo (isotope data) and Todd Rasmussen (water levels) for reviewing their two lines of evidence that the Okefenokee Swamp leaks through the underlying limestone into the Upper Floridan Aquifer.

This webinar explains their recent scientific paper on this subject.

Note that this means that nearby water withdrawals draw more water down from the Swamp into the Aquifer.

This paper is more incentive to pass Georgia House Bill 561 to protect the Okefenokee Swamp from mining, at least on its east side. Georgians, please ask your statehouse delegation to pass HB 561. Floridians, please ask your Georgia friends and relatives to do the same. Here’s how to contact Georgia Statehouse members:

https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/

[Video: Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer, peer-reviewed evidence, WWALS Webinar 2026-01-15]
Video: Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer, peer-reviewed evidence, WWALS Webinar 2026-01-15

Here is the zoom video of this webinar:

https://youtu.be/NPe0D3YUA6M

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman gave a brief introduction, with questions and answers at the end.

About their 2025 paper: Continue reading →

Agenda: WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting 2026-01-11

Here is the draft agenda and the zoom parameters for the WWALS Quarterly Board meeting Sunday evening, January 11, 2026.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89308028204?pwd=VmwyMzVTMVR6WGJxbUFUSlFXWFRWQT09

WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting

When: 6:00 PM, Sunday, January 11, 2026

What: The usual board business.

Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1448563266894844/

[Agenda: WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting, By zoom, 6-8 PM, 2026-01-11, Advocacy, outings, events, Board, Staff, and Committees]
Agenda: WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting, By zoom, 6-8 PM, 2026-01-11, Advocacy, outings, events, Board, Staff, and Committees

Here is the agenda (see also PDF). Continue reading →

SJRWMD hired a consultant to plan piping treated Jacksonville wastewater into the Suwannee River Basin (Water First North Florida) 2025-11-12

The St Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) hired a consultant in November to solidify the plan to pipe Jacksonville treated wastewater to recharge springs on the Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers in the Suwannee River Basin.

Their documents show that Jacksonville uses about as much water as all of agriculture in the Suwannee River Basin.

How about Jacksonville get a grip on its water usage?

Wouldn’t that be better than having JAX upstream from the Suwannee River Basin?

[SJRWMD hired a consultant to plan piping treated Jacksonville wastewater into the Suwannee River Basin (Water First North Florida) 2025-11-12]
SJRWMD hired a consultant to plan piping treated Jacksonville wastewater into the Suwannee River Basin (Water First North Florida) 2025-11-12

Maybe you’d like to Ask Florida statehouse and Water Districts to explain JAX treated wastewater into the Suwannee Basin or to stop it.
https://wwals.net/?p=69143

The trail from SRWMD’s lack of knowledge of the locations for this project led to SJRWMD’s board minutes.

There is still an opportunity to change course (see below about the SJRWMD November 12, 2025, board packet):

Projects identified in the Strategy do not become permit conditions by virtue of their inclusion in an approved Strategy. The projects described in this Strategy, or alternative projects that the Districts concur will provide an equivalent benefit, may be developed and incorporated as conditions on water use or consumptive use permits (WUP or CUP) through the permitting process and shall be updated with each approval of the NFRWSP.

That’s good, because the projects SJRWMD considered apparently did not include limiting water withdrawals or Dennis Price’s proposal to drill wells at the bottom of planted pine ditches.

They apparently did not include anything about limiting water withdrawals, not even by Jacksonville, which uses about as much water as Suwannee Basin agriculture.

SJRWMD (and SRWMD as junior partner) appear to only be considering massive pipe engineering projects.

And I see nothing in these SJRWMD documents about how they plan to get rid of toxic chemicals that are not normally removed by wastewater treatement, such as PFAS, pharmaceuticals, and artificial sweeteners.

The SJRWMD Board in November 2025 authorized “a contract not-to-exceed $2,170,000 with the Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.” to do an initial design. Continue reading →

Ask Florida statehouse and Water Districts to explain JAX treated wastewater into the Suwannee Basin or to stop it, 2026-01-02

Update 2026-02-17: Consent Order on JEA Buckman Wastewater Treatment Plant –FDEP 2025-09-15.

Update 2026-02-13: Video: Jacksonville Wastewater into Suwannee Basin, WWALS Webinar 2026-02-12.

Update 2026-02-05: Jacksonville Wastewater into Suwannee Basin, WWALS Webinar 2026-02-12.

Do you think a billion dollars to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee Basin is a bad idea?

If so, please ask your statehouse delegation and Water Management District Board to explain why limiting water withdrawals would not be a better idea, or to stop this project.

Everybody is downstream from somebody else. But we don’t need the Suwannee River Basin to be downstream from Jacksonville. Sure, we’re poorer than Jacksonville, but we’re not their sacrifice zone.

Two Water Management Districts say this Water First North Florida project would replenish levels and flows in the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers, including the Ichetucknee Headspring, by sending water into the Upper Floridan Aquifer through wetlands.

How can this expensive and risky project be the best way to conserve levels and flows in these Outstanding Florida Waters, which are supposed to be worthy of special protection because of their natural attributes?

How can risking the source of our drinking water be a good idea?

[Why is piping treated JAX wastewater into the Suwannee River Basin, better than limiting water withdrawals? Ask FL statehouse and WMD boards]
Why is piping treated JAX wastewater into the Suwannee River Basin, better than limiting water withdrawals? Ask FL statehouse and WMD boards

Here’s how to find your legislators:

https://pluralpolicy.com/find-your-legislator/

Also ask SRWMD to hold a Public Hearing explaining why this project is better and safer than limiting water withdrawals.

Let’s see the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Including evidence about how much JEA’s Buckman Wastewater Treatment Facility actually removes PFAS forever chemicals, drugs, and artificial sweeteners. Plus single points of failure such as sole-source contractors.

Suwannee River Management District
9225 CR 49
Live Oak, FL 32060
Phone: 386.362.1001
Toll Free: 1.800.226.1066
Hugh Thomas, Executive Director
Hugh.Thomas@SRWMD.org

Also ask your SRWMD Board members:
https://mysuwanneeriver.com/134/Current-Board-Members

The Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) seems to know surprisingly little Continue reading →

Videos: Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, 2025-12-11

History Instructor Vickie Everitte conducted a historical exploration of Georgia’s Wiregrass Region and the complex stories of survival, resistance, and adaptation that unfolded there after the 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson.

WWALS Board Member Janet Martin gave a brief introduction to this WWALS Webinar. Questions and answers were at the end, including a distinguished guest.

[Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, 2025-12-11]
Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, 2025-12-11

Here is a zoom video of this WWALS Webinar:

https://youtu.be/ULUwKQEOh10

Her slides are on the WWALS website in PowerPoint and PDF. Images of each page are below.

Native American and Passageways to Freedom within the Wiregrass Region1

As settlers moved south of the Oconee River, drawn by the land’s economic promise, waves of migration and militia efforts reshaped the landscape—and the lives of the Native American families who called it home. Through rivers, streams, and the vast Okefenokee Swamp, Indigenous people found ways not only to endure but to carve out paths of freedom and self-determination amid the U.S. Indian Removal Policy of the 1830s.

Drawing from original correspondence between settlers, militia, and Georgia’s governors in Milledgeville, this presentation reveals how waterways became corridors of escape and survival. As Everitte reminds us, “Swamps are places on the margins — as much, they are places of transition, opportunity, and challenge.”2

About the Speaker

Continue reading →

Outfall from Pilgrims Pride chicken plant into Suwannee River 2025-12-20

Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson offered to show me where the Pilgrims Pride Outflow pipe discharges wastewater into the Suwannee River from the chicken processing plant on US 90, near Suwannee River State Park.

While there, I took water quality samples upstream from the pipe, from the end of the pipe, and downstream from the pipe. The results are zero E. coli upstream and downstream, and 33 cfu/100 mL from the end of the pipe, which is also very clean.

We observed no outflow from the pipe. But maybe they just don’t send anything through the pipe on weekends. According to EPA ECHO, that pipe has exceeded its mercury allowance recently; more on that later.

[Pilgrims Pride chicken plant outfall into Suwannee River 2025-12-20, Clean samples, but permitted for 1.5 MGD]
Pilgrims Pride chicken plant outfall into Suwannee River 2025-12-20, Clean samples, but permitted for 1.5 MGD

Facebook video at the pipe:

https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/897434015972536/

Here’s a YouTube video playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKwQ5xfKf-QyBlqgfLr5bDHatu1ldd-3A

The Pilgrims Pride wastewater permit No. FL0001465-008-IW7A still (as of 2020) allows up to 1.50 million gallons per day (MGD) “monthly average daily flow”.

The final treated effluent which includes process wastewater and non-process wastewater discharges to Suwannee River (Class III fresh Water, WBID 3422B). The permittee is also authorized to land apply 0.040 MGD of sludge to a sprayfield system. The facility is located at latitude 30° 22′ 18.99″ N, longitude 83° 9′ 29.85″ W, on 19740 US Highway 90, Live Oak, Florida 32060-8753 in Suwannee County.

Merrillee explained all that.

Video:

https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/1187605736853118/

https://youtu.be/IE9bbV7Fknw?si=os_9RgiZJTmERM9G Continue reading →

Ellaville Hike, Withlacoochee River 2026-02-07

Hike to the Drew Mansion Site, the Historic Hillman Bridge across the Suwannee River, Suwannacoochee Spring, and maybe up the Withlacoochee River a bit just to take a look.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:30 AM, end 1 PM, Saturday, February 7, 2026

Put In: Town of Ellaville site, 596 NE Drew Way, Lee, FL 32059

GPS: 30.386812, -83.175257

[Ellaville Hike, Withlacoochee River, Drew Mansion 2026-02-07, Historic Hillman Bridge, Suwannacoochee Spring]
Ellaville Hike, Withlacoochee River, Drew Mansion 2026-02-07, Historic Hillman Bridge, Suwannacoochee Spring

Continue reading →

Water First North Florida wetland locations: unknown –SRWMD 2025-12-17

Update 2026-01-08: SJRWMD hired a consultant to plan piping treated Jacksonville wastewater into the Suwannee River Basin (Water First North Florida) 2025-11-12.

Update 2026-01-03: Ask Florida statehouse and Water Districts to explain JAX treated wastewater into the Suwannee Basin or to stop it 2026-01-02.

Here’s a bit more about the Water First North Florida (WFNF) billion dollar project to pipe treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee River Basin.

The Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) seems to know surprisingly little about this joint project with the St Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD).

They don’t know where the water would go into wetlands to “clean” it up some more, and they don’t know where it would go to infiltrate into the Floridan Aquifer.

They don’t have a pilot study and they don’t have wetland site assessments.

Turns out there are a couple of reasons why SRWMD does not know or have those things. But I have found out a few things.

And I have leads to find out much more.

[Water First North Florida wetland locations: unknown, No Pilot Study or Wetland Assessments, But here is the RFQ --SRWMD]
Water First North Florida wetland locations: unknown, No Pilot Study or Wetland Assessments, But here is the RFQ –SRWMD

Back on July 8, 2025, SRWMD Deputy Executive Director of Water Resources Amy Brown gave her board a Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Project Update. It included a few slides on the WFNF, aka North Florida Regional Recharge Project. Continue reading →

Drought Workshop Presentation –SRWMD 2025-12-09

Update 2026-01-08: Water Shortage Advisory Order on agenda @ SRWMD 2026-01-13.

Update 2026-01-03: Ask Florida statehouse and Water Districts to explain JAX treated wastewater into the Suwannee Basin or to stop it 2026-01-02.

Update 2025-12-18: Water First North Florida wetland locations: unknown –SRWMD 2025-12-17.

In their Drought Conditions Workshop on December 9, 2025, SRWMD talked about starting an outreach campaign, “highlighting the water deficit that we are in, and our drought, and the need for efficiency, and here are some possible measures that you could implement, from a voluntary standpoint.”

But they are not yet willing to declare even the statutory Water Shortage Warning or Advisory, which has only voluntary measures.

[Drought Workshop Presentation --SRWMD 2025-12-09, No water withdrawal limits yet, Maybe an outreach campaign soon]
Drought Workshop Presentation –SRWMD 2025-12-09, No water withdrawal limits yet, Maybe an outreach campaign soon

If the current drought is not severe enough to warrant even a statutory Warning, why are SRWMD and SJRWMD forging ahead with their billion-dollar Water First North Florida project to pipe treated Jacksonville wastewater into the Suwannee River Basin to recharge the Floridan Aquifer here? And what is being done to remove the PFAS, drugs, and articifical sweeteners that typically pass right through wastewater treatment?

Thanks to SRWMD Board members Charles Keith, Larry Sessions, and William Lloyd, they did talk about possibly instituing limits on water withdrawals, considering that the past 10 years have been the hottest on record.

The presenter, Amy Brown, Deputy Executive Director, Water Resources, was clear that they have not even advised voluntary limits for the biggest group of users, which are in agriculture.

Her slides, received from SRWMD in response to a WWALS public records request, are on the WWALS website, with images below in this post.

SRWMD Executive Director Hugh Thomas did note that the water withdrawal permits SRWMD issues have standard conditions that can require limits on water withdrawals. But “it’s never fun to engage with the permittee and say, hey, you’re going to have to cut back because we’re in a water shortage period.”

You can see Amy Brown, Deputy Executive Director, Water Resources, present these slides to the SRWMD Board in their own video of their December 9, 2025, Workshop, at 1:45:58:

https://www.youtube.com/live/6LDIIdFqxaY?si=LnRZUqNL0imphDJz&t=6358

What about reducing water withdrawals?

At 2:14:10, you can hear Charles Keith asking about increasing drought. Continue reading →