UGA Professors Jaivime Evaristo (isotope data) and Todd Rasmussen (water levels) review
two lines of evidence that the Okefenokee Swamp leaks through the underlying limestone into the Upper Floridan Aquifer, and nearby water withdrawals draw more down.
This WWALS Webinar by zoom at noon will explain their recent scientific paper on this subject.
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:
Veronica Kelly-Summers, a dedicated Visitor Services Manager with
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge,
talked about the Okefenokee Swamp, its history, significance, places to go, things to do, and what’s next,
in this largest and best-preserved freshwater wetland in the U.S.
The Swamp is the headwaters of two rivers: the St. Marys that forms the border between Georgia and Florida,
and the Suwannee, which flows through Georgia and the Florida state song.
Here is the WWALS video of Veronica’s webinar, from noon-1 PM, Thursday, September 11, 2025:
https://youtu.be/pvLU8wPLsZc
The WWALS
campout at Floyd’s Island
in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp
has unfortunately been cancelled due to low water.
So you can watch Veronica’s presentation instead.
WWALS Board Member Janet Martin gave a brief introduction.
In questions and answers at the end,
Veronica elaborated on what it means
for the Okefenokee NWR to become a World Heritage Site:
more visibility, more visitors, but no additional federal funding.
Veronica Kelly-Summers is a dedicated Visitor Services Manager with
over 15 years of experience in protecting natural resources and
connecting people with nature. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s
degree in forestry from Southern Illinois University with a focus on
forest recreation and wildlife habitat management. Her career with
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken her to eight national
wildlife refuges from the woods and swamps of southern Illinois to
the Loess Bluffs of Iowa and Missouri, the Florida Everglades, and
she’s now stationed at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in
Georgia. She works closely with staff and partners to provide
leadership and strategic direction for the Visitor Services program
including managing visitor facilities and recreational opportunities
for camping, boating, interpretation, environmental education,
special events, outreach, hunting, fishing, managing volunteers, and
much more. When not at work, she enjoys spending time with her
husband, Jacob, and their pets, a yellow lab named Charlie and a
spicy tuxedo cat named Tino.
E. coli is the canary in the coal mine for other contaminants in waterways.
For years WWALS has been asking the state of Florida to test frequently in many places on all rivers, to very little response
FDEP did do some testing for chemical and biological tracers, including DNA tests, after Valdosta’s huge December 2019 spill, but that petered out.
While FDEP was doing that, those results helped identify another source of contamination that was not Valdosta.
WWALS did test the Withlacoochee River for PFAS forever chemicals and round some,
although much less than many other rivers, and no higher below the outfall of Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant or PCA’s package plant.
FDEP continued with quarterly tests for a while, and put at least its fecal bacteria results online.
But it stopped doing that last year.
The 2020 GA-EPD Consent Order on Valdosta required bacterial testing of the Withlacoochee River over 40 river miles three times a week, for four years.
Once those four years were up, Valdosta dropped back to two locaitons once a week.
USGS ceased financial support for nitrate and pH monitoring in eight Florida springs this year.
It is not clear whether SRWMD picked up the slack.
What is overflowing in that floodwater from those five Chemours mines on Trail Ridge at the top of the Santa Fe River Basin?
“If I lived near Chemours, I’d be paranoid too,” said
John Quarterman, who serves as the Suwannee Riverkeeper, a staff
position for an organization of the same name that advocates for
conservation of the numerous watersheds within the Suwannee River
Basin. “Some of the stuff they’re paranoid about is probably
actually happening, but it’s hard to document which of it is and
which of it isn’t.”
Until the Florida Department of Environmental Protection takes
frequent measurements up and down the state’s rivers, Quarterman
said, it will be difficult to pin down the impact of Chemours’
activities. And without such studies, he said, it’s difficult to
identify bad actors — let alone hold them accountable.
WWALS has a volunteer water quality monitoring program,
and two recently-trained testers may start testing in the Santa Fe River Basin soon.
https://wwals.net/issues/testing
The storm had passed, but the water kept rising. In September 2017,
Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida, causing tides to surge and
dumping about a foot of water across much of the state. A few days
later, Jane Blais stood on a bridge with her neighbors near her High
Springs ranch, watching the Santa Fe River below swell higher and
higher.
SRWMD knew the mineral rights were already leased for mining by Chemours
when SRWMD bought the Double Run Creek property from Rayonier.
SRWMD did not intend to use the property for public access or recreation.
SRWMD writes,
“The primary goal of the acquisition was to support Camp Blanding
military buffers, while subsequently exploring the opportunity for
flood abatement and water resource development projects.”
So why didn’t Armory Board State of Florida buy it,
since that’s the entity that owns the rest of Camp Blanding?
And what sort of “flood abatement and water resource development projects” were contemplated?
Here’s an excerpt from a reply to Carol Mosley by Troy Roberts, Office Chief, Communications and Outreach,
Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD):
To answer your questions, the mining rights for the Double Run Creek
property were not available for purchase at the time of acquisition
and were not offered as part of the transaction. The rights were
previously leased by a third party with the intent that mining
operations would continue, which the District was aware of at the
time of acquisition. Any subsequent transactions regarding the
mining rights would not fall under District jurisdiction.
The primary goal of the acquisition was to support Camp Blanding
military buffers, while subsequently exploring the opportunity for
flood abatement and water resource development projects. This
language is expressly listed in the District’s resolution for the
land purchase, which the Board approved. Recreation and public
access were not included as primary goals of the acquisition.
The management plan references public access and recreation, only if
the opportunities do not interfere with a project. The site is still
considered a project area.
Because the property is managed by the Florida Department of
Military Affairs, any public access to the property would be
initiated and led by that agency. Questions regarding future access
and timing should be directed to the Florida Department of Military
Affairs, per the management agreement.
If the purchase was to support Camp Blanding,
why didn’t Armory Board State of Florida buy it,
since that’s the entity that owns the rest of Camp Blanding?
What sort of “flood abatement and water resource development projects”
would those be?
And here is Carol Mosley’s followup, sent by her to WWALS with permission to post. Continue reading →
I did get answers from the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD)
about nitrate testing for springs,
but no response about the Chemours application to mine on SRWMD land
in Bradford County in the Santa Fe River Basin,
using mineral rights retained by Rayonier.
I’m going to agree with something a supporter of the now
bought-out mine said:
we need better economic solutions for south Georgia forest owners.
And beyond that, for south Georgia.
So counties and cities won’t be tempted by jobs promised by
mines, landfills, private prisons, and pellet plants.
Very good news today!
The coal miners from Alabama have been bought out,
ending mining on their specific property.
First, the thanks. Then the rest of the story.
Many thanks to The Conservation Fund for buying out Twin Pines Minerals, LLC (TPM),
and to the James M. Cox Foundation and the Holdfast Collective (Patagonia)
for helping fund that acquisition.
Thanks to everyone who helped,
and to everyone who has opposed this bad mining proposal since at least 2019.
But this land acquisition is not the end of the mining story.
There is much more we can do to protect the entire Okefenokee Swamp,
the blackwater rivers of south Georgia, and to pass a constitutional amendment for
Right to Clean Water, Air, and Soil.
Directly to the north of TPM’s parcels is much more land, Continue reading →
Today, I got about 1.4 gigabytes of files in response to the FOIA I sent to the Army Corps on May 28.
Unfortunately, this additional information arrived after the
June 12 deadline for comments on the Chemours application to mine for titanium
dioxide on SRWMD land.
WWALS already sent
a letter on that day.
If the Public Hearing happens that we and others called for,
we can bring up any questions that come out of this additional information.
This is what I filed by the Thursday deadline as public comments on the latest Chemours mining permit application.
This one is to expand the Trail Ridge South Mine onto land owned by the
Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD).
I continue to wonder why SRWMD bought this land,
allegedly for conservation,
if they were going to let Chemours mine on it?
Several other organizations also filed comments, some of them also calling for a Public Hearing.
![[Okefenokee Swamp leaks into the Floridan Aquifer, WWALS Webinar 2026-01-15, Prof. Evaristo & Rasmussen]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-01-15--okefenokee-into-aquifer-webinar/fbmany.jpg)
![[Okefenokee Swamp by Veronica Kelley-Summers, a WWALS Webinar by Zoom, 2025-09-11]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-09-11--okefenokee-swamp-webinar-video/fbmany.jpg)
![[Need more river testing, and more types of testing, DNA, PFAS, metals, etc., by FDEP and others]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-09-13--other-contaminants/fbmany.jpg)
![[Is Chemours to blame for flooding rural Santa Fe River Basin? --Grist 2025-09-04]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-09-04--grist-chemours/fbmany.jpg)
![[SRWMD purchased Rayonier tract with mineral rights leased to Chemours for TiO2 mining, SRWMD to Carol Mosley 2025-07-11]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-08-11--carol-mosley-srwmd-rayonier-chemours/igmany.jpg)
![[Nitrate monitoring of springs and Mining on SRWMD land, --Suwannee Riverkeeper to SRWMD Board 2025-07-08]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-07-08--srwmd-board-public-comment/many.jpg)
![[Georgia needs better economics, for forestry & rural south Georgia, Drew Jones, Charlton Co. Commission, Okefenokee Swamp & blackwater rivers]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-06-26--forests-okefenokee/fbmany.jpg)
![[Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20, Twin Pines Minerals, by The Conservation Fund]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-06-20--okefenokee-land-deal-tpm-conservation-fund/fbmany.jpg)
![[Additional documents for Chemours permit application to mine SRWMD land. Obtained via FOIA]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-06-16--chemours-usace-foia/fbmany.jpg)
![[Questions and call for Public Hearing, Chemours application to mine SRWMD land, Santa Fe River Basin --WWALS to USACE 2025-06-12]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-06-12--wwals-usace-chemours-trail-ridge-south-mine/fbmany.jpg)