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.
Drew Jones wrote in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today, June 26, 2025, Okefenokee deal exposed how Georgia’s forest policy is flawed and needs reform, Continue reading
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.
There is a direct path to adding this land into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR), since the Okefenokee NWR Minor Acquisition Boundary Expansion was approved by USFWS 2025-01-03. Although given the current chaotic state of the federal government, keeping that land in private hands for now might be prudent.
![[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)
Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20, Twin Pines Minerals, by The Conservation Fund
We should all celebrate!
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.
![[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)
Additional documents for Chemours permit application to mine SRWMD land. Obtained via FOIA
It’s all on the WWALS website.
You can pick up the 661 megabyte zip file.
Or you can look in the extracted subdirectories and files, starting with:
This is what I requested: Continue reading
Update 2025-06-16: Additional documents for Chemours permit application to mine SRWMD land 2025-06-16.
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.
Continue readingI got these additional figures indicate that Chemours wants to mine right up to Double Run Creek, upstream from the Santa Fe River.
I got them by following up on the Chemours application to the Army Corps for a permit to mine TiO2 on SRWMD land,
![[Additional Project Drawings, Chemours application to USACE to mine on SRWMD land --SWCA 2025-01-02]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-01-02--chemours-trs-figures/fbmany.jpg)
Additional Project Drawings, Chemours application to USACE to mine on SRWMD land –SWCA 2025-01-02
Chemours can’t continue mining without this permit, which it must get from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), because of the successful lawsuit by Miami Waterkeeper, St. Johns Riverkeeper, et al., to revoke the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) takeover of federal Clean Water Act permit applications.
See the third page of the USACE application form:
This project was originally review[sic] and approved by the USACE in 2020 pending the issuance of the State Water Quality Certification. Prior to USACE receiving the State Water Quality Certification, the EPA approved Florida’s State 404 Program, which became effective on Dec. 22, 2020, and all USACE pending permits were transferred to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for processing.
This project was subsequently reviewed, and Phase 1 was approved on June 6, 2022, under the FDEP State 404 Program, Permit no. ST404_137482-022. A portion of the Phase 1 approved impacts have been completed. The approval of Phase 2 is needed for Chemours to continue mining operations without any disruptions. Due to the FDEP being divested of its authority to issue State 404 Program permits on Feb 15, 2024, Chemours has requested the USACE review and approve the entire project for compliance consistency.
For that lawsuit, see Continue reading
The map in this Chemours followup report about its January 31, 2024, 194,195-gallon wastewater spill seems to indicate the water went south into Double Run Creek, which goes to the Santa Fe River.
The latlong in the map legend, 29.8901015, -82.0506411, is on one branch of Double Run Creek. Continue reading
Update 2025-05-28: Additional Project Drawings for Chemours application to mine on SRWMD land –USACE 2025-01-02.
Update 2025-05-16: More about Spill from Chemours Trail Ridge South TiO2 mine SE of Starke, FL 2024-01-31.
Chemours wants to mine on SRWMD land in Bradford County, FL, upstream from the Santa Fe River, on Double Run Creek which already had a tailings wastewater spill last fall.
You’ve got 30 days to comment:
The Jacksonville District will receive written comments on the proposed work, as outlined above, until June 12, 2025. Comments should be submitted electronically via the Regulatory Request System (RRS) at https://rrs.usace.army.mil/rrs or to John Fellows at john.p.fellows@usace.army.mil. Alternatively, you may submit comments in writing to the Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, Attention: John Fellows, 10117 Princess Palm Avenue, Suite 120, Tampa, FL 33610. Please refer to the permit application number in your comments.
That’s permit application number SAJ-2019-00480 (JPF).
Many of us complained back in 2019 about SRWMD allowing Chemours access through SRWMD property, but in 2021 SRWMD claimed it had no choice.
![[SRWMD parcels, Bradford County Property Appraiser 2019-10-17]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-05-13--usace-chemours-cr230-wetlands/srwmd-bradford-co.jpg)
SRWMD parcels, Bradford County Property Appraiser 2019-10-17
Now it’s not just access, it’s actual mining. So what does conservation mean to the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD)? Or to its parent the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP)?
Here’s the problem: Continue reading
Thanks to Craig Pittman for inviting me on his Welcome to Florida podcast,
Episode 250: The Suwanee River.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1169570/episodes/16921299
The Suwannee part starts 6:15.
He spells it Suwanee with one n.
Stephen C. Foster spelled it Swanee.
We talked about the Suwannee, Santa Fe, Alapaha, Withlacoochee, New, New, Little, and Little Rivers. About sewage and cow manure, fertlizer nitrates leaching into springs and rivers causing algae blooms, the Hamilton County phosphate mine, and Titanium dioxide mines in north Florida at the top of the Santa Fe River Basin and in south Georgia too near the Okefenokee Swamp. About leaping Gulf sturgeon, Alligator snapping turtles, and beavers.
And musicians, don’t forget to send in your song to the
Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest,
part of WWALS River Revue, September 6, 2025, at the Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, Georgia.
https://wwals.net/?p=67322
![[Suwannee Riverkeeper on Welcome to Florida podcast, by Craig Pittman, April 8, 2025]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-04-08--welcome-to-florida-suwannee-riverkeeper/fbmany.jpg)
Suwannee Riverkeeper on Welcome to Florida podcast, by Craig Pittman, April 8, 2025
Best selling author, award winning reporter and Florida native Craig Pittman is joined by radio personality and Florida transplant Chadd Scott to discuss the state’s history, people, politics, environment, animals, current events and weirdness. You’ll hear great storytelling and have great fun in each weekly episode.
Show Notes Continue reading
Several people informed me yesterday that they were alarmed to discover there is a meeting today at the Bradford County, FL, Sheriff’s Office about flooding.
Turns out it’s at the Sheriff’s Office because that’s where this long-running committee has been meeting. It works on flooding and wildfire issues.
According to the agenda, Paul Still already has them talking about Sampson River Blockages and Radium and Chemours Discharges, which were the two big topics people were concerned about. The Sampson River blockages would seem to include the so-called three-pipes dam gates under CR 225 on the Sampson River just downstream from Lake Sampson. These gates were another concern I heard: people wish SRWMD would use them to lower Lake Sampson before big rains.
Like many such committees, this one has had few participants. Maybe this week’s alarm will get more people to attend.
Apparently most people saw this notice in the local newspaper, but it was also posted on facebook by Bradford County Sheriff’s Office – Emergency Management Division, March 7, 2025,
Continue readingThe Bradford County Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS) Planning Committee/Workgroup will meet Thursday, March 20th, 2025, at 3:00 pm in the Bradford County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) located in the Bradford County Sheriff’s Office at 945B North Temple Avenue, Starke, FL 32091.
Numerous people spoke to support the Okefenokee Swamp against mining too near it, about two bills before a subcommittee of the Georgia House Natural Resources and Environment Committee (GA HNRE), on March 3, 2025.
Unfortunately, that was just a hearing, and the Committee did not vote on those bills in any later meeting, either. Which means they did not get a chance for a vote by the full House before Crossover Day. Crossover Day was Thursday, March 6, 2025, after which any bills that passed in one house crossed over to the other house for their consideration.
The good news is that it is a two-year session, so these bills are already introduced for next year: HB 561 and HB 562. Continue reading
![[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)
![[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)
![[More about Spill 2024-01-31, Chemours Trail Ridge South, TiO2 mine SE of Starke, FL, Santa Fe River Basin]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-01-31--about-spill-trail-ridge-south-chemours/fbmany.jpg)
![[Chemours Army Corps application to mine TiO2 on SRWMD land, Bradford County, FL, Santa Fe River Basin 2025-05-13]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-05-13--usace-chemours-cr230-wetlands/fbmany.jpg)
![[Bradford County Local Mitigation Strategy Planning Committee, Sheriff's Office, Starke, FL 2025-03-20]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-03-20--bradford-county-emd-lms-meeting/fbmany.jpg)
![[Speakers on Okefenokee Bills, GA HNRE Comm. 2025-03-03, No action by Crossover Day, But already introduced for 2026]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-03-03--ga-hnre-committee-okefenokee-bills-pictures/fbmany.jpg)