OSFR Attends Land Use Workshop in Starke

President Joanne Tremblay has submitted the following news.

Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum

On July 6th, 2023, several volunteers from Our Santa Fe River, Inc., representation from Sierra Club, along with concerned citizens from Bradford County, attended a workshop scheduled on behalf of Chemours/Dupont which has been mining the area since the 40’s. Because many people in Bradford County do not own the mineral rights to their property, a mining company may request a permit to extract the minerals. Hundreds of acres of conservation land, including Suwannee River Water Management District land have been mined for titanium.

To obtain a permit to mine, the mining operator must agree to restore the land within 18 months but Chemours has left land unrestored for over 18 years. They are also required to meet other environmental conditions such as wastewater limits, and other criteria of acceptable iron and radium levels. Chemours has not fulfilled many of these requirements.

Bradford County was in the process of adopting revised Land Development Regulations (LDRs) that prohibit mining in wetlands as were adopted by Union and Alachua counties. Wetlands are complex systems that cannot reasonably be restored.  Land stripped of trees, vegetation and topsoil erodes into local waterways. Intact wetlands serve as a sponge, absorbing and releasing excess rainwater and directing it into the watershed, river and Gulf. A disturbed wetland does not have  absorption capacity and the flow of rainwater gets redirected into unintended areas, like residential neighborhoods.

Chemours does not like the new LDRs that prohibit mining in wetlands, directly impacting their ability to mine in a new area, hence the workshop. At the hearing, several citizens spoke out of concern that destroyed wetlands contribute to increased flooding. The Santa Fe River Basin rests downstream of the mined area and extreme rain events lead to flooded  homes throughout the area.

Wetland/conservation areas also are the only areas left for wildlife which has been losing habitat to the point of extinction; gopher tortoises for example, which Chemours in their environmental impact statement, saw no burrows of concern.

At the meeting, some commissioners explained that they have lived and worked with these same mining interests all their lives with no ill effects. Others mentioned increased flooding of neighborhoods, some blame the ever decreasing water levels of lakes on the mining company, though it is unclear whether their claims are valid since these lakes drained when the company first started mining the area.

The lawyers for the mining company said they were there to listen to the public’s and commissioners’ concerns. They also stated that the proposed LDRs hold no claims on past practices and permits. This mining company is a repeat offender when it comes to restoration and meeting allowable levels of wastewater quality and quantity. Furthermore, their parent company has used the mining division to dump their debt, which has grown considerably larger in the last year due to their  ‘forever chemicals’ settlement.

Would you allow a contractor with a bad track record and a huge debt load to tear up your backyard? What protections do Bradford County citizens have to prevent the mining company from continuing business as usual, ignoring their obligation as they have failed to do in nearly 70 years of operation?

Finally, the property management representative who leases their mineral rights to the mining company stated that wetlands no longer are protected as per the recent ruling in the Supreme Court which redefines wetlands and weakens their protection. It sounds like they don’t really care about land integrity and that they are leasing to a bad tenant.

The next meeting will be held on July 20th at 5 pm at the Bradford County Courthouse in Starke.

Government in the sunshine works best combined with citizen vigilance.