Many are aware of a proposed Titanium mine threatening to operate on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp. Recently the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has stepped in to assert the water rights of the wildlife. This operation has cleared land and been trying to get established for years. The south end of the swamp which is in danger supplies the Suwannee River. The Suwannee Riverkeeper has an extensive record of the Titanium mine challenge which you can follow on their website.
Did you know that we have a titanium mine around thirty miles east of from O’Leno sink? The Chemours mining operation has been mining titanium dioxide from the Trail Ridge around Kingsley Lake since the late 1940’s. Some of the land currently being mined belongs to the Suwannee River Water Management District in Bradford county, up gradient of the Santa Fe River. Mineral rights in some counties often supersede property rights.
On January 31st, 2024, approximately 800,000 gallons of wastewater leaked out of a retention pond at Chemours Trail Ridge South. This is not an unusual incident. These waste-water ponds need to be maintained, they sometimes fail. What is in the wastewater? There is a laundry list of chemicals, the worst of which is radium. Was there radium in the latest spill? We are still trying to find out if the wastewater was tested for radium. Testing for radium is complicated and therefore expensive yet exposure to radium over a period of many years may result in an increased risk of some types of cancer, particularly lung and bone cancer.
Water follows the downward slope and the Trail Ridge lies uphill of the Santa Fe River. The Trail Ridge is the highest point east of us and was created by an ancient marine shoreline left over from the Miocene Epoch. The rare earth minerals left behind are metallic elements essential to many high-tech devices. Titanium is derived from Ilmenite. The mineral is extracted and processed, the wastewater from the process is stored in ponds. These ponds fail, spilling their contents into wetlands that drain into creeks and rivers.
Some have suggested that O’Leno sink is a convenient deep well injection point. Is dilution the solution when that solution is our drinking water?
Titanium mining present many other problems to our natural world. Mining decimates wetlands, redirecting water ‘traces’ , redirecting the flow into new areas, sometimes populated areas. Before the mineral can be extracted, the trees are cut, the brush and topsoil removed. The area is mined and the barren earth becomes vulnerable to erosion, washing away topsoil to the nearest creek.
Can we become better stewards of our natural resources? Chemours/Dupont has a bad reputation when it comes to good stewardship yet changes don’t happen until people like you and me spoke up to say enough! Tell your neighbors, call your representatives. Enough of these spills, we don’t want your wastewater in our drinking water.
OSFR President Joanne Tremblay
joanne.tremblay@oursantaferiver.org
“Giving Our River A Voice”
