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Save Our Suwannee, Inc. | ||
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HISTORY OF SAVE OUR SUWANNEE, INC.
The neighbors quickly recognized the hazard and launched into a campaign of publicity, petition signing, and letter writing to state and federal politicians. Their energy and thousands of letters and signatures induced the politicians to discourage the applicant and help find another location -- outside Florida. On March 29, 1994, the company announced to Lafayette County that they were abandoning their plan. ORGANIZATION Early on, the founding members decided to incorporate as a Florida non-profit corporation. The Articles of Corporation were filed July 2, 1993, by-laws were shortly thereafter adopted, and eventually the paperwork was processed to becomes a 501(c)(3) corporation under Internal Revenue rules. Harold E. Myer, Jr., now deceased, was elected as the first President of Save Our Suwannee. In subsequent years Helen Beth Poore, Anthony Zenner, Svenn Lindskold, Steve Gamble, Howard Corbett, Lee Emerson, Loye Barnard and Annette Long have served as President. The business affairs of SOS are conducted by a nine member Board of Directors which includes the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and five Directors. Elections are held each year with the officers serving one-year terms and the Directors two years. The Board meets at least once each month. AFTER VICTORY OVER THE LANDFILL
Opposition to developing a pipeline to transfer Suwannee water to the Tampa Bay area continued over several years, and although the state legislature adopted a "Local Sources First" policy in the 1999 session, the threat is still great. The Suwannee Basin is blessed with adequate water while central and south Florida is squeezed a bit harder each year as the population grows and conservation measures are inadequate to the task. The Florida Council of 100 issued a report in January of 2006 detailing "statewide water distribution" issues. Save Our Suwannee now monitors activities all around the Suwannee River basin from the Okefenokee Swamp to Cedar Key. We are concerned with the way in which a dozen counties administer their Comprehensive Plans and Land Development Regulations. We follow closely the activities of the Suwannee River Water Management District which does the comprehensive monitoring of surface water and ground water in the basin. Through acquisition they protect many of the sensitive wetlands, floodplains, and springs in the area. We follow the permitting activities of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection which issues dairy permits, mining permits, and air quality permits. From late 1998 to the present we,
together with various environmental groups and neighboring citizens,
expended a lot of time, energy, and resources on opposing a Portland cement
plant in the three rivers area of Suwannee County (near the Ichetucknee
Springs State Park); legal appeals were filed against the County,
which approved the land use, and against Florida DEP, which approved the
so-called air construction permit. Sadly, SOS did not prevail on the challenges and the plant is now doubling in size. We have also interacted with various State Agencies to oppose a limerock mine adjacent to Manatee Springs State Park in Levy County, to change the location of a large dairy situated over the top of a spring conduit at Falmouth Springs in Suwannee County and to oppose a huge landfill proposed virtually on the shores of the Withlacoochee River in Brooks County, Georgia. Our members have attended public meetings all over the Suwannee Basin to monitor the proposed impact of various projects. SOS partnered with Linda Young and the Southeast Clean Water Network in a suit against the State of Florida regarding pollution from large dairy farms. At the time of the suit, the State was not in compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972 . In order to comply, large animal feeding operations should have had to address groundwater pollution and be regulated by the State. SOS prevailed and now all large dairy operations in the State of Florida will be required to obtain a waste water permit for their runoff and farm operations. EDUCATION Save Our Suwannee sees educating the public regarding the natural resources of the Suwannee Basin as a major responsibility. We set up an information booth at many local fairs and festivals, give programs with outside speakers once a month during most of the year on features of the area, and publish brochures describing aspects of the Suwannee area. Click here to view these brochures or write for them or email for them; they are free. In recent years, SOS has also launched a “homeowner water awareness” education effort to address the changing demographics of the Suwannee River Basin. We always look for the time and opportunity to reach school children as we recognize the future is in their hands and knowledge about the Suwannee brings appreciation. We contributed to the formation of the “Ichetucknee Park’nership” with the Columbia County School Board and Ichetucknee Springs State Park. The schools now bring students out to the springs to do science, math and writing projects. It is our hope that by educating the public and public officials, we can protect the waters of the Suwannee Basin from a repeat of the mistakes that were made in South Florida regarding water quantity and quality. | ||||
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Save Our Suwannee was founded in May 1993 by residents in the vicinity of a
proposed land fill to be developed by an out-of-state corporation a little
over a mile from the Suwannee River at the Lafayette/Dixie Counties border.
The landfill was to be used to dispose of automobile parts remaining after
recycling operations pulled apart and crushed old autos. The left-overs,
certain to be contaminated with noxious chemicals, were called "fluff"! To
induce Lafayette County to approve the proposal the developer offered to
accept, at no cost, the garbage and trash collected in the county -- the
end of their disposal problems. 
Once the auto parts landfill issue was solved, the members decided
to keep the organization alive as they perceived a variety of threats to
the water quality of the Suwannee Basin. A water quality monitoring team
was formed which gathers data each quarter and reports its findings to the
biologist at the Suwannee River Water Management District. Soon SOS got
involved in appealing permits for dairies, questioning whether the effluent
was polluting Nitrate contamination from agriculture is the most
pronounced water quality problem in the Suwannee basin and the estuary.
