Let's talk energy from the sun while having loads of fun!
This month's General Meeting titled "Party for the People: Energy Justice, GRU and What You Can Do", is a community brainstorming session facilitated by the Energy & Climate Action Team and Jyoti Parmar, Organizing Representative from the Sierra Club Florida Chapter.
The Energy and Climate Action Team, part of the SSJ group, is effectively responding to the climate crisis in our community.
A just transition to renewable energy is a key solution to the climate crisis. How will our electricity be generated in 10, 20 and 30 years? Will it be solar energy from our abundant sunshine coupled with battery storage, or fossil gas as before?
We will celebrate the evening with delicious bananas splits and smash the fascist piñata at the end!
This is a hybrid meeting where those who join virtually will be required to sign up through Zoom to receive the meeting information. FYI: Virtual attendees will have to supply their own ice cream sundae fixings.
SSJ Conserves!
Monday, Oct. 30 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Emmanuel Mennonite Church
1236 NW 18th Ave
Gainesville, FL 32609
Join us as we share, learn and prepare for upcoming concerns before the Alachua County Commission. (see below)
This is a hybrid meeting. Please register here for instructions on attending virtually.
It is vitally important for us to attend the Alachua County Commission meeting on Nov. 7 at 5:00 PM to consider and take public comment on a Special Area Study for the Hickory Sink Strategic Ecosystem/Lee Property in southwestern Alachua County. The meeting will be held at the Alachua County Administration Building, 12 E 1st St., 2nd floor, in downtown Gainesville.
Last year, there was discussion about a large-scale development on more than 4,000 acres known as the Lee Property. Much of this land, which is west of Haile and east of the City of Newberry, is in a designated Strategic Ecosystem called Hickory Sink. It is an important aquifer recharge area and has environmentally sensitive features.
The proposal would modify 580 acres of the property to Institutional Use. If approved, the University of FL would build a 36-hole golf course along with a 200,000 sq ft facility along with 30 cabins to house elite golfers.
We don’t need another golf course, and certainly not in this exceptionally important area that is home to many imperiled plants and animals.
It's essential to let Alachua County and University of FL know that we care about this land, and that we need to preserve this land now, and for generations to come.
By Suzmiche Morris
Florence Landfill (aka Southeast Landholdings) submitted their application for renewal of their SUP (Special Use Permit) in late September. Growth Management has been reviewing the application for the month of October.
Many neighbors and citizens who oppose the Florence Landfill operating in the middle of a SE Gainesville neighborhood have filed Public Comments at the Growth Management website, many have requested party status for the quasi judicial hearing where the Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) vote on whether the 5 year SUP is renewed or not.
The county attorneys have informed the BoCC that the county or the state can enforce a closure plan to Florence Landfill on Jan. 22, 2024, when the SUP expires.
If the county hears from enough citizens that this landfill does not effectively serve the public interest, they then can justify a reason for the landfill to cease operation.
The county has not set a date for the SUP quasi judicial hearing as of yet.
Please get those public comments and party status requests into Growth Management. All party requests should be submitted no later than seven calendar days before the public hearing date.
If you are granted party status, then you have certain privileges during the hearing. These can include additional time to provide testimony as well as the right to cross-examine witnesses and staff.
A group of people who have party status can also elect to have a single person represent them at the public hearing if they wish.
If you do this ultra-brief application response, total time should be 5 minutes.
3- Fill out basic personal identification form questions
4- In drop-down menu for development requests select Z23-000005Florence_SUP
5- For Party Status Requested select- Requested
6- Fill out Party Status Reason- you can briefly say I oppose the Neighborhood Landfill because it's in my neighborhood. By requesting party status, you are not obligated to speak at the quasi-judicial hearing, but it will show GM there is enough of an opposition to allow a party to speak.
7- Next they have an optional Provide Comment section. You can leave blank if preferred. See "Deny the Florence Landfill Special use Permit" at the bottom of the newsletter for more information and background material.
8- Finally, there is an option to choose Request notification of when the scheduling for the hearing will take place.
9- Submit form
Downtown Festival & Art Show
November 18 & 19 10 AM - 5 PM
111 E University Ave, Gainesville
Tabling in 2 hour shifts
Friday, November 17, 2023 Hike at the Orange Lake Outlook (OLO)
off 441 between Micanopy and McIntosh
Jeffrey Forbes, development director at Alachua Conservation Trust, will talk with us about this historic and beautiful property recently acquired by ACT. The OLO is an incredible wildlife corridor.
On Saturday, October 28, 2023, nine members of the Suwannee St Johns group visited the farm owned by Sierra Club members, Chris and Deanna Mericle. We all enjoyed the guided tour and the explanations given by Chris and Deanna. On their 80 acres farm, they have created a space where animals are treated the most humanely possible, and where one third of the property remains a forest for wildlife and for water regeneration.
First, we visited the barn where they store good quality feed, and where they have a processing lab. Outside the barn stand the meat smoker. We went around the barn to see some of the younger chickens. Then we took a “hay ride” to see the other chickens and the cattle. Chris has built several chicken cabins, for lack of a better term. The cabins are elevated and movable so that the soil where they stand for a week is provided natural fertilizers. Then these cabins are moved into another meadow and when the cows come to graze in the meadow where the cabins used to be, the cows just love that greener grass and run to eat it. The cabins are equipped with water containers and when the hens lay eggs, these are going into an outside container, so it’s easy to get the eggs.
The pigs are moved into different pens, always outside, so that they can enjoy new grass. The cows are also moved from a field to the forest whenever grass is too short.
When the tour of the property was done, we all shared a delicious lunch prepared by Chris and Deanna.
FYI: This trip demonstrated how important small-scale farms that rotate grazing animals across the farmland, also known as "Regenerative Agriculture", can support healthy ecosystems and assist in rebuilding soil through carbon sequestration.
Save the Dates
Sunday, November 19, 2023 Anastasia State Park in St Augustine
CANCELED
Thursday, December 7, 2023
SSJ Holiday Party
Location: TBD
Friday, December 8, 2023 Alachua County Levada Brown Recycling Center
Have you ever wondered what happens to those milk jugs, newspaper, tin cans and plastic containers you throw into the blue and orange bins? Find out where these recycled materials go once they leave your home! Are we really able to recycle all that we put into the bins? How is our hazardous waste handled?
Leaders: David Hastings and County staff from the recycling center
Election Schedule for SSJ Executive Committee
SSJ Executive Committee (ExCom) consists of seven members, and five of these seats are up for election this year. For Sierra Club members in good standing, look for an email with instructions on casting your electronic ballot.
Oct 2nd- Nominations Due
Oct 23rd- Petition Candidate deadline (additional candidates can petition to be on the ballot by providing signatures of at least 25 members)
Nov 13th- Voting begins
Dec 18th- Voting ends
Jan 2024 - Newly elected SSJ Executive Committee members term begins
Any questions or concerns about your ballot please contact Joanne Tremblay at jojohighsprings@gmail.com.
Deny the Florence Landfill Special Use Permit
INTRODUCTION
Construction & Demolition (C&D) debris represents approximately one third of all waste generated in the State of Florida. C&D debris includes the materials that are generated in the construction, renovation, and demolition of residential and commercial buildings.
The Florence Construction & Demolition landfill stands smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood on Southeast Gainesville, just outside the city line. This landfill is unusually located for an Alachua County C&D landfill as they are typically located in rural areas.
Southeast Gainesville is a low socioeconomic predominantly Black population that has been stuck with harmful local land use decisions for too long. If the owners wanted to site a landfill on this property today, it would not be permitted.
Now instead of closing this landfill, Florence C&D plan to double the height of the operation. The landfill currently stands at 35 ft on a 48-acre parcel. If permitted to continue this landfill would increase the height vertically to 70 ft.
PUBLIC SAFETY RISKS
The site of the landfill is state residential with agricultural zoning. This neighborhood has homes, schools, farms, parks, and churches, with the landfill is as little as 400 feet from homes, some of which rely on well water.
Because the Florence C&D Landfill has no liner, as materials degrade there is no barrier to keep the resulting waste material from penetrating the soil and potentially contaminating ground water. In fact, the site was never designed to serve as a C&D landfill.
Historically, this site was first an excavation facility called Feagle Fill Dirt (FFD). This coincides with the time the neighborhood was built up between 1958-1961.
In 1983, the Florida Department of Environmental Review (DER) first discovered FFD had been operating a landfill outside the purview of government day-to-day controls. According to records FFD had been illegally dumping on the land from the late 1960’s-1983.
DER enforced a closure plan. FFD claimed economic hardship, with the inability to complete the closure plan, unless they were allowed to continue charging for dumping. The FFD operators filed for a variance requesting all regulations that prohibit disposal of inert materials, specifically road construction debris, in standing water. These events led to the land being grandfathered in as a C&D landfill.
ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS
There is a Gainesville city park, Boulware Springs featuring a fresh water artesian spring, just 1,500 feet downstream of the groundwater flow path from the landfill. This spring feeds into Payne’s Prairie Preserve, a 21,000-acre state park that is Florida’s first state preserve.
ECONOMIC BENEFITS
There is no requirement to continue the use of Florence C&D Landfill. A recent presentation from the Alachua County staff shared information that shows the present waste sites for disposal have at least 20 years of life, without the Florence C&D Landfill. This provides enough time for zero waste programs to come online to assist with appropriate waste reuse and recycling of these materials.
“Zero Waste” is the conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.
ECONOMIC RISKS
By disproportionally burdening Southeast Gainesville residents with the noise, dust, and pollution associated with C&D waste greatly hinders their community from attracting both safe and clean investments into the neighborhood.
CONCLUSION
The residents of Southeast Gainesville have been subjected to the noise, dust, and pollution from this landfill for more than 50 years.
This is an environmental injustice that our community must make right.
The time is right as Alachua County does not require this landfill to meet the C&D waste needs for up to the next 20 years.
With the recent developments of the County Commission wholeheartedly embracing zero waste strategies, Environmental Justice, and Equity for Alachua County. We foresee the Florences would currently better serve the community and county by expanding their pre-existing Material Recovery Facility (MRF) and closing their inappropriately located landfill.
We ask that the Alachua County Commission deny the extension of the Special Use Permit for the Florence C&D Landfill as it is not in the best interest of the residents of Alachua County.
You can now direct donations through Cash App to support the Sierra Club Suwannee-St. Johns Group by using our CashTag$:
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