Tag Archives: Little River

WWALS at Brooks County Skillet Festival 2018-10-20

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The WWALS booth will be back in Quitman, Georgia, this Saturday at the Skillet Festival, with buttons and stickers (WWALS, Suwannee Riverkeeper, Water Trails, Water Is Life) and the raffle kayak.

When: 9AM-3:30 PM, Saturday, October 20, 2017

Where: Brooks County Courthouse, 100 Screven Street, Quitman, Georgia 31643

What: Brooks County Skillet Festival, quilts, cooking, vegetable market, fashion, dogs, clogging, skillet toss, race, and parade

Event: facebook

Skillet raffle on inward side, WWALS booth
WWALS at the Skillet Festival in 2017.

More: For more WWALS outings and events Continue reading →

Four weeks of fecal coliform 2018-10-09 2018-10-09

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This is why we alway say “as near as we can tell” or “according to the latest data” or words to that effect. The last data we had last week said fecal coliform at GA 133 on the Little River was below the state limit. But the actual most recent data, from last Tuesday, just received today, shows 610, which is three times the state limit of 200 cfu per 100 mililiters.

Graph, Withlacoochee Basin

Meanwhile, on the Withlacoochee River, the count went up at US 41 and down at GA 133, with both still well above the state limit. But downstream of Valdosta and its Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WTP), at US 84 and at Horn Bridge at the GA-FL line, counts that were already within the limit Continue reading →

Pictures: Troupville Cleanup 2018-10-13

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We had fun cleaning up at Troupville Boat Ramp and the private land down the Little River to its Confluence with the Withlacoochee River, and then up the Withlacoochee a bit. Boy Scouts did much of the work, in Ronnie Thomas’ troup: this cleanup was his idea. Two of the landowners who let us into the land down to the Confluence were there; that property is for sale. Scotti Jay and Bobby and the McKenzie clan were also there. Brown Dog and Yellow Dog liked getting into another river.

[Red, yellow, white, blue, 10:09:03, 30.8454610, -83.3467969]
Red, yellow, white, blue, 10:09:03, 30.8454610, -83.3467969

Landowner Helen Tapp promised donuts, and delivered. Continue reading →

Pretty good water quality at Troupville 2018-10-03 2018-10-03

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Good news for the WWALS cleanup 8AM this morning at Troupville Boat Ramp at GA 133 on the Little River: low E. coli and fecal coliform recently at the GA 133 Little River bridge.

Context, Map

In our weekly open records requests, we have gotten from Valdosta their water quality data through Wednesday of last week, October 3, 2018. It will be even more encouraging if Continue reading →

Still Saturday: Troupville Boat Ramp Cleanup, Little River, 2018-10-13

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We’re still on for 8:00 AM to noon this Saturday, tomorrow, October 13, 2018, for the WWALS cleanup of the Troupville Boat Ramp and adjacent riverfront down to the Little River Confluence with the Withlacoochee River.

Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB) has rescheduled its Rivers Alive cleanup, but we’re sticking with our original date, which is still tomorrow, this Saturday.

We have the enthusiastic support of the landowners south of the boat ramp to the Confluence, including much of the site of historic Troupville, the former seat of Lowndes County before Valdosta.

One of the landowners will be by with donuts at the start.

Children and trash, Sign
Photo: Bobby McKenzie from the last WWALS Troupville Boat Ramp Cleanup, 2018-04-21.

See original blog post for details.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Hurricane Michael, Albany to Tifton 2018-10-11

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Driving back from a long-scheduled conference in Alabama, from the state line to Tifton was widespread damage from Hurricane Michael. Nothing like the devastation on the Gulf coast, of course, but very unusual for inland Georgia.

[Traffic light repair 15:20:18, 31.6363489, -84.2473075]
Traffic light repair 15:20:18, 31.6363489, -84.2473075

We saw plenty of downed power lines, so don’t be surprised if everybody is power is not back everywhere for a while.

Hurricanes apparently aren’t good at obeying speed limit signs. Continue reading →

Video: Paddle races, water trails, and Sabal Trail jury trials; Suwannee Riverkeeper on WGOV Radio

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Thanks to Steve Nichols for having me on The Morning Drive with Steve Nichols, 105.9FM WVGA. We talked about water trails, paddle races, and the Sabal Trail pipeline federal eminent domain jury trials, which were being settled as we spoke. Also we hear the Naylor Boat Ramp will be finished soon by Lowndes County.

On air, Movie

As I asked Steve about the three jury trials:

This is about federal eminent domain for the Sabal Trail pipeline.

SN: That’s right.

Now they already built the pipeline. But for these landowners, they sued them for the eminent domain. They do not have a written agreement with the landowners. They have not paid them a cent. But they already built the pipeline. Does that sound right to you? Continue reading →

Valdosta water quality testing data 2018-09-12

Here is most of a year’s river water quality testing data from the city of Valdosta, on a Water Reporter map:

Valdosta stations, Map

Click on any of the colored diamonds for graphs. Scroll right to see more graphs. Click on any graph to see every datapoint. Clearly fecal coliform (FCOLI) and E. coli (ECOLI) have significant spikes way beyond the Georgia state limit of 200 cfu/100 ml.

However, as we already saw on the spill followup data map, often, even usually, FCOLI and ECOLI are just as bad or worse upstream Continue reading →

Troupville Boat Ramp Cleanup, Little River, 2018-10-13

Update 2018-10-13: Pictures.

Update 2018-10-12: Yes, the cleanup is still on for Saturday, October 13, 2018.

A fun Saturday morning by the Little River: WWALS cleanup of the Troupville Boat Ramp and adjacent riverfront down to the Little River Confluence with the Withlacoochee River, in conjunction with Rivers Alive and Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB). We have the enthusiastic support of the landowners south of the boat ramp to the Confluence, including much of the site of historic Troupville, the former seat of Lowndes County before Valdosta, in the middle of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

When: 8:00 AM – Noon, 2018-10-13

Put In: Troupville Boat Ramp, 19664 Valdosta Hwy, Valdosta, GA 31602: on GA 133 off I-75 exit 18, in Lowndes County, just west of Valdosta.

GPS: 30.85131, -83.34743

Bring: Cleanup materials will be provided, but if you’ve got a trash picker, bring it along.
No boat required. You can bring a boat if you like, but unless it rains before then, there will be very little water in the river.

Free: This outing is free. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: facebook, meetup

All ages, Sign
Photo: Bobby McKenzie from the last WWALS Troupville Boat Ramp Cleanup, 2018-04-21.

Continue reading →

Karen and Tom Johnson Collage

Karen and Tom Johnson travelled many a time three or four hours from Pine Mountain, Georgia, to paddle with WWALS on our outings. Some of us are planning to go to Pine Mountain this Saturday:

HEAR YE! HEAR YE!
Memorial Service/Funeral for Karen Toms Johnson:

11:00 A.M., Saturday, September 22, 2018.
1st UMC Pine Mountain, Georgia.
Rev. Liza Marler, officiating pastor.
Luncheon to follow with Karen Storytelling emcee’d by T3.
Memorial Service attendees are STRONGLY encouraged to attend the luncheon.

When: Tuesday-Friday 18-21 September 2018

Where: Post your pictures online here.

Event: facebook, meetup

Here is the obituary Tom wrote for Karen.

We would like to take with us a collage of pictures of Karen and Tom on WWALS outings (or elsewhere). Please post your pictures here (on this blog post, facebook event, etc.) or email them to wwalswatershed@gmail.com.

Here are some examples:


Photo: Bret Wagenhorst, of Tom and Karen Johnson, winners, farthest, BIG Little River Paddle Race 29 April 2017.

Continue reading →