It was fun in White Springs, Florida, at a festival of crafts, music, and dancing.
Thanks to Russ Tatum of Hamilton County for helping at the WWALS booth,
where we talked to many people and moved some stickers, hats, and an aerial Suwannee River Basin poster.
Many children played the froggy toss and got candy for each beanbag they got in the lily pad hole.
Veronica Kelly-Summers, a dedicated Visitor Services Manager with
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge,
talked about the Okefenokee Swamp, its history, significance, places to go, things to do, and what’s next,
in this largest and best-preserved freshwater wetland in the U.S.
The Swamp is the headwaters of two rivers: the St. Marys that forms the border between Georgia and Florida,
and the Suwannee, which flows through Georgia and the Florida state song.
Here is the WWALS video of Veronica’s webinar, from noon-1 PM, Thursday, September 11, 2025:
https://youtu.be/pvLU8wPLsZc
The WWALS
campout at Floyd’s Island
in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp
has unfortunately been cancelled due to low water.
So you can watch Veronica’s presentation instead.
WWALS Board Member Janet Martin gave a brief introduction.
In questions and answers at the end,
Veronica elaborated on what it means
for the Okefenokee NWR to become a World Heritage Site:
more visibility, more visitors, but no additional federal funding.
Veronica Kelly-Summers is a dedicated Visitor Services Manager with
over 15 years of experience in protecting natural resources and
connecting people with nature. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s
degree in forestry from Southern Illinois University with a focus on
forest recreation and wildlife habitat management. Her career with
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken her to eight national
wildlife refuges from the woods and swamps of southern Illinois to
the Loess Bluffs of Iowa and Missouri, the Florida Everglades, and
she’s now stationed at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in
Georgia. She works closely with staff and partners to provide
leadership and strategic direction for the Visitor Services program
including managing visitor facilities and recreational opportunities
for camping, boating, interpretation, environmental education,
special events, outreach, hunting, fishing, managing volunteers, and
much more. When not at work, she enjoys spending time with her
husband, Jacob, and their pets, a yellow lab named Charlie and a
spicy tuxedo cat named Tino.
The Withlacoochee River tested clean downstream for Wednesday and Thursday.
We also have a completely clean Suwannee River result for last Wednesday.
But Valdosta Utilities again got too-high results upstream on Sugar Creek
at Gornto Road and Baytree Road.
However, Valdosta got OK results for the Withlacoochee River Upstream at US 41,
and OK downstream at GA 133, plus clean farther downstream at US 84,
matching an even cleaner WWALS result on the Withlacoochee almost down at the Suwannee.
So these continuing high Sugar Creek results are still mysterious,
especially given no rain to wash residue downstream
No sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in the past week in
Georgia
or
Florida.
It might rain Saturday morning.
Other than that, no rain is expected for the next ten days.
So I’d avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it.
Other than that, happy paddling,
swimming,
fishing,
and boating this weekend.
Or join us tomorrow (Saturday, November 8) at one of two festivals in two states:
Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results
rainfall
and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results
The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet.
Continue reading →
Received yesterday, a comment against the huge borrow pit proposed in a horse area, uphill from the Crystal River, in Citrus County, Florida,
to build another segment of the unnecessary Suncoast Parkway toll road.
That segment 3A would be another stop towards continuing up across the
Suwannee River and other sensitive wetlands all the way to the GA-FL line towards
Thomasville, Georgia.
Hurricane evacuation is the usual excuse for this toll road,
but solar panels and batteries for houses and businesses would cost less
and would mean many people would not have to evacuate and would not be
without power for weeks as happens now after every hurricane.
You can also send a public comment, to:
PublicMail.CESAJ-CC@usace.army.mil
Formal Public Comment and Request for Clean Water Act §404(q) Review
November 6, 2025
Dear Regulatory Division:
Please find attached the Formal Public Comment “A permit that Never
Existed” Statement for the Record submitted by the Stop the Sand
Mine Committee regarding the proposed Suncoast Parkway 2 Segment 3A
(FPID 442764-2), and the related Southworth sand mine property
purchase now being pursued by FDOT using public tax dollars.
The Rise is just upstream of the CR 249 or CR 751 Bridge, aka Nobles Ferry Bridge, which is just upstream of Gibson County Park and the Alapaha River Confluence with the Suwannee River.
That’s about eighteen river miles downstream from the Dead River.
As Byron pointed out, the Alapaha River Rise is not just a first magnitude spring,
at a daily flow of 383.9 million gallons per day (mgd),
it dwarfs all the others in the Suwannee River Basin.
(There are five with more flow, on Crystal River and Rainbow River.)
Second most flow in the Suwannee River Basin is Holton Creek Rise
at 157 mgd, a bit upstream on the Suwannee River.
That’s also the other place dye came back up from the Dead River Sink
in the
2016 Alapaha Swallets Dye Trace Project.
Both Rises have more flow than can be accounted for by the Dead River Sink
alone, even adding in the other sinks in the Alapaha River slightly upstream of the Dead River. Continue reading →
We climbed over, under, and around much Hurricane Helene deadfall
on what Dottie Price called a “Class 5 Meander”
from the
Dead River Sink to the Dry Alapaha River.
Thanks to 30 people who came, to Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price
for leading this expedition, and to Dottie Price for the additional pictures.
See also
the facebook video by Christiaan Ard.
There was a false start at
Jennings Bluff Cemetery,
where Dennis told the lemmings to go back up the bluff,
because of too much deadfall. Continue reading →
WWALS advocates for conservation and stewardship of the surface
waters and groundwater of the Suwannee River Basin and Estuary, in
south Georgia and north Florida, among them the Withlacoochee,
Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, Santa Fe, and Suwannee River
watersheds, through education, awareness, environmental monitoring,
and citizen activities.
Advocacy
Many other organizations already promote paddling, swimming,
fishing, birding, and other water-related activities hereabouts, as
does WWALS for fun and education. WWALS exists to assist positive
changes and to resist invasive problems, using strategies such as
environmental monitoring and tactics such as outings and events in
that advocacy.
WWALS got a very clean result for the Santa Fe River for Wednesday,
and pretty clean for the Alapaha River for Thursday.
Even for Sugar Creek, WWALS got an OK result for Wednesday
at the WaterGoat.
But Valdosta Utilities again got too-high results upstream on Sugar Creek
at Gornto Road and Baytree Road.
However, Valdosta got OK results for the Withlacoochee River Upstream at US 41,
and OK downstream at GA 133, plus clean farther downstream at US 84.
So these continuing high Sugar Creek results are still mysterious,
especially given no rain to wash residue downstream
No sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in the past week in
Georgia
or
Florida.
No rain is expected for the next ten days.
So I’d avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it.
Other than that, happy paddling,
swimming,
fishing,
and boating this weekend.
Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results
rainfall
and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results
The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet.
Continue reading →
Hahira, Georgia, October 30, 2025 — Join us this Saturday, November 1, 2025, on an approximately 3 mile or 4 hour hike on the Dead River and the dry Alapaha River bed, led by Practicing Geologist Dennis James Price of Hamilton County, Florida.
Hahira, Georgia, October 30, 2025 — Join us this Saturday, November 1, 2025, on an approximately 3 mile or 4 hour hike on the Dead River and the dry Alapaha River bed, led by Practicing Geologist Dennis James Price of Hamilton County, Florida.
We will meet at 9:30 AM at Jennings Bluff Cemetery. On a short stop there, we will climb down a steep bank to explore a spring. Then we will drive into public lands to the Dead River Sink where we will hike out to the Alapaha River and hike the river bed.
From Jennings, Florida, go south on US 41 approximately 2.25 miles and turn left onto NW 25th Lane, which dead ends at the Jennings Bluff Cemetery on the Alapaha River. GPS: 30.56693, -83.035297
Much of the year, the Alapaha River is dry for the last eighteen miles from Jennings Bluff to the Suwannee River, because its water flows into the Dead River and down into the Dead River Sink. On June 22, 2016, several Florida agencies put fluorescent green dye into the Dead River Sink. The dye came back up four days later in the Alapaha River Rise, and eight days later in Holton Creek Rise, both off of the Suwannee River.
Bring sturdy boots or shoes, clothes for woods with stickers, water, and snacks.
Also Continue reading →
![[WWALS Booth at Sugar Cane Festival, White Springs, FL, 2025-11-08]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-11-08--sugar-cane-festival-pictures/fbmany.jpg)
![[Okefenokee Swamp by Veronica Kelley-Summers, a WWALS Webinar by Zoom, 2025-09-11]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-09-11--okefenokee-swamp-webinar-video/fbmany.jpg)
![[Clean Withlacoochee River, Dirty Sugar Creek, Might rain Saturday, 2025-11-06]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-11-06--wq/many.jpg)
![[Comment and CWA Request, re Suncoast Parkway 2 Seg 3A --Stop the Sand Mine Committee, 2025-11-06]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-11-06--stop-the-sand-mine-comment-suncoast-parkway-seg-2/fbmany.jpg)
![[Alapaha River Rise Hike. Thanks, Landowner Byron Herder. Where Dead River Sink water Rises, 2025-11-01]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-11-01--alapaha-river-rise-pictures/fbmany.jpg)
![[Dead River Sink Hike, Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price, Meander to the Dry Alapaha River, 2025-11-01]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-11-01--hike-dead-river-sink-pictures/fbmany.jpg)
![[WWALS Day of Giving, #GAGIVES 2025, All Month, November 2025]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-11-02--day-of-giving/fbmany.jpg)
![[Clean Santa Fe, Alapaha, Withlacoochee Rivers, Sugar Creek mixed, 2025-10-30]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-10-30--wq/many.jpg)
![[Hike with a Geologist to a Spring, the Dead River Sink, and the Dry Alapaha River, November 1, 2025]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-11-01--hike-dead-river-sink-pr/fbmany.jpg)
![[Hike to Dead River Sink, Alapaha River, Jennings Bluff, with Practicing Geologist Dennis Price 2025-11-01]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-11-01--hike-dead-river-sink/fbmany.jpg)