Tag Archives: south Georgia

Nominating Portal, Regional Water Planning Council –GA-DNR 2026-07-15

Received today.

To all interested parties,

With the recent changes to the State Water Plan, the Regional Water Planning Council membership was reduced from 30 to 15 members per Council. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) will open an online portal starting July 15 to collect nominations to the Regional Water Planning Councils. After 45 days, EPD will collect the names submitted and provide them to the appointing officials. To help further explain these changes and outline the nomination process, EPD will host a public meeting via Zoom on Tuesday, July 21^st, from 12:00—1:00 p.m. at the link below.
Join Zoom Meeting https://gaepd.zoom.us/j/97748033778?pwd=H0sm1Nt7mZTtbGWSP8qQrQaN66m9bE.1
Meeting ID: 977 4803 3778
Passcode: 273513

Nominating Portal, Regional Water Planning Council, –GA-DNR, 2026-07-15

To visit the nomination portal, which will go live on July 15, please see the link below:

https://waterplanning.georgia.gov/water-planning/council-nominations
If you are unable to attend, or have any questions, please email water.planning@dnr.ga.gov for additional information.

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Pictures: Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2026-07-11

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We got about half a Withlacoochee River mile downstream from Langdale Park Boat Ramp. We cleared passage through six deadfalls or other obstructions.

Plus a Little Blue Heron, Egretta caerulea, and we didn’t get pictures but saw a Great Blue Heron, some hawks, a few buzzards, and other birds we couldn’t identify.

We clear passage for kayaks, canoes, and jon boats, leaving plenty of habitat for wildlife.

https://wwals.net/?p=69810

Thanks to Phil Hubbard for leading this expedition, and Andrew Reinlieb for helping.

Pictures: Langdale Park, Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, 2026-06-11

There will be Public Hearing about a proposed communications tower in Langdale Park, at 5:30 PM, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, after which the Lowndes County Commission will decide.

http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/?p=25896

The Valdosta @ US 41 read 4.12 feet (114.42 feet NAVD88), which is lower than our lowest boatable recommendation of 5.7 feet, 116′ NAVD. We picked a day with the lowest recent water level so we could get deadfalls that other wise would be underwater. Continue reading →

Water Quality Testing Training 2026-07-10

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Here’s Heather Brasell’s account of this training:

Gretchen Quarterman trains everyone who tests water quality for the WWALS Watershed Coalition. She just retrained me — an annual requirement to ensure data quality. I test water quality at two sites — the outflow from the Alapaha Wastewater Treatment and at Sheboggy bridge where Highway 82 crosses the Alapaha River. I test for pH dissolved oxygen, conductivity and E.coli (biological). WWALS make the biological data available to the public so they know that their rivers are fishable and swimmable. I’ve been testing for several years and have never had water quality problems.

Water Quality Testing Training, AAS Chemical and Biological Monitoring, Trainer: Gretchen Quarterman, Trainee: Heather Brasell 2026-07-10

Photo 2: To test for E.coli (bacterial health concern), we add 1 ml of water onto a petrifilm and incubate it for 24 hours. The blue fuzzy colonies indicate E.coli bacteria (marked on the edge). The red colonies indicate other kinds of coliform bacteria, including ones that are not a health concern. To maintain data quality, we share photos like this with the group so someone else can confirm our counts.

Heather’s most report was July 1, 2026.

For much more about the WWALS volunteer water quality testing program, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/testing/

WWALS uses Georgia Adopt-A-Stream (AAS) methods, but we have testers in north Florida, as well. Maybe you’d like to be one! Continue reading →

Clean Sugar Creek 2026-07-08, Withlacoochee River 2026-07-06, Santa Fe River 2026-07-09

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The Withlacoochee River, Sugar Creek, and the Santa Fe River tested clean in the results we have for this week.

No new sewage spills were reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.

According to the results we have, happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating, before the rains starting tomorrow afternoon.

Maybe you’d like to join us for Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2026-07-11.

https://wwals.net/?p=70660

This image is an illustration. Scroll down for the details.

Clean Sugar Creek 2026-07-08, Withlacoochee River 2026-07-06, Santa Fe River 2026-07-09, Happy paddling, swimming, etc.

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 →

Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2026-07-11

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Update 2026-07-13: Pictures: Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2026-07-11.

Come help us clear passage for kayaks, canoes, and jon boats on the Withlacoochee River.

You do not have to saw. You can pick up trash, photograph, pull aside sawed branches, or just paddle along. Bring a rope for the front of your boat, because with the water this low there will probably be dragging.

We hope to at least get as far as the logjam at the south end of the park, which is about 1.32 river miles, and then we paddle back up.

If we’re really lucky, we’ll get as far as Sugar Creek, which is twice as far. If so, we might take out there, or we might paddle back up.

If we get crazy with the heat, we might even go all the way down and up the Little River to Troupville Boat Ramp, which is 6.7 miles. This is unlikely.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:30 AM, end 1 PM, Saturday, July 11, 2026

Put In: Langdale Park Boat Ramp, At the end of Hyta Mederer Drive, off of 3781 N. Valdosta Road, Valdosta, GA 31602, downstream from the North Valdosta Road (US 41) Bridge, in Lowndes County.

GPS: 30.88747, -83.32395

Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, Saturday, July 11, 2026

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Berrien Beach to Lakeland, Alapaha River 2026-07-06

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Thanks to Shawn O’Connor and Shirley Kokidko for scouting these five deadfalls Monday on the Alapaha River.

Five more deadfalls between Berrien Beach and Lakeland, GA, Alapaha River 2026-07-06

As you can see, they are clustered together sort of in the middle between Berrien Beach Boat Ramp and Lakeland Boat Ramp, near the well-known Marshall Deadfall, which was apparently underwater.

The water level on the Alapaha Gauge was falling, from 6.37 feet (213.97 feet NAVD88) at Double Deadfall at 10:08 AM to 6.33 (213.93 NAVD88) at TD Deadfall at 11:49 AM.

That’s in the middle between the WWALS recommendation for Berrien Beach Boat Ramp of don’t paddle above 218.2 or below 209.6.

You can actually see these deadfalls on the satellite images below. According to google-earth-pro, those images were taken April 29, 2026, in the middle of the drought. The Alapaha Gauge on that date was at about 1 foot (207.6 NAVD88).

We will come back to chainsaw passage through them when the level is a bit lower than it was Monday, so they’re above water. Continue reading →

Pictures: Children and Working Forests at Gaskins Forest Education Center 2025-06-06

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We showed maps, pictures, and the EnviroScape to students brought by the Colquitt / Moultrie Boys and Girls Clubs, at the Gaskins Forest Education Center (GFEC) near Alapaha, Georgia.

We also discussed water trails, water quality testing, trash, and how to stop it being produced.

Children and Working Forests at Gaskins Forest Education Center, Georgia Forestry Foundation, Colquitt/Moultrie B&G Club 2025-06-06

Gretchen Quarterman and her granddaughters Elleanor and Hazel Williams did most of the teaching. They especially like using the EnviroScape to show how watr flowing downhill carries all sorts of things with it.

Thanks to Amanda Rollins of Georgia Forestry Foundation for inviting us again this year.

Thanks to Heather Brasell, as always, for providing the venue. GFEC is near the Alapaha River on the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT). Moultrie is on Okapilco River, as they call Okapilco Creek in Colquitt County. All above the Floridan Aquifer, from which we all drink with straws.

Heather is also a former WWALS Board member and a current WWALS water quality tester.

Here is video of a WWALS Webinar she did: The effects of forest management on water quality –Heather Brasell, WWALS Webinar 2024-11-14. Continue reading →