Here are some pictures from the last year, and we’ll be back today at the Berrien County Harvest Festival.
Monthly Archives: September 2018
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:
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
FDEP now maps last 30 days of spills
Pollution spill maps online, up to date, with interactive links to details: Florida is doing it, and so can Georgia.
For more than a year FDEP has been posting spill reports online in a spreadsheet the same day it gets them, with email notice signup (Alabama also does that). FDEP has added a Public Notice of Pollution (PNP) Finder: Last 30 Days, which helps a lot in finding spills in our watersheds.
Did you know there was a Phosphoric Acid spill at White Springs last week, on 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!
Photo: Bobby McKenzie from the last WWALS Troupville Boat Ramp
Cleanup,
2018-04-21.
Tour of Valdosta wastewater treatment plants 2018-10-03
WWALS will tour Valdosta’s Wastewater Treatment Plants (WTPs). Thanks to Scott Fowler and Director Darryl Muse for the longstanding invitation. WWALS invites you to come, from both Georgia and Florida, especially people downstream on the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, or Suwannee Rivers.
When: 9AM, Wednesday, 3 October 2018
Where:
Valdosta Utilties, 1016 Myrtle Street, Valdosta, Georgia 31601
The Myrtle Street off of E. Force Street between Troup and Forrest (not the one in Remerton).
Where: We will go to the Withlacoochee WTP next to the Withlacoochee River, and the Mud Creek WTP on Knights Creek, upstream from Mud Creek, the Alapahoochee River, and the Alapaha River. We may go to other points such as force mains or lift stations. If we have time we will also tour Valdosta’s drinking water treatment plant.
Duration: Probably several hours, but should be done by noon.
Free: There is no charge. This tour is primarily for WWALS members, but we won’t turn away anybody else and I doubt Valdosta will, either. We do recommend you join WWALS today.
Why: For why so many people are interested in Valdosta’s WTPs and what Valdosta has done to date, see Valdosta (and other) Wastewater.
This is not a regular WWALS outing or event, but for more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS calendar or the WWALS outings and events web page. WWALS members also get an upcoming list in the Tannin Times newsletter.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Reconstitute Harmful Algal Bloom Task Forces?
Water quality is an issue in the Florida Senate race, allowing critics of the candidates’ proposals to raise real solutions.
One candidate:
In August, [Florida Senator Bill] Nelson co-introduced legislation with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., that would direct the federal Interagency Task Force on Harmful Algal Blooms to study the causes and consequences of algae in Lake Okeechobee and around Florida’s south and southwestern coasts.
Image: NOAA, 9 September 2018, in
Cyanobacteria bloom continues,
by Katrina Elsken, Glades County Democrat, 19 September 2018.
The other candidate:
In a letter Thursday to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, [Rick] Scott urged Continue reading
California court requires higher ag. runoff controls
If California can do it, so can Florida. The petition deadline for FDEP’s Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) got pushed back to January 2019, so we shall see.
Sara Rubin, Monterey County Weekly, 20 September 2018, Victory for Monterey Coastkeeper as court rules regulations for ag runoff fall short,
Even California’s water quality law, the Porter-Cologne Act, recognizes the challenge. A 2004 addendum about nonpoint source pollution put it this way: “Current land use management practices that have resulted in nonpoint source pollution have a long and complicated physical, economic and political history… Therefore, it is expected that it will take a significant amount of time for the [regional water boards] to approve or endorse nonpoint source control implementation programs.”
Photo: Nic Coury, “Otter Project Director Steve Shimek stands near the Monterey County Water Resources Agency’s Blanco Drain, which conveys ag runoff exceeding state water quality standards to the Salinas River,” in Court slams Central Coast farm runoff rules as too weak, orders water quality improvements, by Sara Rubin, Monterey County Weekly, 14 August 2015.That time, according to the Court of Appeal for California’s Third District, has come. A Sept. 18 decision Continue reading
WWALS Cleanup at Sheboggy Boat Ramp, US 82, Alapaha River 2018-09-09
Update 2024-04-20: Better picture format, links, and signature.
Gretchen took some pictures at the cleanup at Sheboggy. Others took pictures of the upstream paddle; probably we’ll post some of them later.
Continue reading![[A dynamic group]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/gretchen/2018-09-09--wwals-sheboggy/IMG_9064.jpg)
WWALS at Berrien County Harvest Festival 2018-09-29
Join WWALS back again at the eighth annual Berrien County Harvest Festival in downtown Nashville, Georgia. Music, art show, craft and food venders, featuring The Puppies of Penzance.
When: 9AM – 3PM, Saturday, September 29, 2018
Where: Downtown Courthouse Square, Nashville, GA 31639
Free: No entrance fee.
Event: facebook
Flyer:
Berrien County Chamber of Commerce.
Berrien County PR, unknown date, 2018 Berrien County Harvest Festival,
Harvest Festival activities will also include Continue reading
Followup water quality data after big Valdosta 2018 spills 2018-09-21
Here is (at least some of) the water quality testing data Valdosta was required to collect after its major spills of June in the Withlacoochee River basin and August in the Alapaha River basin. Maybe Valdosta is right that neither of these spills got into waterways, but something sure did, according to this data. Curiously, in both cases the worst fecal coliform readings were upstream from the spill location.
Mud Creek WTP after the 13 August 2018 spill
Downstream at Johnson Road on Mud Creek from
the Mud Creek WTP after the August spill