Update 2019-05-02: Pictures.
After the BIG Little River Paddle Race this Saturday morning, also at Reed Bingham State Park, you can get trained to do water quality testing, at 2PM Saturday afternoon. This is both chemical and bacterial training.
When: 2PM, Saturday, April 27, 2019
Where: Shelter #3, Reed Bingham State Park, 542 Reed Bingham Rd, Adel, GA 31620
Sign up: Please use the google form to sign up so we’ll know how many are coming, Continue reading
Welcome, Georgia Beer Co.!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (PDF)
Georgia Beer Company Sponsors Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest
Hahira, Georgia, April 22, 2019 — The first brewery in the Suwannee River Basin is the top-level sponsor of the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. When the finalists compete for the judges and music lovers at The Salty Snapper on August 24, 2019, at the top of the sponsor banner will be Georgia Beer Company. This maker of brews, such as Cypress Knee – Single Hop Mosaic, understands clean water is essential to every beer. So Georgia Beer Company, as the Aria level sponsor, supports Suwannee Riverkeeper for fishable, swimmable, drinkable water.
![[Sponsor package]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-08-24--suwannee-riverkeeper-songwriting-contest/sponsor.jpg)
Photo: Sara the bartender;
Left to right: Bartender, Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman receiving sponsor merchandise and check from Jack “J. Ryce Martin” and Chris Jones, founders of Georgia Beer Co.
“When I was a reporter in Madison, Florida, I wrote about Valdosta sewage frequently,” said Georgia Beer Co. co-founder Chris Jones. “Unfortunately, that is still a story. We support Suwannee Riverkeeper to help stop that problem, and to clean up other things getting into our rivers.”
“I’m thrilled for this support of our water quality testing program by Georgia Beer Company,” said WWALS lead tester Sara Jay. “We can buy more testing materials and Continue reading
Rescheduled from Friday to Saturday due to weather.
Photo: Gretchen Quarterman, of windstorm damage, 2019-04-19
Outings leader Dan Phillips decided, due to another line of weather coming in this evening, that it would be safest to reschedule to the next day, so he did.
Join us on a leisurely sunset paddle to watch the sun set and the full moon rise over the Banks Lake, a mini-Okefenokee near Lakeland, Georgia.
When: Gather 7:00 PM, launch 7:30 PM, Saturday, April 20, 2019
Put In: Banks Lake Boat Ramp, 307 Georgia 122, Lakeland, GA 31635, in Lanier County.
Take Out: Banks Lake Boat Ramp
Bring: the a light for your boat or some type of light to have on yourself (glow stick, head lamp, or flashlight), and bring a rope for your boat. You must wear a Personal Flotation Device (PFD). A whistle is not required, but it’s a good idea in the dark. Dress for cold weather, the temperature drops quickly after the sun sets. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
Event: facebook, meetup Continue reading
Update 2024-05-14: Pictures: Cypress Creek South (CR 6) to Cone Bridge, Suwannee River 2019-05-04.
Rescheduled due to low water. Now we’re starting at Cypress Creek Launch on CR 6, and paddling to Cone Bridge Ramp.
A quiet, tranquil 9.4 mile section of the Suwannee River on a paddle appropriate for paddlers of any level.
When: Gather 9:00 AM, Launch 9:30 AM, Saturday, May 4, 2019
Put In:
Cypress Creek South Launch @ CR 6.
From White Springs, Travel north on CR 135 to SR 6, turn right; travel east to the bridge. At the foot of the bridge, turn left onto road shoulder and follow the road to the river.
From Valdosta, GA, travel south on I-75 to exit 460 for FL-6 toward Jasper, FL; travel east 11.4 miles, turn right to stay on FL 6. Continue through Jasper onto Hatley Street, which becomes CR 6.
Continue 14.5 miles to the left turnoff just before the Suwannee River.
GPS: 30.50737, -82.71711
Take Out: Cone Bridge Ramp. From Lake City, travel north on US 441 to NW Cone Bridge Road; turn left and follow road to ramp.
Bring: a rope to drag your boat, the usual personal flotation device, boat paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit.
Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
Photo: John S. Quarterman,
Cypress Creek South Launch, 2016-09-05.
This paddle is on the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail (SRWT). Continue reading
All of Valdosta’s water quality sampling stations were below the Georgia state limit for E. coli for the first week of April. Valdosta no longer samples weekly, only once a month. It also no longer samples at the state line.
We got this monthly Valdosta WQ data via open records request, as usual. As I said at the April 10, 2019 meeting between Valdosta and the dozen Florida counties, I also filed the next day open records requests for Valdosta’s permit-required spill-followup test data, and for the engineering study they said they had related to how big the new catch basin needs to be. Yesterday I got the latest monthly data a day late, but only a “working on it” about the other two requests. I will now Continue reading
Approved at the Sunday WWALS board meeting and filed last night via regulations.gov as PDF.
April 15, 2019
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA Docket Center
Office of Water Docket
Mail Code 28221T
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
Re: Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2018-0149,
Revised Definition of Waters of United States
To Whom it May Concern:
WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS), also known as Suwannee Riverkeeper, submits the following comments on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and Department of Defense, Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) proposed rule entitled “Revised Definition of Waters of United States,” 84 Federal Register 4154-01 (February 14, 2019) (hereinafter “Proposed Rule”).
In addition to supporting the comments of Waterkeeper Alliance and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), WWALS adds these comments on groundwater.
The Proposed Rule’s categorical exclusion of groundwater makes no sense here above the Floridan Aquifer where surface water and groundwater constantly interchange, and pollutants travelling through groundwater are a frequent source of health, environmental, and economic problems.
This proposed exclusion of groundwater is called out repeatedly in the Proposed Rule, starting with this:
Continue readingFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tifton, Georgia, April 16, 2019 — Bret Wagenhorst calls this limpkin, “One of the many local spectators along the upcoming BIG Little River PADDLE RACE on Saturday, April 27 at Reed Bingham State Park. Come experience the beauty of a south GA blackwater river. Come have fun with family and friends. Come see if you can paddle fast enough to win the $100 to the first boat across the finish line. Come help support our region’s state park and the WWALS Watershed Coalition.”
Photo: Bret Wagenhorst
The event is entirely within Reed Bingham State Park, between Adel and Moultrie, Georgia, on the Little River in Cook and Colquitt Counties.
Dianne Walters, president of Friends of Reed Bingham State Park (FORB), said, Continue reading
This Monday, April 15, 2019, Waterkeepers Florida (WKFL) will meet with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) about the federally-required Triennial Review of state Water Quality Standards. As Suwannee Riverkeeper, I ask you our members of WWALS and the public what you think I should ask FDEP in that meeting.
FYI, so far I mainly plan to ask about water quality monitoring: the need for more of it, more frequently, and published more quickly, so as to find out Continue reading
This “special foam”: yes, it’s probably the same toxic PFAS chemicals spilled at the Ocala, FL firefighting school and at Moody AFB near Valdosta, GA. Massive ammounts of it were used at the ITC tank farm, with its own docks on Buffalo Bayou into Burnet Bay, leading to Galveston and the Gulf. Then a massive storm hit, closing that Houston Ship Channel and stopping cleanup operations. It’s so bad even the state of Texas and Harris County are suing ITC. Meanwhile, whoever heard of a solar farm fire?
Photo:
Click2Houston, 19 March 2019, “Fire Grows”.
Firefighters at Houston Chemical Disaster Scrambled for Foam, by Joe Carroll and Kevin Crowley, Bloomberg, March 29, 2019, 12:10 PM EDT Updated on March 29, 2019, 3:18 PM EDT,
Firefighters confronted with the worst Gulf Coast industrial disaster in 14 years had to call on outside sources to augment their supply of the special foam required to extinguish chemical blazes.
Intercontinental Terminal Co. confirmed it appealed to other companies for foam during the fire Continue reading
Update 2019-04-13: Added Task Force Resolution.
Everyone in the dozen downstream Florida counties wants to help Valdosta finish fixing its sewage problems, and all were impressed with the thoroughness of the presentations by Valdosta Utilities Director Darryl Muse. There was even an offer to contact federal representatives and agencies from the elephant in the room, Ken Cornell of Alachua County, which contains half the population of the dozen Task Force Counties (and twice the population of Valdosta and Lowndes County),
![[Ken Cornell, Alachua County, offers assistance]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-10--vcc-fl-rivers-task-force/wshot0005.jpg)
Ken Cornell, Alachua County, offers assistance
Mayor John Gayle said “Valdosta is privileged to be a regional city”, serving eighteen counties and benefitting from sales taxes of all those who shop in Valdosta, and later offered assurances that Valdosta was doing everything it could.
They could answer the question from Beth Burnham of Hamilton County about reporting times: less than 24 hours to the state of Georgia.
![[Hamilton County Commission District 1 Beth Burnham]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-10--vcc-fl-rivers-task-force/intro-shot0016.jpg)
Hamilton County Commission District 1 Beth Burnham
Nonetheless Continue reading
![[2019-04-15--WWALS-to-EPA-0001]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-15--epa-rule-deadline/2019-04-15--WWALS-to-EPA-0001.jpg)
![[WKFL meets FDEP]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-15--wkfl-fdep-orlando/fl-t3-wkfl.jpg)
![[Assurances --Mayor John Gayle]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-10--vcc-fl-rivers-task-force/wshot0006.jpg)