Daily Archives: December 10, 2021

Resolutions for Okefenokee Swamp, against strip mine –Suwannee Riverkeeper @ SGRC 2021-12-09

Yesterday I asked members of the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) to pass resolutions supporting the Okefenokee Swamp and the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers against a proposed titanium strip mine. SGRC’s members include 18 counties, which is almost all the Georgia Suwannee River Basin counties, and 45 municipalities. Some of them have already passed such resolutions: Valdosta, Waycross and Ware County, Homeland, Kingsland, and St. Marys.

Update 2024-03-14: Atkinson County.

Update 2024-02-29: And Hamilton County, Florida, making four counties downstream on the Suwannee River from the Okefenokee Swamp: Ware, Clinch, and Echols Counties, Georgia, and Hamilton County, Florida.

Update 2024-02-06: And Berrien County.

Update 2024-02-01: and Nashville 2024-01-08.

Update 2024-02-01: Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) supports HB 71, Okefenokee Protection Act, January 5, 2024

Update 2024-01-25: and Savannah.

Update 2023-10-24: and DeKalb County.

Update 2023-09-12: and Clinch County.

Update 2023-08-07: and Echols County.

[Suwannee Riverkeeper; Okefenokee Swamp, mine site]
Suwannee Riverkeeper; Okefenokee Swamp, mine site

You can ask your local city or county government to pass a similar resolution. The previous resolutions are on the WWALS website.

You can also ask GA-EPD for a moratorium on mining permits, or to deny the permits, or at the very least to examine them very thoroughly and produce the equivalent of the Environmental Impact Statement that the Army Corps should have been working on.
https://wwals.net/?p=55092

You can also use Protect Georgia form to end a message to your Georgia statehouse delegation.

Floridians, this mine site is upstream from Florida, and you can also use these forms.

Thanks to SGRC Council Chair Joyce Evans and Assistant Director Chris Strom for inviting me to come speak to SGRC.

See also Continue reading

Weird upstream, clean downstream, Withlacoochee River 2021-12-09

Update 2021-12-18 Good up and down water quality, Withlacoochee River 2021-12-16.

Odd bad results upstream, at GA 133 on the Withlacoochee River, and at Folsom Bridge (GA 122) on the Little River Clean downstream, though. Last time we saw high Valdosta results for GA 133, they never showed up downstream.

So I’d swim, fish, or boat on the Withlacoochee River this weekend, although not at GA 133, and I’d avoid Folsom Bridge on the Little River.

[Chart, Rivers, Map]
Chart, Rivers, Map

Valdosta’s Wednesday results for GA 133 are way too high, and Fecal coliform was also high for US 41.

Elizabeth Brunner’s Thursday results for Folsom Bridge on the Little River were above the 410 one-time E. coli limit, which is very unusual for that location. But her other two GA 122 sites, at Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee River and at Lakeland Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River, were well within limits.

Downstream, Jacob and Michael Bachrach got good Thursday results at Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps, and Gus Cleary the same for Wednesday at Cleary Bluff below Allen Ramp, all on the Withlacoochee River. Gus also tested last Friday, and got nothing out of the ordinary, after Valdosta last saw high results at GA 133 for Wednesday a week ago. Continue reading