Monthly Archives: August 2022

Rescheduled: WWALS at VSU Happening 2022-08-30

Update 2022-08-24: VSU Student Life says:

Due to the forecasted inclement weather, we have decided to reschedule the Happening to Tuesday, August 30. All other details regarding the Happening 2022 has remained the same.

Come see us at the annual Valdosta State University student orientation: The Happening.

Or WWALS members, you can volunteer at the WWALS booth to help tell students about the fun and work we do.

Rescheduled to Tuesday, October 30, 2022

When: 1PM to 4PM, Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Where: VSU front lawn, 1500 N Patterson St, Valdosta, GA 31698.

Event: facebook

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

WWALS at VSU Happening 2022-08-25

Update 2022-08-24: Rescheduled to Tuesday, October 30, 2022.

Come see us at the annual Valdosta State University student orientation: The Happening.

Or WWALS members, you can volunteer at the WWALS booth to help tell students about the fun and work we do.

2019-08-19

When: 1PM to 4PM, Thursday, August 25, 2022

Where: VSU front lawn, 1500 N Patterson St, Valdosta, GA 31698. Continue reading →

WWALS receives ARPA nonprofit grant via City of Valdosta 2022-08-16

WWALS thanks the City of Valdosta, especially Council Vivian Miller-Cody and Andy Gibbs, as well as the Committee led by Michael Smith, for a grant of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

Council, Committee

Malia Thomas, Valdosta Daily Times, August 16, 2022, City awards local nonprofits ARPA funding,

VALDOSTA — More than 30 Valdosta area nonprofits agencies have been awarded their share of American Rescue Plan funds.
Continue reading →

Valdosta enforces new grease ordinance; how about enforcing its trash ordinances?

I look forward to Valdosta enforcing its trash ordinances like it’s doing with these Fats, Oil, and Grease (FOG) ordinances. No new ordinance is needed, City Marshals just need to enforce the ones already in place.

Valdosta example: Fats, Oils, and Grease in a manhole

Here’s an idea: Roger Budd Co. could set an example by buying trash cans for its parking lots, and keep them cleaned out, like city ordinances require. That would be much smaller capex than these FOG traps. And for both RBC could advertise on its billboards how green its businesses are.

Although any business will be more likely to do that once the City of Valdosta gets around to putting such trash cans on its own city parking lots, starting with across from City Hall.

Meanwhile, I applaud the City of Valdosta pro-actively preventing sewage spills with this new FOG ordinance.

Mackenzie Petrie, WALB, Continue reading →

2021 ANNUAL REPORT, Lowndes County Impaired Streams Monitoring 2021-04-07

Update 2023-09-26: ANNUAL REPORT, Lowndes County Impaired Streams Monitoring 2022-04-07.

After two years, Lowndes County has still not found sources of the fecal contamination in its streams. Maybe the testing methodology needs to be revised.

Fortunately, WWALS is covering part of what the county does not: WWALS is testing for E. coli after big rains on Cat Creek and Beatty Branch and multiple Withlacoochee, Little, and Alapaha River locations, and we are doing some DNA spot tests.

Fecal Coliform
Lowndes County has not identified any point sources within the drainage areas that can be attributed to the widespread exceedances. Based on the limited data collected to date, it is the opinion of Lowndes County that the cause of the exceedances is from natural conditions.

Map and graphs

There are no DNA marker or chemical tracer results in the report. A few DNA tests would have given some indication of what species were producing the fecal contamination.

Also, the report includes no Continue reading →

Winners, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2022 2022-08-20

Update 2022-08-26: Wesley Vallotton accepted Songwriting Contest raffle kayak for Mala Vallotton 2022-08-24.

Hahira, Georgia, August 22, 2022 — Everyone had a good time, it was a successful fundraiser for WWALS, and here are the winners of the Fifth Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.

Winners: Emmett Carlisle, Best Song from Outside; Tracy Horenbein, Best Americana; David Rodock, First Prize and Best Song from Inside; Kyle Chamberlain, Best Folk, Kevin Stephenson, Best Country

The winners were chosen by judges J.J. Rolle, Kenji Bolden, and Joe Smothers. Continue reading →

Videos: Suwannee Riverkeeper about Songwriting Contest on Scott James Radio 2022-08-18

Thanks to Scott James for half an hour of radio time Thursday, mostly about the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. The Contest is 7-11 PM today, Saturday, August 20, 2022, at the Turner Center Art Park, 605 N. Patterson St., Valdosta GA 31601.

For entry tickets and how you can get a raffle ticket for that Vibe Yellowfin 120 kayak donated by Georgia Beer Co., see:
https://wwals.net/pictures/2022-08-20–songwriting/

Mayor, Plaques, Sponsors

Who’s going to draw the winning kayak raffle ticket? The one and only hippie, kayaking, radio Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson.

Which of the five Finalists will MC Chuck Roberts announce as winners Continue reading →

Good Withlacoochee River water quality 2022-08-18

Update 2022-08-26: Good river water quality 2022-08-25.

All clear for fishing, swimming, and boating on the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers this weekend, according to the latest water quality results we have.

Chart, Rivers, Plates

There hasn’t been enough rain to wash any significant contamination into the creeks and rivers, no, not even Okapilco Creek.

The only sewage spill in the past week we know of is the Valdosta one last Sunday near Sugar Creek on Meadowbrook Drive at Gornto Road. That one, like the other four Valdosta spills this summer, was probably too small and fixed too quickly to have any detectable effect on the Withlacoochee River. We still don’t know Continue reading →

Forever chemicals in rainwater everywhere 2022-08-02

U.S. EPA may get around to mandatory limits for drinking water later this year.

Worldwide, graph

Georgia and Florida have no mandatory limits for these per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Georgia EPD is monitoring drinking water (mostly clean) and some surface water (in north Georgia, with some bad results). FDEP “ continues its efforts to investigate and understand PFAS in the environment and the ecological and human health risks associated with PFAS contamination.”

My backup drinking water is rainwater collection. Probably the charcoal filters I use remove PFOAS, although Continue reading →

Judges, Headliner change, raffle kayak, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2022-08-20

Hahira, Georgia, August 18, 2022 — We’re announcing our singing judges, and raffle tickets still available for the kayak Georgia Beer Co. donated. But we also have to say the pandemic is not over. A key member of one of our headliners went to Atlanta to hear a famous band and came back with COVID-19.

So our new second headliner is Dirty Bird and the Flu, from Valdosta, Georgia. “Funky-blues-soul-fusion born straight out of the South Georgia swamps and a charismatic front-man who catches comparisons of all the famous soul singers. No two shows are ever the same!”

PDF

Our first headliner is Sweet William Billy Ennis from Palatka, Florida, our First Prize winner last year. “His fifty years of original songs cover Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.