Author Archives: jsq

Southern Georgia Black Chambers welcomes WWALS Watershed Coalition 2023-04-27

Here’s what they wrote:

We are excited to welcome our new member, WWALS Watershed Coalition, to the Southern Georgia Black Chambers! Their vision is to promote a healthy watershed with clean water that is swimmable, fishable, and drinkable. WWALS is an educational nonprofit charity that advocates for the conservation and stewardship of various river watersheds throughout South Georgia and North Florida. Join us in supporting WWALS and their efforts towards environmental monitoring and citizen activities in the area. Learn more about WWALS Watershed Coalition is Suwannee Riverkeeper and their work at www.wwals.net.

[Southern Georgia Black Chambers welcomes WWALS]
Southern Georgia Black Chambers welcomes WWALS

“Thank You! We are excited to join and work on projects together,” wrote WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman.

And please come to Juneteenth at Reed Bingham State Park Beach, 11AM to 3 PM, Saturday, June 17, 2023, for food, activities for children, and boating with stunt adults!
https://wwals.net/?p=61855 Continue reading →

Veto FL SB 540 to preserve local development responsibility

Update 2023-06-08: FL Gov signed sprawl bill: need Rights to Clean Water 2023-06-08.

Citizens and nonprofits can’t afford to sue about bad development decisions if they might lose like this.

This year’s Florida legislature “session of sprawl” passed HB 359/ SB 540 entitled “Local Government Comprehensive Plans” that would allow the winning parties to recover their attorney fees from the losing parties in legal challenges to comprehensive plans and plan amendments. Developer attorneys tend to be very expensive. You probably can’t afforsd to pay for them, and we can’t, either.

[Veto SB 540]
Veto SB 540

We need local governments to be accountable to the people.

Please ask Governor DeSantis to veto HB 359 / SB 540. You can use this handy Waterkeeper Florida form:
https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/Development_Bills/SB540_Rules-2/

For more about Waterkeepers Florida, of which Suwannee Riverkeeper is a member, see:
https://www.waterkeepersflorida.org/

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

Lakeland Boat Ramp to close for eight weeks 2023-05-22 2023-05-30

Update 2023-06-24: Work in progress at Lakeland Boat Ramp 2023-06-20.

Update 2023-05-19: Closure date changed to May 30, so Lakeland Boat Ramp should reopen around July 26, 2023.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA-DNR) is closing Lakeland Boat Ramp @ GA 122 to rebuild it, which will take about eight weeks. So it will be closed from May 22 30, 2023 through about July 20 26, 2023.

[Berrien Beach Boat Ramp and Lakeland Boat Ramp]
Berrien Beach Boat Ramp and Lakeland Boat Ramp

GA-DNR recommends going instead to Continue reading →

Say NO to Radioactive Roads in Florida 2023-05-11

The Florida legislature has already passed a bill to allow spreading waste from phosphate mines on roads.

Those gypstacks at the White Springs Nutrien phosphate mine near the Suwannee River should not end up on roads, not in Hamilton County and not elsewhere.

[Say no to radioactive roads in Florida]
Say no to radioactive roads in Florida

Please urge Governor DeSantis to veto HB 1191/ SB 1258.

Here’s a handy form by Waterkeepers Florida so you can tailor your email to the governor:
https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/saynotoradioactiveroads/HB1191-SB1258-VETO/

Here’s the bill, which also would legitimize use of coal ash in roads:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1191

For more about phosphate mines, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/phosphate-mining/

About Waterkeepers Florida, of which Suwannee Riverkeeper is a member, see:
https://www.waterkeepersflorida.org/

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

Agenda: Tifton, GA, meeting, Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council 2023-05-24

Update 2023-05-16: Rivers and mining: WWALS comments on Suwannee-Satilla Draft Regional Water Plan 2023-05-15.

We have an agenda for the May 24, 2023, meeting of the Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Commission (SSRWPC) in Tifton, Georgia.

Note the SRWMD presentation about Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs), as in the ongoing SRWMD peer review of the Upper and Middle Suwannee River MFLs.

SSRWPC will also be discussing their Lake Beatrice water storage and Alapaha River replenishment scheme, which has assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Don’t wait until the SSRWPC meeting to get your comments in on their Georgia Regional Water Plan by May 15, 2023.

[The attendees: Sheri Almer and Cliff Lewis of GA-EPD, Emory Gawlik and Shayne Wood of GDM Smith, Council Mac McCall, Chair Scott Downing, Foreground Bert Early of Georgia Forestry, Elizabeth Backe of SGRC, Emily Ducker and Sean King of SRWMD --John S. Quarterman Suwannee Riverkeeper]
SSRWPC meeting 2023-03-14.

Received this morning in response to a WWALS request, Cliff Lewis wrote:

Agenda for the upcoming meeting is below. See you then. Continue reading →

Even Georgia Power does not like it: burning scrap tires as biomass @ GA-PSC 2023-05-09

‘“Although Georgia Power will follow whatever the Commission ultimately orders, Georgia Power does not support adding tire-derived fuel to its 2022 Integrated Resource Plan,” Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft said in a statement….’

Yet the Georgia Public Service Commission (GA-PSC) approved that anywawy, at its April 4, 2023, Administrative Session.

[Tires overlaid on GA-PSC Administrative Session 2023-04-04]
Tires overlaid on GA-PSC Administrative Session 2023-04-04

We already have mercury in our Alapaha Rivers that came through the air from Georgia Power’s coal Plant Scherer north of Macon. Continue reading →

WWALS River Revue 2023-09-22

Update 2023-05-22: Send in your song for the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2023-09-22.

Hahira, Georgia, May 9, 2023 — WWALS is incorporating the 6th Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest into the inaugural WWALS River Revue. This indoor fundraising dinner to benefit WWALS Watershed Coalition will be held 6-10 PM, Friday, September 22, 2023, at the Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, Georgia.

Follow this link for tickets, sponsorship opportunities, and more:
https://www.betterunite.com/WWALS-wwalsriverrevue2023/

[WWALS River Revue]
WWALS River Revue

WWALS Development Director Veronica Oakler said, “Raise a glass to clean water and support our work to protect the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River basin with an evening of food, drink, and entertainment. We’ll have speakers, songs, and a silent auction.”

WWALS President Sara Jay Jones said, “Musicians, song submissions are open! Don’t wait until the deadline to send in your song. Here’s the entry form:”

https://forms.gle/9P7GCKDyF2hvVWGr6

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman said, Continue reading →

Valdosta Lee Street Detention Pond Trash Trap –Florida Specifier 2023-05-03

This brief mention in a Florida state-wide bi-monthly environmental review newspaper is mostly right as far as it goes. Many more people and some personnel changes at the city of Valdosta were involved.

[Valdosta Lee Street Detention Pond Trash Trap and Florida Specifier article]
Valdosta Lee Street Detention Pond Trash Trap and Florida Specifier article

Florida Specifier, April-May 2023, Valdosta trapping trash from entering waterways, Continue reading →

Seattle settles salmon river dam case, hails relationship of mutual respect and consultation with Sauk-Suiattle Tribe 2023-05-02

The city of Seattle will include a program for fish passage around its dams on the Skagit River, as part of a settlement with the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe of a case on behalf of the tribe and of salmon that live in the river.

That program was filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as part of the city’s license renewal request for those hydroelectric dams. These are strange times indeed, when FERC becomes the guarantor of river rights.

[Washington dam removal is controversial but may be the best chance for salmon, earth.com 2019-08-20 https://www.earth.com/news/washington-dam-removal-salmon/]
Washington dam removal is controversial but may be the best chance for salmon, earth.com 2019-08-20

There are at least two ways of approaching such cases on rights: rights of nature itself (fish, rivers, etc.), or rights of humans.

Human rights are the subject of the Florida citizen petition for a state constitutional amendment for Rights to Clean and Healthy Water. Florida registered voters, please sign that petition:
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/

And then please get your friends and relatives to sign it.

This Seattle case used both approaches, according to the Continue reading →

Dollar General developer and property owner sue Lowndes County about rezoning denial –VDT 2023-05-03

The plaintiffs’ case is based on the Lowndes County Commission not agreeing with county staff’s recommendation to approve the rezoning, as well as “evidence supporting their petition and codes relating to the Unified Development Land Code.”

Maybe this is the “enhanced facade” that Dollar General offered in the Public Hearing after which the County Commission denied the rezoning, on January 1, 2023.

[Enhanced facade, plat, and future development, VDT and actual stormwater by WWALS]
Enhanced facade, plat, and future development, VDT and actual stormwater by WWALS

Also the plaintiffs say all the public comments were “generalized and speculative”. Huh, I sure thought I heard a bunch of quite specific public comments. The letter WWALS sent to the Commission before that Public Hearing was quite specific, for example, in saying the allegation that the closest effect on nearby property owners would be on their residences was hogwash, given that stormwater from the subject site runs west under GA 122 onto neighboring property much closer than that residence.

There was speculation in various comments, but it was based on easily documented history of Dollar General and of property development in Lowndes County.

After a story by a Valdosta Daily Times reporter, that local organ of record weighed in with an editorial supporting the citizens. Continue reading →