Category Archives: Agriculture

Cleaner at State Line, Withlacoochee River 2020-40-12

Much better water quality Sunday at State Line Boat Ramp than upstream the day before.

Sunday Suzy Hall got 333 cfu/100 mL E. coli at State Line Boat Ramp, which is merely not very good. That’s way better than the extremely bad result she got at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp Saturday, 15.55 river miles upstream on the the Withlacoochee River. WWALS continues to sample. You can help.

[Withlacoochee River]
All photos by Suzy Hall, Withlacoochee River

Suzy remarked: “Both days plenty of boats enjoying the weather. You see the WWALS sign remains, and looks like it probably needs to. Rain seems to wash uglies downstream.”

[WWALS Signs]
WWALS Signs

There wasn’t any more rain over the weekend, but Monday rain fell from half an inch at US 84 to more than an inch upstream. Continue reading →

Bad water quality at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2020-04-11

Update 2020-04-14: Cleaner at State Line, Withlacoochee River 2020-04-12.

The Withlacoochee River looks good, but it’s got E. coli, 17,833 cfu/100 mL at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp, results for Saturday, April 11, 2020.

How bad? Horrible, since 410 is bad and 1,000 is alert level. See also what do these numbers mean. Suzy drew water downstream at Nankin State Line Boat Ramp Sunday, and I’m going to collect some elsewhere today. You can help.

[Shoals]
Photo: Suzy Hall, Withlacoochee River at Knights Ferry, Upstream Shoals

Suzy Hall said, “I really thought they were not going to be purple, but they are.” Continue reading →

Repurpose toll road funds for virus relief

Update 2020-04-16: Videos: No Build: Fire and Traffic at M-CORES toll road meeting, Madison, FL 2020-02-11.

Here’s an idea from WWALS member Janet Mikulski Messcher.

To: Governor Ron DeSantis
GovernorRon.Desantis@eog.myflorida.com
800-342-3557

Dear Governor DeSantis,

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, please seek ways to shift funding from unnecessary and destructive projects to those that support our current public and community health needs. In particular, the M-CORES legislation, passed in the 2019 session, includes money for the task force process and for construction of three destructive tollroads. There is significant public opposition to these roads which have not been proven to be necessary nor economically viable. Attention should be focused on supporting our public health, including additional testing and research to support development of a vaccine.

If the Legislature returns to Tallahassee for a special session to address the budget in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we recommend that the House and Senate budget leaders consider diverting the $135 million (FY 2019/20 and FY 2020/21) earmarked from the M-CORES tollroads to go to pandemic response efforts and other community health priorities.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Please share this post and send in your letters. Feel free to copy your M-CORES Task Force members.

Photo: Bill Galvano, President, Florida Senate, Twitter, 17 May 2019.
Photo: Bill Galvano, President, Florida Senate, Twitter, 17 May 2019.

Here are more videos from the Madison County meeting of February 11, 2020, continuing the series that I started yesterday. I do not know whether these speakers support repurposing the funds as above, but Florida Conservation Voters was among the 90 organizations that asked Gov. DeSantis to veto the toll roads bill, as part of the No Toll Roads to Ruin coalition.

Lindsay Cross of Florida Conservation Voters asked the M-CORES Task Force to consider community vision instead of the toll road vision foisted on all of us by a few people in Tallahassee.

The Mayor of Monticello, Troy Avera, had been trying to sit on the fence, but he really doesn’t like a bypass, which would starve his city.

Again: alert water quality at Knights Ferry, Withlacoochee River 2020-03-18

2020-03-23: Filthy Crooked Creek, clean Okapilco Creek upstream 2020-03-20.

Yet again, over alert level of E. coli at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp on the Withlacoochee River, after elevated levels on Okapilco Creek. WWALS will be testing today. You can help.

[Okapilco Creek and Knights Ferry]
Okapilco Creek and Knights Ferry

Most of the week most of the numbers were green, for less than the 126 cfu/100 mL E. coli that Georgia Adopt-A-Stream, EPA, and FDEP recommend for longterm averages. This was in both Valdosta and Florida Department of Health (really Madison Health) testing. See also what do these numbers mean?

[Good week until Wednesday and Friday]
Good week until Wednesday and Friday
For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of all known data sources see https://wwals.net/issues/testing/.

Until numbers started going up on Okapilco Creek Monday, March 16, 2020. The USGS gauge at US 84 on the Withlacoochee River recorded a smidgeon of rain that day. Given the prevailing weather patterns that day, with rain coming in from the west, apparently some rain fell on Brooks County before it got to the river.

I was over at Crooked Creek on Monument Church Road in Brooks County to test on Tuesday, March 17, when rain fell in a gully-washer.

[Closeup Bucket in Crooked Creek]
Closeup Bucket in Crooked Creek

That’s the fastest I’ve seen Crooked Creek, and it Continue reading →

Bad Withlacoochee Friday, Worse Crooked Creek Saturday 2020-03-07

Update 2020-03-13: Video: Earth Day Cleanup and Paddle –Suwannee Riverkeeper & Georgia Power on Scott James Radio 2020-03-12.

Valdosta’s Friday Withlacoochee River Knights Ferry results were bad enough, but the WWALS Crooked Creek Sunday results were even worse. Crooked Creek is upstream of Okapilco Creek and Knights Ferry.

[Withlacoochee, Okapilco, Crooked Creek 2020-03-07]
Withlacoochee, Okapilco, Crooked Creek 2020-03-07
For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of data from Georgia and Florida sources, see https://wwals.net/issues/testing/.

We have no new results from Florida since the Madison Health TNTC Thursday results.

A useful thing about the Valdosta results is you can see that the E. coli readings are very high starting at Knights Ferry, but not upstream. So this is not coming from Valdosta. WWALS continues testing and nwrrowing the sources of this contamination. You can help.

Continue reading →

Protect the Right to Farm Act. Ask Your Legislators to Vote NO on HB 545

Farmers and other rural property owners have the right to use and enjoy their private properties. But a bill supported by corporate agricultural lobbyists will change the long standing Right to Farm Act. This 30 year old law has protected family farmers and property rights of Georgians for decades.

Oppose HB 545 to protect the Right to Farm Act

HB 545 restricts landowners’ rights to protect their property values and quality of life if a new industrial agricultural operation moves in and causes a nuisance. HB 545 weakens Georgia’s long-standing Right to Farm Act.

HB 545 says that no agricultural facility may be sued for nuisance if it has been “in operation” for at least 2 years—even if the nuisance-causing activity hasn’t started or impacted neighbors yet. And even if the neighbors were there first! This turns 35 years of Right to Farm law on its head.

EXAMPLE Continue reading →

Georgia Capitol Conservation Day 2020-02-26

Come to Atlanta to talk about Georgia conservation issues, at Capitol Conservation Day, organized by the Georgia Water Coalition.

When: 7:30 AM to noon, Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Where: Central Presbyterian Church, 201 Washington St. SW, Atlanta, GA 30303
then across the street to the Georgia State Capitol.

Event: facebook

[Many people]
Photo: John S. Quarterman, Many people at CCD 2019.

The day will start with breakfast at 7:30am [at Central Presbytrian Church] followed by updates on timely water-related legislation and advocacy training. Attendees will then go to the Capitol to meet with their legislators either at the ropes or by making an appointment with their legislator. Registration for this inspiring is now open and limited to the first 200 people. Click here to register.

You can also become a sponsor for Continue reading →

Southern Cross Dairy (Suwannee Farms) liquidation and permit renewal 2019-11-25

Today I got an automated notice from FDEP about a wastewater permit for Suwannee Farms, and a WWALS member sent a picture of this auction sign saying “HUGE PRODUCE & ROW CROP FARM COMPLETE LIQUIDATION” next to a bigger sign saying Suwannee Farms. This is in Suwannee County near the Suwannee River.

[HUGE PRODUCE & ROW CROP FARM COMPLETE LIQUIDATION]

I called DeMottAuction.com and asked if the land was also for sale. They said they weren’t selling the land, only equipment. Which of course doesn’t mean that the land is not for sale; only that Continue reading →

Full page ad by titanium miners in Charlton County Herald 2019-09-25

Update 2019-11-07: This blog post published as an op-ed in the Charlton County Herald, October 9, 2019, as Convenience of private profit is no excuse to risk Okefenokee.

[Convenience of private profit is no excuse to risk Okefenokee --Suwannee Riverkeeper]
Convenience of private profit is no excuse to risk Okefenokee –Suwannee Riverkeeper

It’s the miners who are proposing to risk the Okefenokee Swamp for their private profit, so it’s their job to provide proof, despite what the Twin Pines full page ad in the Charlton County Herald says. Alex Kearns has already made this point for St. Marys Earthkeepers in a letter to the editor. You can comment on the newspaper’s website on that one, or you can send one, too, to: editor@charltonherald.com.

[CharltonCounty-Herald 25Sept2019-0001]
CharltonCounty-Herald 25Sept2019-0001
PDF

Yet in our Suwannee Riverkeeper comments to the Corps, we have provided quite a few studies that indicate the risk, including a Florida Consent Order against the same company for similar mines in Florida.

Where are these studies Twin Pines touts in the ad? They were not in Twin Pines’ mining application, as we and many others, including U.S. EPA and GA-EPD have pointed out. When will these miners’ studies be published?

The one Twin Pines hydrogeological study I have been able to find is in a different application that this miners’ ad doesn’t mention: for groundwater withdrawal and use. That study shows the 4.32 million gallons per day the miners’ want (more than twice all the current permitted water withdrawals in Charlton County) would lower the level of the Floridan Aquifer under the Swamp.

[Figure 8. Drawdown 2930 days]
Figure 8. Drawdown 2930 days

At the August 13, 2019 miners’ meeting in Folkston, GA, Steve Ingle claimed the mine would not affect the Floridan Aquifer, and the miners’ hydrologist Mark Tanner claimed there would be no cone of depression under the Swamp, both on video. This was two weeks after the same company had filed its withdrawal application with a hydrology report that clearly depicts a cone of depression extending under the Swamp. A report authored by the same two hydrologists who were at the August 13th meeting: Robert M. Holt and J. Mark Tanner.

The same miners’ hydrologists also repeatedly refused to guarantee there would be no effect on the Suwannee River, despite the ad’s claims of “100% certainty.”

Pretty much every other point in that ad is similarly easily rebuttable.

It’s curious they didn’t mention their biggest selling point: Continue reading →

Tycor Farms Solamerica Solar Farm in Alapaha River Basin

Solamerica Energy is building another solar farm in the Alapaha River Basin, leasing from Tycor Farms LLC, 6530 GA 376, Lake Park, Georgia, 31636.

[Alapaha River Water Trail Map]
Map: John S. Quarterman, from WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail Map.

There seem to be wetlands on the east side of the property, leading to Enoch Creek, then into the Alapahoochee River, into the Alapaha, the Suwannee, and on to the Gulf. However, the likely wetlands seem to be along the eastern edge of the cleared area, so one can guess Continue reading →