Category Archives: Aquifer

The Floridan Aquifer is our main drinking water source under our entire WWALS watershed, east to south Carolina, west through Alabama to Mississippi, and under all of Florida.

Now at VSU: Aquifers, sinkholes, and ground scans –Don Thieme @ WWALS

Update 2019-04-02: Videos.

Moved to VSU, University Center, Dogwood Room! Prof. Don Thieme of VSU will speak about underground water issues at the October WWALS board meeting in Wednesday October 9th at 7:30 PM in Valdosta. Join the facebook event or come as you are.

Here’s the letter Prof. Thieme and two other VSU professors wrote to the Air Force about sinkholes and subsidence on the proposed Moody Family Housing in Lowndes County, which also turns out to be in an aquifer recharge zone.

Here’s VSU’s campus map and here’s a google map: Continue reading

Aquifers, sinkholes, and ground scans –Don Thieme @ WWALS

Moved to VSU, University Center, Dogwood Room!
Prof. Don Thieme of VSU will speak about underground water issues at the October WWALS board meeting in Wednesday October 9th at 7:30 PM in Adel at the IHOP, 1200 W 4th Street. Valdosta.

Here’s the letter Prof. Thieme and two other VSU professors wrote to the Air Force about sinkholes and subsidence on the proposed Moody Family Housing in Lowndes County, which also turns out to be in an aquifer recharge zone.

It’s an open board meeting anyone can attend for the business part, as well. Here’s the agenda:

Agenda WWALS Board Meeting
7:30 pm October 9, 2013
IHOP, Adel GA
  1. Call to Order, Welcome and Introductions
  2. Speaker: Don Thieme, VSU geologist. Topic: Aquifers, sinkholes, and ground scans.
  3. Agenda Review: Additions and Changes
  4. Review and Approval of Minutes of September Board Meeting
  5. Future Meetings and Events
    1. Monthly outing (fourth Saturday): October 26, 2013 at Banks Lake near Lakeland.
    2. Monthly board meeting (second Wednesday): November 13 Continue reading

Aquifer at max pumping in central Florida

Remember, this is our aquifer, too. And watch out! They’d rather pipe somebody else’s river water than conserve in Central Florida.

Kevin Spear wrote for the Orlando Sentinel yesterday, Analysis: Floridan Aquifer can only handle 6% more pumping before serious environmental harm,

Just how much more water can Central Florida pump from the Floridan Aquifer without causing real harm to the region’s environment? After years of debate, study and anxiety, state authorities say they have finally — and officially — figured it out.

The answer: hardly any.

Using the most advanced databases and computing methodology yet developed for such a task, a consortium of state water managers and local utilities have calculated that the current amount of water pumped from the underground aquifer each day can be increased by only about 6 percent — which means the region is already exploiting the huge, life-sustaining aquifer for nearly every drop it can safely offer.

Beware! Continue reading

the single largest asset that you’ll ever own –Gordon Rogers

Albany TV covered yesterday’s WWALS Watershed Conference. First picture by Fox31, the rest by John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman. WWALS video will follow.

Franklin White wrote for Fox31online yesterday, The importance of Watershed conservation,

Gordon Rogers says, “it’s important to advocate for good management by our resource agencies within that framework of laws.”

Franklin White, Fox 31, and Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper at WWALS Water Conference

Gordon says it hits home for him because the Flint River where he works ranks second on the american rivers endangered rivers list, a reason he says water management is such an important issue to the region.

Hydrology

He says, “it belongs to all of us. it’s the single largest asset that you’ll ever own is your river and your creek and you’re aquifer.”

Environmental Lobbyist Neill Herring says the goal is to restore and preserve the habitat, water quality and flow of the Flint and other rivers.

Neill Herring

Herring says, “these natural resources particularly the water systems are their private property, they have a property interest in the water.”

And outside of the Flint, officials say there are four other major rivers to keep an eye on. those being Willacooche, Withlocooche, Alapha, and Little River systems.

Blackwater

“Cause it’s a rapidly moving political landscape. Operating wisely with this limited amount of water that you have,” says Gordon.

Permits

He says it’s important for local citizens to take ownership of the political process of their watershed. To learn more, visit the Watershed Coalitions website at WWALS.net.

Floridan Aquifer VSU class paper

Found by Chris Graham. I added the illustrations and the table. -jsq

THE FLORIDAN AQUIFER

by Sandra McCullough
Sandra McCullough lives in Valdosta, Georgia. She is a Speech Communications major and has an interest in the Environment and Humankind’s interaction with the Environment. Sandra plans to continue her education and become a teacher of public speaking. The topic to be discussed here is the Floridan Aquifer.

The Floridan aquifer system is very important to a large number of people, despite general lack of knowledge of or about it. The Floridan aquifer underlies all of Florida, south Georgia, and parts of both Alabama and South Carolina.’ This particular aquifer system is one of the major sources of ground-water in the United States. For this reason and more, studies of its function have been done for years. These studies as well as other findings will be discussed in this paper.

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WWALS Watershed Conference, Tifton, GA, 24 August 2013

How we manage water affects our water’s quality and quantity. WWALS logo WWALS Watershed Coalition is pleased to announce a Water Conference where Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper will share information on hydrology of the South Georgia region and Neill Herring, Environmental Lobbyist, will discuss upcoming legislation that can affect our watersheds and aquifer. The conference will take place in Tifton on Saturday, August 24, 2013 from 9:00 am until noon at the NESPAL, University of Georgia, Tifton Campus at 2360 Rainwater Road.

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Entering Floridan Aquifer Recharge Zone

Maybe we need signs like that around here to remind people that what goes into the ground comes out in our drinking water. For example, San Antonio has its Edwards Aquifer Protection Program. Maybe our local governments need to have Floridan Aquifer Protection Programs. Georgia state law seems to indicate they should.

GA Secretary of State has GA Code §391-3-16-.02 Criteria For Protection of Groundwater Recharge Areas. (more legible copy on GA EPD website),

Georgia's Groundwater Recharge Areas (1) Background. Variable levels of recharge area protection can be based upon the State’s hydrogeology (e.g., areas such as the Dougherty Plain where a major aquifer crops out would receive a relatively high degree of protection whereas other areas, such as the shale hills of northwest Georgia, would receive a lower degree of protection). Recharge area protection within the significant recharge areas would be further refined, based upon the local susceptibility or vulnerability to human induced pollution (e.g., high, medium, or low). The significant recharge areas have already been identified and mapped (about 22-23% of the State). Pollution susceptibility mapping is ongoing. Existing statutes are adequate for protecting the remaining recharge areas (about 77-78% of the State).

[…]

(2)(f)3. In the Coastal Plain, the significant recharge areas are Continue reading

Agricultural runoff

The Southern Georgia Regional Commission invites you to contact them about agricultural runoff. WWALS is concerned with how industrial farming and clear cutting affects both water quality and quantity in our watershed.

Runoff on Old Valdosta Road in Berrien County 2013-07-08 The pictured example of runoff from a cotton field was in Berrien County yesterday. While rain was pouring down, it ran half way across the road, and two cars wrecked. Once it gets across the road, either over it or through the culvert, it runs into the Withlacoochee River. As Pesticide Action Network reminds us, “Conventionally grown cotton uses more insecticides than any other single crop.”

Abbie Fentress Swanson wrote for GPB 6 July 2013, What Is Farm Runoff Doing To The Water? Scientists Wade In,

Agriculture is the nation’s leading cause of impaired water quality, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Ask Georgia Power to conserve our water –WWALS to GA PSC

Approved 12 June 2013 by unanimous vote of the WWALS board, Dave has mailed a signed copy to the Georgia Public Service Commission, and I will go read it to the PSC Tuesday morning at 10 AM 18 June 2013, at their hearing about

Docket 36498, Georgia Power Company’s 2013 Integrated Resource Plan and Application for Decertification of Various Units
and
Docket 36499, Application for the Certification of Amended Demand Side Management Plan

Y’all come! -jsq

From: WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.
3338 Country Club Road #L336
Valdosta, GA 31605
12 June 2013

To: Georgia
Public Service Commission

244 Washington Street, SW
Atlanta GA, 30334-9052

Dear Public Service Commissioners and Staff,

The recent rains have swollen our blackwater rivers, Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, and Little, under our longleaf pines and Spanish-moss-covered oaks, and filled up the tea-colored tannin waters in our frog-singing pocosin cypress swamps here in central South Georgia. But that was only a dent in our protracted drought that ranges from mild to extreme, with projections not much better.

We do not need more traditional big baseload power plants gulping down our river or aquifer water when solar and wind power use far less, and those renewables are now at grid parity with coal, natural gas, and nuclear.

Power plants are thirsty, as the Union of Concerned Scientists pointed out in a 2011 report, “Freshwater Use by U.S. Power Plants: Electricity’s Thirst for a Precious Resource”.

Much of the water used to cool power plants evaporates, and is Continue reading

Watershed meeting organized by Army Corps of Engineers

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) didn’t know there was a large water problem hereabouts, but now they do, and they want to take a watershed-wide approach, from the headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico, including both surface water and aquifer issues, perhaps starting with redrawing FEMA’s flood maps, and maybe even including once again funding the state water council.

Thursday 11 April 2013 there was a rather large governmental meeting organized by USACE in response to the City of Valdosta’s request of 11 March 2103. Yesterday, Valdosta City Council District 5 Tim Carroll sent the appended list of attendees, augmented by a conversation with him on the phone just now. We know little else, because no media or private citizens were invited.

  • USACE Savannah office: Jeff Morris, Georgia Silver Jackets Coordinator and Beth Williams, Hydraulic Engineer
  • USACE Jacksonville office: David Apple, Chief, Watershed and Restoration Planning Section
  • GADNR: Christopher Hill and Tom Shillock, GAEPD Floodplain Management Unit
  • GEMA: Dee Langley, Planning Program Manager and Terry Lunn, Director, Hazard Mitigation Division
  • GEMA: Gary Rice – Regional Field Coordinator
  • USGS: Brian McCallum, Supv. Hydrologist/ADir and Keith McFadden, Physical Scientist
  • FEMA Region 4: Susan Wilson, CFM, Floodplain Management and Insurance Branch Chief and Janice Mitchell, Insurance Specialist and Lender Compliance

Those state and national agencies were brought by:

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