Category Archives: Board Meeting

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 →

WWALS board and officer elections

Dear WWALS Watershed Friend,

The WWALS Watershed Coalition has had an excellent first year. We have had many people join to become dues-paying members, many excellent speakers and many excellent outings on our local rivers.

It is my pleasure to let you know that we will have our first annual meeting along with the election of three board members at our July 10th meeting.

If you are a member, you should have received a letter already informing you of the upcoming meeting.

If you aren’t a member yet, you are welcome to attend the annual meeting and become a member.

Our annual meeting will be Continue reading →

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 →

George Page of VL Parks and Rec speaks to WWALS Board 2013-06-12

Draft Agenda

WWALS Watershed Coalition
Regular Meeting
Board of Directors
Wednesday 7:30 PM 12 June 2013
IHOP, Adel, GA
  1. Call to Order, Welcome and Introductions
  2. Special Speaker – George Page
    Valdosta Lowndes Parks and Recreation Executive Director since 2011.
    Mr. Page will update us on current park efforts and river access
    perhaps plus some VLPRA ideas on river trails. Continue reading →

George Vellidis Dissolved Oxygen Slides

PDF of Dissolved Oxygen Dynamics in the Upper Suwannee River Basin by Prof. George Vellidis, Crop & Soil Sciences Dept., University of Georgia, Tifton, GA. He used these slides when he discussed the dynamics of dissolved oxygen concentrations in WWALS waterways at the 8 May 2013 WWALS board meeting.

More later.

-jsq

Agenda, WWALS Board meeting, 7:30 PM 10 April 2013, IHOP, Adel

Here is the agenda for tonight’s board meeting. The public is invited. -jsq

WWALS logo WWALS Watershed Coalition
Regular Meeting
Board of Directors
7:30 PM 10 April 2013, IHOP, Adel, GA
Continue reading →

Reservoirs for control of stormwater –Tim Carroll

Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll spoke about the need for watershed-wide planning to reduce flooding and provide water for agriculture with distributed flood containment reservoirs. He referred to the materials he sent in advance as well as to some additional data about water quality measurements upstream and downstream of selected points. And he sent an update the next day.

Tim Carroll noted that one thing that was clear from the Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson’s 2010 presentation to the Suwannee-Satilla Water Council about the 2009 flood was that the drainage basin study proposed by that Council (which completed its report and disbanded) still needs to be completed. For that purpose, Hanson had just sent a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers requesting assistance. Apparently they have partial answer, and they’re also talking the state.

Carroll said that with the renewed attention to flooding problems Continue reading →

Tim Carroll of Valdosta at WWALS board meeting tonight

Valdosta City Council member Tim Carroll will speak tonight at the monthly WWALS Watershed Coalition board meeting at 7:30 PM at the IHOP in Adel (exit 39 from I-75, 1200 W 4th St, Adel, GA, 229-896-2662); the public is invited. In advance he sent the appended letter from the City of Valdosta to the Army Corps of Engineers requesting assistance related to flooding and droughts.

March 11, 2013

William Bailey
Chief of Planning Division
US Army Corps of Engineers – Savannah District Office
100 W. Oglethorpe Avenue
Savannah, Georgia 31401

Dear Mr. Bailey,

Over the last several years, the City of Valdosta and neighboring communities have been severely impacted by the increase of flood events that have occurred throughout our region and particularly the drainage basin we are located in. The city recognizes the various levels of responsibility throughout government agencies for flood management and flood control and is interested in furthering the discussions to understand the changes that are occurring and to ensure the protection of our communities from future flood events.

In February 2009, the city began updating its 1996 Master Stormwater Management Plan. In April, just two months later, our county along with 46 counties in south Georgia, experienced historic flooding and were declared disaster areas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported

Continue reading →

Emily Davenport, Storm Water Utilities Director, City of Valdosta, at WWALS 27 June 2013 2012

The first speaker at a WWALS board meeting after incorporation was Emily Davenport, the Storm Water Utilities Director for the City of Valdosta.

Emily Davenport, Brittney Hull, Angela Bray of SGRC, Dave Hetzel Emily Davenport, Brittney Hull (Treasurer), Angela Bray of SGRC, Dave Hetzel (President), Nathan Wilkins (Secretary), visitor, Gretchen Quarterman, Bret Wagenhorst, John S. Quarterman (VP, photographing)
Emily Davenport, Brittney Hull (Treasurer), Angela Bray of SGRC, Dave Hetzel (President), Nathan Wilkins (Secretary), visitor, Gretchen Quarterman, Bret Wagenhorst, John S. Quarterman (VP, photographing)

Bret Wagenhorst, Gretchen Quarterman, visitor, Emily Davenport, Brittney Hull, Angela Bray of SGRC

-jsq