Category Archives: Conference

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

South Georgia author Janisse Ray fundraiser for WWALS Watershed Coalition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PDF of event flyer

Tifton, GA, April 17, 2013, WWALS Watershed Coalition brings Janisse Ray, a South Georgia naturalist and conservation writer to Tifton for fundraising, food and fun on Saturday May 11th at Blackshank Pavilion, 457 N. Carpenter Road.

A native to South Georgia, Ray writes about the places that are familiar to us. She is an American writer, naturalist, and environmental activist. Ray will read to us from some of her works which include:
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood,
Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home,
Between Two Rivers: Stories from the Red Hills to the Gulf,
Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land,
A House of Branches,
Drifting into Darien: a Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River
and The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food.

Ray lives and works on a family farm in southern Georgia.

Cost: Family Event $5-Individual/$10-Family

Agenda

Continue reading

Food and Water Watch Workshop @ FAMU

FAMU PR 9 February 2013 on WCTV.com, FAMU Teams Up to Promote Sustainable Food Support Systems,

TALLAHASSEE, FL- Florida A&M University’s (FAMU) Statewide Small Farm Program, Food & Water Watch (FWW) and the Crescent Moon Organic Farm will host a food workshop titled “Building Sustainable Food Support Systems.” The workshop is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 10 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Crescent Moon Organic Farm in Sopchoppy.

The featured speaker will be Continue reading

Big Little Water: Camera 1 Videos on the Withlacoochee by Tom Baird

Here are videos of Tom Baird’s talk for WWALS hosted at VSU by Blazer Gardens, about the Y-shaped Withlacoochee, or Suwannee, or Swithlacoochee, from the dry Paleo-Indian era 14,000 or more years ago through atlatls in the woodland period and Troupville queen city through the Ellaville log boom to current-day over-pumping of the aquifer.

Here’s a playlist.

Big Little Water by Tom Baird 2012-09-11

Update 2012-09-13: Pictures from Camera 1.

Tonight at VSU Student Union:

Big Little Water – a survey of the history, geology and archaeology of the Withlacoochee River, with replica artifacts people can handle, and slides.

“I’ll also get into some of the current threats to the river and maybe we can get into a good discussion and Q&A.”
Website event and facebook event.

WWALS Seminar September 22nd

Neill Herring, Veteran Conservation Lobbyist at the Georgia General Assembly, on the political economy of water conservation in Georgia.

Jesslyn Shields of Georgia River Network on River Protection Success Stories in Georgia

And a variety of other Presentations and Potluck Lunch, Discussions and Arboretum Walk. Join us for an interesting day and meet the Officers and Board of Directors to see how you can make a difference in our Watersheds in South Georgia. We are a Non-profit group who are interested in clean water and leaving a better planet for our kids and grand-kids.

Register here.
Update 6 September 2012: better JPEG rendering of flyer.