Veronica Oakler, the new WWALS Development Director, helped all morning Saturday at Azalea Festival in Valdosta,
![[Development Director, Mayor, Raffle Kayak]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-11--azalea-festival-saturday-pictures/many.jpg)
Development Director, Mayor, Raffle Kayak
Plus Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson and family posed with the Vibe Sea Ghost 130 kayak he donated, which WWALS is raffling off. The boat retails for $1,300 and comes with paddle and rudder. The Mayor says he used it only once.
It was a fine day, Continue reading
Update 2023-03-17: Clean Rivers 2023-03-16.
Update 2023-03-17: Tifton Evergreen Drive Sewage Spill 2023-03-11.
It rained this evening, but probably not enough to wash much contamination into the rivers, which were very clean before, according to WWALS water quality tests. So I would paddle, fish, or swim this weekend.
Actually, I’ll be at the Azalea Festival in Valdosta Saturday and Sunday.
No new sewage spills were reported in the past week. However, Tifton got around to reporting today a spill from a month ago. Continue reading
Update 2023-12-23: The Real Trash Problem is the Producers, and How to Stop It 2023-12-23.
Update 2023-03-29: Trash still dribbling from 2695 N Ashley St into Two Mile Branch 2023-02-24.
Every Waterkeeper and many local and even state governments brag about trash cleanups. Cleanups need to be done, but actually they are the least effective way to deal with trash. They do not stop trash; they just remove it once it blows off roads or parking lots or floats downstream.
So let’s look up, to see more effective solutions.
![[Solid waste management hierarchy]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-05--waste-pyramid/big/2023-02-19--Solid-waste-management-hierarchy.jpg)
Solid waste management hierarchy
Here WWALS has adapted an industry-standard waste management hierarchy diagram. We’ve gone farther than just cleaning up, containing, or even reusing the trash. Our diagram goes all the way up to stopping it being produced.
Let’s start at the pointy bottom of the pyramid. Continue reading
Update 2023-07-12: Pictures: Two Mile Branch Berkley Drive Cleanup 2023-03-25.
Update 2023-03-29: Valdosta Creek Trash Tour 2023-03-29.
Valdosta, Georgia, March 9, 2023 — Come help get trash out of the woods by Two Mile Branch, upstream and downstream from Berkley Drive, in this joint cleanup by WWALS and the City of Valdosta.
![[Two Mile Branch at Berkley Drive cleanup]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-25--two-mile-branch-cleanup/two-mile-branch-berkley-drive-cleanup.jpg)
Valdosta City Engineer Benjamin O’Dowd said, Continue reading
Revisiting Two Mile Branch on February 27th, I asked Valdosta City Engineer Ben O’Dowd whether the Lee Street trash trap he was considering as a model to go at Berkley Drive was his design. He said no, that was all Stormwater Division.
Imagine if Mayor and Council allocated funds to put more of these in creeks across the city. Lots of trash would be kept out of the Withlacoochee and other Rivers. And also out of creeks within the city that attract children to play, and in which wildlife currently eat styrofoam that cannot digest.
Upstream education and enforcement is still needed for Valdosta’s ordinances that require property owners not to let trash escape and to have a so many trash cans strategically placed per number of parking spaces. Maybe soon the city will set an example as the Mayor has long promised by putting trash cans in its own parking lots, starting with across from City Hall.
![[Lee Street trash trap, side view, City Engineer and Stormwater Manager, door]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-27--lee-street-trash-trap/lee.jpg)
Lee Street trash trap, side view, City Engineer and Stormwater Manager, door
Stormwater Manager Angela Bray said she suggested the design, and her people took it from there and built the Lee Street trash trap. Continue reading
All about the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle this Saturday at Troupville Boat Ramp just west of Valdosta, down to Spook Bridge on the Withlacoochee River: Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson and Suwannee Riverkeeper talked about that on his 92.1 FM radio show Tuesday.
Plus trash, sewage, and you can help stop a strip mine too near the Okefenokee Swamp.
Thanks to the Mayor for being a good sport about being grilled about the numerous recent Valdosta sewage spills, totalling almost a million gallons. You can see the bypass pump from his driveway. Continue reading
2023-03-02: Videos: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Sewage spills, Trash, Okefenokee Swamp over stripmine @ Radio 2023-02-28.
Valdosta, population 55,567, spilled almost a million (966,970) gallons of sewage in February 2023: that’s 17 gallons for each citizen.
Are we back to the bad old days before the GA-EPD Enforcement Order of 2020? This is the worst period since the notorious December 2019 spill that provoked that Order.
Anybody who sees dead fish in Knights Creek, please let us know.
Ashburn, GA, spilled about a third as much in late January and early February. Given its population is a tenth that of Valdosta’s, Ashburn was worse per capita.
Neither were good for people or wildlife. Zero gallons of sewage spilled should be the goal.
Here are Valdosta’s five February sewage spills: Continue reading
Update 2023-03-02: Valdosta February 2023 sewage spills, plus Ashburn 2023-03-01.
The third sewage Valdosta sewage spill at the same location happened last Wednesday, and Valdosta got around to telling the public five days later.
![[Knights Creek to Alapaha River, E. Park Ave., US 84]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-22--yet-another-valdosta-sewage-spill/many.jpg)
Knights Creek to Alapaha River, E. Park Ave., US 84
Received 5:11 PM yesterday.
Collapsed Sewer Line Spillage Update
On Wednesday evening, February 22, 2023, during routine inspections of manholes upstream of the recent collapsed 20” sanitary sewer main, city staff observed a wastewater overflow near the 1800 block of East Park Avenue at the site of a previous sewer spill occurring on February 20, 2023. Upon investigation, it was determined that bypass pumping operation installations and unknown sediment blockages were likely the cause of the spill. City staff and a local contractor continue to work around the clock to adjust and remove blockages to stop and prevent any spills and make repairs to the collapsed sewer main. An estimated 119,000 gallons of wastewater was released into the wetland watershed area adjacent to Knights Creek. City staff immediately began cleanup and disinfecting at the overflow location. All appropriate regulatory and public health agencies have been notified, and warning signs have been posted.
The rest of this sewage spill press release is the same Continue reading
Update 2023-03-02: Videos: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Sewage spills, Trash, Okefenokee Swamp over stripmine @ Radio 2023-02-28.
Suwannee Riverkeeper will talk about the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle coming up this Saturday, saving the Okefenokee Swamp from a strip mine, trash, sewage, parks, and rivers on Scott James Talk 92.1 FM radio this morning, Tuesday, 8:30 AM.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1471470606719880
Topics discussed will probably include: Continue reading
Update 2023-03-03: Clean Rivers 2023-03-02.
2023-02-28: Yet another Valdosta sewage spill into Knights Creek 2023-02-22.
Happy boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend!
All the WWALS water quality test results for this Thursday were good.
We could use more water quality testers.
If you want to get trained, please use this form:
https://forms.gle/DzWvJuXqTQi12N6v7
![[Chart, River, Swim Guide 2023-02-23]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-23--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, River, Swim Guide 2023-02-23
Even though Valdosta had yet another major sewage spill Monday, due to inadequate sewer main bypass, it probably did not have much effect on the Alapaha River. When WWALS Testing Committee Chair Suzy Hall tested at Sasser Landing after Valdosta’s previous, even bigger, spill of Wednesday a week ago, due to sewer main collapse, results were fine at Sasser Landing, downstream of the spill location at Knights Creek, Mud Swamp Creek, the Alapahoochee River in Echols County, Georgia, and the Alapaha River in Hamilton County, Florida. Continue reading
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-09--wq/many.jpg)
![[Bypass, Talk92.1 FM, Two Mile Branch, Lee Street Trash Trap, Suwannee Riverkeeper, Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-28--radio-pictures/many.jpg)
![[Bypass pipe north from US 84, Warning sign on E. Park Av. at Knights Creek, ARWT map to Alapaha River, Sewer bypass under CSX RR at US 84]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-01--sewage-summary/many.jpg)
![[Radio, Paddle]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-28--scott-james-radio/many.jpg)