Category Archives: creeks

New week river water quality update 2023-02-06

Update 2023-02-10: Clean rivers before rain 2023-02-09.

Here’s an update between our weekly WWALS water quality reports.

Three more downstream WWALS Withlacoochee River test sites matched the upstream ones for Thursday, February 2nd, as predicted.

However, not as predicted, Valdosta got too-high upstream results for Friday, February 3rd, at GA 133 and US 84 (but not at US 41). So apparently the drizzle of rain that Thursday did wash something into the river. However, Valdosta’s results for Monday at the same sites are all good, so whatever it was, it was short-lived.

And Rochelle, Georgia, got around to reporting another small far-upstream sewage spill in the Alapaha River basin.

[Chart, Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide, 2023-02-02]
Chart, Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide, 2023-02-02

The additional downstream sites I sampled last Thursday were the Continue reading →

Videos: Morven Solar denied @ Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06

After two hours of speakers in the Public Hearing, the Brooks County Commission this Monday denied the Special Exception for Morven Solar, 3:1:1.

[Speakers, Decision: Morven Solar @ Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06]
Speakers, Decision: Morven Solar @ Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06

Commissioner Myra Exum, after saying that whatever the Commissioners did they would be wrong, Continue reading →

Water budget, limit water withdrawals, do better aquifer recharge –WWALS to NFRWSP 2023-01-31

Update 2023-09-14: Draft 2023 North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP) workshop 2023-09-21.

Sent as PDF.

January 31, 2023

To: SRWMD, SJRWMD, partnership@sjrwmd.com

Re: Water budget, limit water withdrawals, do better aquifer recharge, NFRWSP

Dear Water Management Districts,

Thank you for the opportunity for public input.

[Not every demand needs water withdrawals]
Not every demand needs water withdrawals

At the November 15, 2022, public meeting about the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP), I thanked the presenters for all the hard work they had put into the details, such as in the North Florida-Southeast Georgia (NFSEG) regional groundwater flow model .

I have some issues with another level. I noticed repeated assertions in the public meeting that demand or projected demand are just taken as givens. So basically anybody who wants to build a golf course, or start another titanium mine, or plant almond trees that need lots of water, that’s just a given, that’s demand.

Continue reading →

Herbivores, sediment basins, silt fences for Morven Solar –WWALS to Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06

Update 2023-02-08: Morven Solar denied @ Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06.

Before this evening’s Brooks County Commission decision on a Special Exception for Morven Solar, WWALS wrote asking for three conditions.

[Letter and Map --WWALS to Brooks County Commission about Morven Solar 2023-02-06]
Letter and Map –WWALS to Brooks County Commission about Morven Solar 2023-02-06

The meeting is 5PM tonight, Monday, February 6, 2023, at Brooks County Courthouse, East Screven Street, Quitman, GA, 31643.

See also Videos: Morven Solar at Brooks County Planning Commission 2023-01-19.

Here is the WWALS letter, sent to the Brooks County Commission as PDF. Continue reading →

Videos: Morven Solar at Brooks County Planning Commission 2023-01-19

Update 2023-02-08: Morven Solar denied @ Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06.

Update 2023-02-06: Herbivores, sediment basins, silt fences for Morven Solar –WWALS to Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06.

These WWALS videos show the Public Hearing that was the only agenda item at the Brooks County Planning Commission, January 19, 2023.

[Movie: Rules for Speaking --Pat Sharpe, Chair (30M)]
Movie: Rules for Speaking –Pat Sharpe, Chair (30M)

The Planning Commission recommended approval with conditions.

The actual decision on the Special Exception will be made tonight at 5PM by the Brooks County Commission at Brooks County Courthouse, East Screven Street, Quitman, GA, 31643.

There is no agenda for tonight’s meeting on the county’s website, WWALS has still not received agenda nor board packet in response to our open records request of January 30, 2023.

Here’s a LAKE video playlist:


Videos: Morven Solar at Brooks County Planning Commission 2023-01-19
Videos by John S. Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS).

Below are links to each WWALS video of each speaker. Except for some camera glitches, these videos show the entire meeting.

See also the agenda, the board packet, the pictures of the sites of Morven Solar, and Report: Conditions wanted on Morven Solar by Brooks County Planning Commission 2023-01-20.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

Continue reading →

Clean rivers 2023-02-02

Update 2023-02-09: New week river water quality update 2023-02-06.

Happy paddling, fishing, and swimming (if you like cold) this weekend!

Yes, we are paddling tomorrow (Saturday) on the Withlacoochee River from Allen Ramp to Suwannee River State Park. If you like high water including a quarter mile paddle upstream, join us!

All the WWALS water quality tests were well within the one-time test limit.

The rains promised for yesterday mostly did not happen, so most likely not much contamination washed into the rivers.

The only sewage spill was small and at the top of the Alapaha River watersheds, and it did not appear to affect downstream water quality.

[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map]
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map

The city of Rochelle, Georgia, at least took less than a week to report its sewage spill. Continue reading →

Valdosta needs more trash traps, but can’t expect volunteers to clean them 2023-01-26

Just to see if Russell Allen McBride had changed his mind since December, I asked him again as he waded in to clean out the Sugar Creek WaterGoat: if Valdosta finally buys more trash traps like they’ve been promising for many months, will he clean them out?

Answer: not unless the city makes that his full time job.

[Russell waist-deep in the trash]
Russell waist-deep in the trash

He also mentioned that the recent big rain washed some trash over the current WaterGoat, so Valdosta needs a better model for this location, which is on Sugar Creek just upstream from the Withlacoochee River.

See the video on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/941601463886544

Or on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/y5Zi8es3nLI


Video by John S. Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc., 2023-01-26

For much more about the trash situation, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/trash Continue reading →

Withlacoochee River bridges, Brooks and Lowndes Counties, 1906 and 1917

Knight Bridge and Rocky Ford Bridge appear in some century-old maps in Georgia Archives.

[Knight Bridge 1917 and remaining posts 2022]
Knight Bridge 1917 and remaining posts 2022

At the top left you can see a road going to the site of Spain Ferry.

Another road reaches the river downstream from there. Current aerial maps show that road is still there in the woods, although the path of the river seems to have shifted west somewhat at that point.

Then there’s Knight Bridge, near where Knights Ferry Boat Ramp is now.

Notice that the old road to Knight Bridge jags south before it gets to the river.

In this current map you can see that old road still there in the woods. Continue reading →

Phosphate and titanium mining, water withdrawals, and trash @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26

The North Central Florida Regional Planning Council had several public speakers cram topics into their three minutes each.

[Phosphate and Titanium Mines, and Trash @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26]
Phosphate and Titanium Mines, and Trash @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26

Two directly-affected women and Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, a board member of Our Santa Fe River (OSFR), talked about the Cornerstone Crossings mega development on top of Clay Hole Creek and Cannon Creek confluence, a part of the Ichetucknee Trace, which is in the Southwest quadrant of I-75 and SR 47 Hwy interchange, due south of Lake City in Columbia County, Florida. Merillee wondered about the development’s water withdrawal permit, and how much PFAS it might unleash into the waterways and the underlying Floridan Aquifer. She displayed LiDAR maps she got from SRWMD that clearly show the Ichetucknee Trace. Continue reading →

Permitting and Recreation –SRWMD @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26

Update 2023-01-31: Phosphate and titanium mining, water withdrawals, and trash @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26.

The guest speaker Thursday evening at the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council (NCFRPC) was Troy Roberts, Communications and Outreach Manager for the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD).

[Permitting and Recreation --SRWMD @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26]
Permitting and Recreation –SRWMD @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26

While I’m sure he’d be willing to come speak to your organization, I’d like to mention a few things he talked about, namely permitting and recreation.

Permits

On the SRWMD website, Continue reading →