Category Archives: creeks

WWALS calls for city trash reforms –Valdosta Daily Times 2023-03-09

Update 2023-03-29: Valdosta Creek Trash Tour 2023-03-29.

Come to Two Mile Branch Saturday, March 25, 2023, see the trash problem for yourself, and talk to many of the people mentioned in this article.

Malia Thomas, Valdosta Daily Times, March 9, 2023 , Group calls for city trash reforms,

VALDOSTA — In the WWALS Watershed Coalition’s eyes, the city needs to clean up its act.

[Sugar Creek Beach, trash, WaterGoat trash trap, Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson, Suwannee Riverkeeper]
Sugar Creek Beach, trash, WaterGoat trash trap, Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson, Suwannee Riverkeeper

John Quarterman, Suwannee [R]iverkeeper of WWALS, and Bobby McKenzie, [former] WWALS intern, have expressed concern over trash pile ups in the city’s waterways, particularly in Sugar Creek. Continue reading →

Clean Rivers 2023-03-16

Update 2023-03-24: Clean Withlacoochee River 2023-03-22.

The Withlacoochee and Little Rivers tested clean from Thursday samples.

Beware rain is expected tomorrow evening.

So if you want to boat, fish, or swim this weekend, Saturday morning would be best.

[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide 2023-03-16]
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide 2023-03-16

Tifton spilled 30,000 gallons of sewage Saturday, March 11, 2023, into a creek that runs into the New River, then the Withlacoochee. That was probably diluted before it got far downstream. Or was it? Valdosta got very high E. coli that Monday, March 13th. There was much rain in between, so something else may have also been washed into the river. See other post. Continue reading →

Tifton Evergreen Drive Sewage Spill 2023-03-11

Update 2023-03-17: Clean Rivers 2023-03-16.

Tifton spilled 30,000 gallons of raw sewage last Saturday, March 11, 2023, on a creek near the New River, because of “Debris”.

[Spill, rivers]
Spill, rivers

The spill showed up in GA-EPD’s Sewage Spills Report yesterday, March 16, 2023. Continue reading →

Pictures: Azalea Festival Saturday 2023-03-11

Veronica Oakler, the new WWALS Development Director, helped all morning Saturday at Azalea Festival in Valdosta,

[Development Director, Mayor, Raffle Kayak]
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 →

Clean Rivers 2023-03-09

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.

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

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 →

Beyond cleanups: trash traps, ordinances, business permits, reusable substitutes, bottle deposits, and single-use packaging bans 2023-02-05

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]
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 →

Cleanup: Two Mile Branch at Berkley Drive, Valdosta, GA 2022-03-25

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]

Valdosta City Engineer Benjamin O’Dowd said, Continue reading →

Pictures: Lee Street Trash Trap

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]
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 →

Videos: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Sewage spills, Trash, Okefenokee Swamp over stripmine @ Radio 2023-02-28

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.

[Bypass, Talk92.1 FM, Two Mile Branch, Lee Street Trash Trap, Suwannee Riverkeeper, Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson]
Bypass, Talk92.1 FM, Two Mile Branch, Lee Street Trash Trap, Suwannee Riverkeeper, Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson

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 →

Valdosta February 2023 sewage spills, plus Ashburn 2023-03-01

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.

[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]
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

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 →