Category Archives: creeks

Clean Rivers 2022-05-05

Update 2022-05-13: Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha, Ichetucknee, Santa Fe all clean 2022-05-12.

Another clean river week! All the WWALS test results for Thursday and Wednesday are good.

It did just rain cats and dogs, but only briefly. We can’t know yet, but my guess is there wasn’t enough rain to wash much contamination into the rivers, not even down Okapilco Creek. I would paddle this weekend, or swim, or fish.

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

If you’re not doing that, come on down to the Salty Snapper for the WWALS Withlacoochee River cleanup. Continue reading →

Reroute: Langdale Park becomes Withlacoochee River and Sugar Creek Cleanup 2022-05-07

Update 2022-05-14: Mayor, Council, volunteers, helped WWALS clean up Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River 2022-05-07.

We’re changing this Saturday’s paddle to an on-land cleanup below the Salty Snapper parking lot, walking down Sugar Creek to the Withlacoochee River and the railroad bridge.

Because it’s now completely a cleanup, this outing is free! Also, no boat required. Bring mud boots, sturdy clothes, gloves, and any trash pickers you may have. We will supply trash bags. And for the Mayor, a Sawzall.

[Trash and log jams]
Trash and log jams

This reroute is because Continue reading →

Videos: Trash and river paddles, Suwannee Riverkeeper on Scott James Radio 2022-04-29

This morning, Valdosta Mayor Scott James and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman talked trash and river paddling on 92.1 FM talk radio.

[Movie: BIG Little River Paddle Race, Reed Bingham State Park 2022-04-30]
Movie: BIG Little River Paddle Race, Reed Bingham State Park 2022-04-30

Get your tickets today to join us tomorrow (Saturday) morning for the annual 3-mile WWALS BIG Little River Paddle Race down the idyllic blackwater Little River from Red Roberts Landing into Reed Bingham State Park Lake.

And another paddle next Saturday, May 7, 2022, on the Withlacoochee River from Langdale Park Boat Ramp to Sugar Creek. The Mayor promised to bring nets for trash. I’ll bring sawzalls for any deadfalls.

We mostly talked about the trash situation, in which the Mayor of Valdosta promised to get trash cans set out on the city’s own parking lots, starting with the ones across from City Hall. We discussed the cleanup award from GA-DNR I picked up in Atlanta Wednesday. Cleanups are great, but not enough. We also need trash traps to stop the stuff from getting out of the creeks into the rivers. And we need parking lot owners to keep trash from getting of their lots and to set out and clean out trash cans. Continue reading →

Hahira subdivision proposed near Big Branch of Franks Creek @ GLPC 2022-04-25

Update 2022-04-25: LAKE Videos.

According to the survey plat, the north boundary of this 72-acre subdivision parcel is a creek called Big Branch that runs into Franks Creek (which runs into the Little River, then the Withlacoochee, and the Suwannee).

[SURVEY plat]
SURVEY plat
PDF

The lot layout appears to stay well back from that branch and its surrounding wetlands. It’s inside the Hahira City Limits, and likely to be recommended by the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission at its meeting this evening. For more information, see Big Hahira rezoning, 4 small Valdosta @ GLPC 2022-04-25. Continue reading →

Residents can help keep rivers clean –Katherine Ball in Valdosta Daily Times 2022-04-15

Katherine Ball, Valdosta Daily Times, April 15, 2022, BALL: Residents can help keep rivers clean

I get excited, every year, as Earth Day approaches. Not only is it a great day to spend time preserving and enjoying our planet, it is also my birthday.

[Katherine Ball]
Katherine Ball

As I spend this Birth and Earth Day, in Valdosta, I am reminded of the many childhood memories I made playing in Three Mile Branch creek, off Country Club Road. Looking back, my experiences in those waters, directly shaped who I became as an adult and an artist.

Being the only girl in the Magnolia Plantation cul-de-sac, I often found myself, Continue reading →

Clean Rivers 2022-04-21

Update 2022-04-28: Clean rivers again 2022-04-28.

Happy Earth Day, and good swimming, boating, and fishing this weekend!

All the test results we have are fine for this weekend. There have been no new sewage spills reported in Georgia or Florida. And no rain is predicted for a week.

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

All the WWALS test results for Wednesday and Thursday were well down in clean green levels.

The most recent results we have from Valdosta are for Monday. They got too high on Okapilco Creek after the Sunday rains (presumably the usual cattle manure). But Valdosta got OK results downstream on the Withlacoochee River for Monday.

Valdosta’s Friday results corroborate what we reported last time. Continue reading →

Pictures: Two Mile Branch cleanup 2022-04-16

Eighteen people accepted Katherine Ball’s invitation to clean up Two Mile Branch behind Stone Castle.

Trash found in this Georgia Rivers Alive WWALS Earth Day cleanup included a Valdosta rezoning sign from 2007, a street-side trash bin, and many tires, as well as the usual bottles and cans.

Floridians, this is trash that would otherwise go down Two Mile Branch and Sugar Creek to the Withlacoochee River into Florida.

Some VSU students videoed the proceedings for a documentary. Nic Hathaway says he’s organizing Lowndes High students to help with trash.

[Creek, trash, banners]
Creek, trash, banners

Michael’s backhoe was necessary to pull some of that stuff out. The trash bin took a halfdozen to heave-ho.

Here’s a WWALS video playlist: Continue reading →

Clean Rivers 2022-04-15

Update 2022-04-22: Clean Rivers 2022-04-21.

Due to little rain, the Withlacoochee, Little, and Alapaha Rivers tested clean for last week. There has been significant rain since then, so conditions may have changed. As in E. coli may have washed down Okapilco Creek from cattle manure or from other creeks from other sources. There have been no new sewage spill reports for Georgia or Florida for the Suwannee River Basin.

Apologies for the late WWALS test results report. There were communication confusions during the holiday weekend.

[Chart, River, Swim Guide]
Chart, River, Swim Guide

Thanks to Elizabeth Brunner for testing her usual three GA 122 sites Thursday, at Folsom Bridge on the Little River, Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee River, and Lakeland Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River. Thanks to Gus Cleary for testing Wednesday his usual Cleary’s Bluff below Allen Ramp on the Withlacoochee River. And thanks to Sara and Scotti Jay for testing the Withlacoochee River Friday at Spook Bridge, Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps.

The most recent data we have from Valdosta is from last Monday upstream and Friday a week ago downstream. The Valdosta data for week before last corroborates our previous WWALS report. Continue reading →

Floating trash in cypress swamp below VLPRA HQ in Valdosta 2022-04-13

Update 2022-08-17: Refurbished Pepsi Adopt-A-Spot sign, Barack Obama Blvd., Valdosta, GA 2022-08-17.

I was told Monday that Valdosta Stormwater had cleaned up at least some of the trash in the two-acre swamp the City of Valdosta owns just south of Parks and Rec. Headquarters on Barack Obama Boulevard.

I’ll give it an A for effort and a C- for effectiveness. They cut in from the side, apparently cleaned up what was right along the edge, and left masses of trash in the water.

[Swamp, path, trash, Adopt-A-Spot]
Swamp, path, trash, Adopt-A-Spot

I could wade to much of the remaining trash with my ordinary mud boots. Why they couldn’t do that, or use waders and nets, is mysterious.

I don’t understand a Stormwater Division that is afraid of water. This is not like the real danger of cleaning up in a flowing river with deadfalls that could suck you under. This is a still swamp with no current and no more than two feet deep.

And a swamp still full of trash that washes down One Mile Branch into the Withlacoochee River, past the future site of Troupville River Camp. Welcome, campers!

I get it that Stormwater needs more funding and people to do larger things such as more regular cleanups and trash traps. And yes, the City Council needs to allocate funds and direction for such things. We’re working on that. But how much can some waders and nets cost? Continue reading →

Waycross installed a trash trap before the Satilla River a decade ago 2020-04-20

“Well, it is unsightly, it is disgusting, and it’s been going on for years.”

No, he’s not talking about trash coming down Valdosta creeks into the Withlacoochee River, but he might as well be. It’s a report from Mobile, Alabama, about the Bandalong trash trap in a canal just upstream from the Satilla River in Waycross, Georgia. A trash trap with funding organized by the former Satilla Riverkeeper. These days, even less expensive trash traps are available. It’s time for the City of Valdosta to get on with buying some for Sugar Creek, Two Mile Branch, Three Mile Branch, and maybe other locations. There are less expensive, easier, and more flexible trash traps available now, which I will post about later.

And no, trash traps do not solve the whole problem. For that, the upstream fast food outlets and parking lots need to stop trash from getting off those lots and install trash cans and clean them out. Valdosta city ordinances say they must, and if business don’t do it voluntarily, they can be fined. Then people living along Valdosta creeks won’t have to worry so much about their children playing in trash health hazards on creeks.

We had a good meeting Monday with some Valdosta city departments about all this, with promise of followup meetings. We will supply them with options to move ahead with fixing the trash problem from upstream parking lots to trash traps to cleanups.

[Bandalong trash trap, canal before Satilla River]
Bandalong trash trap, canal before Satilla River

NBC 15 Mobile, March 28, 2012, Report on Waycross, GA’s Bandalong Litter Trap,

Every time it rains in Mobile, mounds of trash, litter, and debris end up in Dog River. Well, tonight, Local 15 News is looking at a possible solution to the problem. Andrea Ramey traveled to Waycross, Georgia, to take a look at a device there, Continue reading →