The Withlacoochee River tested worse than Cherry Creek for E. coli
both upstream and downstream from where Cherry Creek comes in,
after Valdosta’s Saturday sewage spill.
A new study by the Environmental Working Group, an
activist group focused on research, revealed that eating a single
freshwater fish is equal to drinking water with high PFAS levels for
a month.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or
“forever chemicals,” are Continue reading →
Valdosta had a small sewage spill Saturday, next to a branch of Cherry Creek.
It was probably too small to have much effect on the creek
and even less on the Withlacoochee River.
WWALS sent water quality testers out to sample anyway.
Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson texted me yesterday.
He says the spill was first reported to Valdosta Utilities about 7:30 PM and “stopped discharging about 11:00p last night.” He was referring to Saturday, February 11, 2023.
The amount is estimated to be 2,800 gallons.
That’s a minor spill (less than 10,000 gallons).
The spill was from Valdosta’s Boys and Girls Club Lift Station,
3658 Lake Laurie Drive, Valdosta, GA 31605.
That’s in Valdosta City Council District 5, Tim Carroll. Continue reading →
GA DNR keeps passing the buck about the
proposal to strip mine for titanium within three miles of the Okefenokee Swamp,
by miners from Alabama, Twin Pines Minerals, LLC.
The Swamp is the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers and it interchanges surface water with groundwater all the way down to the Floridan Aquifer, from which we all drink.
And ask
your Georgia House Representative
to sign on to
HB 71,
the Okefenokee Protection Act.
That bill will not stop this permit application,
but it would stop further expansion of that mine and any other mines
on the east side of the Swamp.
Trail Ridge Land LLC
Land the Charlton County Tax Assessors show owned by Trail Ridge Land LLC.
The northwest corner buts right up against the Swamp.
Floridians, you can comment. And you can ask your Georgia friends and relatives to ask their statehouse members to sign on to HB 71.
Back in September, Georgia DNR Board Chair Bill Jones said Continue reading →
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.
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 →
Tonight I will ask them to take up Valdosta trash as an issue like they
previously successfully took up Valdosta sewage.
I will ask them to oppose the
proposed titanium strip mine
and to support the Okefenokee Swamp, the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, and the Floridan Aquifer.
In front of a standing-room-only audience, and after long hesitation,
the Brooks County Planning Commission voted 3-1 to recommend Conditional Approval
for the Morven Solar project,
pending “A Valid Road use Agreement put in-place”
and
“Erosion Measures provided and Filtration Plants in the
Retention Ponds”.
Here is the report sent from the Planning Commission to the County Commission for its decision on February 6th.
The report has some puzzling omissions.
GA-EPD is providing more public comment opportunity than it has been promising for the past year.
It has opened a comment period on Twin Pines Minerals Mining Land Use Plan,
after which it will do what it previously promised:
issue a draft permit and open a comment period on that.
You can object now to that titanium dioxide strip mine for white paint far too close to the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, and sits above the Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink in south Georgia and north Florida.
You can email or paper mail your comments, or join one of two zoom webinars.
Land Protection Branch,
4244 International Parkway,
Atlanta Tradeport- Suite 104,
Atlanta, Georgia 30354
![[Cherry Creek tests 2023-02-12]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-12--cherry-creek-results-wq/many.jpg)
![[Sullivan Launch PFAS sample, US 41, Knights Ferry, State Line, Sullivan Launch, Withlacoochee River 2022-06-30]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-14--wuft-pfas/many.jpg)
![[Boys & Girls Club Lift Station, Lake Laurie Drive, The Dip, Lake Cleve, Cherry Creek 2023-02-12]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-12--cherry-creek-wq/many.jpg)
![[Trail Ridge Land LLC]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-07-12--tpm-usace/big/trail-ridge-land.jpg)
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![[Phosphate and Titanium Mines, and Trash @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-26--ncfrpc-pictures/trashmines.jpg)
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![[When and Where NCFRPC 2023-01-26]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-26--ncfrpc/many.jpg)
![[Meeting 2023-01-19, Recommendation 2023-01-20]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-20--morven-solar-planning-commission-report/many.jpg)
![[Proposed Project Location, 2-MLUP-App-N-b-Modeling-the-Groundwater-Flow-System-on-Trail-Ridge-9-14-2021-Figs-Tables-and-Apps-0012]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-19--ga-epd-tpm-public-comment/big/2-MLUP-App-N-b-Modeling-the-Groundwater-Flow-System-on-Trail-Ridge-9-14-2021-Figs-Tables-and-Apps-0012.jpg)