Category Archives: Law

Waterkeepers Florida in Gainesville 2023-02-03

Once a year, the Waterkeepers of Florida gather in Gainesville to attend the Public Interest Environmental Conference (PIEC) at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Waterkeepers Florida at PIEC 2023-02-03

Eight out of fifteen ain’t bad. A few more attended the actual Waterkeepers Florida (WKFL) meeting via teleconference.

Waterkeepers Florida asks you to ask Georgia officials to stop a proposed strip mine too near 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 most of Florida:
https://wwals.net/?p=61437

For more about Waterkeepers Florida, see:
https://www.waterkeepersflorida.org/

I drove Continue reading →

Florida Right to Hunt and Fish breezing through legislature towards 2024 ballot 2023-03-27

Georgia has it, among 23 states, including all states in the southeast, except for Florida.

Looks like it’s coming to Florida: a state constitutional amendment for a Right to Hunt and Fish. Identical bills are speeding through the state House and Senate towards getting this amendment on the 2024 ballot.

Ballotpedia, 23 states have Right to Hunt and Fish as of November 2020

And what good is a Right to Hunt and Fish without clean water for the fish and wildlife? Floridians, please sign the petition for Right to Clean Water, also intended for the 2024 ballot.

Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida, Tampa Bay Times, March 27, 2023, updated March 29, Hunting, fishing could be enshrined in Florida Constitution under proposal: If approved, the proposal could be on the November 2024 ballot. Continue reading →

Valdosta Creek Trash Tour 2023-03-29

Yesterday I found trash still in Valdosta creeks where previously reported, on Hightower Creek, One Mile Branch, and Two Mile Branch.

Sure, the Two Mile Branch cleanup last Saturday was fun and necessary. But Valdosta, A City Without Limits on its own facebook report said nothing about more trash traps, and nothing about enforcing its own city ordinances that require businesses to keep their property clean, to keep trash out of waterways, and to strategically place trash cans where people will use them.

Valdosta has been promising at least since 2007, sixteen years ago, to do something about this ongoing trash spill problem. The city has taken a few steps, especially since City Engineer Ben O’Dowd was hired.

Time to walk the talk, Valdosta. There is more to do.

Trash, Two Mile Branch, One Mile Branch, Hightower Creek, 2023-03-29

Where Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson stood in December 2022, at the bottom of the parking lot on St. Augustine Road above Hightower Creek, trash is still there, tossed by lunchers, with no trash cans nearby.

Behind the Mega Mart at Valloton Drive and Lee Street, trash continues to wash down into One Mile Branch, clearly visible from the Azalea City Trail, Valdosta’s only urban hiking trail. Despite a Click ‘n’ Fix report on March 8, 2023, the only action we’ve seen from City Marshalls was a week later, “The city is working with the property owner to correct the issues.”

And trash continues to dribble into Two Mile Branch above Ashley Street, most of a week after the last pictures I took there, with the Click ‘n’ Fix ticket closed again by City Marshalls,

Meanwhile, the Lee Street Detention Pond Trash Trap has been modified by high water, when it caught leaves and the force of the water bent the steel. The city has taken the top off the trash trap. Here’s hoping they will continue to improve this model for more use here and elsewhere. Continue reading →

Trash still dribbling from 2695 N Ashley St into Two Mile Branch 2023-02-24

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

Why did Valdosta City Marshalls close this Click’n’Fix ticket when nothing has been cleaned up?

Trash, Two Mile Branch upstream from Ashley Street 2023-03-24

It took nine days for City Marshals to make any response, then they said they would notify the property owner and closed the ticket.

I went there the next day and photographed the same trash in the same locations, plus I took more pictures of more trash upstream.

Today, March 29, 2023, when I asked why the ticket was closed and posted more pictures, the City Marshalls said “The ticket was closed because a citation was written and there is now an open case with the City Marshal’s. We have to legally give the property owner a certain amount of time to address the issue.”

That is new information, and a welcome change from just notifying the property owner.

But why did the City Marshalls again close the ticket? The problem has not been fixed.

In the next big rain, trash will wash down Two Mile Branch into Sugar Creek. If it is not caught by the WaterGoat there, it will wash into the Withlacoochee River. All along the way it is a health hazard to humans, and wildlife eat the trash, especially styrofoam, and cannot digest it. Continue reading →

All nine Riverkeepers of Georgia oppose the mining permit applications by Twin Pines Minerals too near the Okefenokee Swamp 2023-03-09

I sent this at 4:08 PM today to TwinPines.Comment@dnr.ga.gov:

“Please find attached a letter of opposition by all nine Riverkeepers of Georgia to the mining permit applications by Twin Pines Minerals, LLC.”

See also the letter by Waterkeepers Florida, representing all fifteen Waterkeepers of Florida. It includes links to the letters by Suwannee and St. Marys Waterkeepers.

You can still send in your own comment.

While the comment period on the Mining Land Use Plan nominally closes at 4:30 PM today, that same address has been open for comments for a year or more, and will probably remain open.

Plus GA-EPD has said that if there is a draft permit, they will open another 60-day public comment period.

Meanwhile, all the Waterkeepers of Georgia and Florida oppose that strip mine for white paint, and support the Okefenokee Swamp, the St. Marys and Suwannee Rivers, and the Floridan Aquifer.

The GA Riverkeepers letter

The letter is below in web form, or see it as PDF. Continue reading →

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

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 →

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

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 →

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

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 →

Pictures: A boatload of tires out of Sugar Creek 2020-10-10

We got 577 pounds of trash and a bunch of tires out of Sugar Creek, as part of the River and Creek Cleanup, Lowndes County, Valdosta, and WWALS 2020-10-10. Probably more than that; that number is from one record sheet.

Tire boat, trash ashore and recorded

WLRWT, Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, Withlacoochee River, Special thanks to Bobby McKenzie, Scotti Jay, Tom Potter, Sara Jay, Elizabeth Brunner, and Joe Johnson, among WWALS regulars, plus at least seventeen more volunteers. And thanks to Current Problems for coming up from Gainesville, Florida, to help.

This was a very productive cleanup, getting some trash out of Sugar Creek before it got to the Withlacoochee River. It makes Continue reading →

Dukes Bay Canal Trash 2023-02-12

Not just for the Withlacoochee River! There’s Valdosta trash in Dukes Bay Canal, which drains to the Alapaha River.

Valdosta Stormwater Division did remove trash from culverts near Southside Recreation Center, one somebody reported them via Click ‘n’ Fix. Then they declared the problem fixed, archived the tickets, and left trash floating in Dukes Bay Canal.

Tire, Dukes Bay Canal, Church’s, Map

I know Valdosta’s liability insurance does not cover any city employee getting into water. That’s right: Stormwater can’t get in water. But it’s hard to believe they don’t have long-handled nets that would reach halfway across the canal from each side.

Plus, how about find out where the trash is coming from, and stop it at the source? There’s a hint below.

The Oak Street location is in Valdosta City Council District 3, Thomas B. McIntyre, Sr.

The Toombs Street and Bay Street locations are in District 2, Sandra Tooley. Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.