Category Archives: Politics

Constitutional Right to Clean Water: RTCW for Georgia, WWALS Webinar 2022-04-19

Update 2022-04-24: Videos: Constitutional Right to Clean Water for Georgia, WWALS Webinar 2022-04-19

Hahira, Georgia, April 5, 2022 — Trying to protect clean water with current laws and regulations is like trying to defend free speech without the First Amendment. Montana, Pennsylvania, and just last year New York have enshrined Rights to Clean Water, Air, Land, and a Healthy Environment (RTCW) in their constitutions alongside free speech and other basic rights. Florida has a statewide petition signing right now for the 2024 ballot. How can Georgia get RTCW into its constitution? Why should it? And what would such an amendment consist of? This webinar explores those questions. We invite your participation and feedback.

RTCW, Speakers

The zoom meeting will be Tuesday, April 19, 2022, from 7:00 to 8:00 PM Eastern Time.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Continue reading →

Stop the Northern Turnpike Extension un-needed toll road 2022-04-04

You can help stop the undead Northern Turnpike Extension toll road from plowing over to US 19 and then up it across the Suwannee River.

Floridians, please go to the Florida Department of Transportation’s Northern Turnpike Extension web page and tell FDOT we don’t need any more toll roads. Here’s where you can say No Build:
https://floridasturnpike.com/turnpike-projects/featured-projects/northern-turnpike-extension/

Doesn’t matter that No Build isn’t listed as an option. Tell them anyway.

Suwannee River, Toll toad routes

Meetings

Attend your city council or county commission or Economic Development or Chamber meetings and ask them to pass a resolution against these toll roads.

Today, Continue reading →

Ask Florida Governor to veto HB 741 bad solar bill 2022-04-04

Floridians, please ask the governor to veto HB 741, which would gut rooftop solar power.

Here’s how to reach him:

(850) 717-9337
GovernorRon.Desantis@eog.myflorida.com
Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
State of Florida
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

GismoPower solar carport roof

Here’s why. Continue reading →

Last day to oppose HB 1150 Bad Neighbor Bill in Georgia legislature 2022-04-04

Please use this handy form: https://www.protectgeorgia.org/farm.html#/334.

Hog CAFO manure lagoons. Photo: Kemp Burdette.

Jeff Amy, U.S. News & World Report via AP, April 1, 2022,

The Senate voted 31-23 for House Bill 1150, sending it back to the House for final approval of changes.

Today is Sine Die, the last day before the legislature adjourns until next year. So there’s no time for a conference committee to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of HB 1150. The House can only vote to approve the Senate version, or not. Continue reading →

Stop GA HB 1150, the Bad Neighbor Bill

Contact your legislator today: buff.ly/35rcRH2

Georgia already has some of the strongest farm laws in the U.S. against frivolous lawsuits and for property rights. HB 150 would gut protections for property owners, and makes it easier for global meat companies to operate without regard to their neighbors.

Lowndes County farmers Rick and Martha Griffis summed it up in the Valdosta Daily Times Friday:

As local tree farmers, nothing is more important than being able to protect, and be good stewards of the land you are entrusted with.
We are strongly opposed to HB 1150 which repeals and replaces protections for family farmers that have existed for more than three decades.

Photo: Waterkeeper Alliance via Sierra Club

You can also find telephone numbers for your Georgia Senator here: Continue reading →

Drainage built over that runs into Grand Bay @ LCC 2022-03-21

This morning the Lowndes County Commission considered and Tuesday evening will vote on letting a subdivision developer replace a detention pond with a built-on lot and some other detention area somewhere unspecified.

Map: Little Viking Road to Grand Bay, in the WWALS map of the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT).

The detention pond is marked by the red ellipse. The most likely drainage from there is where I drew the cyan line. It appears to go into Grand Bay. See below a closeup of the lot and a larger map of how Grand Bay drains into Grand Bay Creek, the Alapahoochee River, the Alapaha River, and then the Suwannee River on the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Continue reading →

Action Alert: Help stop Georgia HB 1150, the Bad Neighbor Farm Bill

Georgia farmers are already protected by some of the strongest farm laws in the U.S. against frivolous lawsuits and for property rights.

Now lobbyists for global food conglomerates and insurance companies are trying to weaken these protective laws with a Bad Neighbor Bill. HB 1150 weakens Georgia’s long standing laws. It guts protections for property owners, and makes it easier for global meat companies to operate without regard to their neighbors.

STOP the corporate takeover of Georgia’s farmland. Send a message to your legislators today. STOP HB 1150.

To email them, click here for a convenient form:
https://www.protectgeorgia.org/farm.html#/317/

Photo: Waterkeeper Alliance via Sierra Club

You can also find telephone numbers for Georgia House members here:
https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/.

If you don’t know which legislator is yours, you can find out here:
https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/

Floridians, Georgia hog lagoons in the Suwannee River Basin would be upstream from Florida. So please ask all your Georgia friends to call their legislators. Or Floridians can call them, too, to emphasize it’s a problem spread beyond one state.

People from anywhere can do that.

While you’re at it, you can ask them to Support Georgia HB 1289 to protect the Okefenokee Swamp 2022-02-24.

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Trash and 12-foot alligator at Valdosta City Council 2022-02-24

Mayor Scott James Matheson said he and Council had been discussing solutions to the trash problem, before last Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting. Afterwards he came outside and discussed that a bit more. Stay tuned.

There’s also a new Neighborhood Development and Community Protections Manager, Anetra Riley. Community Protections Manager is what they call Code Enforcement, so that is relevant to the trash problem. Continue reading →

Valdosta trash in creeks and rivers 2022-02-22

We even saw the Valdosta trash problem on the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle. One paddler fell in picking up trash, and two more collected a huge bag of trash in a canoe. I think those two live in a different county.

Maybe you’d like to come say a few words tonight to the Valdosta City Council. 5:30 PM, City Hall, 216 E. Central Ave., Valdosta, GA 31601.

The WWALS trash boom at Sugar Creek is showing some promise, but there need to be more of those and people dedicated to cleaning them out, plus something done about fast food parking lots upstream, including on Threemile Branch.

Valdosta Trash on Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River, Little River

For all about the Valdosta trash situation, see: https://wwals.net/issues/trash/

SB

Remember the second boom we put across Sugar Creek? Here’s a report from the last day of January: Continue reading →

Litter in the City of Valdosta: Sources and Solutions 2021-09-10

This public health, well-being, and eco-tourism issue may be brought up at the Valdosta City Council meeting at 5:30 PM this Thursday, February 24, 2022, down at City Hall, 216 E. Central Avenue, Valdosta, GA 31601.

You can thank whoever brought it up, or bring it up yourself, at the end of the agenda in Citizens to be Heard.

Here’s a facebook event so you can encourage others to attend.

And if you can’t go in person, you can watch on Valdosta’s facebook livestream.

Meanwhile, if you see trash, report it with Valdosta Click N’ Fix: https://www.valdostacity.com/public-information/click-n-fix

The Valdosta trash situation is still much like this summary from last fall. For new wrinkles, see https://wwals.net/issues/trash/.

White Paper, Trash down Sugar Creek to Withlacoochee River

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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