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
Here’s why. Continue reading
Please use this handy form: https://www.protectgeorgia.org/farm.html#/334.
![[Hog CAFO manure lagoons. Photo: Kemp Burdette]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-04-04--hb-1150/16442235689_d2fce5a8e5_o-1024x683.jpg)
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
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
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, ARWT]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-21--loco-drainage-grand-bay/map-arwt-little-viking-road-grand-bay.jpg)
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
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!
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
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-02-22--trash-creeks-river-valdosta/many.jpg)
Valdosta Trash on Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River, Little River
For all about the Valdosta trash situation, see: https://wwals.net/issues/trash/
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-09-10--vld-trash-situation/many.jpg)
White Paper, Trash down Sugar Creek to Withlacoochee River
See also PDF.
The other documents cited are on the WWALS website. Continue reading
On newly-proclaimed Okefenokee Swamp Day, a bipartisan bill to ban mining on Trail Ridge by the Okefenokee Swamp appeared in the Georgia legislature: HB 1289.
![[Bill, Proclamation, Trail Ridge]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-02-08--ga-hb-1289-okefenokee-trail-ridge-mining/many.jpg)
Bill, Proclamation, Trail Ridge
You can ask Georgia Governor Kemp to get the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) to deny the permit request from Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, for a titanium dioxide strip mine within three miles of the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the St. Marys and Suwannee Rivers. Or ask your city or county government to pass a resolution supporting the Swamp and opposing the mine, as half a dozen have already done.
Or write directly to GA-EPD: TwinPines.Comment@dnr.ga.gov
Or use this convenient Georgia Water Coalition action alert form to ask your statehouse delegation to pass HB 1289 and to ask GA-EPD to deny the permits.
Like its predecessor two years ago, this GA HB 1150 would allow only a year for anyone to sue if an industrial hog farm or other such problem opened next door. Despite not being able to name any frivolous farm nuisance suits, the bill’s backers claim preventing those is their purpose. Whatever their purpose, the practical effect of this bill would be to let North Carolina-style hog CAFOs into Georgia, polluting our air and water.
Please contact your Georgia statehouse delegation and ask them to stop HB 1150. Here is a way you can find out who that is: https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
Christopher Quinn, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 2, 2022, Georgia farm legislative bill takes aim at property rights disputes,
The proposed legislation declares that any farm in operation for a year or more cannot be found by a court to be a nuisance. That added level of protection strips neighbors of their legal power to force a farm to correct a problem, such as creating overpowering odors from manure sludge ponds, opponents say.
Continue reading
![[GismoPower solar carport roof]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-04-04--fl-hb-741/gismopower_ulxksu.jpg)