Thanks to all who helped get HB 879 out of one committee and into the Rules Committee. It needs to get out of there to the full Georgia House by this Wednesday February 28, 2018.
So please contact your Georgia state legislators to ask them to back both bills that will help keep coal ash off our lands and out of our waters.
Here’s an easy way to send email to your Georgia statehouse Representative and Senator.
There’s more about the bills below. Continue reading
Please contact your Georgia state legislators to ask them to back two bills that will help keep coal ash off our lands and out of our waters.
Mercury from Coal Plant Scherer north of Macon goes up in the air and comes down in our Alapaha River. Coal ash from Tennessee and Florida is in the landfill in Lowndes County, Georgia that is a quarter mile uphill from the Withlacoochee River. Even the landfill owner doesn’t want any more coal ash, because it costs extra to keep it separate from other waste to prevent chemical reactions.
Here’s an easy way to send email to your Georgia statehouse Representative and Senator.
There’s more about the bills below. Continue reading
Yesterday’s Valentine’s Day present from the Georgia House was passing HR 158 with 166 yea and only 1 nay (6 not voting, and 7 excused). Except for district 175, which just finished a Special Election, every Georgia House member from the Suwannee River Basin voted yea. Thank you, Patty Bentley, John Corbett, Buddy Harden, Penny Houston, Dominic LaRiccia, Clay Pirkle, Jay Powell, Ed Rynders, Dexter Sharper, Jason Shaw, Jason Spencer, and Sam Watson!
Onwards to the Georgia Senate. We look forward to every Georgia State Senator from the Suwannee River Basin voting yea. WWALS members and others may want to give them a ring to remind them to do so. Senators Ellis Black (District 8) and Tyler Harper (District 7) please note that local governments in your districts have passed resolutions supporting HR 158.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Many thanks to the Hahira Mayor and Council for passing a resolution in support of the water trail for the rivers that run less than six miles west (the Little River) and east (the Withlacoochee River) of the Hahira Courthouse where they met.
Left to right:
Council Patrick Warren (District 3)
Mayor Pro Tem Kenneth Davis (District 2),
Mayor Bruce Cain,
Empty Chair for City Attorney Rob Plumb,
City Manager Jonathan Sumner,
Council Terry Benjamin (District 1),
Council Mason Barfield (District 4),
City Clerk Lisa Mashburn.
I spoke briefly at their Work Session, Tuesday, January 30, 2018, outlining the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT) and the resolution, and I invited them to upcoming WWALS outings. Several of the Council had positive comments.
Council Patrick Warren also mentioned his fear of Continue reading
For property rights and clean water, you don’t want coal ash seeping through groundwater, so please contact your state legislator to support the two coal ash bills now in the Georgia House of Representatives:
HB 879,
“Water resources; notice to local governing authorities prior to the dewatering of coal combustion residual surface impoundments; provide”
Georgia Power is retiring many coal plants (good, although they’re
mmostly replacing them with natural gas plants; not so good),
and this involves dewatering coal ash ponds near those plants;
HB 880,
“Solid waste management; safe disposal of coal ash in municipal and commercial solid waste landfills; provisions”
Georgia Power wants to ship that coal ash to local landfills.
Georgia Water Coalition’s policy on that I think is OK with
appropriate regulation.
WWALS goes beyond that and says no coal ash in landfills in the
Suwannee River Basin.
Please call or write:
your Georgia state representative.
Thanks to the six bill sponsors, but none are in the Suwannee River Basin.
Let’s see if we can fix that. Continue reading
Thanks to Jay Bushnell for the heads-up on this FDEP notice of February 6, 2018:
Impaired Waters Rule (IWR) Notification
The department announces the availability of the 2018 Strategic Monitoring Plans. These plans represent the water quality and biological monitoring needs identified by the department in preparation for basin assessments as part of the watershed management approach.
The Watershed Assessment Section developed Continue reading
One of our goals Wednesday in Tallahassee was accomplished: the fracking ban is moving in the Florida statehouse! You can help: call your Florida state Representative or Senator and ask them to vote for the fracking bills. If you don’t know who they are, you can use Florida’s Find Your Legislators.
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS, Tallahassee, 2018-01-31. Do Gale Dickert and these people look like they’re going to give up easily?
Monday SB 462 was uananimously approved by the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee, thank you Committee Chair Senator Rob Bradley, whom many people intensively lobbied last Wednesday to schedule a vote in that committee. The indefatigable Continue reading
HR 158 may be scheduled for a vote in the Georgia House as soon as tomorrow. Help dedicate state fees to their intended purposes: please contact your Georgia House Representative or Georgia State Senator (follow the links for contact information) and ask them to pass HR 158. If you don’t know who your Georgia Representative or Senator are, see Georgia My Voter Page.
Hahira is the most recent of six local governments representing the majority of the population in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia, in five Georgia House districts and two Senate districts, that have passed a resolution supporting Georgia HR 158 against state fee diversions, with five stories and an editorial in the biggest circulation newspaper in the Basin. More local resolutions passed elsewhere in the state, but that ain’t bad for the Suwannee River Basin.
Update 2022-05-23: Pictures: Five Holes Cleanup 2018-02-10.
Update 2018-02-10: It’s a Go!.
Join us to clean up and scout a chain of springs and sinks next to the Suwannee River. If it looks good, we may plan a bigger outing later in the year.
No boat required; we’re going by land.
This 5 Holes site exploration is immediately after the Organizing Committee meeting for the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest; you can come to either or both.
When: 3PM, Saturday, February 10, 2018
Where: CR 141 Boat Ramp, aka Florida Campsites Ramp, in Suwannee River State Park.
GPS: 30.414, -83.159167
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members. For non-members, it is $10.00, per decision of the WWALS board at its 14 January 2018 meeting for all WWALS outings scheduled since then. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today! If you want to pay for membership or the outing at the site, please bring cash.
Photo by John S. Quarterman for WWALS, along with many more, from August 15, 2015.
Bring: swimming gear (suit, goggles, etc.), and a change of warm clothes. A rope wouldn’t hurt. Trash pickers and trash bags: this is a cleanup. Most of us do not plan to paddle, but if you want to, you can put in at the boat ramp and paddle upstream to 5 Holes; in that case bring Continue reading
It could use some markers to keep people on it and off private property, and maybe some loaner kayak wheels, but there is public access to the Withlacoochee River off of Gornto Road in Valdosta.
Tea-colored water, 16:22:37,, Withlacoochee River 30.8623900, -83.3224600
And a very nice blackwater river it is. Continue reading