Hear it from the Mayor, Acting City Manager, and Council of Valdosta, Georgia, and just in time for them and the Lowndes County Chairman, Manager, and Commissioners to attend their annual Bird Supper in Atlanta to discuss it with state legislators: fees collected by the state of Georgia should be dedicated to the purposes for which they were collected. Below are LAKE videos are from the Valdosta City Council, Thursday, January 25, 2018, including a few words I said about which local governments already passed this resolution.
Category Archives: Quality
Pictures: PCS Phosphate mine permit Public Hearings, Jasper, FL 2018-01-23
See also: Nutrien (PCS Phosphate mine) 5-year permit renewal 2018-03-16.
Update 2018-01-25: Fixed Attorney Scott Shirley’s attribution.
Hamilton County did due diligence by hiring a consultant to review the PCS phosphate mine’s record and permit applications. The Mericles and me were the only non-county non-PCS people who spoke, but the Planning and Zoning Board interacted quite a bit last night at the public hearings. Both the motions they passed recommended approval of the permits, but the second motion included taking into account the points raised by the public, such as better public access to permit materials and review of the mining company’s water quality data.
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS,
Left to right:
Deanna Mericle,
Consultant Gregory M. Hitz,
County Attorney Cliff Adams,
Planning and Zoning Board:
A.L. Milner(?),
Eddie Wynn,
Megan Carter,
Jim Tompkins,
Harrell Tyree,
Riley L. Anderson,
for PCS: Attorney Scott Shirley, Danny Johnson.
County Attorney Cliff Adams took notes throughout, and there was a sound recording.
The public consisted of Continue reading
Lowndes County Chairman speaks for stopping state fee diversions 2018-01-22
The Lowndes County Commission votes tonight, 5:30 PM, on a resolution Chairman Bill Slaughter put on the agenda yesterday morning in support of stopping diversion of state fees, just after a report about a tire amnesty that was apparently funded by the Georgia Solid Waste Trust Fund, which has had fees diverted upwards of $50 million. Valdosta and Hahira also have that resolution on their agendas, after Lanier County, Adel, and Atkinson County passed it recently. If you can attend one of these meetings and thank these elected officials for doing this, I’m sure they would appreciate it.
Video. Chairman Bill Slaughter said Continue reading
Georgia Adopt-A-Stream
First in a series of Where is the existing water quality data? In Georgia, it’s in Georgia Adopt-A-Stream’s database, online maps, charts, etc. And Adopt-A-Stream is not just for Georgia anymore.
Suwannee River Basin, Maps
The data record for the Suwannee River Basin is embarrassingly empty.
TN, SC, GA, FL, Maps
However, it turns out there’s data in Tennessee, South Carolina, and in Florida way down to Key West. So Georgia Adopt-A-Stream is a candidate for keeping Suwannee Riverkeeper data. Of which there turns out to be quite a bit already for Florida, Continue reading
Staten Road to Langdale Park, Withlacoochee River, 2018-03-03
A leisurely five mile paddle in about two and a half hours through a surprisingly wild section of the Withlacoochee River, much of it actually inside Valdosta, the biggest city in the Suwannee River Basin, on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).
When: 9 AM, Saturday, March 3, 2018
Put In: Staten Road Landing, 4556 Staten Road, Valdosta, GA 31605, Lowndes County, GA. 7.1 miles north of downtown Valdosta. Beware: it’s a long rough dirt road access, then a scramble down the riverbank.
GPS: 30.9328, -83.28227
Take Out: Langdale Park Boat Ramp, 3781 N. Valdosta Rd., Valdosta, GA 31602, Lowndes County, GA.
Free: This outing is Free! And we recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
Map: VALORGIS.
White is Valdosta inside grey city limits, yellow is recharge zones for the Floridan Aquifer, green is Langdale Park.
We start in Lowndes County, cross over the county’s expanded sewer and water lines at Bay Branch (those lines head for Stafford-Wright Road). Then the City of Valdosta is on our left briefly before back to county both sides, and Sermons Branch (is that its real name?). Into a Floridan Aquifer recharge zone, passing on our right the Shadrick Sink, notorious for Continue reading
Mosquito spray Naled: worse than Dicamba
Apparently Suwannee County, Florida, sprayed for mosquitos in October, as reported by some WWALS members who got sick from that. Probably what was sprayed was the usual Naled such as is used in Miami and elsewhere, but there is some confusion as to what Naled is. It’s not Dicamba: it’s worse.
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An Air Force Reserve aircrew performing a mosquito control aerial spray mission in North Dakota back in 2011 Photo by U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Johnny Saldivar
WWALS Science Committee Chair Tom Potter, Ph.D., writes:
See Pesticide Properties Database (EU). Best general data source on pesticides. As indicated below exposure to humans (e.g. getting is sprayed) is a primary concern. Likely to produce headaches and nausea. To be clear Naled is not dicamba. They are very different. Dicamba is much less toxic (acute) to humans.“Naled is mainly used for Continue reading
SELC against proposed suspension of Clean Water Rule 2017-12-13
Yesterday, the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) submitted a sixteen-page letter against the EPA’s proposed suspension of the Clean Water Rule, on behalf fifty-six organizations including WWALS.10
Much of that letter could as easily apply to
today’s foregone vote to eliminate the FCC’s net neutrality rule.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s
“‘unalterably closed’” views
should have been enough for him to
recuse himself.
The three FCC Commissioners for the elimination of net neutrality made it clear
they were not paying attention to the millions of public comments,
despite
requirements of the
Administrative Procedure Act to do so.
Chairman Pai with perhaps unintentional irony even argued that there was
no need to hold public hearings since far more people commented online,
which of course is only possible through an open Internet.
Nevermind that the FCC appears to be ignoring those comments.
Similarly, the EPA does not seem to be paying attention to the “more than 680,000 public comments” on the Clean Water Rule repeal beyond taking only six days to come up with a two year delay in implementation of that rule.
The SELC letter to the EPA even cites two cases against the FCC when it says: Continue reading
Impervious surface from development causes flooding
Could similar development in the Suwannee River watershed have something to do with the 700-year floods in 2009 and 2013?
Georgia State University, PR, December 6, 2017 Researchers Find Urban Development Dramatically Increases Stream Flow,
…Between 1992 and 2011, the amount of developed land in these watersheds also doubled, almost entirely at the expense of forest land.
In both watersheds, this urbanization led to Continue reading
WWALS to FCC: Cancel vote on Order against net neutrality
If you like hearing about outings and advocacy so you can participagte, please contact the FCC today to oppose their vote tomorrow that would greatly damage the open Internet we all use to communicate and organize.
Please call or email the three Commissioners who favor this unfortunate Order:
- Main #: 1-888-225-5322
- Chairman Pai: Ajit.Pai@fcc.gov
- Commmissioner Rielly: Mike.O’Rielly@fcc.gov
- Commissioner Carr: Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov
You can also file comments, which are publicly visible, and thus may help get others to call or write the FCC.
To submit a written comment:
- https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/filings
- Either in the menu on the left (desktop) or the pulldown from the top (mobile), select Express.
- File a comment in WC Docket 17-108.
- Be sure to say you are against the proposed Order and for net neutrality.
Below is the letter I filed with the FCC today, confirmation number 20171213002539051; or see PDF.
Cattle, sinkholes, and digups vs. Sabal Trail: Janet Barrow 2017-11-20
Sabal Trail apparently doesn’t know cattle.
The pipeline company claimed they know restoration, but that’s not what the ground looks like now, with sparse vegetation and erosion. They say they love wildlife, but they drove off a heron and who knows what else. They’re driving down property values. What are those bubbles? Which milepoint is which, anyway? Janet Barrow lives in Marion County, but she also reports on Citrus County. For 54 pages, with a summation.
For the rest of FERC Accession Number 20171120-5026, “Comment of Janet L Barrow under CP15-17, et. al.; A Citizen’s Supplemental Information Regarding Sabal Trail’s October, 2017 Monthly Report” on the WWALS website, follow this link.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!