Many thanks to Southwings and pilot Roy Zimmer for the ride on Roy’s Rollercoaster. The wind did pick up a bit towards mid-day but that only made it more fun.
Chris Mericle, John S. Quarterman, Roy Zimmer of Southwings, Can Denizman
We saw what we flew to see. More on that later.
-jsq
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A public hearing already happened last week, but you can still send comments
until next Friday, June 24th 2016, about Madison Blue Spring State Park.
Maybe you’d like to comment on the specific improvements they plan,
or maybe something about Nestle or maybe how close Sabal Trail wants to come with its fracked methane pipeline.
That’s the deadline in the Green Publishing notice, but the Public Comment Form says Thursday June 23rd, so to be safe, get your comments in by next Thursday. Continue reading
Update 2016-06-22: Dye test into the Dead River Sink: it came back up several days later and eighteen river miles south, in the Alapaha River Rise and Holton Bluff Spring, both on the Suwannee River.
The Alapaha River disappears underground in dry seasons,
and nobody has ever known where it comes back up.
Soon, we will know.
Green Publishing, 16 June 2016, Dye test held for river basins,
The Florida Geological Survey will be conducing a dye test for the Suwannee River Water Management District in the Upper Suwannee/Alapaha River basins later this month. They will introduce dye into the Dead River Swallet (swallets are sinkholes that capture flow) and a swallet that is located on privately owned land. They will also have sampling devices setup at Continue reading
Apparently we get dragged into a meeting of all regional councils with waters flowing into the Atlantic
because the Suwannee-Satilla RWPC includes much of the Satilla and
St Marys Rivers, even though most of the SSRWPC territory is in our Upper Suwannee watershed.
A tiny bit of our Little River Watershed is in Wilcox County,
which is in the Altamaha RWPC.
Received from GA-DNR May 25th 2016, NOTICE:
JOINT REGIONAL WATER PLANNING COUNCIL MEETING Continue reading
Sunday morning May 15th 2016, nine and more environmental organizations showed
U.S. Congress member Ted Yoho FL-03 and a representative from Sen. Bill Nelson
saw sinkholes much closer to Sabal Trail’s proposed drill path under the Suwannee River than the pipeline company told FERC, along with two reports by local practicing geologists explaining how fissures and caverns underground extend the problem far past the artificial distance of effects Sabal Trail claimed.
Update 2016-05-17: Thomas Lynn reported in the Suwannee Democrat and Valdosta Daily Times.
Both Rep. Yoho and Suwannee River Water Management District Executive Director Noah Valenstein said at the end of the expedition that Continue reading
Force main and the new WWTP on line by May!
More extensive overflows than usual last weekend, and now more extensive information about them,
in
the update Tim Carroll promised,
on the City of Valdosta website as
City System Impacted by Severe Storms and Regional Watershed.
It even starts with schedule details, which say they’re
ahead of
the schedule I previously posted.
This report’s table of overflows has start and stop times and amounts, with the Creeks affected.
It still doesn’t say which river basin they go into. Knights Creek flows into Mud Creek, which goes into the Alapahoochee, Alapaha, and Suwannee Rivers. All the others end up in the Withlacoochee and the Suwannee Rivers. And there are still some unanswered questions. But getting the force main and the new WWTP on line by May is a very good development.
The City of Valdosta is ahead of schedule and plans to bring online nearly $60 million in wastewater system improvements next month. The $35 million Force Main project and the $23 million new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) are both ahead of schedule, and bringing them both online cannot come a day too soon for the city.
“We are pleased to be in the final stages of construction on both projects. Testing is underway now with full startup expected in late May,” according to Director of Utilities Henry Hicks. “We are also pleased that these projects and other awarded sewer collection system improvement projects underway will resolve all the areas of the city impacted by reoccurring overflows that often follow heavy rains and regional flooding.”
Continue reading
Sent 5 April 20156. PDF.
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Continue readingWondering why Valdosta is having an overflow problem? It was rain on Valdosta, and north of Valdosta.
Not so much northwest on the Little River, nor even west on Okapilco Creek: Continue reading
Update 2016-04-05: Here are the details, and force main and new WWTP on line by May.
Valdosta spilled more wastewater over the weekend,
according to Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll, who called just now.
The Withlacoochee River is out of its banks, actually up on the property containing the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), but “according to the experts” not going to threaten the plant. “But lines are underwater”.
Water is not even close to the new WWTP currently under construction, according to Carroll. And the new force main project should deal with much of the manhole overflow problem on the west side of Valdosta in the Withlacoochee basin, for example into Sugar Creek.
On the east and southeast, in the Alapaha basin, Continue reading
Sunday there was parking under the bridge, now that’s under water.
The intended put-in for
this Sunday’s Withlacoochee Outing,
is just downstream from here, so we’re rescheduling that one for
Ray’s Millpond,
875 Rays Mill Pond Rd., Ray City, GA 31645,
still 9AM March 20th 2016.
Directions: From Valdosta, north on Bemiss Road (GA 125) to Ray City, right on Jones St. to boat ramp.
It’s 14.75 feet, just below 15 foot flood at the Continue reading