Update 2023-07-30: Langdale Park to Sugar Creek Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2023-09-09.
In which the Mayor of Valdosta does work. I lent him my Sawzall and he sawed off a deadfall.
![[Boats, Withlacoochee River, Deadfalls, Sugar Creek, Salty Snapper]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-05-15--langdale-park-sugar-creek-salty-snapper/many.jpg)
Boats, Withlacoochee River, Deadfalls, Sugar Creek, Salty Snapper
Many kinds of boats started out at Langdale Park Boat Ramp. Continue reading
“If you see it, it’ll break your heart. In a deadfall it all gathers,” Valdosta Mayor Scott James said to me on his radio show about trash in Sugar Creek, just above the Withlacoochee River, where it washes downstream into Florida and the Suwannee River, onwards to the Gulf. We discussed how the problem has been documented by the City of Valdosta since 2010, and some inexpensive solutions.
Here is video I took for WWALS of that August 12, 2021, radio show. Continue reading
Update 2021-08-20: Odd results, but mostly clean rivers 2021-08-19.
Madison Health yesterday lifted its Withlacoochee River Bacterial Advisory of June 22 after it got good water quality results at the state line for Tuesday, August 17, 2021. Apparently the spotty heavy rains over the weekend and Monday did not wash much E. coli down Sugar Creek or Okapilco Creek.
WWALS and Valdosta have gotten many good results in between, but Madison Health only goes by its own tests. Recent results from Valdosta are also good.
So, happy boating, swimming, and fishing in the Withlacoochee River!
WWALS testers are collecting samples today, so we can report results tomorrow. Continue reading
Valdosta did not bother to send the PR to WWALS, Gmail hid it under Promotions, but we’re publishing it anyway.
It’s good to sometimes see good news from them.
This lift station is on the west side of the YMCA, slightly uphill from the Withlacoochee River, and across the Norfolk Southern Railroad from Sugar Creek.
![[Gornto Road Lift Station]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-16--vld-gornto-lift-station-generator/many.jpg)
Gornto Road Lift Station: background by Valdosta, sign picture by John S. Quarterman in 2017.
This Gornto Road Pump Station is not the one that spilled in December 2019. That one is upstream on Sugar Creek by Remerton. Although the problem then was not equipment failure, I have asked the City of Valdosta what their plans are for a similar generator at their Remer Lane Pump Station.
Subject: Press Release – Utilities Department Installs Generator at Gornto Lift Station
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 16, 2021
Release #08-16-113Utilities Department Installs Generator at Gornto Lift Station
Continue reading
Thanks to Courtney Gallagher of Earthviews.com and WWALS Intern Bobby McKenzie, you can navigate down the Withlacoochee River from the comfort of your laptop or mobile phone.
Here’s the start of our WWALS fast August 7, 2021, paddle from Clyattville-Nankin Boat Ramp in Georgia to Sullivan Lanuch in Florida.
To find this trip, go to https://www.earthviews.com/.
Then click on Atlas in the top menu, to get to https://arcgis.earthviews.com/home.html
In the map that appears, pan to south Georgia, and click on the blue dots on the Withlacoochee River that cross the state line.
That gets you to this first picture: https://arcgis.earthviews.com/public/withlacoochee-nankin-0821#6
But on Earthviews, you can pan 360 degrees around. And you can click on the forward or back arrows to move along. Or you can click on a location on the little map on the right to go there.
There’s even a play button down in the bottom left that animates the trip. You can press pause at any time and pan around.
Here’s a famous landmark in the middle of this trip, the abandoned Valdosta Railway Trestle. This still is panned around backwards, so you see Bobby McKenzie paddling the camera boat, with the trestle behind him. On his left is Georgia. On his right is Florida. The river bends right here, so we went back into Florida the second time.
If you click on the WWALS logo at the top left, that takes you to https://wwals.net/.
If you click on the logo next to it, for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, that takes you to its web page. Continue reading
Update 2021-09-19: Advisory lifted, Withlacoochee River 2021-08-18.
Bad water quality for Thursday at US 41 on the Withlacoochee River, presumably because of the almost 3 and a half inches of rain just upstream at Skipper Bridge. However, still below the 1,000 cfu/100 mL alert limit, and all downstream results were below the 410 one-time test limit. So apparently no bad E. coli washed out of Valdosta’s Sugar Creek. That’s good news for tomorrow morning’s Pop-up Sugar Creek Cleanup.
Plus, since Troupville Boat Ramp at the bottom of the Little River tested zero, that water should dilute anything coming down the Withlacoochee. So chances are the good results for Thursday farther downstream will hold.
Happy fishing, boating, and swimming!
Of course rains from Tropical Storm Fred could change things rapidly, but that’s what we know now.
![[Chart, upstream plates, Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide 2021-08-12]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-12--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, upstream plates, Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide 2021-08-12
Despite significant rain Wednesday on both sides of Brooks County (Dixie on the west and Withlacoochee River @ US 84 on the east), apparently nothing bad came down Okapilco Creek, and Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps all tested good for Thursday. Continue reading
Update 2021-11-05: Rain reschedule: Hike to Dead River Sink, Alapaha River, Jennings Bluff Launch, 2021-11-07.
New date: November 6, 2021. October was overbooked, so we have again, for the last time we hope, rescheduled the Hike to the Dead River Sink.
Join us for an approximately three-mile hike down the Dead River to the Dead River Sink, where the Alapaha River goes underground much of the year. We will be led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida. He will explain the geology, and how unusual this place is: there’s nothing like it in Florida (or Georgia).
This is a hike: no boat is needed.
![[Karst limestone cracks by the Alapaha River, Dead River, Sink, Dennis J. Price]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-07-10--hike-dead-river-sink/many.jpg)
Karst limestone cracks by the Alapaha River, Dead River, Sink, Dennis J. Price
When: Gather 9:00 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 12:15 PM, Saturday, November 6, 2021
Put In: Jennings Bluff Launch. From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel south on US 41 to NW 25 Lane; turn left; travel east to NW 82 Court and the entrance into the Suwannee River Water Management District’s Jennings Bluff tract; turn left and follow road to canoe launch.
GPS:
30.567183, -83.038911
You’re aiming for the Jennings Bluff Tract entrance.
![[Jennings Bluff Tract sign, 11:42:18, 30.5670965, -83.0388653]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-01-27--hike-dead-river-sink/20180127_114218.jpg)
Jennings Bluff Tract sign, 11:42:18, 30.5670965, -83.0388653
Take Out: Jennings Bluff Launch
Bring: drinking water, snacks, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members.
You can pay the $10 at the outing, or online:
https://wwals.net//outings
We recommend you support the work of WWALS by
becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join
Event: facebook, meetup Continue reading
These are not small numbers, in a recent peer-reviewed scientific study:
“The scenario where the entire population consumed tap water yielded the lowest environmental impact on ecosystems and resources, while the scenario where the entire population drank bottled water yielded the highest impacts (1400 and 3500 times higher for species lost and resource use, respectively).”
![[Plot: human health and lost Species/year]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-07-05--bottle-water-effects/plot-crop.jpg)
Plot: human health and lost Species/year
DALY is disability-adjusted life years.
For resource use, so far as I know Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, does sit on karst limestone, unlike Florida and south Georgia. So the resource effects of bottled water withdrawals from the Floridan Aquifer on our rivers, springs, and wells are probably worse than this study shows. Those lowered water levels in turn affect ecosystems and human health.
Filtered tap water is just as good for human health as bottled water, with far less external effects. Plus filtered tap water does not expose humans to plastics from bottles. Continue reading
For voting Tuesday evening, three water-related items have more implications than might appear from the agenda of the Lowndes County Commission.
This subdivision has two creeks crossing it, leading to Bay Branch and the Withlacoochee River, plus at least one retention pond.
7.c. REZ-2021-13 Val Del Villas, Val Del Rd. P-D Amendment, County Water and Sewer, ~28.436 acres
For this existing subdivision, Northside Property Development wants to add more houses. It got the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine that the remaining part of Val Del Villas off Val Del Road is not jurisdictional wetlands. That’s uphill from Sermons Branch and the Withlacoochee River. Northside Property Development has the same registered agent as Uvalde Land Company that bought the Cherry Creek Mitigation Bank next to the other side of the Withlacoochee River, and wants to deannex the upland half of it from Valdosta. The uplands in that Bank tract are not jurisdictional wetlands, either.
8.b. Alapaha Plantation Water Treatment Pilot Study
This is the kind of extra expense Valdosta avoided by sinking its water wells at Guest Road twice as deep after Withlacoochee River water was discovered reaching them from Shadrick Sink, on the other side of the Withlacoochee River, and the other side of what is now the Cherry Creek Mitigation Bank, recently sold to Uvalde Land Company, which wants to deannex half of it from Valdosta.
For much more background, including the so-far $225,415 running total for Lowndes County subsidizing water for the private Lake Alapaha subdivision next to the Alapaha River, see The never-ending Lake Alapaha Water Treatment Plant saga @ LCC 2021-08-10.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Update 2021-08-16: Two Withlacoochee River 360-degree transits by WWALS on Earthviews 2021-08-16.
Rain poured during the shuttle from Nankin Boat Ramp to Sullivan Launch, but the weather relented as we started to paddle, just as expedition leader and weatherman Bobby McKenzie predicted.
22 people paddled in 21 boats, entering Florida three times, past McIntyre Spring, Arnold Springs, the Valdosta Railway Trestle, and Horn Bridge. Only a few took out at State Line Boat Ramp, because they were musicians and they had a gig that same evening.
Almost all continued past PCA and Jumping Gully Creek to Sullivan Launch for a total of 14.22 miles in barely four hours. Subtract half an hour for the lunch stop at State Line Boat Ramp, and that’s 3.5 hours, for 4 miles per hour.
![[Valdosta Railway Trestle in the middle]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-07--nankin-state-line-sullivan-pictures/many.jpg)
Valdosta Railway Trestle in the middle
WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman left her boat in the truck until the last minute, because she did not want to paddle in the rain. WWALS President Tom H. Johnson Jr. and Mary Carolyn Pindar drove four hours for this outing, so they were going to paddle anyway, as was I. Continue reading
![[Radio 2021, Plan 2010]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-12--scott-james-trash-problem-video/many.jpg)
![[Lifted, Chart, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-18--wq-advisory-lifted/many.jpg)
![[Clyattville-Nankin Boat Ramp]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-16--fishview/withlacoochee-nankin.jpg)
![[Lake Alapaha water treatment, Bay Branch tributaries in Building Valdosta Subdivision, Army Corps on Val Del Villas]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-09-10--alapaha-withlacoochee-rivers-lowndes-county-commission/many.jpg)