Category Archives: River

Titanium mine near Okefenokee NWR 2019-07-12

Update 2019-07-18: The complete application is now on the WWALS website; you can comment now.

Friday, July 12, 2019, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published a Public Notice for Application SAS-2018-00554 for a titanium mine southeast of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). Thursday I attended a meeting at the Okefenokee NWR near Folkston about that, and I met with agents of the miners back in April. The application is about the little purple area on this map they showed us at the end of April:

[Context]
Context

But that’s not the whole story; see below. Today this mine proposal is on the agenda for the WWALS board meeting.

Here are some things the application doesn’t tell you: Continue reading →

Waterfalls, rapids, and a lawn chair: Statenville to Sasser Landing 2019-07-06

Nineteen paddlers in fifteen boats braved the early morning deluge, which quit just in time to start paddling the Alapaha River from Statenville Boat Ramp to Sasser Landing, past many waterfalls, quite a few shoals, one real rapid, and an incoming river too fast to paddle up. Even a couple of unexpected boat ramps, one of them concrete.

[Ronnie, Shirley, Fountain, 13:50:02, 30.6253002, -83.0480667]
Ronnie, Shirley, Fountain, 13:50:02, 30.6253002, -83.0480667

Around every corner, a waterfall. Continue reading →

SRWMD explains itself to #PaddleGA2019 2019-06-19

Thanks to Lindsey Garland and Ben Glass for explaining SRWMD springs, rivers, and water withdrawals to 300 new people from all over the world on #PaddleGA2019, at Camp Suwannee, Dowling Park, Suwannee County, Florida.

[About SRWMD]
About SRWMD

The Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) is the largest Continue reading →

Air Force Accidentally Bombs Florida –People.com; Happy Fourth of July!

Maybe Moody AFB forgot the bombs were supposed to burst in air, and the pyrotechnics were meant as Fourth of July fireworks.

A BDU-33, U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY AIRMAN 1ST CLASS EUGENE OLIVER
A BDU-33, U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY AIRMAN 1ST CLASS EUGENE OLIVER

“There is a safety investigation that is ongoing to see what caused it,” an air base spokesperson tells PEOPLE. “We’re also trying to look into any lessons that we can learn from it and mitigate the situation to prevent it from happening in the future.”

The spokesperson says the investigation’s results will be released after it is finished.

That’s according to Char Adams, People.com, 3 July 2019, Air Force Accidentally Bombs Florida in Botched Training Exercise Continue reading →

Moody dummy bomb report from Suwannee Springs –WCTV 2019-07-02

Will Moody AFB find the dummy bombs an A-10C Warthog dropped near Suwannee Springs the other day?

[Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't]
Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t

Moody AFB said sometimes they search for them, and sometimes they don’t, depending on an ongoing safety examination.

[Location Map]
Location Map

That is as reported by Emma Wheeler, WCTV, 2 July 2019, Moody jet hits bird, drops 3 dummy bombs over N. Florida.

She also interviewed me.

What else is in it? What are the pyrotechnics? What kind of environmental damage could it cause? We don’t really know. We’d like to know.

[Doesn't encourage people to get on the rivers]
Doesn’t encourage people to get on the rivers

Continue reading →

Dummy bombs dropped by Moody AFB near Suwannee Springs 2019-07-01

If you see this, don’t pick it up, call 229-257-4146 (Moody AFB), or 911.

[BDU-33, 22.5 inches long, blue, 25 pounds, do not handle]
Photo: Moody AFB: “The BDU-33 is a 25-pound training munition used to simulate the M1a-82 500-pound bomb. It is approximately 22 and a half inches long and is blue in color. Although the training munition is inert, it is equipped with a small pyrotechnic charge and should not be handled.”

One of those A-10 Warthogs we see flying overhead all the time dropped three of those dummy bombs yesterday, at a location that sounds very near Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. Just as well this didn’t happen last week while we had 300 people paddling on the Suwannee River downstream.

Moody A-10 dropped object reported, By 23d Wing Public Affairs , 23d Wing Public Affairs / Published July 01, 2019. Continue reading →

Troupville, Little River Confluence, shoals, creeks, and Spook Bridge 2019-06-15

Update 2019-07-05:: Some WWALS videos on YouTube.

The first day of #PaddleGA2019 was a fun day, with a confluence, greetings by VIPs, creeks, small rapids, a limpkin, Valdosta’s notorious Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant Outfall, one bad water quality reading (not there), swimming, an even more notorious fracked methane pipeline, and Spook Bridge, with a pet deer across the river. Thanks to The Langdale Company for that takeout and the Port-A-Potty location, and thanks to the Battery Source for the loan of the golf cart to WWALS.

Here’s Gwyneth Moody, Georgia River Network Water Trail coordinator, getting her orange kayak in the water.

[Load 'em up, 07:51:54, 30.8515032, -83.3476099]
Load ’em up, 07:51:54, 30.8515032, -83.3476099

Somebody was flying a drone. Continue reading →

Hagan Bridge Halberd Rosemallow 2019-06-24

Tom H. Johnson Jr. and Mary Caroline Pindar wanted to see what the Withlacoochee River looked like upstream. So we took them to Hagan Bridge Landing, on GA 122 east of Hahira.

[Mary, Tom, Gretchen]
Mary, Tom, Gretchen

Swamp hibiscus, tea colored river water, and dogs running around. Continue reading →

Valdosta sewage spill and Suwannee Riverkeeper on WALB TV 2019-06-22

WALB TV in Albany, Georgia called me while I was at Lafayette Blue Spring on the Suwannee River in Florida, because reporter Ri’Shawn Bassette had read the WWALS report, Sewage spill, Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 2019-06-19. Later that same day, Friday, WALB carried his story, Valdosta sees manhole sewage overflow.

[No sewage]
No sewage

He had already contacted Valdosta Utilities, which had confirmed it happened, and blamed it on Continue reading →

2009 Withlacoochee River flooding of caterer location for Paddle Georgia Final Feast 2009-04-09

The Withlacoochee River hasn’t risen like this since The Salty Snapper moved in, which is good, since they’re catering the Final Feast tonight on the Suwannee River in Suwannee County, Florida for the last day of #PaddleGA2019, after we paddle in at the Hal W. Adams Bridge Boat Ramp in Lafayette County.

[Canoe to the door]
Canoe to the door

Donald O. Davis of the Lowndes County Historical Society writes:

The caterer’s building and the 2009 Withlacoochee flood. The original long-running restaurant in the location was JP Muldoons. The Salty Snapper opened in 2015.

[WLRWT]
Map: WWALS google map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).
The Salty Snapper is just east of Continue reading →