Category Archives: River

5th Annual BIG Little River Paddle Race with grilling and silent auction 2017-04-29

Update 2017-06-04: And the winners!

Update 2017-04-30: Summary of news coverage.

Update 2017-04-29: Pictures and videos.

Update 2017-04-27: Paddle or Race, Scott James Talk 92.1 FM radio 2017-04-27

Update 2017-04-26: River radio videos: Charlie Walker dried off in time on KIX 99.5 FM for the BIG Little River Paddle Race 2017-04-26 and Video: BLPR and Neighbor Steve Nichols, WVGA 105.9 FM 2017-04-26.

Update 2017-04-25: More river radio: BLPR on The Morning Drive with Steve Nichols, 105.9 FM, 8:15 AM Wednesday April 26, 2017, and you can get a kayak raffle ticket online or at the paddle race.

Update 2017-04-24: Hear about it on the Scott James Talk 92.1 FM radio show 8AM Thursday April 27th.

Back by popular demand! This year plus lunch grilling and a silent auction afterwards: the fifth annual BIG Little River Paddle Race, a fundraiser for WWALS and Friends of Reed Bingham (FORB). Last year we had 34 paddlers, and the traditional winner almost lost! Come on down and you can be a winner, if not first place, in one of many categories.

Where: Red Roberts Landing
31°11’32.0″N 83°31’13.2″W
Rountree Bridge Road
Between Moultrie and Adel, GA
I-75 Exit 41 (at Sparks) to Rountree Bridge Road

When: 8AM-9AM Registration
9:30 AM Mass Start

What: Canoes or Kayaks Only
Life jackets required of all participants.

Let people know: facebook event or the Meetup event.
But remember to register.

Registration: Register on-line Continue reading →

Quarterman: Sabal Trail pipeline already damaging our area

Op-ed Tallahassee Democrat, today, Sunday 29 January 2017:

Floridians are withdrawing money from banks backing the Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail pipeline, and demonstrating daily from Miami to Jacksonville and Tallahassee, sometimes physically blocking pipeline destruction. Fossil fuel profits do not justify eminent domain takings of local lands nor any risk to our waters. Solar power is cheaper, faster, and far safer.

Image: Electric power generation employment by technology, U.S. Department of Energy

The solar industry provides more jobs than coal, oil, and natural gas combined. Sabal Trail’s own figures show Continue reading →

Walk for Water and Speak for Springs, Dunnellon, FL 2017-01-28

A hundred and fifty people came to Dunnellon, Florida to walk and speak for the most important thing to Florida and south Georgia: water. Her local school board refused to listen to Megan. We listened. They should, too.

This event was organized by Our Santa Fe River.

These are just a few android phone pictures and videos I took. Stay tuned for WWALS video of all the speakers.

Videos of the water protectors and of the invading Sabal Trail pipeline. Continue reading →

Valdosta attempts to come clean about sewage, and how you can help

People keep asking me what can be done to prevent this from happening again? Valdosta has already built an entirely new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) uphill out of the flood plain, and a force main to reroute sewage around most of the manholes that previously were leaking: see their extensive writeups on those and other improvements. This recent event was due to equipment failure at the new WWTP, and they have the contractors out there redoing that under warranty.

What can you do? Continue reading →

Coal ash protection legislation pending in Georgia legislature

The Georgia Water Coalition (of which WWALS is a partner) notes the city of Brunswick, Georgia passed a resolution agaionst coal ash 21 September 2016, and legislation is about to appear in the Georgia House of Representatives. There is already TVA and JEA coal ash in the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County, just outside Valdosta, and in WWALS watersheds other landfills likely to be targetted are in Cook, Tift, Atkinson, Ben Hill, and Crisp Counties (see GWC map), all upstream of the Withlacoochee or Alapaha Rivers, and all upstream of the Suwannee River, all above the Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink. We don’t want the utility company coal ash problem exported to our landfills. The companies that produced this toxic pollutant should be responsible for disposing of it safely at their expense without foisting it on the rest of us.

Coal Ash in Your District — Ash Ponds & Municipal Solid Waste, Published by the GA Water Coalition
See also the GWC position on coal ash.

WWALS recommends all Georgia legislators, especially those in WWALS watersheds, join in to prevent further coal ash contamination. See as an example the PR below by Rep. Jeff Jones of Brunswick, which concludes: Continue reading →

SRWMD says FDEP has confirmed river contamination possibly from Valdosta sewage 2017-01-26

Enteric bacteria have been confirmed in the Withlacoochee River, and in the Suwannee River downstream of the confluence, say SRWMD and FDEP, while there’s still no update on the City of Valdosta website about the 2.2 million gallons of sewage Valdosta leaked into the Withlacoochee River and didn’t tell the public about for two days.

Valdosta wasn’t the only city to spill into the Withlacoochee during the recent storms. Tifton did, too, but Valdosta’s spill was more than 230 times bigger than Tifton’s. And city sewage is not the only source of contamination in the rivers: wildlife, agricultural animals, and septic tanks add to it. Baseline monitoring would help disentangle which is which. But nobody is going to believe this contamination this time came from any place but Valdosta.

SRWMD, News Flash, 2017-01-26 (no time given), Health Officials Confirm Wastewater Contamination In The Withlacoochee And Suwannee Rivers,

Madison, Fla. — The Florida Department of Health in Hamilton, Madison and Suwannee today issued a joint health advisory extending the previous advisory for the Withlacoochee River to include a portion of the Suwannee River. The health advisory is now in effect for residents and visitors on the Withlachoochee River and on a portion of the Suwannee River from the point where the two rivers meet, downstream along the border of Madison and Suwannee County to the Lafayette County line just above Dowling Park. The river waters are not safe for contact during recreational use at this time.

Test results from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection water sampling in the area have confirmed high levels of enteric bacteria possibly due to a large spill of untreated sewage reported by the City of Valdosta, Georgia.

People are urged to avoid contact with water in the Withlacoochee River and the impacted areas of the Suwannee River. Water contaminated with wastewater overflow presents several health risks to humans. Untreated human sewage with microbes can cause gastrointestinal issues, disease, infections or rashes.

Anyone who comes in contact with the river water should wash thoroughly, especially hands, and before eating and drinking. Children and older adults, as well as people with weakened immune systems, are particularly vulnerable to disease so every precaution should be taken to avoid contact with river water.

Additional sampling will take place to determine when the river water is safe for recreational use.

Individuals with questions about the spillage should contact Valdosta Environmental Manager Scott Fowler at 229-259-3592 or by email at sfowler@valdostacity.com.

Individual with questions for Florida DEP should contact wastewater coordinator Jim Mayer at the NE District office in Jacksonville at 904-256-1700.

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Norman Bay resigns, leaving FERC without a quorum 2017-01-26

After Trump bumped LaFleur over his head today, former FERC Chairman Norman Bay resigned from the Commission this same day. That leaves FERC with only 2 out of five Commission slots occupied. I would guess that means no quorum, although what does it matter? The FERC Commissioners only ever rejected one pipeline in thirty years.

His resignation letter is a six-page pat on his own back that never once mentions solar power, eminent domain, landowners, water, river, aquifer, or environment. His biggest brag is: Continue reading →

Cheryl A. LaFleur again FERC Acting Chairman 2017-01-26

President Trump just brushed aside FERC Chairman Norman Bay, one of the few FERC Commissioners to show any reservations about FERC’s rubberstamping of pipelines, and put Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur back once again as Acting Chairman. This while FERC has only three Commissions, when it’s supposed to have five, probably indicates FERC is going to be pushing ahead all pipeline projects. Of course, that’s not much different from what we’ve seen for years with Sabal Trail.

Johnathan Crawford and Jennifer A. Diouhy, Bloomberg Politics, 19 January 2017, Trump Picks LaFleur as Chairman of U.S. Energy Regulator, Sources Say, Continue reading →

Moultrie sewage spill into Ocholockonee River

The city of Moultrie also had a small wastewater spill Sunday during the storm, but it was tiny compared to Valdosta’s, and Moultrie’s WTP is on the Ochlockonee River, not in the Suwannee River Basin.

Like Tifton, Moultrie’s wastewater operator is not listed on Moultrie’s city website, because its Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) is operated by the same private contractor, ESG Operations, Inc. That arrangement was announced in June 2015, shortly before major Moultrie WWTF improvements by RTD Construction were announced in September 2015.

Pretty quickly I got through to Bryan Roland, Project Manager, who said yes, Continue reading →

Tifton wastewater spill into the New River

Valdosta wasn’t the only city to spill sewage in the recent storms, but Tifton’s spill was tiny by comparison.

Following up a rumor, I called the city of Tifton and eventually got to Tommy Coker, Wastewater Superintendent, Tifton Regional Waste Water Treatment Complex (TRE). You won’t find him listed on Tifton’s website, because he works for the private contractor that runs TRE: ESG Operations, Inc. That arrangement was announced in November 2012.

Anyway, Tommy Coker says they did have a spill, of 9,500 gallons, into a storm drain inside the TRE site, that goes into the New River. It started Sunday January 22nd and stopped about midnight Monday January 23rd, 2017.

The TRE is located at 80 Old Brookfield Rd W, Tifton, GA 31794, which is east of Tifton on US 82 towards Alapaha and Willacoochee, GA.

The New River flows into the Withlacoochee River east of Adel and south of Nashville, between Cook and Berrien Counties, GA. The Withlacoochee forms the rest of the border of those two counties, then flows through Lowndes County past Valdosta and its WWTP, then forms the border of Brooks and Lowndes County, Georgia, and Madison and Hamilton County, Florida, until it joins the Suwannee River, which runs on along Suwannee County and others down to the Gulf.

So Valdosta was not the only city to have a spill during the recent storms, but Valdosta’s 2.2 million gallon leak was more than 230 times bigger than Tifton’s spill.