Category Archives: River

Prizes to high school logo contest winners Saturday at Alapaha River Water Trail Conference

Update 2015-03-16: South Georgia talent won the Alapaha River Water Trail Logo Contest.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Prizes to high school logo contest winners Saturday at Alapaha River Water Trail Conference

Adel, March 10th 2015 — WWALS Watershed Coalition will award prizes to high school student artists for first, second, and third place logo contest winners and an honorable mention at the Alapaha River Water Trail Conference this Saturday March 14th, near Alapaha, Georgia. The winning logo will appear in an Alapaha River Water Trail brochure along with lists of prize contributors and Water Trail sponsors. The afternoon’s festivities will conclude with an easy paddle outing on the Alapaha River. facebook event.

The logo will be used on the Alapaha River Water Trail website, on promotional brochures, and on information at access points along the river that will be posted on kiosks.

Many thanks to the prize donors: Wild Adventures Theme Park, Hometown Handyman Chris Mericle, Camping World Retail Store, Dr. Bret Wagenhorst, Jasper Hardware, and Garry Gentry.

Winners will be announced, prizes awarded, and their logos unveiled at the

WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail Conference Continue reading →

Alapaha River precipitation and levels

300x153 90 Days Levels Graph, in Alapaha River Levels and Precipitation, by USGS, for WWALS.net, 7 March 2015 Rainfall can be quite different in Statenville on the Alapaha River as shown here than in Valdosta on the Withlacoochee River. But remember half of Valdosta drains into the Alapaha River watershed.

Here are rainfall and water level graphs from the three USGS Alapaha River gauges in Georgia. The Florida gauge is shown separately, because it use a different base level, and precipitation doesn’t seem to be available from Florida gauges. See also always-current graphs of all the levels. Continue reading →

Withlacoochee River levels follow rainfall

300x153 7 days Precipitation Graph, in Withlacoochee River Gauges, by NWS, for WWALS.net, 7 March 2015 Plus early March rains really were directly on Valdosta, even more than in Valdosta’s third wastewater spill of February, yet river levels rose most downstream.

Here are 90-day graphs of precipitation (in inches) and river levels (in feet) at the three Georgia Withlacoochee River gauges, from USGS. Also note river levels can continue dropping even while some new rain falls. Continue reading →

Spring Flood Potential Outlook for Withlacoochee River by NWS

There is potential for “a high impact basin-wide flood event this spring should heavier than normal rainfall occur” in the Withlacoochee Basin.

300x233 Vdsg1 Hg Skipper Bridge, in Withlacoochee River Gauges, by NWS, for WWALS.net, 7 March 2015 National Weather Service Tallahasee, FL 240 PM EST THU MAR 5 2015, Spring Flood Potential Outlook for Southeast Alabama, Southwest and South Central Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend,
Above normal potential for river flooding this Spring,
Existing Conditions.

In the Withlacoochee, Suwannee Basin…

Continue reading →

Summary of Statenville to Sasser Landing WWALS Outing –Bret Wagenhorst 2015-02-15

Saw: tupelo, cypress, maple, river birch, pine, live oak, titi, mayhaw, native blueberries, palmetto; only maple in bloom. Not much wildlife.

300x225 WWALS At Sasser Landing, in Sasser deanna, by Deanna Mericle, for WWALS.net, 15 February 2015 River: several small streams entered river through breaks in the bank, winding course, couple of bluffs and some exposed karst

Comments: a good level to run this section, saw 2 other canoes with a family of campers, and a fisherman in a john boat skinning a catfish, 2 rope swings, the side trip up the Alapahoochee River to the waterfall just up from the take out was worth the effort.

Pictures: see separate post by Bret Wagenhorst. And pictures by John S. Quarterman.

Ten of us met at 12 noon Sunday afternoon, February 15th 2015, continuing our exploration of the Alapaha River Water Trail, as announced.

The shuttle took Continue reading →

Valdosta spilled into Alapaha as well as Withlacoochee watersheds in February

Spilling sewage into the Withlacoochee River apparently wasn’t enough 300x388 Figure 2.2.5. Sub-basins Areas, in Section 2 Methodology, by City of Valdosta, for WWALS.net, 14 January 2011 for Valdosta: in February it also spilled three times into the Alapaha River watershed. At least once this was due to rains directly on Valdosta, for which the levee proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers on Sugar Creek at the Withlacoochee River wouldn’t help. It’s time for Valdosta to move along with fixing its wastewater problems. More transparency from Valdosta would also help. And I, for one, would like to see that promised Corps flooding study of the entire Suwannee River Basin.

In three different reports in February, Valdosta mentioned sewage overflows into either Knights Creek or Dukes Bay Canal, without mentioning that those flow into Mud Swamp Creek, which joins with Grand Bay Creek to form the Alapahoochee River, which joins the Alapaha River, which flows into the Suwannee River. The Florida Department of Health apparently didn’t know that, since it didn’t mention the Alapaha River in its advisories for counties downstream. But Valdosta should know, according to its own SWMP Update Phase 1 Final Report, Section 2 Methodology, 2011-01-14, that about half of Valdosta is drained by Knights Creek and Dukes Bay Canal: Continue reading →

Withlacoochee River sewage spills, Suwannee River Basin flooding study, and Valdosta’s funded plan to fix its problem

Someone referred to the mid-February Old Statenville Road spill in asking:

What’s happening in your watershed? This is the most recent of several sewage overflow issues I’ve been reading about.

Brief answer: this flooding issue is one of many reasons WWALS Watershed Coalition was formed; we’ve been on it since then; the City of Valdosta is being fixed the immediate problem; however there’s a much bigger problem throughout the entire Suwannee River Basin that the Army Corps of Engineers is studying.

Long answer: This has been going on for years, especially starting with the 700-year flood in 2009, which overflowed the City of Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and backed up sewage out of manholes, in addition to rivers and streams running over roads and bridges; see this USGS two-pager on that.

Larry Hanson, Valdosta City Manager, presented to Continue reading →