Category Archives: River

WFNF resolution on the agenda, Lafayette County, FL, BOCC 2026-04-28

Water First North Florida (WFNF) is on the agenda for Lafayette County, Florida, BOCC:

Consider adopting Resolution No. 2026-04-06, concerning the Water First North Florida Aquifer Recharge Project.

That’s at 5:30 PM, Tuesday, April 28, 2026, in the County Commissioners Meeting Room, second floor, Lafayette County Courthouse, 120 West Main Street, Room #206, Mayo, Florida.

WFNF resolution on the agenda, Lafayette County BOCC, 5:30 PM, Tuesday, April 28, 2026

We don’t know what the resolution says, since, as near as I can tell, Lafayette County BOCC only posts its agendas, not its board packets.

For what other elected bodies have passed, as well as who you can contact, and a petition, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf Continue reading →

Pictures: Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Upstream, Withlacoochee River 2026-03-29

This is part 2 of the Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup of Sunday, March 29, 2026.

Part 1 was downstream.

Here we go upstream, with Brianna Schawalder of Trails4Valdosta in her canoe, helping pull limbs aside and photographing, and Russell Hassenstab of Kona Ice paddling the Suwannee Riverkeeper Old Town Canoe, while Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman chainsaws.

Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, Upstream from Langdale Park BR, Towards US 41 Bridge, Sunday, March 29, 2026

Here are some video snippets.

https://youtu.be/JstBEtdI8qU

Thanks to Continue reading →

Refilling the aquifer with wastewater is a problem –Tana Silva 2026-04-19

Like Tana Silva, you can write a letter to the editor of your local, state, or national newspaper, or ask your local radio or TV station to interview you, or post on social media.

Better yet, call or write your elected and appointed officials, and sign the petition:

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

Tana Silva, Alachua Chronicle, April 19, 2026, Letter: Refilling the aquifer with wastewater is a problem, not a solution
https://alachuachronicle.com/letter-refilling-the-aquifer-with-wastewater-is-a-problem-not-a-solution/

April 19, 2026

Letter to the editor

Refilling the aquifer with wastewater is a problem (WFNF) –Tana Silva 2026-04-19

Until the 1970s, Jacksonville pumped sewage straight into the St. Johns River and allowed dumping industrial waste there as well. The mayor elected in 1967, local advocates, and the Clean Water Act of 1972 helped to at least send wastewater to treatment plants before releasing it to the river. That practice, too, is restricted by state law now, but raising springwater levels through recharging projects is another goal in state law that opens a path to reusing wastewater, a risky and irreversible choice.

Jacksonville, the largest city, water consumer, and wastewater producer in northern Florida, is again looking to offload its wastewater, this time far to the west, in rural springs country.

Local residents and governments and the 12-county regional planning council that includes Alachua County say no: Continue reading →

Review and comment: DRI for Project Arrowhead Datacenter, Irwin County, GA 2026-04-24

Update 2026-05-13: Project Arrowhead in Irwin County considered risk to Alapaha River and Floridan Aquifer –WWALS to SGRC about DRI 2026-05-11.

Everyone has two weeks, until Monday, May 11, 2026, to review and comment on the Development of Regional Importance (DRI) application by Project Arrowhead to build a huge datacenter in Irwin County, Georgia, near Irwinville and the Alapaha River.

The attachments SGRC sent are on the WWALS website, with images of each page below.

https://wwals.net/pictures/2026-04-24-dri-irwin-county-project-arrowhead

I see nothing from the applicant that WWALS hasn’t previously posted, such as when the DRI application appeared on April 10.

The Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) has helpfully annotated the Kimley-Horn site maps we saw back in March, and added other useful maps.

Plus SGRC points out the most significant part of the Data Center Ordinance the Irwin County Commission passed on April 6: the table permitting a Data Center as a Special Exception (SE) allowable use in the Agriculture (A-U), Heavy Industrial (H-I), and the Adult Commercial (C-A). I’m not sure that ordinance added SE for A-U, but it certainly called it out.

For much about what we do not know, such as who the real applicant is, or what closed loop cooling means in this case, see Who is Project Arrowhead in Irwin County, GA? –Vesper 2026-04-16.

https://wwals.net/?p=70067

For much more about Datacenters, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/datacenters

Review and comment: DRI for Project Arrowhead Datacenter, Irwin County, GA, Comment to SGRC by May 11, 2026

Received by email Friday, April 24, 2026, at 7:32 PM: Continue reading →

Pictures: Downstream chainsawing, Langdale Park Boat Ramp 2026-03-29

Update 2026-04-26: Pictures: Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Upstream, Withlacoochee River 2026-03-29.

Brianna Schawalder of Trails4Valdosta and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman did some sawing from the Suwannee Riverkeeper Old Town Canoe, but most of the work downstream from Langdale Park Boat Ramp on the Withlacoochee River was done by Austin Roark and his equipment and crew from Roark’s Land Clearing and Restoration.

Pictures: Downstream chainsawing, Langdale Park Boat Ramp 2026-03-29, Roark Land Clearing and Restoration, Trail4Valdosta, WWALS

They removed the snaggly tree just downstream from the boat ramp that was making fishing and paddling difficult. And a tree a bit farther down that stuck so far across it was eroding the right bank.

Cindy Vedas come to staff a WWALS table at the boat ramp.

Phil Hubbard couldn’t come because he had the flu.

Here are a few video snippets:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/931293323150513/

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXjp9PFCLct/

https://youtu.be/51At2Dn83WI

After we went upstream and back (stay tuned for that report), whole families were fishing where those trees had been.

So that looks like success.

Thanks to all, and to Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA) for their cooperation.

Continue reading →

Withlacoochee River filthy upstream, clean downstream 2026-04-23

Update 2026-04-30: Pretty clean Sugar Creek 2026-04-23 and Batterbee Branch and Withlacoochee River 2026-04-27.

Valdosta Utilities got an even higher E. coli number for Monday at GA 133 (St. Augustine Road) on the Withlacoochee River, but a good result at US 84 that same day.

WWALS results downstream in Florida for Thursday were cleanest.

We also have good water quality results for Thursday for reported standing water in a drainage easement at Gornto Road near Sugar Creek in Valdosta.

Still no rain, and still no new sewage spills have been reported this week in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.

As always, we can only advise with the results we have. Happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating this weekend, if you can find any water.

It might rain, but not enough to wash much contamination into the river. Maybe it will at least dampen some wildfires.

This image is an illustration. Scroll down for the details.

Withlacoochee River filthy upstream 2026-04-20, clean downstream, Plus a drainage easement 2026-04-23

Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading →

WFNF on Jacksonville TV 2026-04-22

This is probably the first most people in the Jacksonville area have heard of Water First North Florida (WFNF).

It’s great that the SRWMD and SJRWMD Executive Directors consider clean water a personal issue. They’re still pushing an overly complex, expensive, and risky 60+-mile pipeline for treated wastewater from Jacksonville into the Suwannee Basin.

There are less expensive, fast-to-build, less risky, and more scalable solutions.

https://wwals.net/?p=70046

For more about WFNF, including who you can contact and a petition, see:

https://wwals.net/issues/wfnf

WFNF on Jacksonville TV, Andrea Snody, News4JAX 2026-04-22, Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman, Hugh Thomas, SRWMD, Mike Register, SJRWMD

Andrea Snody, News4JAX, April 22, 2026, Jacksonville wastewater plan could reshape North Florida water supply, Continue reading →

Tabled: Sheriff’s lease for an ICE detention center –Bradford County Commission 2026-04-16

Forty people spoke against, and not one for, the proposed ICE detention center in Starke, Bradford County, Florida. They came from all across north Florida, from Tallahassee to St. Augustine. As Mary Bauer from Gainesville said, this is really a national issue.

Several of them brought up water and sewage issues such as in the WWALS letter to Bradford County of April 6.

Sheriff Gordon Brown claimed people who came to him were three to one for it.

Outside his bubble, four of five Bradford County Commissioners said that last meeting they asked for all options for the Douglas Building to be considered, that putting only the ICE option on the agenda the previous day, with the lease and operating requirements added only 24 hours before this meeting, was rushed, and they could not vote for it. Continue reading →

Juneteenth at Reed Bingham State Park Beach, Little River 2026-06-20

Hahira, GA, April 21, 2026 — “Back again at the beach pavilion on the Little River at Reed Bingham State Park, it’s Juneteenth with boats! WWALS will provide stunt adults to paddle with children whose parents don’t want to get in a boat,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.

WWALS will provide boats for new paddlers at a gathering of people from Brooks, Cook, Lowndes, and Tift Counties and beyond in celebration of Juneteenth.

Food and activities for children will be provided by Fannie Gibbs and Macedonia Community Foundation.

When: 11 AM – 3 PM, Saturday, June 20, 2026

Put In: Reed Bingham State Park Beach, 542 Reed Bingham Rd, Adel, GA 31620. Take I-75 Exit 39, turn west on GA 37, right on Evergreen Church Road (CR 99), left on Reed Bingham SP Road (CR 221), in through the gate and across the dam, and the beach is on your right, in Colquitt County.

GPS: 31.162563, -83.548506

Juneteenth at Reed Bingham State Park, Beach Pavilion, Little River 2026-06-20

Continue reading →

Signed Irwin County Datacenter Ordinance 2026-04-06

It looks like the Irwin County Commission added a few things about water, power, and enforcement to their draft datacenter ordinance before they passed it.

The final version, received today in response to a WWALS open records request, is on the WWALS website.

For comparison, a copy of the original draft is here:

https://wwals.net/?p=69663

Do you see any other differences?

For more about datacenters, see: