Category Archives: River

Figures and Tables from NORTH FLORIDA SOUTHEAST GEORGIA GROUNDWATER MODEL (NFSEG V1.1) 2019-08-01

Update 2022-11-16: Videos: North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan meeting @ SRWMD 2022-11-15.

This rather thorough model of the Floridan Aquifer and its relatives is meant to be support planning, but does not actually do that planning. Planning is the topic of the meeting this afternoon about the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP).

[Collage]
Collage, Figures and Tables from NORTH FLORIDA SOUTHEAST GEORGIA GROUNDWATER MODEL (NFSEG V1.1)

That’s also why we need Right to Clean Water in Florida.

The sentence I’ve bolded below from the Executive Summary is the most important thing about the North Florida-Southeast Georgia (NFSEG) regional groundwater flow model. Continue reading →

Trash, Withlacoochee River, Troupville 2022-11-13

Hot Damn! It’s the Trashy Bottom Boys!

[Trash, Boats, Shoals]
Trash, Boats, Shoals

I went down to Troupville Boat Ramp to collect a water sample, and who should I spy? Bobby McKenzie and Russell Allen McBride, the Trashy Bottom Boys.

They were just back from a mile-and-a-half roundtrip down the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers to clean up trash. That location is now in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail as Trashy Shoals. Continue reading →

Good river water quality, but rain 2022-11-10

Update 2022-11-15: Creeks bad, mostly OK River Water Quality 2022-11-13.

For once my recommendation is not directly based on the most recent water quality test results, rather on the weather. Because of the recent rain, I wouldn’t paddle on the Withlacoochee or Little Rivers except downstream from the GA-FL line. The Alapaha and Suwannee will probably be OK.

[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide]
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide

All WWALS water quality results for Thursday are pretty clean, with several of them actually showing zero E. coli. No new sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River basin in Georgia or Florida (yet). Valdosta did get high numbers at US 41 and GA 133 on the Withlacoochee River last week, but their Monday results (the most recent we’ve seen from them) are normal. Continue reading →

Florida Right to Clean Water: get petition signatures for court review 2022-11-10

Update 2023-04-01: Florida Right to Hunt and Fish breezing through legislature towards 2024 ballot 2023-03-27.

Floridians, now’s the time to get the petition through the first hurdle: Florida Supreme Court review by March 1, 2023. 223,000 signatures is doable if enough people help.

If you’re a registered Florida voter, go here and sign the petition:
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/

[Unite for Clean Water flyer]

And join the campaign:
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/uniteforcleanwater

Individuals, groups, businesses, or non-profits: all can help get constitutional protection for our rivers, creeks, springs, sinks and swamps, not to mention drinking water.

More about Right to Clean Water in Florida and Georgia here:
https://wwals.net/issues/right-to-clean-water/

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

NFRWSP Constraint Meeting, 2022-11-15

Update 2022-11-16: Videos: North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan meeting @ SRWMD 2022-11-15.

Update 2022-11-15: Figures and Tables from NORTH FLORIDA SOUTHEAST GEORGIA GROUNDWATER MODEL (NFSEG V1.1) 2019-08-01.

January will be six years since SRWMD and SJRWMD passed the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP), mostly ignoring input from interested parties. It’s back for renovations, with public comment at the end of the workshops. Maybe you’d like to attend and comment, or send them written comments.

When: 2 PM, Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Put In: District Headquarters, 9225 CR 49, Live Oak, FL 32060

Figure C3: Aquifer surface change due to withdrawals in north Florida and south Georgia
Figure C3: Aquifer surface change due to withdrawals in north Florida and south Georgia

Continue reading →

Tickets: Floyd’s Island Okefenokee Camping, 2022-11-19

Update 2022-11-08: Tickets for the Refuge fee:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/okefenokee-paddle-and-floyds-island-camping-tickets-464297485277?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Because of the time change from DST to EST, the sun will set at 5:30 PM, so Shirley has moved the gather and launch times an hour earlier, to “give everyone time to get to Floyd’s and set up camp before it gets dark. Saturday we will be on the water by 9 a.m. so come early enough (8 AM) to have your boat loaded. Remember to have a bow line on your kayak to tie off at Minnie’s Shelter, the only rest stop. It may also come in handy if we have to get out and drag through low spots. If we want a campfire, it helps to carry firewood. I’ll bring some that we can divide up and everyone can carry a piece or two. Sunday will be a leisurely launch time.”

This is primitive, wilderness camping and paddling at its best.

To come on this outing be sure that you are comfortable paddling your loaded boat for 9 miles against a moderate current with only 1 stopping point to get out for a break. Minnie’s Lake platform is the 4 mile lunch stop, then 5 more miles to Floyd’s Island.

Yes, there will be alligators in the heart of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

[Gator and kayak]
Gator and kayak

Continue reading →

Troupville River Park Kiosk 2022-07-02

A tour around the future site of Troupville River Camp and River Park, at and near the Little River Confluence with the Withlacoochee River, just west of Valdosta, on GA 133 at Val Tech Road, off of I-75 Exit 18. Included are some more pictures of that old dam site and the likely location of the Thomasville Stage Road Bridge on the Little River. Withlacoochee River pictures include the proposed takeout for Troupville River Camp, a slough, and several cleared deadfalls. Plus Old Broad Street. All this could go on a kiosk for Troupville River Park.

[Collage, Troupville, 2022-07-02]
Collage, Troupville, 2022-07-02

Using datapoints from this and other walkarounds, this map includes the apparent routes of two streets of old Troupville, the seat of Lowndes County before Valdosta: Continue reading →

It’s Crawford Branch next to Skipper Bridge, Withlacoochee River

Phillip Williams has the answer to the first question about the creek that gushes out of the woods into the Withlacoochee River just downstream of Skipper Bridge Road: “For most of the 1800s, it was called Shanks Mill Creek after James D Shanks, who owned a fair bit of land in the area and had a mill a bit further up the run of the creek. By 1908, it was called Crawford Branch. The Crawford family moved to the area in 1866 and purchased the land from the heirs of James D Shanks.”

[Map: Shanks Mill next to Crawford Branch, in WWALS WLRWT map]
Map: Shanks Mill next to Crawford Branch in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

Phillip has also provided the approximate location of Shanks Mill: “”The deeds suggest somewhere in the WH of LL 99. LD 11. I have been locating it about here based upon the geography.” You can see it on the map above, behind Ziegler’s Auto Body Shop, about where there are dams now on a feeder creek.

How does Phillip know all this? Continue reading →

What is this creek next to Skipper Bridge, Withlacoochee River? 2022-11-03

Update 2022-11-07: It’s Crawford Branch next to Skipper Bridge, Withlacoochee River 2022-11-03.

Just south (downstream) of Skipper Bridge, left (east) bank, Withlacoochee River: what is this creek gushing water during a drought?

[Pictures, Map]
Pictures, Map

Where is all that water coming from? It was really flowing Thursday, after no rain for weeks. Continue reading →

Pictures: Dam, Troupville, Little River, GA 133, 2022-11-03

Update 2022-11-07: a few more dam pictures in here: Troupville River Park Scouting 2022-07-02.

About halfway between Troupville Boat Ramp and the Troup Bridge (the GA 133 Little River Bridge), are these remains of an old dam.

Phillip Williams pointed this out some time back.

Maybe Don Davis can turn up some records of this dam.

[Timbers seen from downstream, 11:05:42, 30.8519297, -83.3472014]
Timbers seen from downstream, 11:05:42, 30.8519297, -83.3472014 in the WWALS Map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail

Bridge pilings are vertical, not horizontal.

Horizontal timbers would make sense to hold a dam in place. Right next to Troupville would be a good place for a mill, which would need a dam. Continue reading →