Category Archives: Trash

Another trash boom across Sugar Creek 2022-01-30

If one boom is good, two should be better.

We’re experimenting with what works best.

For why we are doing this, see https://wwals.net/issues/trash/. Continue reading →

Videos: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Trash, Swamp: Suwannee Riverkeeper on Scott James Radio 2020-01-20 2022-01-20

The Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle has been rescheduled to Saturday, February 19, 2022. Everything else is as Valdosta Mayor Scott James and I discussed on his radio show last Thursday. We’ll be talking about it again this Friday, January 28, 2022, at 8AM, Talk 92.1 FM.

Thanks to The Langdale Company for access to take out at Spook Bridge, and for a mid-point lunch spot. Thanks to Georgia Power for water quality testing grants to WWALS.

Gather 9AM for the Chairman and Mayor’s Paddle, at the rescheduled Saturday, February 19, 2022.

Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle (since rescheduled to February 19, 2022)

We hope everybody’s favorite on-water painter, Julie Bowland, will join us.

WWALS is talking to Valdosta State University Deans and Faculty about Education and research at Troupville River River Camp and River Park. The paddle will go right by there.

On the radio, Scott James and I discussed the trash problem, coming mostly from parking lots with fast food outlets, down Sugar Creek, into the Withlacoochee River.

Arrow the talking puppy helped.

Don’t forget to tell GA-EPD no mine near the Okefenokee Swamp.

WWALS has a paddle on the last stretch of the Alapaha River, US 41 to Suwannee River, Saturday, February 5, 2022.

And a paddle from Langdale Park on the Withlacoochee River, to Sugar Creek, and on to Troupville Boat Ramp, May 7, 2022: the announcement will be up soon.

The Sugar Creek trash problem was described in the 2010 Valdosta Stormwater Master Plan, which said it should be fixed immediately. Continue reading →

Lowering the boom at Sugar Creek 2022-01-23

Update 2022-01-31: Another trash boom across Sugar Creek 2022-01-30.

Maybe this will catch some trash before it floats down Sugar Creek to the Withlacoochee River.

Boom and preparations

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman and WWALS Science Committee Chair Dr. Tom Potter brought some 3/4-inch sissel rope and 4-inch flexible drain pipe down to Sugar Creek at the bottom of the Salty Snapper property off Gornto Road, and turned it into a boom across the creek.

For why we did this, see Sugar Creek Trash 2022-01-15. Continue reading →

Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Trash, Okefenokee –Suwannee Riverkeeper on Scott James Radio 2022-01-20

Update 2022-01-26: Videos: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Trash, Swamp: Suwannee Riverkeeper on Scott James Radio ~~2020-01-20~~ 2022-01-20.

Update 2022-01-19: Changed to 8:30 AM.

Thursday morning at ~~8AM~~ 8:30 AM, Suwannee Riverkeeper will be on Scott James Talk 92.1 FM radio, about the annual 11-mile Chairman and Mayor’s Paddle on the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers coming up in a week, the trash situation of Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River, and how you can ask the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to stop a strip mine far too near the Okefenokee Swamp, and ask GA-EPD to stop that second wood pellet plant in Adel while you’re at it.

We may also talk about water trails, water quality testing, and who knows what else.

Suwannee Riverkeeper and Scott James, 92.1 FM, 2021-10-19

When: ~~8 AM~~ 8:30 AM, Thursday, January 20, 2022

Where: Talk 92.1 FM radio, Scott James drivetime show
http://talk921.com/

Listen: Over the air, or through the radio show’s own website, or through any of several online listening services.

Event: facebook

For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see Continue reading →

Sugar Creek Trash 2022-01-15

Trash lined both sides of Sugar Creek all the way to the Withlacoochee River Saturday.

Trash jams behind their houses probably don’t make people very happy in Wood Valley subdivision half a mile down the river.

At the proposed site of Troupville River Camp and Troupville River Park, trashjams at the Little River Confluence make those projects less viable, despite promotion by One Valdosta-Lowndes, VLPRA, Valdosta, Lowndes County, and WWALS.

Floridians do not thank Valdosta for this trash gift, which trash washes downstream into Florida and the Suwannee River, onwards to the Gulf.

Trash down Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River

This problem has been known to the City of Valdosta since at least 2010, when it finished its Stormwater Master Plan (SWMP). The SWMP describes and includes a photograph of the notorious Sugar Creek trashjam near the bottom of the Salty Snapper property. Continue reading →

Appointment of Nominating Committee for Officers @ DSSWA 2021-10-20

Business as usual, plus preparing to nomimate officers for 2022, at the Authority that in some sense oversees the landfill in Lowndes County, Georgia, next to the Withlacoochee River.

That’s not sugar cane grinding in “6. City of Valdosta Grinding Reimbursement Request”. It’s for grinding up mulch. That seems to be the main thing DSSWA does: distribute grants for grinding from fees received from the landfill.

DSSWA-Agenda 10.0000000, 0.0000000
PDF

DEEP SOUTH
REGIONAL MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY
Meeting of the Board of Directors
Deep South Regional Municipal Solid Waste Management Authority
October 20, 2021
6:00 PM
Southern Georgia Regional Commission
Valdosta, Georgia
AGENDA
Continue reading →

Pictures: Family fun cleanup, Sugar Creek, Onemile Branch, Little and Withlacoochee Rivers 2021-10-09

Saturday’s River and Creek Cleanup went well. Here are pictures from Troupville Boat Ramp up from Land Between the Rivers on the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers, from Sugar Creek at the Salty Snapper, and from Drexel Park on Onemile Branch.

Troupville, Sugar Creek, Chairman and Mayor doing work, Drexel Park

Thanks to recent cleanups by Valdosta Stormwater, Sugar Creek wasn’t bad, but we found plenty of trash between the Salty Snapper parking lot and the creek, and Scotti and Sara hauled up from the woods a tire with rim and a satellite dish.

Thanks to Stafford, the owner of the parking lot on St. Augustine Road at Hightower Creek, keeping it much cleaner, there should be less trash coming down Sugar Creek.

Thanks to weeksly cleanups by Lowndes County Litter Control, Troupville Boat Ramp itself was pretty clean, but there was no shortage of trash to pick up downstream at Land Between the Rivers. Thanks to landowner Helen Tapp for getting her hunting lease to hold off for the day.

You don’t see this very often: Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter and Valdosta Mayor Scott James doing actual work together.

Later, they told everyone they were working together to purchase Helen’s land to add to the existing park to form a bigger nature park with a Troupville River Camp. Continue reading →

Tire Recycle Fest 2021, Lowndes County, Valdosta, GA 2021-10-16

Lowndes County News Flash, September 29, 2021, Lowndes County and the City of Valdosta Public Works Host Fall Tire Recycling Event:

Lowndes County and the City of Valdosta Public Works Departments will host a free tire recycling event for City and County residents beginning October 11 through October 22, 2021. Residents can drop off tires Monday thru Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the City of Valdosta Public Works located at 1017 Myrtle Street. Public Works will also hold a Saturday drop off event on October 16, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Tire Recycle Fest 2021

Tires must be regular car/truck size and off rim. No tractor or semi-truck tires will be accepted. No businesses are permitted to bring their tires to this event. Residents can drop off up to 200 tires per household.

This event is made possible through a grant offered by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GEPD).

For more information contact Valdosta Public Works, 229.259.3585

We’re happy to say WWALS helped make funds for that grant available, Continue reading →

Graco Way illicit dump site, Madison County, Florida 2021-09-04

WWALS member Elizabeth Reynolds reported many tires and other trash on a lot at the corner of Graco Way and NE Pineapple Street in Madison County, Florida. That’s one mile south down CR 145 from State Line Boat Ramp on the Withlacoochee River. She had picked up tires there several times, but had run out of places to take them.

We followed up and got her some answers.

You can also report trash or other problems related to our waterways in the Suwannee River Basin: https://wwals.net/report/

Graco Way corner, tires, map. Photos: Elizabeth Reynolds

I called Madison County Code Enforcement, Gloria Randall, Code Enforcement Officer, code@madisoncountyfl.com, (850) 973-3641
https://madisoncountyfl.com/code-enforcement/

Turns out it’s a well-known problem. Cleaning it up is the responsibility of the property owner. Unfortunately, that’s a trust, which means there’s no single person in charge. Continue reading →

A trash source success: parking lot on St. Augustine Road, Valdosta

Valdosta, GA, October 7, 2021 — Other businesses can do what Stafford did, and our creeks and rivers will be a lot cleaner! That will make Valdosta, Lowndes County, and every place downstream, more attractive to new and existing businesses, and healthier for people who live here.

After many times cleaning up trash from Sugar Creek near the Withlacoochee River, WWALS member Bobby McKenzie went upstream in Valdosta, found some sources, and one of the big ones listened. Other businesses can follow this example: put trash cans in parking lots, empty them, and keep them swept.

Parking lot, Hightower Creek

Bobby tells the story:

We identified hundreds of pounds of trash being thrown into the tree line just feet from Hightower Creek. The parking lot owner is Valdosta Mall Corners c/o Stafford Development Company (Stafford). Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.