It was a fine sunny weekend last year at Azalea Festival, in Valdosta, in Drexel Park, across Patterson Street from Valdosta State University. WWALS will be back there this rainy weekend.
![[Booth, One Mile Branch, Azalea Festival 2021]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-03-13--azalea-festival-saturday-pictures/many.jpg)
Booth, One Mile Branch, Azalea Festival 2021
We’ve got a great location, at the entrance from E. Brookwood Drive. Continue reading
Thanks to Valdosta Stormwater for cleaning up that trash on Threemile Branch at Country Club Road. Thanks even more for modifying the Click ‘n’ Fix procedures for litter tickets.
Maybe more of this trash can get cleaned up and upstream problems fixed before the WWALS paddle Langdale Park, Sugar Creek, Troupville Boat Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2022-05-07. If not, the Mayor and others will be paddling through trash rafts. Everyone please use Click ‘n’ Fix to report trash problems to help Valdosta clean them up.
That trash got submitted to Valdosta as Click ‘n’ Fix as Issue ID 11870600 on February 13, 2022.
A long chain of responses followed. Continue reading
Update 2022-03-11: Bad Knights Ferry heading downstream 2022-03-10.
All WWALS water quality tests are good for Thursday, including zero E. coli at Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps, on the Withlacoochee River thanks to Michael and Jacob Bachrach. Elizabeth Brunner for her three GA 122 sites got 133 cfu/100 mL at Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee River, still well within acceptable bounds, and zero at Folsom Bridge on the Little River and zero at Lakeland Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River.
Valdosta tests for Friday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at US 41, GA 133, and US 84 were also well within bounds; thanks to Scott Fowler for publishing those today.
So all the tests we have say all clear for boating, fishing, and swimming this weekend. With no rain, no E. coli to speak of has washed into the rivers. With no rain predicted for many days, nothing should. Continue reading
As WWALS volunteers keep up with it, cleaning out the WWALS Sugar Creek trash boom is like the top row: not bad. Of course, no rain for weeks helps: less washes down the creek.
It would be even less if fast food outlets upstream in Valdosta such as Cook Out and Zacadoo’s (pictured) would clean up their act. And if the owners of their parking lots would put in the trash cans required by Valdosta city ordinances. Sure, there will still be people tossing trash out of their cars, but most of this mess is coming from fast food outlet parking lots.
Before the boom, those trashjams in the bottom row got down Sugar Creek, and there is more on the Withlacoochee and Little Rivers. Such trash, also coming out of Threemile Branch, is not good for the planned Troupville River Camp and Nature Park, featured as their number one BIG thing by One Valdosta-Lowndes and a priority of the updated Parks and Rec. Master Plan. It’s also not good for the WWALS May 7th paddle from Langdale Park to Sugar Creek and Troupville Boat Ramp or even for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).
And that turtle should not have to live with that trash.
For more background, see https://wwals.net/issues/trash/.
Notice the pool noodles tied on top of the boom for extra flotation. Local ingenuity! Continue reading
Georgia farmers are already protected by some of the strongest farm laws in the U.S. against frivolous lawsuits and for property rights.
Now lobbyists for global food conglomerates and insurance companies are trying to weaken these protective laws with a Bad Neighbor Bill. HB 1150 weakens Georgia’s long standing laws. It guts protections for property owners, and makes it easier for global meat companies to operate without regard to their neighbors.
STOP the corporate takeover of Georgia’s farmland. Send a message to your legislators today. STOP HB 1150.
To email them, click here for a convenient form:
https://www.protectgeorgia.org/farm.html#/317/
Photo: Waterkeeper Alliance via Sierra Club
You can also find telephone numbers for Georgia House members here:
https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/.
If you don’t know which legislator is yours, you can find out here:
https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
Floridians, Georgia hog lagoons in the Suwannee River Basin would be upstream from Florida. So please ask all your Georgia friends to call their legislators. Or Floridians can call them, too, to emphasize it’s a problem spread beyond one state.
People from anywhere can do that.
While you’re at it, you can ask them to Support Georgia HB 1289 to protect the Okefenokee Swamp 2022-02-24.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Update 2022-03-21: Boxes down into the water at Flying J, Exit 2, I-75 2022-03-19.
Well, they never finished the fence behind the Flying J at I-75 Exit 2, after Lowndes County Code Enforcement made them and Dennys clean up back there in 2019. The trash is not as bad as it was, but definitely room for further improvement.
![[Trash in water, No Dumping sign, trash where no fence]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-02-26--flying-j-trash/many.jpg)
Trash in water, No Dumping sign, trash where no fence
That’s Flying J Travel Center #631, 7001 Lake Park Bellville Road, Lake Park, GA 31636.
As near as I can tell, that containment pond eventually drains into Deese Tract Creek that runs into the Withlacoochee River just upstream from Sullivan Launch.
I will mention this to Lowndes County Code Enforcement. Continue reading
2022-05-05: Reroute: Langdale Park becomes Withlacoochee River and Sugar Creek Cleanup 2022-05-07.
Leisurely paddle promoting ecotourism on the Withlacoochee River, from Langdale Park to Troupville Boat Ramp, stopping halfway for lunch at the Salty Snapper. Each participant will be responsible for purchasing their own lunch.
Water levels may change rapidly. We will keep you updated.
We will gather at Langdale Park at 9am and perform a team shuttle at 9:30 returning to Langdale and launching at 10:00 am. We will arrive at the Salty Snapper (3 miles) for lunch/beverages around 11:30 shortly after they open. Lunch should wrap up around 12:30 and paddle on down to Troupville Boat Ramp (4 miles) arriving and finishing up around 2:30pm.
Along the way, we will see where the Mayor of Valdosta proposes building a boardwalk along the last thousand feet of cypress knees on a strip of land Lowndes County owns from Gornto Road down to the river, just downstream from Sugar Creek, the railroad, and the YMCA.
If we’re lucky, Valdosta will have cleaned up its trash problem by then.
And we will bring saws in case we encounter more deadfalls (trees across the river) than usual. There may be a few brief portages over deadfalls, but don’t worry: everyone will help.
When: Gather 9 AM, launch 10 AM, end 3 PM, Saturday, May 7, 2022
Put In: Langdale Park Boat Ramp, 3781 N. Valdosta Rd., Valdosta, GA 31602. I-75 Exit 22, east on North Valdosta Road, cross the Withlacoochee River, turn right on Hyta Mederer Drive, continue to the boat ramp.
GPS: 30.88747, -83.32395
Lunch: The Salty Snapper, 1405 Gornto Road, Valdosta, GA 31602.
Take Out: Troupville Boat Ramp, 19664 Valdosta Hwy, Valdosta, GA 31602. I-75 exit 18, west on GA 133 (St. Augustine Road) away from the Valdosta Mall, at the traffic light for Val Tech Road, turn left down to the boat ramp.
Bring: the usual personal flotation device, boat, paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup. Mosquitoes can be bad at dusk so come prepared.
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members.
You can pay the $10 at the outing, or online:
https://wwals.net/outings
We recommend you support the work of WWALS by
becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join
![[Around the bend, 10:26:40, 30.8867740, -83.3239680]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-05-15--langdale-park-sugar-creek-salty-snapper/20210515_102640.jpg)
Around the bend, 10:26:40, 30.8867740, -83.3239680, 2021-05-15.
Mayor Scott James Matheson said he and Council had been discussing solutions to the trash problem, before last Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting. Afterwards he came outside and discussed that a bit more. Stay tuned.
There’s also a new Neighborhood Development and Community Protections Manager, Anetra Riley. Community Protections Manager is what they call Code Enforcement, so that is relevant to the trash problem. Continue reading
The two Adel wood pellet plants are examples of air quality permits can be relevant to water.
The Public Hearing will be “1:00 p.m. on March 31, 2022. EPD will be hosting this public hearing via Zoom.”
https://gaepd.zoom.us/j/93237284952?pwd=UytaUUdVU21pdlNJRUcrZk1aSGZkQT09
The text of the Public Notice is below. Continue reading
Update 2022-03-04: All Rivers Clean 2022-03-03.
Another clean week on the Little, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, according to the water quality test results we have from WWALS and Valdosta. No rain is predicted, and no sewage spills have been reported.
So happy boating, fishing, and swimming this weekend!
With no rain, no E. coli washes out of Okapilco Creek (or Sugar Creek) into the Withlacoochee River.
Thanks to WWALS tester Elizabeth Brunner for the results at the three GA 122 locations for Thursday. Continue reading
![[Trash, Where, Cleanup]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-04--valdosta-stormwater-threemile-branch-cleanup/many.jpg)
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-03--wq/many.jpg)
![[Boom, Trash, Cleaned]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-02-26--trash-boom-sugar-creek/many.jpg)
![[Public Notice]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-31--ga-epd-air-rule-public-meeting/many.jpg)
![[Chart, River, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-02-24--wq/many.jpg)