As
scheduled,
the resolution was
introduced by
Valdosta City Manager Mark Barber,
moved by
Council Vivian Miller-Cody,
seconded by
Tim Carroll,
and approved unanimously.
Mayor John Gayle then volunteered that despite the empty seats,
which he attributed to spring break, they did have a quorum
with four Council members and the Mayor.
Here’s the video, followed by the resolution: Continue reading
By permission of the landowners, WWALS will be cleaning up the site of Troupville, the previous county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia. Its nineteenth-century residents picked up everything and moved it when Valdosta was founded, so there’s not much to see but beautiful riverfront, in Between the Rivers LLC, down to the confluence of the Little River with the Withlacoochee River. Unfortunately, there is trash, which we will clean up. We hope to have some history experts explaining what used to be there.
This cleanup is in conjunction with Keep Lowndes Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB) The Great American Cleanup, and is part of Waterkeeper® Alliance Cleanup Week.
When: 8:30 AM – Noon, Saturday, April 21, 2018
Gather at:
Troupville Boat Ramp, 19664 Valdosta Hwy, Valdosta, GA 31602: on GA 133 off I-75 exit 18.
Park here to walk to the cleanup site.
No boat required, but if you want to bring a boat, you can put in here and paddle back.
GPS: 30.85131, -83.34743
Bring: Cleanup materials will be provided, but if you’ve got a trash picker, bring it along.
Free: This outing is free to everyone. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
Site of Troupville at the confluence of the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers,
Lowndes County parcel 0057 003, Between the Rivers LLC
Update 2018-04-16: Tickets now available!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Valdosta, GA, April 5, 2018 — WWALS Watershed Coalition (Suwannee Riverkeeper) announces a Wild & Scenic Film Festival at Mathis Auditorium in Valdosta as a natural extension of WWALS’ work to inspire people to act for fishable, swimmable, drinkable waters.
When:
7PM, Thursday, May 31, 2018
Where:
Mathis Auditorium,
2300 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 31602
To print this poster, use the PDF.
Tickets:
Available at the door, and pre-sale tickets will be available soon are available online and on paper now.
What: Wild & Scenic focuses on films which speak to Continue reading
Meeting Notice
WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting
2-4PM, Sunday, 15 April 2018
Home of board member Eileen Box:
8576 66th Street Live Oak, FL 32060
Bring your own snacks to share.
BIG Little River Paddle Race, Wild & Scenic Film Festival, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, Alapaha Quest, festivals, water trails, water quality monitoring, pipelines, phosphate mines, and more.
All WWALS members, especially committee members, are invited to attend, as is the general public.
All WWALS Board Members are expected to attend in person or by telephone.
The more done on the board list, the less time we’ll have to spend on them in this meeting.
Board Members:
John S. Quarterman (President, Chair PR, Watershed Issues, and Trails Committees, and Suwannee Riverkeeper®)*,
* Executive Committee
The agenda will follow closer to the date. If you’ve got something you want us to discuss or vote on, let us know. And come on down! The more the merrier.
Especially if you’re thinking of joining a committee or the board, come see what we do.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Update 2018-04-05: Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson noted yesterday: “Correction it was a FGT blowdown. Easy to be confused as Sabal Trail is in the same corridor and working on their pipeline too. And remember that SONAT gas pipeline is also in this same corridor. That’ll really be something else if and when all 3 gas transmission pipelines are being worked on simultaneously. I think it is also very disconcerting that pipeline companies do not have to inform the NRC (National Response Center) or PHMSA (Pipeline Hazard and Materials Safety Agency) when they do work on these explosive infrastructure corridors.”
See Where pipelnes already cross rivers into Suwannee County, Florida.
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson reported on facebook yesterday:
Sabal Trail has been doing a blowdown operation on the pipeline corridor and the Santa Fe River. That was what sounded like a jet airplane in the river community on Monday April 2, 2018.
Photo: Jim Tatum.
That sounds much like the FGT pipeline noise last month in Suwannee County near the Suwannee River.
Also similar: Sabal Trail’s FERC-required Informational Postings contain no Critical nor non-Critical notices about whatever it is they are doing now.
Where are the state and federal agencies that permitted Sabal Trail? Why have they not required notices to neighbors, local Fire Rescue, and the public?
Meawhile, Sabal Trail gas is up and down yet again. How can this pipeline be needed when it’s shut down half the time? Is its main function really to scare the neighbors?
Update 2018-04-10: Canoeing from the Little to the Chee by Burt Kornegay 2018-03-24.
![[Phil Hubbard interviews Burt Kornegay]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-03-24--burt-kornegay/sddefault.jpg)
Very experienced retired outfitter Burt Kornegay from western north Carolina paddled
the Little River from just below its one dam to the Withlacoochee and
on to the Suwannee a week ago, and liked it a lot.
If you want a really good four-day canoe trip, put in right near Reed Bingham State Park at the highway 37 bridge. There’s an excellent put in right there. And spend four days canoeing down this river. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
That’s from somebody who has led expeditions all over the U.S., from the Grand Canyon to the Smokey Mountains, interviewed Saturday a week ago at Troupville Boat Ramp.
Update May 21, 2018: New location: The Salty Snapper, Valdosta, GA.
Update May 15, 2018: Deadline extended to Friday, June 1, 2018!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Live Oak, FL, April 2, 2018 — Submissions are now open for the First Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. Soon there will be more songs about the Suwannee River than the one everybody knows, and also about the Withlacoochee, the Alapaha, and more; don’t forget the Okefenokee Swamp. Stephen Foster never saw the Suwannee River, so songwriters don’t have to live here to submit, but they do have to be present to win.
Deadline: Submissions must be received by midnight Eastern time at the end of Sunday May, 13, 2018. The Songwriting Contest Committee will select seven finalists and announce them on Saturday, May 19, 2018.
Enter: Here is the Entry Form.
The Contest: The finalists will perform in Valdosta, Georgia, Saturday, July 23, 2018, plus a silent auction, a kayak raffle, and of course food and drink.
Prizes: Judges will award Continue reading
Update 2019-03-11: And of course FERC and FPSC approved it, this extension of FSC to within 300 feet of an LNG export port.
What is FPL hiding in all that confidential and redacted material in a 117-page petition for approval of folding FPL’s Martin-Riviera Pipeline into Sabal Trail’s downstream Florida Southeast Connection (FSC)? This has been planned at least two years. on the excuse of lower rates for customers. Yet FPL redacted what FSC would charge and future cost projections, so FPL’s customers and the rest of the public affected by these unnecessary pipelines have no way of knowing what they would cost, and emergency responders can’t see what’s on this pipeline.
Indiantown to Riviera Beach, in
FERC 20180309-5230, Docket CP18-108.
Eagle-eye WWALS member Janet Barrow spotted this Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) Docket 20170231 (OPEN) — Petition for approval to transfer Martin- Riviera Lateral Pipeline to Florida Southeast Connection and implement associated rate adjustments, by Florida Power & Light Company.
FPSC let FPL redact most anything it wanted to, in Continue reading
On their agenda for 5:30 PM this Thursday, April 5, 2018, at Valdosta City Hall:
4.b. Consideration of a Resolution of Support for the Withlacoochee River and Little River Water Trail.
4.c. Consideration of a Resolution of Support for the Alapaha River Water Trail.
It wouldn’t hurt for some WWALS members, especially ones who live in Valdosta, to stand up and thank the City Council in Citizens to be Heard at the end of the meeting,
Let’s not count our chickens before they’re hatched, since they could modify the resolutions or not pass them, but here are the PDFs I sent them for the WLRWT and the ARWT.
It was surprisingly easy to show Continue reading
Update 2018-04-17: Online pre-registration for event fee (free to WWALS members) and shuttle fee. Space is limited. Register soon.
Beautiful two-day paddle trip with overnight camping at Holton Creek.
When: 9 AM, Saturday, June 2, 2018
Put In: Suwannee Springs, 3243 91st Dr, Live Oak, FL 32060
GPS: 30.39417, -82.93383
Take Out: Suwannee River State Park, 3631 201st Path, Live Oak, FL 32060
Bring: camping gear in addition to 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.
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 a day ($20) to non-members, plus campsite fees and park entry fees.
All attendees must pre-pay a $10 shuttle fee. You can register here:
We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
Photo: Continue reading
![[A happy paddler]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-03-24--burt-kornegay/20180324_141501.jpg)