A lot of titanium, but only one Okefenokee Swamp –U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock 2021-08-28

“We have a lot of titanium, but we only have one Okefenokee Swamp,” said U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, very early Saturday morning in Valdosta, Georgia.

[U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, Gretchen Quarterman]
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, Gretchen Quarterman

That’s WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman with the Senator.

You can ask the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to reject the five permit applications they got from the miners, or at least to thoroughly examine them, with independent third-party review.
https://wwals.net/?p=55092

The Senator left with contact information for the Charlton County Commission. If you know any of them, you could talk to them, too.

Later that same morning, Continue reading →

J.J. Rolle, singer, actor, Judge at Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest –VDT 2021-08-29

Amanda M. Usher, The Valdosta Daily Times, 29 August 2021, Soul Man: Rolle makes his mark singing, acting,

John Jeffery ‘J.J.’ Rolle is a performer and judge at the recent Fourth Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. Rolle has been a musician for decades.

VALDOSTA — “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages … put your hands together for Valdosta’s very own, J.J. Rolle,” emcee Wes James called out at the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.

[J.J. Rolle: judge and performer; Photo: Angela Duncan]
J.J. Rolle: judge and performer; Photo: Angela Duncan

John Jeffery “J.J.” Rolle, longtime entertainer and one of three judges at the contest held last week, strummed an upbeat tempo to the tune of “Blackwater” by the Doobie Brothers.

Though the guitar was Rolle’s choice of instrument, he doesn’t consider himself a guitarist.

“I play enough to write songs and accompany myself while singing,” he said. “I do consider myself a singer. I guess my voice would be my instrument.”

There’s more about J.J.’s background in the article, singing and acting.

The article continues: Continue reading →

Clean Rivers 2021-08-26

Update 2021-09-02: Bad at GA-FL Line: Health Alert, Withlacoochee River 2021-08-31.

In a lull between rains, the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers showed clean for all our WWALS Wednesday and Thursday test sites.

You could also become a WWALS water quality tester. There’s a testing training coming up September 11, 2021.

[Chart, Little, Alapaha, Withlacoochee Rivers, Green Swim Guide]
Chart, Little, Alapaha, Withlacoochee Rivers, Green Swim Guide

This is even though Valdosta found results for Wednesday at US 41 too high. We don’t know where that contamination came from. That’s upstream from Sugar Creek, so not from there.

Valdosta also got way too high for Monday at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp. Curiously, Valdosta’s Monday result for Okapilco Creek was within range, so if that contamination came out of Okapilco Creek, it had already washed downstream into the Withlacoochee River. Notice Nankin Boat Ramp not as high but still too high on E. coli for that Monday, as the contamination was reaching it. Continue reading →

Clean water amendment worth backing –Citrus County Chronicle 2021-08-24

Yes, Floridians, please sign the petition at FL5.org to get the Right to Clean Water constitutional amendment on the ballot, for our rivers, springs, and drinking water from the Floridian Aquifer.

This editorial is quite surprising from the Citrus County Chronicle, which has been all for the Duke Energy fracked methane power plant in Crystal River and has not opposed Strom Inc.’s Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) proposed facility there. Maybe education and persuasion have some effects.

[Clean water amendment worth backing]
Clean water amendment worth backing

Page A9 – TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2021

OPINION

CITRUS COUNTY CHRONICLE

EDITORIAL BOARD

The opinions expressed in Chronicle editorials
are the opinions of the newspaper’s editorial board.

CLEAN WATER A MUST

Clean water amendment worth backing

Clean water is imperative to our ecosystem both in Florida and throughout the world.

Continue reading →

Training: Water Quality Testing 2021-09-11

Chemical and Bacterial training by Georgia Adopt-A-Stream (AAS) methods. Yes, you can also use these methods in Florida to report via AAS.

If you’d like to get trained and do testing for WWALS, please fill out this form:
https://forms.gle/DzWvJuXqTQi12N6v7

Yes, training is difficult in this pandemic situation, but Georgia Adopt-A-Stream has worked out methods, mostly online. With last year’s generous grant from Georgia Power WWALS has purchased enough testing kits so that trainees can have one to use during the training.

[Table of testers]
Table of testers
Photo: Gretchen Quarterman 2021-02-13.

In the form, remember to say where you can test. We need testers pretty much everywhere:

  • In Georgia on the Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers, especially upstream in Lanier, Berrien, and Atkinson Counties. Plus on Okapilco and Crooked and Piscola Creeks in Brooks County, on Onemile Branch, Twomile Branch, and Sugar Creek in and near Valdosta. And upstream on the Little River in Brooks, Cook, Colquitt, and Tift Counties.
  • In Florida on the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Suwannee, and Santa Fe Rivers, and on creeks that run into them, especially in Madison, Hamilton, Suwannee, and Lafayette Counties.
  • We need testers even where we already have testers, because everybody needs time off.

For the testing story so far, and more context, see
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/.

We look forward to you getting trained and joining our testing team!

When: 9 AM, end 4 PM, Saturday, September 11, 2021

Where: Zoom then physically distanced practical training in very small groups, for example at Onemile Branch in Drexel Park in Valdosta.

Free: to everyone. But if you want to test for WWALS, you need to become a WWALS member.
https://wwals.net/donations/#join

Continue reading →

Parts of Alapaha, Withlacoochee Rivers to be Recreational –GA-EPD 2021-08-11

Update 2021-09-01: More Recreational redesignation of waterbodies still possible –GA-EPD 2021-09-01.

GA-EPD picked a subset of the river stretches they previously said they would consider for Recreational designation: in the Georgia Triennial Review of Water Quality Standards: parts of the Alapaha River, and a smaller part of the Withlacoochee River.

There’s an online Update Meeting next month.

[Header, Suwannee River Basin]
Header, Suwannee River Basin

So that’s the Alapaha River from the Willacoochee River to Dampier Branch, and from Cherry Creek to the state line. I guess you can still paddle from Willacoochee Landing @ GA 135 to Berrien Beach Boat Ramp @ GA 168 without getting into any non-Recreational stretches. But Lakeland Boat Ramp and Pafford’s and Burnt Church Landings are right out. But you can paddle from Hotchkiss Road Landing to Naylor Boat Ramp, Mayday Landing, Statenville Boat Ramp, and on to Florida.

Redesignated Recreational is the Withlacoochee River from Tiger Creek (at Spook Bridge, just below US 84) to the state line. So Knights Creek, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps can all be Recreational, even though they’re all downstream of Okapilco Creek and all those cattle in Brooks County, but Langdale Park Boat Ramp and Troupville Boat Ramp are not designated Recreational, despite the Valdosta Mayor’s letter of support.

However, the big win is that anything at all got redesignated. In previous cycles, GA-EPD declined to consider such a thing. And we can reapply next time.

Completely missing from this list are: Continue reading →

O’Brien man places in songwriting contest –Lake City Reporter 2021-08-24

Staff Report, Lake City Reporter, August 24, 2021, “O’Brien man places in songwriting contest: Wingate one of nine finalists from across the southeast.” [See also Valdosta Today.]

VALDOSTA — Chosen from a record number of finalists, an O’Brien man was one of three winners named Saturday night at the fourth annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.

Out of the nine finalists that competed at the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts’ Art Park, O’Brien’s KJ Wingate won for the best song from inside the Suwannee River basin. Wingate won a $50 prize from the WWALS Watershed Coalition for his folk/country song, “The Hymn of Convict Spring.”

[Lake City Reporter, KJ Wingate, Rachel Grubb]
Lake City Reporter, KJ Wingate, Rachel Grubb
Finalists that competed in the fourth annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting contest included O’Brien’s KJ Wingate (from left), Katherine Ball, David Rodock, Sweet William Billy Ennis, Jimi Davies and his brother, Kathy Lou Gilman and Rachel Hillman. Not pictured are Brandon Fox and Lake City’s Rachel Grubb, who could not attend. Angela Duncan Courtesy of WWALS.

Other winners Saturday included Continue reading →

Winners: Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2021-08-21

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hahira, GA, August 23, 2021 — Chosen by three judges from a record number of Finalists from Atlanta to Palatka, WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS) is pleased to announce the winners of the Fourth Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.

[All winners]
All winners.
L-R: KJ Wingate, Katherine Ball, David Rodock, Sweet William Billy Ennis, Jimi Davies and his brother, Kathy Lou Gilman, Rachel Hillman.
Photo: Angela Duncan for WWALS.

The winner of Continue reading →

Video: Banks Lake Full Sturgeon Moon Paddle 2021-08-22 –Suwannee Riverkeeper & Scott James 2021-08-12

This Sunday, paddle out with us to see the sun set and the moon rise, with bats, in the Banks Lake Full Sturgeon Moon Paddle!

It’s only $10 for non-members, and free to non-members, as Scott James reminded us on his radio show last week.

With free boat rental, thanks to the Lakeland-Lanier County Chamber of Commerce.

And WWALS membership is only $25 for individuals or $40 for a family.
https://wwals.net/donations/#join

[Banks Lake Full Sturgeon Moon Paddle]
Banks Lake Full Sturgeon Moon Paddle

For more details of this evening paddle just west of Lakeland, Georgia, see: https://wwals.net/?p=56344

Here’s WWALS video of that radio interview: Continue reading →

Odd results, but mostly clean rivers 2021-08-19

Update 2021-08-26: Clean Rivers 2021-08-26.

The notorious GA 133 Withlacoochee River test site showed up higher than the one-time test limit for Thursday, and Wednesday so did Cleary Bluff down below Allen Ramp. Otherwise, the Withlacoochee, Little, and Alapaha Rivers all tested clean everywhere we tested Thursday.

I’d guess that GA 133 contamination, whatever it is, has probably been diluted by the greater amount of Little River water. An no, it almost certainly did not come from Valdosta, and also not from the dairy farms.

There’s been no significant rain in the past few days, so most likely nothing new has washed into the rivers. So, as far as we can tell, happy boating, swimming, and fishing.

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

We have no new results from Valdosta or Madison Health since we posted yesterday about Madison Health lifting their advisory. Continue reading →