Pop-Up Sugar Creek Cleanup, 2021-08-14

Come help us clean up the Sugar Creek logjam for a fourth time before Tropical Storm Fred comes in.

Most of the trash from Hightower Branch at St. Augustine Road, no doubt plus much other trash, has already washed down Sugar Creek and is at the usual logjam. Let’s get it before it washes into the Withlacoochee River, then down the Suwannee to the Gulf.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 12 PM, Saturday, August 14, 2021

Put In: Salty Snapper Landing, a private slope to Sugar Creek, below the Salty Snapper parking lot, 1405 Gornto Rd, Valdosta, GA 31602

GPS: 30.862126, -83.31839

Take Out: Salty Snapper Landing

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!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join

[Canoe, floating trash, map]
Canoe, floating trash, map

This cleanup is part of the Georgia Rivers Alive cleanups.

We are still talking to Valdosta about trash traps. And we are working on dealing with the problem at its sources. Those include not only these heaps of trash, but also the companies that make all this single-use garbage. We will probably need your help with those things, too, before long.

Meanwhile, if you find any trash heaps like this, please report them through Valdosta Click ‘n’ Fix and let WWALS know, too.

Event: facebook, meetup

[St. Augustine Road, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River]
St. Augustine Road, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River on the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

Continue reading →

Massive Valdosta Litter Source Found 2021-07-12

Update 2021-10-07: A trash source success: parking lot on St. Augustine Road, Valdosta.

A month ago Bobby McKenzie found a motherlode of trash. He went upstream on Sugar Creek, then Hightower Creek, across St. Augustine Road, to the parking lot that contains Cook Out, Chick-fil-A, and Steak and Shake.

He reported it to Valdosta Code Enforcement. Since then, we’ve been having some fruitful conversations with the city and with business owners. More on that later.

[Trash heap, St. Augustine Road, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River]
Trash heap, St. Augustine Road, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River

From: bobby mckenzie
To: bcorbitt@valdostacity.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2021, 11:17:14 AM EDT
Subject: Massive Valdosta Litter Source Found

Good Morning,

I would like to report 2 locations within Valdosta for being a significant contributor to a recurring litter problem to Sugar Creek. Both locations can be reached on St Augustine Road. One location is the far south end of the parking lot that is home to Hobby Lobby, Tractor Supply and fast food places Cook Out and Steak and Shake. Continue reading →

November: Hike to Dead River Sink, Alapaha River, Jennings Bluff Launch, 2021-11-06

Update 2021-11-05: Rain reschedule: Hike to Dead River Sink, Alapaha River, Jennings Bluff Launch, 2021-11-07.

New date: November 6, 2021. October was overbooked, so we have again, for the last time we hope, rescheduled the Hike to the Dead River Sink.

Join us for an approximately three-mile hike down the Dead River to the Dead River Sink, where the Alapaha River goes underground much of the year. We will be led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida. He will explain the geology, and how unusual this place is: there’s nothing like it in Florida (or Georgia).

This is a hike: no boat is needed.

[Karst limestone cracks by the Alapaha River, Dead River, Sink, Dennis J. Price]
Karst limestone cracks by the Alapaha River, Dead River, Sink, Dennis J. Price

When: Gather 9:00 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 12:15 PM, Saturday, November 6, 2021

Put In: Jennings Bluff Launch. From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel south on US 41 to NW 25 Lane; turn left; travel east to NW 82 Court and the entrance into the Suwannee River Water Management District’s Jennings Bluff tract; turn left and follow road to canoe launch.

GPS: 30.567183, -83.038911
You’re aiming for the Jennings Bluff Tract entrance.

[Jennings Bluff Tract sign, 11:42:18, 30.5670965, -83.0388653]
Jennings Bluff Tract sign, 11:42:18, 30.5670965, -83.0388653

Take Out: Jennings Bluff Launch

Bring: drinking water, snacks, 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 (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

Event: facebook, meetup Continue reading →

Bottled water a thousand times worse for species lost and resource use than tap water 2021-07-05

These are not small numbers, in a recent peer-reviewed scientific study:

“The scenario where the entire population consumed tap water yielded the lowest environmental impact on ecosystems and resources, while the scenario where the entire population drank bottled water yielded the highest impacts (1400 and 3500 times higher for species lost and resource use, respectively).”

[Plot: human health and lost Species/year]
Plot: human health and lost Species/year

DALY is disability-adjusted life years.

For resource use, so far as I know Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, does sit on karst limestone, unlike Florida and south Georgia. So the resource effects of bottled water withdrawals from the Floridan Aquifer on our rivers, springs, and wells are probably worse than this study shows. Those lowered water levels in turn affect ecosystems and human health.

Filtered tap water is just as good for human health as bottled water, with far less external effects. Plus filtered tap water does not expose humans to plastics from bottles. Continue reading →

Suwannee Riverkeeper contest scheduled –Valdosta Daily Times 2021-08-02

Amanda M. Usher, Valdosta Daily Times, August 2, 2021, Suwannee Riverkeeper contest scheduled,

VALDOSTA — The musical notes of folk, blues, soul, rock and jazz will soon cover the Art Park during the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest in late August.

Finalists have been selected to perform at the annual event, 7-11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 21, at the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts Art Park.

The public had until July 29 to cast votes for the contest.

John Quarterman, Suwannee riverkeeper, said a committee will take into account the votes while choosing finalists, which will be announced Aug. 4.

And the Committee selected all nine songwriters as Finaliasts!

[Nine Songwriters, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2021]

Judges Josh Duncan, J.J. Rolle and Kenji Bolden will select winners at the Aug. 21 event, where Little Perks in Paradise and Dirty Bird and the Flu will each headline.

Little Perks in Paradise features Continue reading →

Alapaha, Withlacoochee Rivers, Lowndes County Commission 2021-08-10

For voting Tuesday evening, three water-related items have more implications than might appear from the agenda of the Lowndes County Commission.

[Lake Alapaha water treatment, Bay Branch tributaries in Building Valdosta Subdivision, Army Corps on Val Del Villas]
Lake Alapaha water treatment, Bay Branch tributaries in Building Valdosta Subdivision, Army Corps on Val Del Villas

7.a. REZ-2021-09 Building Valdosta Subdivision (0070 018), R-A to R-21, Community Well & Septic, ~64.84 acres.

This subdivision has two creeks crossing it, leading to Bay Branch and the Withlacoochee River, plus at least one retention pond.

7.c. REZ-2021-13 Val Del Villas, Val Del Rd. P-D Amendment, County Water and Sewer, ~28.436 acres

For this existing subdivision, Northside Property Development wants to add more houses. It got the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine that the remaining part of Val Del Villas off Val Del Road is not jurisdictional wetlands. That’s uphill from Sermons Branch and the Withlacoochee River. Northside Property Development has the same registered agent as Uvalde Land Company that bought the Cherry Creek Mitigation Bank next to the other side of the Withlacoochee River, and wants to deannex the upland half of it from Valdosta. The uplands in that Bank tract are not jurisdictional wetlands, either.

8.b. Alapaha Plantation Water Treatment Pilot Study

This is the kind of extra expense Valdosta avoided by sinking its water wells at Guest Road twice as deep after Withlacoochee River water was discovered reaching them from Shadrick Sink, on the other side of the Withlacoochee River, and the other side of what is now the Cherry Creek Mitigation Bank, recently sold to Uvalde Land Company, which wants to deannex half of it from Valdosta.

For much more background, including the so-far $225,415 running total for Lowndes County subsidizing water for the private Lake Alapaha subdivision next to the Alapaha River, see The never-ending Lake Alapaha Water Treatment Plant saga @ LCC 2021-08-10.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Four miles an hour, Nankin to Sullivan, Withlacoochee River 2021-08-07

Update 2021-08-16: Two Withlacoochee River 360-degree transits by WWALS on Earthviews 2021-08-16.

Rain poured during the shuttle from Nankin Boat Ramp to Sullivan Launch, but the weather relented as we started to paddle, just as expedition leader and weatherman Bobby McKenzie predicted.

22 people paddled in 21 boats, entering Florida three times, past McIntyre Spring, Arnold Springs, the Valdosta Railway Trestle, and Horn Bridge. Only a few took out at State Line Boat Ramp, because they were musicians and they had a gig that same evening.

Almost all continued past PCA and Jumping Gully Creek to Sullivan Launch for a total of 14.22 miles in barely four hours. Subtract half an hour for the lunch stop at State Line Boat Ramp, and that’s 3.5 hours, for 4 miles per hour.

[Valdosta Railway Trestle in the middle]
Valdosta Railway Trestle in the middle

WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman left her boat in the truck until the last minute, because she did not want to paddle in the rain. WWALS President Tom H. Johnson Jr. and Mary Carolyn Pindar drove four hours for this outing, so they were going to paddle anyway, as was I. Continue reading →

Clean up and down: Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha Rivers 2021-08-05

Update 2021-08-13: Red US 41, clean downstream 2021-08-12.

All clear for tomorrow’s paddle from Nankin to State Line Boat Ramp, with continuation to Sullivan Launch, on the Withlacoochee River. As always, conditions could change, but all the WWALS water quality tests for Thursday are good at 11 sites on three rivers, including at Nankin and State Line Boat Ramps.

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

Madison Health did get a too-high E. coli result for Tuesday at State Line. Although that was higher than the 410 cfu/100 mL one-time test limit, it was still below the 1,000 alert limit. The WWALS test at the same location and upstream for Thursday, and the WWALS test downstream at Cleary Bluff for Wednesday, all were much cleaner.

Valdosta’s Friday and Monday test results were also clean upstream and downstream all the way to the GA-FL line.

So I would guess that one Madison Health result was due to the rains in Brooks County Monday; more than half an inch on the US 84 Withlacoochee gauge. Probably they washed something down Okapilco Creek. There are no reports of sewage spills in the past week.

We did have a similar rain in the same place yesterday, but if that washed anything into the river, it should be gone downstream by tomorrow. So just don’t drink the river water and you should be OK. Continue reading →

Nankin to State Line and Sullivan Launch, Withlacoochee River, 2021-08-07

Update 2021-08-08: Four miles an hour, Nankin to Sullivan, Withlacoochee River 2021-08-07.

Now with optional continuation downstream to Sullivan Launch!

Current water levels on this route will allow us to reach the original State Line take out 1.5 hour earlier than normal conditions finishing in 3 hours. So we are offering a continuation to Sullivan Launch. Continuing to Sullivan will add 5 miles to the paddle but due to river flow, but will be completed in the original 4.5hr paddle. We will keep the original outing as is but we will extend the paddle to Sullivan Launch for those who want to. Please reply on the meetup, facebook event, or this blog post if you want to paddle on to Sullivan.

For those continuing to Sullivan Launch, the shuttle will leave Nankin promptly at 9 AM. Please make sure you’re unloaded and ready to shuttle before 9 AM, those doing the original take out at the State Line will leave 15 minutes later. The paddle will still start at 10 AM, so you won’t miss anything.

Due to the recent surge in COVID-19 infections, WWALS will be enforcing masks on team shuttle whether vaccinated or not. All attendees are encouraged to set up your own shuttles for added safety.

WWALS water quality test results are coming in for Thursday. So far they are looking good.

Wonder why everybody calls State Line Boat Ramp Mozell Spells? Because of Mozell Spell’s Sea Foods, which used to be there. Here is some history of the area near the state line,

[Mozell's Place Post Card]
Mozell’s Place Post Card

Join us on a leisurely Paddle down the Withlacoochee River southwest of Valdosta and Clyattville, dipping into Florida twice. We will visit two second-magnitude springs, of only six in Georgia. We will see the ruins of an old railroad trestle just before State Line Shoals. Continue reading →

Banks Lake Full Sturgeon Moon Paddle, 2021-08-22

Join us for a leisurely Sunset and Full Moon Paddle, on our watery living room at Banks Lake, just west of Lakeland, Georgia.

When: Gather 7 PM, launch 7:35 PM, moonrise 8:42 PM, sunset 8:06 PM, end 9:30 PM, Sunday, August 22, 2021

Put In: Banks Lake Boat Ramp, 307 Georgia 122, Lakeland, GA 31635, in Lanier County.

GPS: 31.034824, -83.096725

Take Out: Banks Lake 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.

Lights: You must have a light for your boat or some type of light to have on yourself (glow sticks work well, or head lamp, flashlight, etc.) so other boaters can see you in the dark. It will be totally dark after sunset. You must wear a PFD. A whistle is not required, but it’s a good idea in the dark. Mosquitoes can be bad at dusk so come prepared.

Boats: Kayaks are available to borrow but please let us know at least 2 days prior to the event. Bring your own if you have it. Thanks to Banks Lake Outdoors for free boat rental for these WWALS Full Moon Paddles.

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//donations/#outings

We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join

Event: facebook, meetup

[Moon boats]
Moon boats, by John S. Quarterman, July 23, 2021

Continue reading →