Rotary, Hospital, and Doctor sponsor paddle race Saturday at Reed Bingham State Park

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:PDF

Valdosta, May 15th, 2015 — Three sponsors have signed up for the third annual BIG Little River Paddle Race on Saturday, May 16, 2015: Tifton Rotary Club, Cook Medical Center, and Bret Wagenhorst, MD. You can register at the event tomorrow morning. Last year also saw paddlers from as away as New York and Pennsylvania and even a couple from Germany. Come have a grand time paddling with friends, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, mothers and daughters.

Bring your canoe or kayak or rent one at Reed Bingham State Park for this fundraiser for Friends of Reed Bingham State Park and WWALS Watershed Coalition. The course runs Continue reading →

Boating with Gwyneth on Lake Lewis and the Alapaha River 2015-05-25

Update 2015-05-17: Upcoming events.

Memorial Day Monday, Gwyneth Moody of Georgia River Network will be down from Athens to see some sights on the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT). You are invited to boat among the birds at 9AM on Lake Lewis with WWALS and Gwyneth, to discuss the ARWT over lunch at Puerta vel Sol in Nashville, GA, and then to paddle upstream on the Alapaha River from Berrien Beach at GA 168. Continue reading →

WWALS on environmental issues panel in Valdosta at LCDP 2015-06-01

WWALS will be among five organizations discussing environmental issues a the monthly Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting 6PM Monday June 1st 2015, at the Lowndes County Board of Elections, 2808 North Oak Street, Valdosta, GA.

Stopping Valdosta wastewater spills and restarting the Alapaha River Water Trail are among the topics WWALS President John S. Quarterman plans to mention. Solar power, the Sabal Trail pipeline, and fossil fuel divestment will also come up. Anyone can speak from the audience, so please come and join the discussion.

Other panelists, topics, and details in the LCDP post. Please join the facebook event.

-jsq

Landowner in county in WWALS watersheds sued by Sabal Trail; hearing May 28th in Moultrie

WWALS has long opposed the unnecessary, environmentally destructive, and hazardous Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, see for example the 3 April 2015 front page Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. Now Sabal Trail has sued a landowner in a WWALS watershed county. Everyone who can, please attend the hearing or send letters.

When: 9:30 AM 28 May 2015 Continue reading →

Linkage between ground water and surface water –USGS

Yet more documentation on why gouging a pipeline under the Withlacoochee River, or through this Valdosta Limesink area anywhere, would be a bad idea:

In most watersheds (river basins) in Florida the interactions between ground water and surface water typically result in a single dynamic flow system. This direct hydraulic linkage results from numerous karst features (such as sinkholes, conduit systems in the underlying limestone, and springs) that facilitate the exchange of water between the surface and subsurface (fig. 1). Unique problems can arise in protecting water quality in karst areas because of the direct and rapid transport of recharge through conduits to the subsurface and through resurgence by springs. In some areas, recharge from unknown drainage pathways to areas of discharge may contribute to chemical and biological contamination of water supplies. Such contamination in karst areas has been documented by many studies.

Yes, it says Florida, but the geology doesn’t stop at the state line, as USGS spelled out in a 1999 study of the Withlacoochee River. It works like this in Georgia, too: Continue reading →

Widening US 84 from Homerville to Waycross

300x232 Figure 4.1: State and Federal Waters Map, in US 84 four-laning from Homerville to Waycross, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 28 April 2015 GDOT and the Army Corps want to widen U.S. 84 from Homerville to Waycross. Since it appears that US 84 is already four lane from Thomasville through Quitman and Valdosta to Homerville, and from Waycross onwards northeast, this would be the remaining gap. The public notice says little or nothing about why this road work might be needed.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Public Notice, 28 April 2015, SAS-2014-00862 (SP-WMR), Widening and Reconstruction of U.S. Highway 84, with PDF. Since that notice says it expires in a month, there’s also a copy of the PDF on the WWALS website, including this location information: Continue reading →

Florida pro-fracking bill failed


Photo: Jeff Burlew, via Tallahassee Democrat.

Thanks to Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson of Our Santa Fe River (pictured in blue shirts on left) and many others, a pro-fracking anti-open-records bill failed in the Florida legislature yesterday. WWALS helped persuade both its Florida counties, Madison and Hamilton, to pass anti-fracking resolutions, like so many other Florida counties did as OSFR tirelessly travelled the state. Bills in the Florida House and Senate to ban fracking outright did not pass. But neither did the fracking industry’s bill that would have exempt it from disclosure of its toxic chemicals, and would have prohibited local governments from banning fracking. No doubt the fossil fuel industry will be back next year with a Florida pro-fracking bill, but so will the opponents, with bills to ban fracking. And in another year, maybe Florida will catch on that when the Georgia legislature unanimously approved a solar financing bill, it’s time for the Sunshine State to put fracking behind it and get on with clean, safe, renewable sun, wind, and water power.

Orlando Sentinel, 29 April 2015, Florida fracking bill won’t pass this year, Continue reading →