Received yesterday:
The property owner sprayed this section of bank along the Withlacoochee with roundup several years ago. This picture clearly shows why we need to protect and leave intact the vegetation along the river banks. The erosion has only occurred at the section that was denuded of vegetation.
Chris Mericle
Madison County side,
30.4162370, -83.2077630.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
You can’t use traditional models for the karst Floridan Aquifer; new and harsher pesticides are expected this summer; but you can help raise native species; and later this month you can go see many of them in Berrien County, plus WWALS monthly outings, the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, and the Alapaha River Water Trail and some WWALS history.
Yeah, coming this summer, and they’re head-scratchers.
All this was at the quarterly WWALS public meeting, this one on Water, Agriculture, and Forestry at Valdosta State University, March 28, 2017.
Here are links to each WWALS video of each talk, with a few notes and a few extra pictures, followed by a WWALS video playlist. Continue reading
Here is a very interesting paper about increasing nitrogen from crops into the Suwannee River Basin and its springs (promoting algae growth), with actual data on how well best management practices (BMPs) are containing the runoff: Environmental Nitrogen Losses from Commercial Crop Production Systems in the Suwannee River Basin of Florida, by Rishi Prasad, George J. Hochmuth, PLOSOne, Published: December 1, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167558
Fig 3.
Comparison of A) environmental nitrogen losses (Nenvloss) from three
crops (potato, sweet corn and silage corn) during four growing
seasons (2010 to2013) and B) relationship between seasonal total N
rates and environmental nitrogen losses at the study farm in the
Middle Suwannee River Basin, Florida. Silage corn was not studied
during 2013. Mean values of Nenvloss (represented by individual bars
and their standard errors for the three crops) followed by different
letters indicate significant difference at α = 0.05 level
Abstract Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (PDF)
Valdosta, Georgia; March 28, 2017 — It’s a full agenda tonight about Water, Agriculture, and Forestry with in a public meeting at Valdosta State University, hosted by WWALS Watershed Coalition.
When:
6-8PM Tuesday March 28, 2017
Where:
UC Theater, UC Center, Valdosta State University
1215 N. Patterson St., Valdosta, GA 31698
Event: facebook
Host:
WWALS Watershed Coalition
the Waterkeeper® Alliance Member as Suwannee Riverkeeper®
Agenda:
Getting out on the rivers (5 minutes each):
Science and practice (15 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A each): Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (PDF)
Valdosta, Georgia; March 23, 2017 — Suwannee Riverkeeper invites you to discuss Water, Agriculture, and Forestry with forestry and agriculture experts and WWALS board and committee members in a public meeting at Valdosta State University.
When: 6-8PM Tuesday March 28, 2017
Where:
UC Theater, UC Center, Valdosta State University
1215 N. Patterson St., Valdosta, GA 31698
Event: facebook
Host:
WWALS Watershed Coalition
the Waterkeeper® Alliance Member as Suwannee Riverkeeper®
Topics:
including but not limited to:
About: WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) advocates for Continue reading
Molly Minta, The Fine Print, 5 February 2017, Rise Against the Machine: In 2013, Marion County residents began to receive letters from Sabal Trail Transmission. Now, they’ve made it their mission to save their land, and stop Sabal Trail.
Photo: Molly Minta.
An oak tree is felled by Sabal Trail construction workers.…
Months before the town considered bankruptcy in 2013, residents of Dunnellon began to receive letters from a company called Sabal Trail Transmission. The letters were an introduction and explained why the company was coming to the area: to build a natural gas pipeline and compressor station. The letters were part of the first step in the process of getting a pipeline approved.
Only landowners within 600 feet of the pipeline received a letter, so not many people in Dunnellon are aware of it. But the ones who are fear it could completely disrupt their way of life.
The pipeline will pass within a mile of the Rainbow River; residents fear Continue reading
And they followed her down the road, as Sabal Trail’s hardhats usually do
when they see anybody watching their trail of destruction.
This was Wednesday 25 January 2017 on Cool Springs Road, Baconton, GA,
31.306085, -84.008770.
Pictures and video by Sherry Layton Gatewood: they didn’t scare her off, and they haven’t scared off the many other people throughout Florida, Georgia, and Alabama who are watching them like hawks, looking for violations.
Kind of hard to get to your fields to do agriculture with this in the way.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WWALS receives grant for water conservation outreach to farmers and community (PDF)
Hahira, Georgia; December 27, 2016 — Local water conservation
group WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) has received a grant of
$6,000 from the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) to help groups in
towns, counties, and countryside to draw the big picture of
watershed conservation, as well as to help organize at least one
grant from a different source to assist at least one farmer in
erosion control.
The award contract of November 11, 2016, says Continue reading
The pipe to go under the Suwannee RIver is laid out, welded, and has pressure test fittings at the Hamilton County side of the Suwannee River,
but the drill site itself has nothing but a generator.
So it looks like they’re drilling under from the Suwannee County side
Here are some pictures and videos taken in Hamilton County near CR 141.
Sabal Trail didn’t like that.
This is the site at 30.410381, -83.165874 that you see in the foreground in an aerial picture in a previous post.
Here’s a playlist of WWALS videos, and there are more pictures below. Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jasper, Florida, November 6th 2016 — Better modeling and measurement of more water reuse and retention with fewer water withdrawals in both north Florida and south Georgia, WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) recommended yesterday in comments (PDF) on the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP). WWALS also opposed the Falling Creek Aquifer Storage project and suggested a replacement, and recommended including threats to the FLoridan Aquifer and the Suwannee, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers such as pipelines and fracking.
WWALS applauded water supply projects involving reuse or stormwater,
especially those in Jacksonvile and Gainesville, two of the sources of the
general problem of falling water levels in the Floridan Aquifer.
WWALS also applauded the plan to set minimum flow levels on the upper Suwannee River and WWALS expects to be involved with that.
WWALS recommended expanding the original study area, which stopped at the Suwannee River on the west and the Georgia-Florida state line on the north. WWALS president John S. Quarterman explained,
“Our rivers don’t stop because there’s a state line on a map, and there are three second-magnitude springs on the Withlacoochee River in Georgia south of Valdosta, one of them with a more than 4,000-foot cave system, that aren’t taken into account in this draft plan.”
Quarterman elaborated on a much larger concern: Continue reading