Us south Georgia watershed groups have to stick together!
Pictured are Satilla Riverkeeper Ashby Nix, WWALS Watershed Coalition: President John S. Quarterman, Treasurer Gretchen Quarterman, Ambassador Dave Hetzel, in Perry, Georgia, 21 August 2014.
Thanks to workshop presenter Loren Moore Continue reading
Update 2019-10-03: More like 35 counties. See instead recently updated WWALS Counties and Cities.
Can you remember all 23 counties in the WWALS watersheds, and the thirty or more cities and towns? I can’t, so I made a new WWALS web page on WWALS Counties and Cities, with population comparisons and maps. Some of it may surprise you.
The Alapaha River starts way up in Turner County,
and runs right through Nashville in Berrien County,
Lakeland in Lanier County, Statenville in Echols County,
and near Jasper in Hamilton County, Florida.
These counties and cities are the core of the
Alapaha River Water Trail.
Come see the middle of that Trail this afternoon:
Alapaha River @ US 84: endpoint of Sunday’s WWALS Outing 24 August 2014. Continue reading
Mercury in the Alapaha River probably comes from coal Plant Scherer near Macon. EPA is holding public hearings on its proposed Clean Power Plan next week, 29-30 July 2014, in Atlanta. You can also comment online until 16 October 2014 on Docket ID EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602. And you can express your opinion outside with Georgia Sierra Club at the Atlanta Climate Rally Tuesday at high noon. Maybe you want to mention shifting from coal to “natural” gas (fracked methane) actually may make matters worse here, so EPA needs to go further.
While that proposed carbon rule may help clean up coal plants like Scherer, it says nothing about methane, which EPA says is Continue reading
Update 2015-04-28: See EPA 2002 report that spells out Plant Scherer as the largest mercury point source in the Alapaha Airshed.
Background to the EPA hearings on its proposed Clean Power Plan: EPA previously said nonpoint source pollution is the biggest water quality problem, and EPA and GA EPD say our Alapaha River is contaminated with mercury. That mercury comes from Plant Scherer, the country’s dirtiest coal plant.
The problem, effects, and cause are spelled out in these Comments on CAMR Draft, Language Options by Jill Johnson, Georgia Public Interest Research Group, April 6, 2006: Continue reading
Statewide organization recognizes WWALS Watershed Coalition, plus local direct and indirect economic benefits of an Alapaha Water Trail, wrote the reporter who called me yesterday about the WWALS PR. -jsq
Matthew Woody wrote for the Valdosta Daily Times yesterday, WWALS gets grant from river network,
The Willacoochee, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Little River Systems Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS) received a $500 Alapaha Water Trail Grant from the Georgia River Network. John Quarterman, president of WWALS, said that making a water trail on the Alapaha River involves mapping out the river and putting out guide posts. The maps will show where boat ramps are along the river.
This grant goes beyond maps and guide posts; it signifies that a statewide organization recognizes South Georgia rivers.
“The grant for the Alapaha Water Trail is Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WWALS receives Alapaha Water Trail grant from Georgia River Network
Adel, GA, July 21st 2014 — The statewide umbrella
group
Georgia River Network has
awarded a grant
to WWALS Watershed Coalition to help conserve the
mostly-undiscovered recreational and economic gem of
the Alapaha River by constructing an
Alapaha Water Trail (ART).
WWALS invites landowners, local governments, and the public
to participate.
Brown’s Guide to Georgia describes the Alapaha as “jungle-like in its remoteness and luxurious with exotic vegetation, the dark reddish-brown waters of the Alapaha wind through a swampy wonderland teeming with wildlife.”
A Water Trail or blueway will help more people see this local gem, raising awareness to conserve it, more than outweighing the minimal disturbance of signs and boats. WWALS will draw on GRN’s extensive experience with Water Trails on other rivers in Georgia.
WWALS will center the initial blueway section Continue reading
Meeting notice: -jsq
NOTICE:
SUWANNEE-SATILLA
REGIONAL WATER PLANNING COUNCIL MEETING
FOR
REGIONAL ASSESSMENT OF IMPLEMENTATION STATUS
Announcement Date: May 6, 2014
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:
The Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council is holding its next meeting
at the following date, time, and location:
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Registration: 9:30 A.M. – 10:00 A.M.
Meeting: 10:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M.
Valdosta City Hall Annex
Multipurpose Room
300 N. Lee Street
Valdosta, GA
For additional information about the Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning
Council please contact:
Cliff Lewis, Assistant Branch Chief – EPD Watershed Protection Branch
229-391-2400 or Cliff.Lewis@dnr.state.ga.us
On 19 February 2014 WWALS Watershed Coalition received the appended
letter from the United States Air Force about a study
regarding encroachment around Moody Air Force Base,
between Valdosta and Lakeland in Lowndes and Lanier Counties,
in the watershed of the Alapaha River.
Several documents were attached:
About the ICEMAP
From: Mike Lynch <ml@marstel-day.com>
Date: Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 10:32 AM
Subject: Moody Air Force Base Installation Complex Encroachment Management Action Plan (ICEMAP)
To:
Cc: "NICHOLS, DIONDRA R GS-11 USAF ACC 23 CES/CENPP" <diondra.nichols@us.af.mil>
On behalf of Headquarters Air Force and the 23d Wing, Marstel-Day, LLC is developing an "Installation Complex Encroachment Management Action Plan" (ICEMAP) for Moody Air Force Base (AFB), Georgia and its associated installations and facilities. Attached is a memo Continue reading
Stroud Water Center wrote in their Upstream Newsletter, VOL. 2014, ISSUE 1, February 2014,
Scientists Set Buffer Width Minimum Standard.
A strip of forest along a stream channel, also called a riparian forest buffer, has been proposed and used for decades as a best management practice to protect streams by filtering out contaminants from agriculture and other land uses before they can enter them.Their benefits are many, but one benefit has dominated social and political conversations, and that is their role in preventing contaminants from entering streams.
A few years ago, Stroud Water Research Center proposed that riparian forest buffers also play another important role by Continue reading
Interesting interactive map by
Georgia Department of Natural Resources,
Georgia Outdoor Map.
Their PR of 14 March 2014,
DNR Launches Interactive Map of Recreational Lands,
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) today unveiled an interactive map that identifies DNR-managed lands and outdoor recreation opportunities. The “Georgia Outdoor Map” includes state parks, wildlife management areas, public fishing areas, boat ramps, and historic sites. Users are able to search by category to find locations where they can camp, hunt, hike, fish or explore history.
Continue reading
