Update 2024-11-27: Retrieving PFAS samplers, Withlacoochee River 2024-11-23.
This weekend we deployed four PFAS samplers, upstream and downstream from two wastewater treatment plants, on the Withlacoochee River and on Mud Swamp Creek.
These are a new design that you leave in the flowing water for 28 days thereabouts, then retrieve, and effectively they’ve been taking a sample a day.
If you encounter them, please leave them be.
Continue readingLinda Brock of Suwannee, Florida, down the Suwannee River at the Gulf of Mexico, got trained in Georgia Adopt-A-Stream (AAS) testing, both biological (E. coli) and chemical (pH, Dissolved Oxygen, etc.).
Heather Brasell of Alapaha, Georgia, near Sheboggy Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River at US 82, and Janet Massengale of Valdosta, Georgia, on the Withlacoochee River, got retrained, as is required once a year.
WWALS Water Quality Testing Trainer Gretchen Quarterman does this every so often,
as people sign up to get trained:
https://wwals.net/?p=47084
If you do get trained, please also come on board to test, weekly if you can,
or when you can.
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/ Continue reading
First they postponed the meetings for the attempt to put golf courses or pickleball courts in state parks.
And day before yesterday the Florida governor said “back to the drawing board.”
![[Plug Pulled on Park Plan, DeSantis claimed it leaked, Back to the drawing board, How about a bill to prevent it?]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-08-29--parks-plan-pulled-plug/fbmany.jpg)
Plug Pulled on Park Plan, DeSantis claimed it leaked, Back to the drawing board, How about a bill to prevent it?
Photo: DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD, Tampa Bay Times,
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2024/08/28/florida-desantis-state-parks-golf-course-hotel-pickleball-plan/
But don’t trust them. The same or different developers behind this attempt will be back again.
Since state legislators of both parties were opposed to this bad idea, there is talk of a bill to stop this from happening again.
That’s good, and how about a constitutional amendment for Right to Clean Water?
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org
None of the nine parks proposed this time are in the Suwannee River Basin. But if they happened, how long before somebody wants to put a golf course or a lodge at Suwannee River State Park, or Manatee Springs, or Ichetucknee Springs?
Alex Harris and Ana Ceballos, Miami Herald, August 29, 2024, DeSantis pulls plug on controversial state parks plan after public, political backlash, Continue reading
Update 2024-08-23: Postponed “due to overwhelming interest.” Keep overwhelming them!
This Tuesday, August 27, 2024, Florida Parks will hold eight public tellings about building golf courses, hotels, or pickleball courts in nine public parks.
None of those nine are in the Suwannee River Basin. But if they happen, how long until there’s a plan for a golf course in Suwannee River State Park? Or a “lodge” at Ichetucknee Springs or Manatee Spring?
Follow this link for a handy form by Waterkeepers Florida
to tell your statehouse delegation you don’t want these developments on top of vulnerable habitat and next to our waterways:
https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/protectourparks/Email_State_Officials/
![[Protect Florida Parks from Golf Courses, Hotels, apartments, Pickleball courts]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-08-23--protect-fl-parks/fbmany.jpg)
Protect Florida Parks from Golf Courses, Hotels, apartments, Pickleball courts
The nine are: Continue reading
I don’t see anything in the agenda about the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force that the NCFRPC reactivated in May after Valdosta’s April sewage spills. Maybe they are meeting separately and have nothing to report yet.
Also, in the statewide metrics of https://thefloridascorecard.org/ I don’t see anything about water: not drinking water, river water, springs, levels, flows, E. coli, nitrates, cyanobacteria, nothing.
But on the agenda are several county Comprehensive Plan updates, so those could be interesting.
![[North Central Florida Regional Planning Council 2024-07-25, Metrics, Jobs, and Comprehensive Plans]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-07-25--ncfrpc/fbmany.jpg)
North Central Florida Regional Planning Council 2024-07-25, Metrics, Jobs, and Comprehensive Plans
Received this morning:
Council Members, Interested Persons, and News Media,
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MEETING STARTS AT 7:00 P.M.
Please be advised that there will be a Hybrid Meeting in-Person at Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites, Suwannee Room, 213 Southwest Commerce Boulevard, Lake City, Florida, and via Communications Media Technology for the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council on Thursday, July 25, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Continue reading
FDEP has invited all Waterkeepers of Florida to this workshop.
You can attend, too.
![[Potable Reuse Workshop 2024-07-15, Florida DEP, Tallahassee and Online, 10 AM EDT]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-07-15--fdep-potable/fbmany.jpg)
Potable Reuse Workshop 2024-07-15, Florida DEP, Tallahassee and Online, 10 AM EDT
Workshop Agenda
Monday, July 15, 2024, 10:00 am EDT
Potable ReuseThis is a rule development workshop to discuss and receive public input on the development of proposed amendments to portions of Chapters 62-550, 62-555, and 62-610, Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.), and create a new Chapter 62-565, F.A.C. These amendments and new chapter will create a new set of rules for potable reuse. These changes will simplify and clarify existing rule language and establish requirements for potable reuse. Notices of Rule Development were published in 2023 and 2024. Links to those publications can be found on the Water Resource Management rule development information website.
This meeting is open to the public. DEP is hosting this public workshop in person at Bob Martinez Center, 2600 Blair Stone Road, Room 609, Tallahassee, Florida 32399, as well as virtually via GoToWebinar. To register for the meeting virtually, please visit the following link:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3655798535631207254. Continue reading
You can help ask your members of Congress to protect military servicemembers, the surrounding community, agriculture, industry, and wildlife.
Numerous military bases in recent years have reported contamination of waterways and groundwater by PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals that do not degrade over time, and can cause a variety of diseases.
![[Map: military sites with known or suspected PFAS discharges --EWG]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-06-07--ewg-pfas-ndaa-letter/2024-06-10--map-ewg-pfas-military.jpg)
Map: military sites with known or suspected PFAS discharges –EWG
Right now is an opportunity to get a couple of amendments into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to require the Department of Defense to tell everyone about PFAS contamination, to test to see how far it has spread, including private wells, and to provide alternate water supplies if necessary.
That PFAS work will also bring federal dollars to the districts.
You can sign on to a request letter here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeg8c_Stwv5iuXcEEgsYXIx9vIZRQy_lg4RoHIymcR7ZsYNYw/viewform
Or write your own, or call or meet with your Representative.
Affected bases include: Continue reading
Update 2024-05-31: Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers plus High Springs sewage spill 2024-05-30.
Ashburn had a 250,000-gallon sewage spill into Hat Creek to the Alapaha River Sunday a week ago, and a 2,500-gallon spill into Ashburn Branch into the Little River the day before, both because of “Wet weather”.
Quitman had a 300-gallon sewage spill at Brooks County High School Wednesday a week ago into a ditch that drains to Okapilco Creek.
These spills appeared this Tuesday, May 28, 2024, in the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report.
Why they took so long to report is a mystery.
Ashburn’s excuse of “Wet weather” is wearing thin. Yes, there were big rains those days, but Ashburn needs to fix its sewer system so rains don’t cause spills. Continue reading
Update 2024-04-05: Now with smartphone method for googledrive.
The document: 2024-04-05–WWALS-Water-Quality-Testing-Assurance.pdf.
See also the WWALS Water Quality Testing Committee
and
the Water Quality Testing web page:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/
![[Why Quality Assurance is Important]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-06--wwals-water-quality-assurance/2023-01-06--WWALS-Water-Quality-Testing-Assurance-0001.jpg)
Why Quality Assurance is Important
PDF
In a rare huge win for conservationists, on February 15, 2024, St. Johns Riverkeeper, Miami Waterkeeper, and co-plaintiffs won their case to stop the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) from assuming wetlands permitting.
![[Florida panther, Waterkeepers Florida]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-15--epa-fdep-vacate/igmany.jpg)
Florida panther, Waterkeepers Florida
FDEP assumption was always a bad idea. “The toxic algae blooms that now plague Florida are a direct result of the state’s decades-long failure to protect our waterways from wildlife-choking pollution,” Jason Totoiu, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Now the state wants to make it even easier to dredge and fill wetlands that help filter these pollutants.”
Here’s the original lawsuit.
Jim Saunders, WUSF & News Service of Florida, February 19, 2024, A judge sides with environmentalists in wetlands permitting shift,
Continue readingIn a win for environmental groups, a U.S. district judge Thursday ruled that federal officials did not follow required steps in 2020 before shifting permitting authority to Florida for projects that affect wetlands.
Washington, D.C.-based Judge Randolph Moss, in a 97-page decision, found that actions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violated the Endangered Species Act. Moss vacated the approval of the shift to the state.
![[PFAS Sampling Deployment, Waterkeeper Alliance Program, Withlacoochee River 2024-09-14, Mud Swamp Creek 2024-09-15]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-09-14--pfas/fbmany.jpg)
![[Georgia Adopt-A-Stream, Water Quality Testing Training 2024-09-14, John W. Saunders Memorial Park, Valdosta, Georgia]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-09-14--aas-training-saunders-park-valdosta/fbmany.jpg)
![[Ashburn 250,000-gallon sewage spill into Hat Creek, Alapaha River 2024-05-19 and 2,500-gallon spill into Ashburn Branch, Little River, plus Quitman 300-gallon spill 2024-05-22]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-05-22--ashburn-quitman-spills/many.jpg)