Tag Archives: Cat Creek

Filthy Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River after rain 2025-07-23

Update 2025-08-01: Rescheduled: Florida River Task Force and City of Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop 2025-08-14.

It’s not a good week for Sugar Creek or the Withlacoochee River.

Not all of the river contamination can be coming from Sugar Creek, since E. coli readings are also sky-high at North Valdosta Road, which is upstream of Sugar Creek.

Most likely some of it is coming down Cat Creek, as we discovered in previous exploratory testing. WWALS is working on a grant strategy to do systematic testing of Cat Creek, Beatty Branch, and Beaverdam Creek to get at the bottom of that. It will be expensive, because it will require DNA testing in addition to many frequent E. coli tests.

Filthy Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River, after big rain, 2025-07-23

No new sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia since the report of the Valdosta Sugar Creek spill for July 13.

No rain is predicted for this weekend, but avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River. Remember rain could be washing other contamination into other rivers. But other than that, happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing. Continue reading →

Navigable Streams: Georgia House Study Committee in Newnan, GA 2024-11-13

Update 2024-12-27: Final Report: Georgia House Study Committee on Navigable Streams 2024-12-01.

The Georgia House Navigable Streams Committee is meeting in Newnan on Wednesday morning, November 13, 2024, after the Nahunta meeting a few weeks ago was cancelled due to Hurricane Helene aftermath.

Georgia House Study Committee on Navigable Streams in Newnan 2024-11-13: Law: Ownership, Property Rights; Passage: Recreation, Economy

Instead of a whole meeting, we get this item:

South Georgia Waterways Perspective (45 min.; holdover from cancelled Waycross meeting)

And this subject of the entire meeting:

Meeting #3: Utilizing Mechanisms to Increase Public Access to Waterways

We don’t need fancy mechanisms. We just need a Georgia navigability law that matches what people actually use waterways for these days: paddling, motoring, fishing, and swimming. That’s a substantial part of the outdoor economy and recreation.

So if you want to continue to be able to paddle or motor on your favorite stream, you may want to show up and speak, or send written input to your state representative. You can ask them for a 21st-century update to the 1863 Georgia navigability law.

Here is the meeting notice and agenda (local copy): Continue reading →

Audio: GA House Navigable Streams Committee postponed –Suwannee Riverkeeper on WKUB radio 2024-10-10

An old Civil War law in the way of paddling, motoring, fishing, and swimming, on WKUB radio from Blackshear, Pierce County, Georgia, starting at 1:10 in the audio:
https://wwals.net/pictures/2024-10-10–wkub-navigable/2000-thurs-am-news.mp3

A meeting of the Georgia House Navigable Streams Committee scheduled for Friday in Nahunta has been postponed due to the anticipated effects from Hurricane Milton.
It was set to take place at Strickland’s Lodge on the Satilla River in Nahunta.

Georgia House Navigable Streams Committee Postponed 2024-10-10 — Suwannee Riverkeeper on WKUB radio

That committee is currently taking public comment on the legislative efforts to name sections of some of the state’s 64 streams and rivers as navigable and open to the public for boating, fishing, and hunting.

Right now an old Civil War law prohibits a lot of that from happening.

Suwannee Riverkeeper John Quarterman, who was eager to see changes in the present laws, says that postponing the meeting was the right thing to do.

jsq: …which is all sensible, I think. I had thought of asking them, could you, at least, delay this? Because I’ve been asking county commission members and city council members, and naturally they’ve been telling me they’re kind of busy with still doing cleanup, and so this is a good thing, I think.
Continue reading →

Georgia House Navigable Streams Committee in Nahunta 2024-10-11

Update 2024-10-24: Navigable Streams: Georgia House Study Committee in Newnan, GA 2024-11-13.

Update 2024-10-09: According to attorney Brock Perry this morning: “The meeting this week has been cancelled in light of the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The area is still recovering, and hosting a meeting there is not practical or the priority at the moment. There will be a meeting next month, but the date has not been finalized. At that meeting, there will be a period of time dedicated to issues related to South Georgia rivers to compensate for our cancelled meeting.”

Their third meeting (second with public input) will be near Waycross on October 11. Actually, on the Satilla River, halfway between Waycross and Brunswick.

If you want to continue to be able to paddle or motor on your favorite stream, you may want to show up and speak, or send written input to your state representative. You can ask them for a 21st-century update to the 1863 Georgia navigability law.

Georgia House Study Committee on Navigable Streams in Nahunta 2024-10-11: Ownership, Property Rights, Recreation, Economy

Chair Lynn Smith of the Georgia House Study Committee on Navigable Streams and Related Matters announced at the end of the September 20 meeting at Unicoi State Park that there would be a third meeting in October in Waycross.

It will be 9 AM, October 11, 2024, northeast of Nahunta:
Location Strickland’s Lodge, 829 Wildlife Drive, Nahunta, GA 31553. Continue reading →

Hamilton County, Florida, Creeks 2024-08-24

The opposite of what I expected: just west of Hamilton County High School, Cat Creek under SW 55 Drive flows north, not south.

This matters for figuring out what is upstream and downstream from a site on Cat Creek.

Movie: Cat Creek south of SW 55 Drive, 14:56:38, (31M) 30.4736975, -82.9406837

Continue reading →

No spills yet from rain on Valdosta 2024-07-28

Update 2024-08-02: Three more Ashburn sewage spills reported more than a week late 2024-07-20.

Pictures of flooding in Valdosta are circulating on social media.

Flooding in Valdosta, Three inches of rain 2024-07-28, No sewage spills yet. Other contaminants?

As usual, people are commenting that Valdosta must be spilling wastewater.

So I called Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes. He says there have been no spills from this rain.

Sometimes WWALS members spot them first. So if you see or smell a spill, please let us know.
https://wwals.net/report/

The Valdosta Utilities Director didn’t mention, because he’s not in charge of this: there may be E. coli from other sources, such as pets, livestock, and wildlife.

And of course there will be trash washed into creeks and rivers, especially from all the parking lots that do not yet have trash cans. Much of that trash converges onto Sugar Creek, along with any sewage spills, because something like 80% of Valdosta drains into that creek.

I commend Anetra Riley and Valdosta City Marshalls for Continue reading →

Pictures: Ray’s Millpond paddle 2016-04-03

It was a brief but fun paddle out onto Ray’s Millpond, a 3,500 acre pond created by a dam built in 1866 on Beaver Dam Creek to power a grist mill.

Ray’s Millpond, Beaverdam Creek 2016-04-03, Cat Creek, Withlacoochee River

For more WWALS outings and events as they are scheduled, see:
https://wwals.net/outings Continue reading →

Ask for U.S. House co-sponsors for PFAS amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act 2024-06-07

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

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 →

Navigable stream additions to GA HB 1397 2024-02-27

Update 2024-02-28: Navigability in HB 1397 in GA House Natural Resources & Environment Quality Subcommittee 2024-02-26.

Sent this morning.

Navigable stream additions to GA HB 1397 –WWALS 2024-02-27

February 27, 2024

To: Cc:

Rep. James Burchett (176), james.burchett@house.ga.gov

Rep. John Lahood (175), john.lahood@house.ga.gov,

Rep. Dexter Sharper (177), dexter.sharper@house.ga.gov,

Rep. John Corbett (174), john.corbett@house.ga.gov ,

Rep. Chas Cannon (172), chas.cannon@house.ga.gov,

Rep. Penny Houston (170), penny.houston@house.ga.gov,

Rep. Darlene Taylor (173), darlene.taylor@house.ga.gov,

Rep. Clay Pirkle (169), clay.pirkle@house.ga.gov,

Rep. Leesa Hagan (156), leesa.hagan@house.ga.gov,

Rep. Bill Yearta (152), bill.yearta@house.ga.gov,

Rep. Noel Williams (148), noel.williams@house.ga.gov,

Rep. Patty Bentley (150), patty.bentley@house.ga.gov

Re: Navigable stream additions to HB 1397

Rep. Burchett,

You are invited to the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle on the Withlacoochee River just west of Valdosta, this Saturday, March 2, 2024. Continue reading →

Training: Water Quality Testing 2024-02-10

Update This class will be ALL in person at John W. Saunders Park, Pavilion #3.

You can learn how to help test water quality in the Suwannee River Basin.

WWALS testing trainer Gretchen Quarterman ~~will do the classroom portion of the course by zoom, followed by hands-on practical training at a waterway with physical distancing.~~ will teach both chemical and bacterial training in person. There is a classroom portion with demonstration, followed by practical and test for each class. Classroom materials will be provided. The tests are on paper and are to be taken on-site.

This is both Chemical and Bacterial training by Georgia Adopt-A-Stream (AAS) methods.

Yes, we can and do use this in Florida as well as Georgia, and we have testers based in Florida.

WWALS Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Testing Training 2024-02-10

We currently have testers on the Little, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Ichetucknee, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers.

We need more of those, and also for the Alapahoochee River, as well as Cat Creek, Beatty Branch, Sugar Creek, Okapilco Creek, and others.

For more, see: https://wwals.net/testing/

Sign up: https://forms.gle/37DawiGAJYoyqtPKA Continue reading →

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