Update 2019-03-12: The #Trashtag Challenge: Cleanups are good, but throwaway plastic needs to be stopped.
Not bad for an idea from a few days before: a cleanup at Onemile Branch in Drexel Park during Azalea Festival.
Juan and Luisa from Colombia with the VSU English Language Institute waded into the stream, with Beatriz Potter holding the bucket and Tom Potter advising.
Sara Jay explained her WWALS water quality test kit.
Continue readingThe testing results promised last time will apparently be in the workshop, which is usually around noon or 1PM:
Also Bob’s River Place, on the Suwannee River in Dixie County, is on the agenda yet again, this time for a variance, after last time they said they had received new information.
Received Monday, 4 March 2019: Board agenda and packet and Lands Committee Agenda and packet. See also the WWALS writeup and videos from the February SRWMD board meeting, which was mostly about Valdosta wastewater.
AGENDA
SUWANNEE RIVER WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
GOVERNING BOARD MEETING AND PUBLIC HEARING
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
March 12, 2019
9:00 a.m.
District Headquarters
Live Oak, Florida
Received Friday, this Meeting Notice:
Announcement Date: March 1, 2019
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:The Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council
will hold a council meeting at the following date, time and location:Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Registration: 10:00 A.M. – 10:30 A.M.Meeting: 10:30 A.M. – 2:00 P.M.
41 AND Main
343 Main St. S,
Tifton, GA 31794For additional information Continue reading
Update 2019-03-17: Valdosta has agreed to meet with the dozen downstream Florida counties, elected officials to elected officials, 6PM, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, at Valdosta City Hall Annex, and “the public will have an opportunity to speak.”
A dozen downstream Florida counties want to meet with the Valdosta City Council, elected officials to elected officials, to present a resolution they passed urging the states of Florida and Georgia to do something about Valdosta’s sewage, and to discuss raising funds to help Valdosta fix its sewage infrastructure, so the Florida counties can restore their eco-tourism on the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Suwannee, and Santa Fe Rivers. Restoring eco-tourism came up again and again. It’s not just the actual sewage, which never gets to Taylor or Alachua Counties. It’s the stigma of sewage in the rivers. Fixing Valdosta’s spills and regular testing to find other sources are needed.
Valdosta said no. So delegates from all dozen counties are going to come to the March 21, 2019, Valdosta City Council Regular Session and speak in Citizens to Be Heard, three minutes each, some time after 5:30 PM that Thursday evening.
![[Movie: Approval of Resolution (115M)]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-02-28--fl-rivers-task-force/MVI_0525.jpg)
Movie: Approval of Resolution (115M)
Task Force, clockwise from front:
Scott R. Koons (NCFRPC),
Ken Cornell (Alachua County),
Anthony Adams (Lafayette County),
Don Hale (Suwannee County),
Gene Higginbotham (Dixie County),
Kenrick Thomas (Gilchrist County),
Danny Riddick (Bradford County),
Thomas Demps (Taylor County),
Beth Burnam (Hamilton County),
Rick Davis (Chair, Madison County)
Apparently Valdosta told them that Valdosta doesn’t do workshops or joint meetings, which is curious, since Valdosta’s city council members a month earlier met with council members from all the other Lowndes County cities and the Lowndes County Commissioners about their Service Delivery Strategy, which includes wastewater. Last year, members of Valdosta Mayor and Council met with elected officials Continue reading
Found this on YouTube. Thanks, Guy Bryant and Amy Sturkey. Everyone is invited to come see the opposite, the sun set, (and the moon rise) at Banks Lake, Wednesday, March 20, 2019.
Here’s the video: Continue reading
Update 2019-03-20: Pictures.
Come help WWALS celebrate spring with 30,000 of our south Georgia and north Florida friends, at the Azalea Festival in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia. We will have information about our outings and advocacy (yes, including Valdosta wastewater), and pictures for sale Gretchen took of our rivers, plus a kayak raffle.
When:
10AM-6PM Saturday 9 March 2019
10AM-5PM Sunday 10 March 2019
Volunteer: WWALS members can help at the table!
Where:
Drexel Park
30.846771, -83.285066
Patterson at W. Brookwood Drive, Valdosta, GA
(across Patterson from VSU)
That’s on One Mile Branch, which flows into Sugar Creek, then the Withlacoochee River,
the Suwannee, to the Gulf.
Drexel Park is upstream of Wainwright Drive, where
WWALS did a cleanup in November 2017,
and
Valdosta spilled 218,075 gallons of raw sewage.
You can help with cleanups or water quality testing.
Photo: John S. Quarterman, of
Shirley Kokidko and Gretchen Quarterman at Azalea Festival 2018.
What: Our Story, Azalea Festival,
Approximately 30,000 attendees from all over the Southeast come to Valdosta to enjoy Continue reading
Update 2019-07-10: Tickets, Georgia Beer Company sponsors, judges selected, and headliners will perform. Everything about the contest is online here: wwals.net/pictures/2019-08-24–suwannee-riverkeeper-songwriting-contest/
Update 2019-04-01: Song submissions are open!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, Georgia, February 27, 2019 — WWALS is pleased to announce the M.C. for the Second Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest will be well-known radio host Chris Beckham. Once again, the Contest will be at The Salty Snapper on Gornto Road in Valdosta, Georgia. This year it will be 1-5PM, Saturday, August 24, 2019. Submissions will open in April, for selection of half a dozen finalists by the Contest Committee, and judging of the finalists by three judges at the Contest.
Emmett Carlisle performing at the 2018 Contest.
“August is an excellent month for this Contest, because we have inside air conditioning, and there are no competing outdoor music events in August,” said Laura D’Alisera, last year’s winner, and this year a member of the Contest Committee.
“The Salty Snapper is great for music: cozy but lots of space. Thanks to manager Justin Stephens for his enthusiastic support,” said Scotti Jay, Chair of the WWALS Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest Committee.
“Everybody had a fine time last year, and we have six more songs about the Suwannee River, or its tributaries the Withlacoochee, Little, and Alapaha. Move over Stephen C. Foster!” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.
Submissions can be songs about Continue reading
FERC being short a Commissioner does not stop the rubberstamp machine, this time for the Albany, GA, and Dunnellon, FL, Compressor Stations, both to start construction in May 2019. Sabal Trail requested Phase II in mid-January, and FERC’s John Peconom authorized it by the end of the month.
Received Thursday. The Rivers Task Force of the dozen downstream Florida counties will be voting next Thursday on a resolution asking the State of Florida (FDEP, SRWMD, etc.) to do something about Valdosta’s sewage spills.
![[4PM Thu 28 Feb 2019, Holiday Inn, Lake City, FL]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-02-28--river-task-force/compositenotice.jpg)
4PM Thu 28 Feb 2019, Holiday Inn, Lake City, FL
When: 4PM, Thursday, February 28, 2019
Where: Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, 213 Southwest Commerce Boulevard, Lake City, Florida
What: A meeting of the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force
Directions: From the intersection of Interstate 75 and U.S. Highway 90 (exit 427) in the City of Lake City turn, East onto U.S. Highway 90, travel approximately 450 feet to SW Commerce Blvd, turn right (South) onto SW Commerce Blvd, travel approximately 720 feet and the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites is on the left.
The agenda, after the customary introductory items, has only a resolution and Next Steps.
Not on the agenda, but mentioned in the minutes of the previous meeting:
The Task Force agreed that the next steps should be to request a meeting with the Governor and Commissioner of Agriculture. Chair Davis informed the Task Force that the next meeting will be held on Continue reading
Two weeks ago, WWALS member Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson asked the state of Florida what baseline water quality testing had been done downstream of Valdota, and:
Please begin water samplings for the isotope for sucralose, fecal coliform testing and any other water testing establishing what or who is culpable of contamination in our protected, Outstanding Florida Waterways.
Yesterday she got an answer. She agrees with my assessment of the data supplied: “Sparse locations and only monthly, but better than nothing.”
![[DEAR bacterial monthly sampling stations]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-02-21--mmj-fl-gov-bacterial/stations-map.jpg)
DEAR bacterial monthly sampling stations
However, how can the state of Florida be “committed to monitoring and stopping this recurring problem.” when they “do not allow for enforcement actions directed at the source of sanitary sewer overflows, nor for routine water quality surveillance for sources of river water contamination”?
Now it’s true that last restriction was only cited as applying to the Florida Department of Health (FDOH), not the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Division of Environmental Assessment and Restoration (DEAR), and not to the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD). But which of this alphabet soup of agencies should be doing “routine water quality surveillance for sources of river water contamination”?
The beginning of the final paragraph of the response does not indicate any intention Continue reading
![[Beatriz assisting]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-03-10--onemile-branch-cleanup/20190310_144703.jpg)
![[Sara explaining]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-03-10--onemile-branch-cleanup/20190310_142225.jpg)
![[Project Location Map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-01-17--stt-phase-ii-request/20190117-5096-33348792-0040.jpg)
![[Resolution and Next Steps]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-02-28--river-task-force/agenda.jpg)