Thanks to all who helped get HB 879 out of one committee and into the Rules Committee. It needs to get out of there to the full Georgia House by this Wednesday February 28, 2018.
So please contact your Georgia state legislators to ask them to back both bills that will help keep coal ash off our lands and out of our waters.
Here’s an easy way to send email to your Georgia statehouse Representative and Senator.
There’s more about the bills below. Continue reading
An expert paddle to start the Alapaha Quest, down the wild and exotic Alapaha River in the balmy south Georgia winter. This trip is not recommended for beginners
When: 9:30 AM Sunday, March 4, 2018
Put In: Sheboggy Landing at US 82, 11004 US Highway 82, Alapaha, GA 31622, east of the town of Alapaha in Berrien County.
Take Out: Rowetown Church Cemetery, 1291 Rowetown Church Road, Alapaha, GA 31622, in Berrien County. Yes, we called ahead and got permission.
Bring: the usual personal flotation device, boat paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup. It will still be hunting season, so also wear hunting orange if you’ve got it.
Price: This outing is free to WWALS members. It costs $10.00 to nonmembers. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
Please contact your Georgia state legislators to ask them to back two bills that will help keep coal ash off our lands and out of our waters.
Mercury from Coal Plant Scherer north of Macon goes up in the air and comes down in our Alapaha River. Coal ash from Tennessee and Florida is in the landfill in Lowndes County, Georgia that is a quarter mile uphill from the Withlacoochee River. Even the landfill owner doesn’t want any more coal ash, because it costs extra to keep it separate from other waste to prevent chemical reactions.
Here’s an easy way to send email to your Georgia statehouse Representative and Senator.
There’s more about the bills below. Continue reading
Two new fallers, an unscheduled creek upstream and confluences of several more downstream, the Withlacoochee River Roundabout, (some around it twice), a nice drizzle, and a fine time was had by 19 paddlers from 2 years old to 70-plus on the balmy winter Withlacoochee River, Sunday, February 11, 2018.
I am worried, though, since Continue reading
Yesterday’s Valentine’s Day present from the Georgia House was passing HR 158 with 166 yea and only 1 nay (6 not voting, and 7 excused). Except for district 175, which just finished a Special Election, every Georgia House member from the Suwannee River Basin voted yea. Thank you, Patty Bentley, John Corbett, Buddy Harden, Penny Houston, Dominic LaRiccia, Clay Pirkle, Jay Powell, Ed Rynders, Dexter Sharper, Jason Shaw, Jason Spencer, and Sam Watson!
Onwards to the Georgia Senate. We look forward to every Georgia State Senator from the Suwannee River Basin voting yea. WWALS members and others may want to give them a ring to remind them to do so. Senators Ellis Black (District 8) and Tyler Harper (District 7) please note that local governments in your districts have passed resolutions supporting HR 158.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Many thanks to the Hahira Mayor and Council for passing a resolution in support of the water trail for the rivers that run less than six miles west (the Little River) and east (the Withlacoochee River) of the Hahira Courthouse where they met.
Left to right:
Council Patrick Warren (District 3)
Mayor Pro Tem Kenneth Davis (District 2),
Mayor Bruce Cain,
Empty Chair for City Attorney Rob Plumb,
City Manager Jonathan Sumner,
Council Terry Benjamin (District 1),
Council Mason Barfield (District 4),
City Clerk Lisa Mashburn.
I spoke briefly at their Work Session, Tuesday, January 30, 2018, outlining the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT) and the resolution, and I invited them to upcoming WWALS outings. Several of the Council had positive comments.
Council Patrick Warren also mentioned his fear of Continue reading
For property rights and clean water, you don’t want coal ash seeping through groundwater, so please contact your state legislator to support the two coal ash bills now in the Georgia House of Representatives:
HB 879,
“Water resources; notice to local governing authorities prior to the dewatering of coal combustion residual surface impoundments; provide”
Georgia Power is retiring many coal plants (good, although they’re
mmostly replacing them with natural gas plants; not so good),
and this involves dewatering coal ash ponds near those plants;
HB 880,
“Solid waste management; safe disposal of coal ash in municipal and commercial solid waste landfills; provisions”
Georgia Power wants to ship that coal ash to local landfills.
Georgia Water Coalition’s policy on that I think is OK with
appropriate regulation.
WWALS goes beyond that and says no coal ash in landfills in the
Suwannee River Basin.
Please call or write:
your Georgia state representative.
Thanks to the six bill sponsors, but none are in the Suwannee River Basin.
Let’s see if we can fix that. Continue reading
Thanks to Anna White Hodges for the tip about this video from the second day of the November 10-11, 2017, Sierra Club Conference in Cedar Key, Florida.
The first day was mostly about sea level rise. I had to leave after that, because Continue reading
HR 158 may be scheduled for a vote in the Georgia House as soon as tomorrow. Help dedicate state fees to their intended purposes: please contact your Georgia House Representative or Georgia State Senator (follow the links for contact information) and ask them to pass HR 158. If you don’t know who your Georgia Representative or Senator are, see Georgia My Voter Page.
Hahira is the most recent of six local governments representing the majority of the population in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia, in five Georgia House districts and two Senate districts, that have passed a resolution supporting Georgia HR 158 against state fee diversions, with five stories and an editorial in the biggest circulation newspaper in the Basin. More local resolutions passed elsewhere in the state, but that ain’t bad for the Suwannee River Basin.
Come help WWALS celebrate spring with 25,000 of our south Georgia and north Florida friends, at the Azalea Festival in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
When:
10AM-6PM Saturday 10 March 2018
10AM-5PM Sunday 11 March 2018
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.
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS at Azalea Festival 2017.
What: Valdosta Daily Times, December 19, 2017:
The festival attracts vendors from throughout the country with Continue reading