Tag Archives: Georgia

Online closed: last chance for kayak Raffle tickets tonight 7PM at Annual WWALS Member Meeting 2017-07-12

Online tickets are closed so there will be no confusion about last-minute tickets. If you want to buy a kayak raffle ticket you’ll need to come to the WWALS Annual Member Meeting tonight at 7PM. There you’ll also get to hear the annual report and, if you’re a member, vote on the election of some board members. Or if you just want to know if you won, you can dial in.

WWALS Annual Meeting
7:00 PM Wednesday 12 July 2017
Wooden Nickel, 3269 Inner Perimeter Rd, Valdosta, GA 31602
Dial-in Number: (641) 715-3580
Meeting ID: 855-676
Event: facebook

Follow this link for the agenda.

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Pictures: Banks Lake Full Moon Paddle 2017-07-08

Lights! Full Moon! Paint! Rice and watermelon! Fun was had by all last Saturday on the WWALS watery living room, Banks Lake, just west of Lakeland, GA on GA 122.

Only saw one gator, and he got scared away by all the boats. Didn’t see any moccassins, but I bet they were there in the lily pads on the west side across the lake, where we turned back.

Paddlers with WWALS and Suwannee Riverkeeper Banners, 31.0351925, -83.0965187

The total I think was seventeen paddlers in sixteen boats, some not pictured here due to not arrived yet, or something.

Paddlers with WWALS and Suwannee Riverkeeper Banners

Movie: Tom Cramer and his wife Barb are the volunteers at Banks Lake Outdoors (26M)

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Kayak Raffle to be selected at Annual WWALS Member Meeting 2017-07-12

Draft Agenda
WWALS Annual Meeting
7:00 PM Wednesday 12 July 2017, followed by WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting
Wooden Nickel, 3269 Inner Perimeter Rd, Valdosta, GA 31602
Dial-in Number: (641) 715-3580
Meeting ID: 855-676
Event: facebook

Presentation of annual report, election of board members and selection of kayak raffle winner! ~~Until then, you can still get your raffle ticket~~ Last chance to get a raffle ticket is at the Annual Member Meeting.

WWALS members can vote in this annual meeting, and the public is invited to observe.

Board members are Continue reading →

Banks Lake Outdoors 2017-05-05

Yes, there are kayaks for rent! And Tom says he’s happy to stay open this Saturday, July 8, 2017, for the Banks Lake Full Moon Paddle.

If the store’s not open, knock on the RV next to it. Continue reading →

Support the Clean Water Act for our rivers and aquifer

This Fourth of July holiday, you can help promote continued independence of clean water by opposing the EPA’s attempt to repeal the Clean Water Rule and then undermine the Clean Water Act. FLoridians in the seven counties that have asked the EPA to do something about Valdosta’s wastewater: here’s your chance to make sure the EPA can still do anything. Georgians who don’t want coal ash in landfills or industrial waste in our waters: you can help save the Clean Water Act. Everybody in the Suwannee River Basin: the water we drink from the Floridan Aquifer interchanges with surface waters, and we need the EPA to help protect all those waters.

How to Comment

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Video: Will you lead to sun and wind power? —John S. Quarterman to Tom Fanning, CEO, at Southern Company stockholder meeting 2017-05-24

Update 2017-07-28: See also VDT op-ed and letter to GA-PSC.

Five years ago I asked Southern Company (SO) CEO Tom Fanning what was his exit plan when the Big Bets on Kemper Coal in Mississippi and the two new Plant Vogtle nuclear units on the Savannah River go bad. This Wednesday SO stopped using coal at Kemper Coal after the MS PSC refused to authorize further cost overruns. Thursday GA PSC staff said Plant Vogtle is no longer economical. It is time for GA PSC to do for Plant Vogtle what MS PSC did for Kemper Coal.

As Suwannee Riverkeeper at this year’s meeting in May, I told Fanning we don’t want SO’s coal ash in any landfill on any river in the Suwannee River Basin; I asked him for solar panels at Moody Air Force Base to shut down a natural gas pipeline; and I questioned SO’s acquisition of Pivotal LNG with its deal to ship liquid natural gas in bomb trucks down I-75 and I-10 to Jacksonville, Florida.

I reminded our genial host of my question five years ago, with the handwriting already on the wall since the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had then just referred to Plant Vogtle as a financial quagmire. This time I asked Fanning to lead us all to sun and wind power.

In SO’s own video you can see them Continue reading →

Lowndes County Sewage Pump Station 2017-06-26

This morning the Lowndes County Commission discusses and tomorrow evening they vote on relocating some facilities at a sewage pump station, which appears to be the nearest lift station to the county’s 2013 sewage main brak near the Withlacoochee River.

5.g. Relocation of Gate, Utility Pole, and Light Pole at Val-Tech Pump Station, and Quit -Claim Deed to GDOT
Approval of transaction and quit- claim deed
Documents:Relocation of gate, utility pole, and light pole at Val-Tech pump station, and Quit -Claim Deed to GDOT.pdf

Across from Valdosta State Prison

They bought a new pump for the Val-Tech lift station back on Continue reading →

Improved Sheboggy Ramp, Alapaha River @ US 82

Here’s a pleasant surprise! The access road has been smoothed out and Sheboggy Ramp itself has been re-concreted. Thanks to Ben Warren, Berrien County Roads Superintendent, for doing the work.

Ramp with new concrete

Thanks to Bret Wagenhorst for these pictures, Continue reading →

Pictures from coal movie and panel, Live Oak, FL 2017-06-09

Reporting from the event, Jim Tatum, OSFR, 10 June 2017, “From The Ashes” Screening by Suwannee St Johns Sierra Club North Florida Working Group,

The North Florida Working Group of the Suwannee St Johns Sierra Club presented an early screening of the documentary “From the Ashes” at the Live Oak Woman’s Club on June 9, 2017….

Susanna Rudolph, Joy Ezell, and Gretchen Quarterman, panelists; Photo: Jim Tatum, OSFR

After the showing Deanna Mericle lead a panel composed of Susanna Randolph, Campaign Senior Representative for Beyond Coal, Sierra Club from Orlando, Joy Ezell, active environmentalist and founder of Help Our Polluted Environment (HOPE) from Perry, and Gretchen Quarterman, Board member and treasurer of WWALS Watershed Coalition, Hahira, Georgia.

Follow the link for more pictures and text.

WWALS adds evidence, again asks FERC to stay Sabal Trail, revoke its permit, plus do a SEIS 2017-06-05

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 5, 2017, Hahira, GA — Citing the sea change of solar power overtaking natural gas in new U.S. electricity last year, and generational damage to the fields of farmers such as Randy Dowdy, WWALS Watershed Coalition today filed more evidence and reasons to stop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline from going into service and to revoke its permit. WWALS filed the same Monday that Sabal Trail Friday asked FERC to authorize turning on the gas. Plus WWALS explicitly requested FERC do a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to take into account LNG export from Sabal Trail, copious environmental permit violations, and especially new scientific evidence about the Floridan Aquifer.

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman said: “Such irreparable harm outweighs a few billion dollars spent in error by a few companies.”

And that’s without even getting into risks to education, such as Sabal Trail only a mile from Clyattville Elementary School.

WWALS filed the document today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The WWALS cover letter is included below in this message, and the FERC filing is available online.

WWALS wrote in Attachment 1:

“Solar power has actually more than doubled every two years since 2013. Yet FERC only counts utility-scale solar power. Adding rooftop and community solar panels, already a sea change has occurred.
Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.