Last night Georgia legislators from all over the state, including numerous committee chairs, feasted on quail supplied by Lowndes County and Valdosta in the annual Bird Supper, a six-decade tradition of local lobbying in the Georgia state capitol.
I thanked Jeff Jones (District 167) for his new coal ash bills, and reminded other legislators to vote for them this year, like they did his earlier ones last year: Continue reading
Best parade ever! Saturday noon at the Hahira Honeybee Festival:
Photo: Allison B. Freeman
We had quite a crew this time: Continue reading
Gretchen and Dave and me had a fine time Friday at the Hahira Honeybee Festival. Families really like the EnviroScape. Come on down today and see Bobby and the McKenzie clan march in the parade with Suwannee Riverkeeper!
Family, Enviroscape, Gretchen Quarterman
Thanks for the donation of the EnviroScape, Continue reading
Here is every spill reported by all the large wastewater permits in the state of Georgia since the beginning of 2015 through this Tuesday, September 18, 2018. It includes spills in the Suwannee River Basin you probably didn’t know about.
If people downstream want to do something about wastewater coming from Georgia, this data suggests two things: insist Georgia publish spill reports online the same day like Florida and Alabama already do. And help fund WWALS water quality testing so we can find out what’s going on and when.
Just spills with a Valdosta address from 2015 on.
WWALS Science Committee Chair Tom Potter extracted and sorted every spill with an address in Valdosta since the beginning of 2015: Spill-Detail-sorted_Valdosta_2015–2018-09-19. See also web version of this data.
I’ve been asking the City of Valdosta for a list of their spills and locations since at least 2015, and I’ve been collecting reports ad hoc since before then. Finally, we have this list, but not from Valdosta. We had to Continue reading
Join us at the 37th Annual Hahira Honeybee Festival, at the WWALS booth about water quality testing, water trails, paddle outings, holding poluters accountable, all to make sure that water in our area is swimmable, fishable, drinkable. Come help us spread the water word.
When: 9AM-6PM, Friday and Saturday, 5,6 October 2018
Where: West Main Street, Hahira, Georgia
Volunteer: You can help at the WWALS booth. Sign up on this form or send us email.
You can march with us in the parade: Continue reading
Update 2021-03-18: Plus Moody Air Force Base.
Update 2021-03-17: Now with Ray City added 2021-03-15 and Lakeland added 2021-03-17.
Schedules of testing, with permissable levels: these are in National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) wastewater permits, so we need to see those permits. You’d think they’d be on the EPA or GA-EPD website, but….
The U.S. EPA has delegated NPDES permitting to Georgia. You can get draft wastewater permits right off the GA-EPD website, but to get the actual current approved permits, you must get GA-EPD to send them to you. I found this out from Audra Dickson, Wastewater Regulatory Program Manager. I asked her for permits for half a dozen cities and one county, and the next day Alyssa Thomson, Environmental Specialist, Wastewater Regulatory Program, Municipal Permitting Unit, sent them via email.
They’re on the WWALS website now.
Instream Monitoring Requirements, Valdosta Mud Creek WPCP
Why this list? Continue reading
You’ve seen who won the eleven awards. Now here are the rest of the paddlers in the 6th Annual BIG Little River Paddle Race, from more counties, states, and watersheds than ever before. Also more Solo Female Kayaks than Solo Male Kayaks, and several whole families of paddlers.
43 Boats
37 kayaks
6 canoes
49 Paddlers
29 male
20 female Continue reading
Update 2018-07-05: All the winners. Update 2018-07-16: All the paddlers.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, GA, April 29, 2018 — With the first-ever winner from Florida and a new record time, the next two categories one each from Tift and Lowndes Counties, Georgia, and a record number paddlers from 4 to 67 years old, the BIG Little River Paddle Race at Reed Bingham State Park Saturday was a fun time and a successful fundraiser for Friends of Reed Bingham State Park (FORB) and WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS).
Lloyd Reeves drove three hours from Crescent City, Florida, with a very fast kayak, to become the first-ever Florida winner, and he proved himself a winner in another way with the prize.
In addition to the First Prize trophy, winner Reeves got a hundred dollar bill from race organizer Bret Wagenhorst of WWALS. and a matching hundred dollar bill from Dianne Walters of FORB. Reeves then Continue reading
Update 2023-12-28: Revised version..
Who knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west. You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee. Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer.
Irwin County, 1885a, GeorgiaInfo, Rand McNally Map of Georgia, 1885
Atlanta Constitution, January 29, 1889, Pg 12., quoted in Ray City History Blog, 18 October 2010, More About Troupville, GA and the Withlacoochee River,
THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER.
VALDOSTA, Ga., January 19. -[Special.]- Away up near the northern limit of the great wiregrass section there is a big cypress swamp. They call them bays there. From this bay emerges Continue reading
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
![[Finish]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-04-28--blrpr-hubbard/4063062-28Apr18.jpg)