Tag Archives: John S. Quarterman

Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers 2025-10-02

WWALS testers found the Alapaha, Suwannee, and Santa Fe Rivers clean within the past seven days, and the Withlacoochee River clean upstream and downstream.

But according to Valdosta Utilities Sugar Creek was again filthy, and the Withlacoochee had too much E. coli downstream of Sugar Creek at GA 133. And One Mile Branch was above the 410 one-time-test limit at Wainwright Drive, but not downstream at West Gordon Street. There hasn’t been much rain. Are there still one or more undiscovered sewage leaks in the City of Valdosta?

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

Storms are predicted this weekend, but mostly in the afternoon.

I’d avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it, But if you can beat the rain, happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

This image is an overview. Scroll down for the details.

Clean Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers, Clean Withlacoochee up and down, Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-10-02

Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading →

Beatty Branch smelled like cattle manure, controversial Sugar Creek, clean Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers 2025-05-25

Water issues, Bradford Road subdividing –WWALS to Berrien Planning Commission 2025-09-18

3 Replies

Update 2025-10-07: Public Hearing, Bradford Road subdivision @ Berrien Planning Commission 2025-10-16.

I handed this letter to the Berrien Planning Commissioners and the Zoning Administrator before I spoke to them at the recent Public Hearing. They tabled this item for another month, awaiting more documents from the applicant, Cole Livingston, for his proposal to subdivide for ten houses in an agricultural character area on Bradford and Strawder Roads and Old Valdosta Highway, in Berrien County, Georgia, draining to Gin Branch Creek and the Withlacoochee River.

Water issues, Bradford Road subdividing, WWALS 2025-09-18, to Berrien Planning Commission

September 18, 2025
To: Teresa Willis
Berrien County Zoning Administrator
229-686-2149
twillis@berriencountyga.gov
201 N. Davis Street Room 122
Nashville GA 31639
Re: Subdividing M&P 061-14-000, 061-16-002, Old Valdosta Rd. & Bradford Rd.
Dear Berrien County Zoning Administrator and Planning Commission,
Please recommend denial of the proposed subdividing, because:

House lots would produce more runoff, which would run onto neighboring properties, as attested by several neighbors at the previous Public Hearing on August 21, 2025. See attached LIDAR map and attached wetland and flood zone map.
Runoff would carry trash and other contamination into Gin Branch Creek that runs north across Bradford Road and west into the Withlacoochee River. See attached map of Gin Branch Creek.
Under Bradford Road and along Gin Branch Creek is an aquifer recharge zone, into the groundwater from which we all drink. We do not need to risk more contaminants possibly getting into that. See attached aquifer recharge map.
Increased traffic and runoff would erode Bradford and Strawder Roads, requiring more work by the county to fix them.
The houses would not be accessory to farm operations as in the Berrien County Comprehensive Plan Strategy for an Agriculture Character Area, which says: Continue reading →

Pictures: Georgia Rivers Alive Trash Pick Up, Alapaha River, Mayday Landing, 2025-09-20

Suwannee Riverkeeper in Quitman Free Press 2025-09-17

Thanks to Dr. Horne for writing and sending this article. We all do what we can.

September 17, 2025, Quitman Free Press, Page 3
Doc’s Special Messages
By: Dr. R. Marie Horne MD

Quintessential Mr. Quarterman

Some South Georgians have made numerous contributions to the South Georgia area and have rendered enormous contributions to national and global society as well. One of these South Georgia notables is Mr. John S. Quarterman, a longtime South Georgia resident who has a perpetual passion for navigating activism in protection of waterways, specifically those which impact area communities, as the WWALS Watershed Coalition’s Suwannee Riverkeeper, who takes seriously and enthusiastically his stewardship over protecting the Suwannee River Basin in South Georgia and North Florida.

Quitman Free Press, 2025-09-17 –Dr. Marie Horne

Having hailed from the Bemiss Community in Lowndes County Georgia, near Valdosta, studied at Harvard, authored in 1990, the book entitled, “The Matrix, Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide,” Mr. John Quarterman became the “longest serving cartographer of the Internet, a designation “dubbed by Mappa Mundi Magazine” in 1990.
Continue reading →

Chemours to blame for flooding rural Santa Fe River Basin? –Grist 2025-09-04

Update 2025-09-05: Clean Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers 2025-09-04.

What is overflowing in that floodwater from those five Chemours mines on Trail Ridge at the top of the Santa Fe River Basin?

“If I lived near Chemours, I’d be paranoid too,” said John Quarterman, who serves as the Suwannee Riverkeeper, a staff position for an organization of the same name that advocates for conservation of the numerous watersheds within the Suwannee River Basin. “Some of the stuff they’re paranoid about is probably actually happening, but it’s hard to document which of it is and which of it isn’t.”

Until the Florida Department of Environmental Protection takes frequent measurements up and down the state’s rivers, Quarterman said, it will be difficult to pin down the impact of Chemours’ activities. And without such studies, he said, it’s difficult to identify bad actors — let alone hold them accountable.

WWALS has a volunteer water quality monitoring program, and two recently-trained testers may start testing in the Santa Fe River Basin soon.
https://wwals.net/issues/testing

Is Chemours to blame for flooding rural Santa Fe River Basin? –Grist 2025-09-04

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey, Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist, September 4, 2025, Waterlogged and contaminated: In rural Florida, locals suspect a mining company is to blame for their flooding troubles: Residents are trying to connect the dots between hurricanes, high radium levels, and a mineral mining giant next door.

The storm had passed, but the water kept rising. In September 2017, Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida, causing tides to surge and dumping about a foot of water across much of the state. A few days later, Jane Blais stood on a bridge with her neighbors near her High Springs ranch, watching the Santa Fe River below swell higher and higher.

“We had zero notice,” Blais said, Continue reading →

Radio: WWALS River Revue and Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, Scott James Radio 2025-09-04

In which Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson revealed that the City of Valdosta plans to double the size of the catch basin at its Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Also this morning on talk921.com, Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman complimented the city on finally fixing one of the chronically-sewage-spewing manholes at Wainwright Drive on One Mile Branch.

Come on down this Saturday evening, 5-9 PM, for WWALS River Revue and the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest at the Turner Center for the Arts, Valdosta, Georgia.

That’s $65 per person. There are also a few complimentary Educator tickets and $25 Musician tickets available if you contact us quickly.

WWALS River Revue and Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, Scott James Radio, talk921.com 2025-09-04

Here are WWALS videos of the main discussions on the radio this morning, followed by a WWALS video playlist. I’ve added some links to writeups on the topics discussed. And the playlist starts slightly out of order with the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. Continue reading →

Pictures: Chainsaw from Troupville up the Withlacoochee River towards Sugar Creek 2025-04-18

Phil Royce, from Live Oak, Florida, and I chainsawed up the Withlacoochee River towards Sugar Creek Friday, but there were too many deadfalls for one day.

This is why the final reroute of the Mayor and Chairmans Paddle for the next day.

When Phil Hubbard and I chainsawed this same stretch the preceding Sunday, the Withlacoochee River was several feet higher, at about 122.8 feet NAVD88 on the Valdosta (US 41) Gauge.
https://wwals.net/?p=67446

The deadfalls Phil Royce and I encountered Friday at 119.5 feet NAVD88 were not visible that Sunday.

We got several big deadfalls, including one infested with vines and small limbs. The Husqvarna 24-inch chainsaw proved useful. WWALS bought it with a grant from Wild Green Future, which also paid for the 9.9 hp outboard motor, the 86lb-thrust trolling motor, and two LiFeO2 batteries.

At some later date, it will be possible to get the rest of these deadfalls.

Chainsawing from Troupville up the Withlacoochee River 2025-04-18, towards Sugar Creek, too many for one day

And don’t worry, we’re leaving plenty of habitat for turtles, fish, and other wildlife. We are only clearing passage, not the whole riverbed. Continue reading →

Pictures: Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, 2025-08-16

We found surprisingly little trash at the Withlacoochee River below Franklinville Road, but plenty of yellowjackets and deadfalls. Also, Cat Creek stinks like sewage.

Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-08-16, Yellow Jackets and Chainsaws, Deadfalls, and Cat Creek Stinks

Thanks to Cindy Vedas for organizing this expedition, and for bringing lunch.

Thanks to landowner Robbie McMillan for access, including mowing a path down to the Withlacoochee River at the Hahira-Moody AFB power line, for swimming, and for chainsawing.

I actually did most of the chainsawing this time, from my kayak, but there are no pictures of that.

Early on, I was chainsawing an opening in the brush towards Tyler Bridge, when something started stinging me. I backed off, but they followed me: Southern Yellowjackets, Vespula squamosa. Continue reading →

Pictures: Black Moon morning paddle, Banks Lake 2025-08-23

It was a small but jolly group on the morning Black Moon paddle around the perimeter of Banks Lake, approximately 4 miles. Thanks to Shirley Kokidko for leading this one.

We saw a little gator as we were starting, and I saw a bigger one later.

We found again the same cleft bat tree we found September 4, 2023.

Plenty of water lilies and red maple turning red.

Two white birds, one probably a Great Egret.

Seasonal Black Moons happen about once every 33 months. It was the third of four new moons in a season.

Black Moon morning paddle, Banks Lake 2025-08-23, Gator, bats, red maple, lilies, and Great Egret flying

See also pictures by: Continue reading →

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