Veronica Oakler, the new WWALS Development Director, helped all morning Saturday at Azalea Festival in Valdosta,
![[Development Director, Mayor, Raffle Kayak]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-11--azalea-festival-saturday-pictures/many.jpg)
Development Director, Mayor, Raffle Kayak
Plus Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson and family posed with the Vibe Sea Ghost 130 kayak he donated, which WWALS is raffling off. The boat retails for $1,300 and comes with paddle and rudder. The Mayor says he used it only once.
It was a fine day, Continue reading
Update 2023-07-12: Pictures: Two Mile Branch Berkley Drive Cleanup 2023-03-25.
Update 2023-03-29: Valdosta Creek Trash Tour 2023-03-29.
Valdosta, Georgia, March 9, 2023 — Come help get trash out of the woods by Two Mile Branch, upstream and downstream from Berkley Drive, in this joint cleanup by WWALS and the City of Valdosta.
![[Two Mile Branch at Berkley Drive cleanup]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-25--two-mile-branch-cleanup/two-mile-branch-berkley-drive-cleanup.jpg)
Valdosta City Engineer Benjamin O’Dowd said, Continue reading
Update 2023-03-13: Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle in Valdosta Daily Times and WWALS video of what the Mayor and Chairman said.
Everybody had a good time at the Fourth Annual Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle. The water level was just right for the shoals to be ripples and the weather was perfect: not cold, not hot, nice and shady.
Phil Hubbard led this one of many WWALS paddle outings. Three people fell in and one paddle got lost, but everybody recovered and nobody went home mad.
![[Mayor, WWALS, Chairman; banners; boaters; outfall; Spook Bridge]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-04--mayor-paddle-pictures/many.jpg)
Mayor, WWALS, Chairman; banners; boaters; outfall; Spook Bridge
WWALS is proud to bring together Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter and Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson at the site of the county’s recent acquisition of 71 acres from Helen Tapp to add to the 49 acres Parks and Rec already owns to eventually form Troupville Nature Park. Continue reading
Hahira, GA, March 2, 2023 — WWALS is pleased to announce the hiring of Veronica Oaker as Development Director, to help us with fundraising and community outreach. Veronica joined WWALS on March 1st, with a rich background in water advocacy. She has previously worked at Clean Water for North Carolina, the Florida Department of Transportation, the Executive Office of the Florida Governor, and the city of Tallahassee. She has degrees from the University of Florida and the Florida Coastal School of Law. Veronica lives in Madison, Florida. Plan on meeting Veronica at an upcoming outing or event. Or, she might even phone you up to chat.
![[Veronica Oakler with huge bald cypress]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-01--wwals-development-director/Veronica-Oakler-with-huge-bald-cypress.jpg)
Veronica Oakler with huge bald cypress
“I’m excited to come back home to the Suwannee River watershed where my family and I live, work, and play,” said Veronica Oakler. “I have admired the fantastic work that WWALS has accomplished over the past 10 years to raise awareness of water quality issues downstream of polluting sources, especially sewage, pipelines, and trash.”
Continue readingUpdate 2024-01-28: Four more Valdosta sewage spills 2023-12-17.
Update 2023-02-17: Valdosta sewer main collapse, US 84, effects to E. Park Ave., along Knights Creek 2023-02-15.
The Withlacoochee River tested worse than Cherry Creek for E. coli both upstream and downstream from where Cherry Creek comes in, after Valdosta’s Saturday sewage spill.
So that 2,800 gallons of raw sewage apparently did not materially affect the Withlacoochee River.
But the test results mean it would be wise to steer clear of creeks and rivers for a few days. Continue reading
“This stuff is in everything,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John Quarterman.
In the Withlacoochee River, in fish in the Alapaha River, maybe in your house. Georgia, Florida, and U.S. EPA should do something about it.
For what you can do, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/pfas/
Fernando Figueroa, WUFT, February 14, 2023, Community members speak up about new “forever chemicals” study
A new study by the Environmental Working Group, an activist group focused on research, revealed that eating a single freshwater fish is equal to drinking water with high PFAS levels for a month.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” are Continue reading
Update 2023-02-10: Clean rivers before rain 2023-02-09.
Here’s an update between our weekly WWALS water quality reports.
Three more downstream WWALS Withlacoochee River test sites matched the upstream ones for Thursday, February 2nd, as predicted.
However, not as predicted, Valdosta got too-high upstream results for Friday, February 3rd, at GA 133 and US 84 (but not at US 41). So apparently the drizzle of rain that Thursday did wash something into the river. However, Valdosta’s results for Monday at the same sites are all good, so whatever it was, it was short-lived.
And Rochelle, Georgia, got around to reporting another small far-upstream sewage spill in the Alapaha River basin.
![[Chart, Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide, 2023-02-02]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-06--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide, 2023-02-02
The additional downstream sites I sampled last Thursday were the Continue reading
Update 2023-09-14: Draft 2023 North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP) workshop 2023-09-21.
Sent as PDF.
January 31, 2023
To: SRWMD, SJRWMD, partnership@sjrwmd.com
Re: Water budget, limit water withdrawals, do better aquifer recharge, NFRWSP
Dear Water Management Districts,
Thank you for the opportunity for public input.
![[Not every demand needs water withdrawals]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-31--wwals-nfrwsp/many.jpg)
Not every demand needs water withdrawals
At the November 15, 2022, public meeting about the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP), I thanked the presenters for all the hard work they had put into the details, such as in the North Florida-Southeast Georgia (NFSEG) regional groundwater flow model .
I have some issues with another level. I noticed repeated assertions in the public meeting that demand or projected demand are just taken as givens. So basically anybody who wants to build a golf course, or start another titanium mine, or plant almond trees that need lots of water, that’s just a given, that’s demand.
Continue readingUpdate 2023-02-08: Morven Solar denied @ Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06.
Update 2023-02-06: Herbivores, sediment basins, silt fences for Morven Solar –WWALS to Brooks County Commission 2023-02-06.
These WWALS videos show the Public Hearing that was the only agenda item at the Brooks County Planning Commission, January 19, 2023.
![[Movie: Rules for Speaking --Pat Sharpe, Chair (30M)]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-19--morven-solar-videos/big/MVI_0337.jpg)
Movie: Rules for Speaking –Pat Sharpe, Chair (30M)
The Planning Commission recommended approval with conditions.
The actual decision on the Special Exception will be made tonight at 5PM by the Brooks County Commission at Brooks County Courthouse, East Screven Street, Quitman, GA, 31643.
There is no agenda for tonight’s meeting on the county’s website, WWALS has still not received agenda nor board packet in response to our open records request of January 30, 2023.
Here’s a LAKE video playlist:
Videos: Morven Solar at Brooks County Planning Commission 2023-01-19
Videos by John S. Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS).
Below are links to each WWALS video of each speaker. Except for some camera glitches, these videos show the entire meeting.
See also the agenda, the board packet, the pictures of the sites of Morven Solar, and Report: Conditions wanted on Morven Solar by Brooks County Planning Commission 2023-01-20.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/
The North Central Florida Regional Planning Council had several public speakers cram topics into their three minutes each.
![[Phosphate and Titanium Mines, and Trash @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-26--ncfrpc-pictures/trashmines.jpg)
Phosphate and Titanium Mines, and Trash @ NCFRPC 2023-01-26
Two directly-affected women and Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, a board member of Our Santa Fe River (OSFR), talked about the Cornerstone Crossings mega development on top of Clay Hole Creek and Cannon Creek confluence, a part of the Ichetucknee Trace, which is in the Southwest quadrant of I-75 and SR 47 Hwy interchange, due south of Lake City in Columbia County, Florida. Merillee wondered about the development’s water withdrawal permit, and how much PFAS it might unleash into the waterways and the underlying Floridan Aquifer. She displayed LiDAR maps she got from SRWMD that clearly show the Ichetucknee Trace. Continue reading
![[Cherry Creek tests 2023-02-12]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-12--cherry-creek-results-wq/many.jpg)
![[Sullivan Launch PFAS sample, US 41, Knights Ferry, State Line, Sullivan Launch, Withlacoochee River 2022-06-30]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-14--wuft-pfas/many.jpg)