Tag Archives: Levy County

Committee meeting: Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2018-02-19

Remember, Stephen C. Foster never saw the Suwannee River before he made it famous in his song. So at its meeting last week, the Songwriting Committee decided to have two categories: submissions from within the Suwannee River Basin, and submissions from anywhere else in the world.

Come on down to the Crossroads Sunday afternoon and help us decide more about the First Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest:

When: 1PM Sunday, February 18, 2018

Where: Crossroads Market & Grill, Inc., 5463 State Rd 6 West, Jasper, FL 32052

What: WWALS Songwriting Committee meeting to plan the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. You do not have to be a Committee member to come to the meeting, but if you want to be on the internal forums where decisions are also made, you can apply to join the Committee.

Event: facebook, meetup

Ray Charles, Swanee River Rock

The Story So Far

Decisions and discussions so far include: Continue reading →

Committee meeting: Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2018-02-10

Singing Cedar Key in the summer? How many songs can you name about the Suwannee River, or the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Alapahoochee, Little (which one?), Grand Bay, Banks Lake, the Okefenokee Swamp, Suwannacoochee Spring, Manatee Springs, or the Dead River Sink? Most people know only one song for all of that. Come on, songwriters, let’s hear more! WWALS members, come help organize the first Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest!

Update 2018-02-03: And you can join us afterwards for 5 Holes Cleanup and Site Exploration, at the Suwannee River but by land.

Sheet music cover of Way Down Upon the Swanee River, 1935, State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 1 Feb. 2018.
Sheet music cover of “Way Down Upon the Swanee River”. 1935. Color photoprint. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 1 Feb. 2018.

The WWALS Songwriting Contest Committee held its first meeting Sunday, January 28, 2018 at Crossroads Market & Grill in Hamilton County, Florida, with Eileen Box (Chair), Scotti Jay, Sara Squires, and John S. Quarterman. Numerous logistics were discussed, from submission format and content to venue: so far the leading contender is Cedar Key, in Levy County on the Gulf of Mexico.

When: 1PM, Saturday, February 10, 2018

Where: Crossroads Market & Grill, Inc., 5463 State Rd 6 West, Jasper, FL 32052

What: WWALS Songwriting Committee meeting to plan the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest

Event: facebook, meetup Continue reading →

Manatee Springs State Park Public Meeting 2018-01-09

Received from FDEP yesterday afternoon (not much notice), Manatee Springs State Park to Host Public Meeting,

CALENDAR ANNOUNCEMENT

CONTACT: DEP Press Office, 850.245.2112, DEPNews@dep.state.fl.us

Manatee Springs State Park to Host Public Meeting
~The public is invited to provide comments on the draft plan~

WHAT: Public Meeting

WHEN: Jan. 9, 2018
5:30 — 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: Chiefland Women’s Club
825 E. Park Ave.
Chiefland, FL 32626

DEP’s Florida Park Service is in the process of updating the unit management plan for Manatee Springs State Park. Citizens are invited to attend a public meeting to learn about the proposed plans for the state park and provide their comments.

Manatee Spring Run

Continue reading →

Valdosta WWTP manned 24/7 with backup generators before Hurricane Irma 2017-09-09

Don’t spill, Valdosta. Don’t leak, Sabal Trail. Hurricane Irma is bad enough already.

Valdosta announced its WWTP would be “manned around the clock”, so I called down there before 8AM this Saturday morning, and somebody did answer immediately. I told him as Suwannee Riverkeeper I was concerned for people downstream who don’t want any spills during the upcoming rains, so I was glad to see it was true they were there. I asked him if they had backup generators. He said yes. Of course, that doesn’t handle every manhole cover. We shall see. Don’t spill, Valdosta! (Or Lowndes County, or Tifton, or anybody else.)

NOAA NHC Rain Prediction, Hurricane Irma, 9 Sep 2017
Currently expecting somewhere between 4 and 10 inches of rain on Valdosta. Map from National Hurricane Center, 2017-09-09 8AM.

City of Valdosta, PR, 8 September 2017, Valdosta-Lowndes County Hurricane Irma Update, Continue reading →

FL Sen. Nelson to EPA about Valdosta sewage and response

Here is a letter from Florida Senator Bill Nelson to the EPA about the Valdosta wastewater situation, and the EPA’s response, which was underwhelming.

A suggestion: say what it is you’d like the EPA, GA-EPD, FDEP, etc. to actually do. And what I’d suggest is get them all to fund and implement regular, frequent, closely spaced, water quality monitoring along all the rivers in the Suwannee River Basin. That way we’d know where pollution is coming from, we’d be able to calibrate what cities including Valdosta say from their own monitoring, and we’d have baselines to compare to.

Sen. Bill Nelson to EPA

Continue reading →

Protection of the Suwannee River against Valdosta Sewage –City of Fanning Springs, FL 2017-04-11

Not just for all seven downstream Florida counties anymore: the City of Fanning Springs has also passed a resolution asking the Florida governor to help stop Valdosta wastewater spills. Maybe Valdosta will pay attention this time.

The Valdosta City Council and Mayor didn’t seem to understand when I used the Suwannee County resolution to draw attention to the part about:

“which again resulted in the Florida Department of Health issuing public health advisories warning the public of wastewater contamination in the Withlacoochee River and portions of the Historic Suwannee River, which resulted in warnings being posted at all public access areas along the rivers stating that the rivers were not safe for recreational use and every precaution should be taken to avoid any contact with the river;”

Maybe I should have tried this pithier part at the end: Continue reading →

Requesting protection of Suwannee River from Valdosta wastewater –Levy BOCC 2017-03-07

Levy BOCC passed a resolution Tuesday much like the Suwannee BOCC resolution, but adding instructions to transmit it to a wide range of Florida and U.S. elected officials and agencies.

If you’re in Valdosta today, the City Council meets at 5:30 PM; you can join us in talking to them about this, or send them email.

Thanks to Jessica Berryhill, Administrative Assistant I, Board Administration, Levy Board of County Commissioners, for the PDF.

RESOLUTION 2017-008

A RESOLUTION BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF LEVY COUNTY, FLORIDA REQUESTING THE PROTECTION OF THE HISTORIC SUWANNEE RIVER IN NORTH FLORIDA.

WHEREAS, Levy County is located in North Central Florida and is bordered by the Historic Suwannee River on its western side; and

WHEREAS. the Historic Suwannee River is one of the most widely known and recognized river system in the world; and Continue reading →

Environment more important for economy than pipeline –Marihelen Wheeler

Marihelen Wheeler, Gainesville Sun, 9 September 2015, Stop the pipeline,

We must continue to resist the efforts of the Texas-based company, Spectra, to build the Sabal Trail pipeline through Alachua, Gilchrist, Suwannee, Levy and Marion counties.

The proposed pipeline will carry natural gas through a 36-inch pipe over 515 miles to serve Continue reading →

Florida state regulators grant hearing at unknown data for WWALS v. Sabal Trail –Palm Beach Post

You’ve mostly been hearing about WWALS v. Sabal Trail lately because of all the news coverage related to the petition to FL-DEP, which is great. STA. 13083+00 TO STA. 13136+00, GA-FL Line, Hamilton Co., FL, Jumping Gulley Creek But of course WWALS does a lot more than that and WWALS has been around before anybody ever heard of Sabal Trail.

Susan Salisbury, Palm Beach Post, 4 September 2015, State regulators grant hearing to anti-pipeline group,

WWALS Watershed coalition and WWALS-Florida which advocate for conservation of Suwannee River and other rivers in south Georgia and North Florida believe the proposed pipeline is not in the public interest and could have severe adverse effects on fish, wildlife, public recreation and navigation.

The pipeline would also go through the fragile karst limestone containing Continue reading →